Cinema Society (2025)

21/08/2025

"The two films I did with Billy Wilder, 'Double Indemnity' (1944) and the 'The Apartment' (1960), are the only two parts I did in my entire career that required any acting."
Fred MacMurray initially turned down his most famous movie role in "Double Indemnity" because he didn't think his fans would want to see him playing a darker character. Alan Ladd, George Raft, Brian Donlevy, James Cagney, Spencer Tracy, Gregory Peck, and Fredric March were all up for the leading role of Walter Neff but evidently all passed on the role.
Due to strict wartime food rationing, policemen were stationed in the store where a scene with MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck was filmed, to make sure nobody on the film crew was tempted to take away any of the food. Paramount released publicity stills showing four policemen in the store with MacMurray and Stanwyck.
Wilder claimed that MacMurray was a very stingy man in real life and liked to relate an amusing incident from the filming of "The Apartment.". In one scene, MacMurray was supposed to tip a shoeshine man and the script called for him to flip him a quarter. When MacMurray couldn't get it right during shooting, Wilder suggested using a bigger fifty cent piece. MacMurray objected because, he said, "I would never give him fifty cents! I cannot play the scene!"
In 1961, MacMurray took his family to Disneyland, and a woman came up to him and asked, "Are you Fred MacMurray?" When he replied that he was, she hit him with her purse and told him she had taken her children to see him in "The Apartment" and was furious because "that was not a Disney movie!" He responded, "No, ma'am, it wasn't." He then turned to his wife and announced he was done playing bad guys in movies. (IMDb)
Happy Birthday, Fred MacMurray!

21/08/2025

"A lot of women said 99 was a role model for them. Because she was smart and always got the right answer."
In 1957, Barbara Feldon won $64,000 dollars on "The $64,000 Question"; Category: Shakespeare.
When she started "Get Smart", she was already famous, albeit anonymously, for lolling on a tiger skin rug as she purred the praises of Top Brass hair cream.
Feldon almost lost her role as Agent 99 on "Get Smart" because the sponsor of the show was a deodorant soap and she had done a deodorant commercial for Revlon.
Creator Buck Henry pointed out to Feldon on the DVD commentary for Season 3 that when he tried to add funny lines for Agent 99, "They didn't want you to be 'joke funny.' They wanted you to be glamorous and interesting." In the episode "99 Loses CONTROL", 99 tells Victor that her name is "Susan Hilton". When Max asks why she never told him what her real name was, she replies, "You never asked," to which Max says he prefers 99. Then, at the end of the episode, she says it is not her real name. Her name is in fact intentionally never revealed, even at their own wedding in Season 4. She appears in all but seven episodes. She can typically be seen slouching, leaning, or sitting in scenes with Adams to hide the fact that she was slightly taller (1/2" - 2" taller, depending on the source).
"I was a very loving and good friends with Don Adams in the years after 'Get Smart' and until he died. We never really bonded during the show except as characters. He was preoccupied with the role. We just thought of ourselves as congenial business colleagues. Yes. There was an extra sweetness about them, a sense of nostalgia. And you never know when something will turn into art. I don't think it's pretentious to say it was art, maybe pop art. Every element worked. It was crafted like a comic strip, in a way. Everything had to pay off with a laugh. Don would say 'there are too many words' or 'the set up isn't right'. There was no improvisation. There is a sort of poetry to writing comedy. Poetry is very crafted. You can't have too many words. It needs compression. It has to be spare, just the right number of words. And Don's instincts were infallible. We never rehearsed. I think we got more skilled as time went on. I did. At first, I had one foot in my little girl's self and one foot in my grown-up self. You can see it in my character. By the end, I had both feet in my adult self. 99 still had an adoration for Maxwell Smart, but with more authority."

21/08/2025

"You're all worthless and weak! Now drop and give me twenty!"
To get the role of Neidermeyer in "National Lampoon's Animal House" (1978), Mark Metcalf lied about his ability to ride horses. After he got the role, he immediately took equestrian classes.
The actors who played the Deltas harassed the actors who played the Omegas off-screen as well to keep up the feelings of animosity between their characters. Metcalf changed his hotel room to the one above Bruce McGill's where the Delta actors partied every night so his anger at their noise would help him get into character.
The movie concludes by describing each character's fate. Neidermeyer was "killed in Vietnam by his own troops." In director John Landis' segment of "Twilight Zone: The Movie" (1983), some soldiers are overheard expressing regret for killing Lt. Neidermeyer. (IMDb)
Happy Birthday, Mark Metcalf!

21/08/2025

Jack L. Warner asked Tony Curtis if he would give a percentage of his film royalties from "The Great Race" (1965) to Natalie Wood as an enticement, but Curtis refused. He said, "I couldn't give her anything to make her want to do the movie." (Curtis and Wood had worked on two films previously, and had developed an acrimonious relationship) Apparently, Warner could; he proposed that if Wood completed "The Great Race," she could star in Gavin Lambert's drama "Inside Daisy Clover" (1965), a role she greatly wished to have.
Charlton Heston was originally offered the role of The Great Leslie. He considered it a "funny script" but had to turn the part down when the production schedule for "The Agony and the Ecstasy" (1965) was delayed. Curtis then got the part.
During the pie fight, the Great Leslie remains clean while everyone else is covered in pie. Curtis was actually changing clothes several times, because he all too often got hit with pie during filming. About 4,000 real pies were used in the scene, and the cast ate many of them during filming. However, during a weekend break in filming, the pies spoiled. The stink was so bad that the building required a thorough cleaning and large fans to blow out the sour air.
Both the Leslie Special and the Hannibal 8 are now owned by the Stahls Automotive Foundation and are on display in its museum in Chesterfield, Michigan. Curtis, Wood, Jack Lemmon and Peter Falk had autographed the cars. (IMDb)
Happy Birthday, Tony Curtis!

21/08/2025

In 1972, after high school, Samuel Gerald Jones enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. With service in the Corps completed, he moved to Seattle with the ambition of joining the Seattle Seahawks football team, but was turned down. Instead, in 1976, he played for their practice team, the Flyers, as a semi-professional.
In parallel and to supplement his income, Jones also began modelling. Starting in 1975, he appeared in full-frontal n**e under the alias Andrew Cooper III as the centerfold for a photo-spread in the June issue of Playgirl Magazine. He also starred in TV commercials for a local sporting goods store in Seattle before finally moving to Los Angeles in 1977.
Jones made his first film appearance in the 1979 romantic comedy film "10." This appearance allowed him to beat Kurt Russell and Arnold Schwarzenegger for his most famous role, that of Flash Gordon in the 1980 film of the same name. Rumor has it Jones was cast after producer Dino De Laurentiis's mother-in-law saw him on an episode of "The Dating Game."
After the release of "Flash Gordon," Playgirl reprinted his 1975 photo-spread in its January 1981 issue, this time using his real name.
Jones' dark hair was bleached blonde for "Flash Gordon," and Melody Anderson's blonde hair was dyed brown. Flash was supposed to have blue eyes, but Jones couldn't wear the contact lenses.
Jones was mugged in Leicester Square the night before filming "Flash Gordon" started. (Wikipedia/IMDb)
Happy Birthday, Sam J. Jones!

21/08/2025

Don Ameche's strong religious convictions made him uncomfortable with swearing. This proved to be a problem for the scene at the end of the movie "Trading Places" (1983), where he had to shout out "F*ck him!" to a group of Wall Street executives. When he did act out the scene, it had to be done in one take, because Ameche refused to do a second one.
The scene where Mortimer Duke (Ameche) is trying to catch the money clip, and having trouble, wasn't supposed to happen that way, but both kept going with it, and not breaking character, so it was kept in the movie.
The electronic status board at Duke & Duke's (seen prominently in the Christmas scene) is the "Big Money" board from "Family Feud".
Ralph Bellamy and Ameche "cheerfully admitted" they were unfamiliar with Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd's work. The two also said that Murphy and Aykroyd acknowledged that they were unfamiliar with Bellamy and Ameche. This was Bellamy's ninety-ninth film, and Ameche's forty-ninth. This was Murphy's second film, and he joked: "Between the three of us, we've made one hundred fifty movies!"
This was Ameche's first film since "Suppose They Gave a War and Nobody Came" (1970). He had been doing television guest appearances. This movie jump started his return to theatrical films, including an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for "Cocoon" (1985).
Happy Birthday, Don Ameche!

21/08/2025

During World War II, Madge Blake and her husband, James Lincoln Blake, worked in Utah on construction of the detonator for the atomic bomb and performed such jobs as testing equipment destined for the Manhattan Project. The couple received a citation for their work from the U.S. government.
After her government career, and now a grandmother, at the age of 50, she pursued her first dream and enrolled at the Pasadena Playhouse and studied acting. A prolific twenty years of television and movie appearances followed. In addition to her role as Aunt Harriet Cooper on "Batman," Blake's other well-known roles include her semi-regular role as Larry Mondello's mother on "Leave It to Beaver" and gushy gossip columnist Dora Bailey in "Singin' in the Rain" (1952, see below).
At one point, the producers of "Batman" wanted to fire Blake, for reasons best known to themselves. Adam West, with whom she had become friends, stood up for her and she kept her job. The next day, he found a freshly baked cake in his dressing room. West considered that one of the greatest compliments he had ever been paid. (IMDb)
Happy Birthday, Madge Blake!

21/08/2025

Elsa Lanchester, on playing the title part in "Bride of Frankenstein" (1935): "The most memorable thing I did in that film, I believe, was my screaming. In almost all my movies since, I've been called upon to scream. I don't know if it's by chance, but I would like to think that I'm not hired for that talent alone."
Lanchester said that her spitting, hissing performance was inspired by the swans in Regent's Park, London. "They're really very nasty creatures," she said. Lanchester was only 5'4" but for the role was placed on stilts that made her 7' tall. The bandages were placed so tightly on her that she was unable to move and had to be carried about the studio and fed through a straw. She needed to be fed by her dresser since even her fingers were wrapped. Her shock hairdo was held in place by a wired horsehair cage. According to one story, one of her stand-ins had a screaming attack of claustrophobia.
Although the Bride of Frankenstein is one of most iconic Universal monsters, she only had 3 minutes of screen time in the entire film.
"It annoys me when mothers drag the poor dears to me and demand the children say something to Frankenstein's bride. Can you imagine an actress being overexposed by a picture she made 40 years ago?" (IMDb)
Happy Birthday, Elsa Lanchester!

21/08/2025

Jodie Foster was twelve years old when "Taxi Driver" (1976) was filmed, so she could not do the more explicit scenes (her character was also twelve years old). Connie Foster, Jodie's older sister, who was nineteen when the film was produced, was cast as her body double for those scenes. Before Foster was eventually cast as Iris, there were more than two hundred fifty applicants for the role, including newcomers Carrie Fisher, Mariel Hemingway, Bo Derek, Kim Cattrall, Rosanna Arquette, Kristy McNichol, and Michelle Pfeiffer. Before taking on the role, Foster was required to attend counseling to make sure someone so young could cope with the demands of the role.
In the diner scene, 12-year-old Iris adds sugar to her toast which is already covered in jelly. Some viewers interpret this character trait as Iris still being a kid at heart however this was not the intention. The other ho**er who walks the streets with Iris in the film was an actual pr******te whom Foster shadowed to prepare for her role. The pr******te (played by Garth Avery) was also a he**in addict and one way in which she would quell her addiction was to add extra sugar to her meals. Jodie, being a very young but very observant and intuitive young actress, incorporated this character trait into the scene.
At the 31st AFI Life Achievement Awards, Foster credited Robert De Niro with introducing her to the true craft of acting. He would insist that they'd meet for coffee and rehearse their scenes together at a local diner. After a while, Jodie became bored of the routine until De Niro began improvising lines during their rehearsals. Jodie soon learned to follow his improv as he weaved back and forth to the original script, in essence teaching her how to effectively build a character.
De Niro's actions in this film provoked John Hinckley, who was obsessed with Foster, to try to get her attention by shooting President Ronald Reagan. The opportunity to reverse her role in this film, and also distance herself from Hinkley, is in part what inspired Foster to take the role of the he**ine and rescuer in "The Silence of the Lambs" (1991). (IMDb)
Happy Birthday, Jodie Foster!

21/08/2025

On this date in 1991, "The Silence of the Lambs" was released.
Based the 1988 novel by Thomas Harris, this was the second film to feature the character Hannibal Lecter; the first, "Manhunter" (1986), was also adapted from a Harris novel.
Prior to the release of the novel, Orion Pictures partnered with Gene Hackman to adapt it for film. With Hackman set to direct and possibly star in the film as FBI agent Jack Crawford, negotiations were made to split the $500,000 cost of rights between Hackman and the studio. The producers also had to acquire the rights to the Lecter character, which were owned by Manhunter producer Dino De Laurentiis. Owing to the financial failure of "Manhunter", De Laurentiis lent the rights to Orion free.
In November 1987, Ted Tally was brought on to write the adaptation; Tally had crossed paths with Harris many times, with his interest in adapting "The Silence of the Lambs" originating from receiving an advance copy of the book from Harris. When Tally was about halfway through with the first draft, Hackman withdrew from the project and financing fell through. However, Orion co-founder Mike Medavoy encouraged Tally to keep writing as the studio took care of financing and searched for a replacement director. Orion sought director Jonathan Demme to helm the project. With the screenplay not yet completed, Demme signed on after reading the novel. From there, the project developed quickly; Tally said: "[Demme] read my first draft not long after it was finished, and we met, then I was just startled by the speed of things. We met in May 1989 and were shooting in November. I don't remember any big revisions."
Jodie Foster was interested in playing FBI agent Clarice Starling immediately after reading the novel. However, in spite of the fact that Foster had just won an Academy Award for her performance in "The Accused" (1988), Demme was not convinced that she was right for the role. Having just collaborated on "Married to the Mob" (1988), Demme's first choice for the role of Starling was Michelle Pfeiffer, who turned it down, later saying, "It was a difficult decision, but I got nervous about the subject matter." He then approached Meg Ryan, who turned it down as well for its gruesome themes, and then Laura Dern, of whom the studio was skeptical as not being a bankable choice. As a result, Foster was awarded the role due to her passion towards the character.
For the role of Lecter, Demme originally approached Sean Connery. After Connery turned it down, Anthony Hopkins was offered the role based on his performance of Dr. Treves in "The Elephant Man" (1980) Upon learning this, Hopkins questioned Demme, and said "But Dr. Treves was a good man", to which Demme replied "So is Lecter, he is a good man too. Just trapped in an insane mind." Hopkins said he saw Lecter as similar to H.A.L. 9000 in "2001: A Space Odyssey" (1968). A highly complex, highly intelligent, highly logical killing machine, who seems to know everything going on around him.
When Hopkins's agent told him a script was en route titled "Silence of the Lambs", Hopkins responded, "Is it a children’s story?" Hopkins called his agent back after reading the first 10 pages to say "This is the best part I’ve ever read," then had dinner with Demme and accepted the role. Other actors considered for the role included Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman, Derek Jacobi, and Daniel Day-Lewis.
The mask Hopkins wore became an iconic symbol of the film. It was created by Ed Cubberly, of Frenchtown, New Jersey, who had made masks for NHL goalkeepers.

21/08/2025

Clark Gable's last film was "The Misfits" (1961), with a script by Arthur Miller and directed by John Huston. Co-starring with Gable were Marilyn Monroe (in her last completed film), Montgomery Clift, Eli Wallach and Thelma Ritter. Many critics regard Gable's performance to be his finest, and Gable, after seeing the rough cuts, agreed, although the film did not receive any Oscar nominations. Miller wrote the screenplay for his wife Monroe; it was about two aging cowboys and a pilot that go mustanging in Reno, Nevada, that all fall for a blonde. In 1961, it was a somewhat disconnected film with its antihero western themes, but it has since become a classic.
In a 2002 documentary, Eli Wallach recalled the mustang wrangling scenes Gable insisted on performing himself, "You have to pass a physical to film that" and "He was a professional going home at 5 p.m. to a pregnant wife." The New York Times found "Mr. Gable's performance as a leathery old cowboy with a realistic slant on most plain things" ironically vital, with his death before the film's release.
On November 6, 1960, Gable was sent to Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles, California, where doctors found that he had suffered a heart attack. Newspaper reports the following day listed his condition as satisfactory. By the morning of November 16, he seemed to be improving, but he died that evening at the age of 59 from an arterial blood clot. Medical staff did not perform CPR for fear that the procedure would rupture Gable's heart, and a defibrillator was not available.
In an interview with Louella Parsons published soon after Gable's death about speculation on his physically demanding role in "The Misfits", wife Kay Gable said, "It wasn't the physical exertion that killed him. It was the horrible tension, the eternal waiting, waiting, waiting. He waited around forever, for everybody. He'd get so angry that he'd just go ahead and do anything to keep occupied." Monroe said that she and Kay had become close during the filming and would refer to Clark as "Our Man," while Arthur Miller, observing Gable on location, noted, "No hint of affront ever showed on his face."
On March 20, 1961, Kay Gable gave birth to Gable's only son, John Clark Gable, at the same hospital in which her husband had died four months earlier. Marilyn Monroe attended his son's baptism. (Wikipedia)
Happy Birthday, Clark Gable!

21/08/2025

Kitty Carlisle, on working with the Marx Brothers on "A Night at the Opera" (1935): "Groucho would come up to from time to time to ask me, 'Is this funny?'' Then, totally deadpan, he'd try out the line. I'd say, 'No, I don't think it is funny', and he'd go away absolutely crushed and try it out on everyone else in the cast. Chico was always playing cards in the back room and had to be called on the set. Harpo would work well until about eleven o'clock. Then he'd stretch out on the nearest piece of furniture and start calling at the top of his voice, 'Lunchie! Lunchie!'"
Carlisle initially refused to take the part when she was asked to mime to someone else's voice. She won, and the song she performs, "Alone", later became her signature tune.
The first sneak preview for this film, held in Long Beach, California, is generally considered one of the greatest bombs in Hollywood history. The Marx Brothers and Irving Thalberg wanted to survey the public's reception to the film, which contained greater continuity and a lengthier side-story romance than the troupe's previous films with Paramount. The audience at Long Beach, the first stop on the preview tour, despised the film and barely uttered a laugh. Cast members reported that Groucho Marx was despondent, and nearly suicidal, immediately following the poor Long Beach reception, while Chico Marx suggested that the crowd may have simply been feeling the after-effects of the recent death of the town's mayor. The reasons for the cool reception in Long Beach is unclear, but Thalberg urged the brothers to continue with the tour, and the next night's preview in San Diego produced riotous laughter that called the nerves of everyone involved. (IMDb)
Happy Birthday, Kitty Carlisle!

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