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Hollywood Stories
When Stars Collide
By
Stephen Schochet
#
 During
the silent era it was thought a waste of money to make a movie with more than
one star. Personalities like Charlie Chaplin,
Harold Lloyd and
Buster Keaton
were considered potent enough box office on their own. But with dwindling
attendance during the great depression MGM decided to feature Hollywood’s first
all star ensemble cast in Grand Hotel (1932) starring the mammoth egos of Joan
Crawford, Wallace Beery, John Barrymore and
Greta Garbo. The director Edmund
Goulding was unable to let Joan Crawford and Garbo have any scenes together for
fear they might try to upstage each other. Although she complimented her Swedish
co-star’s beauty, Crawford hated Garbo’s demands for top billing. Knowing that
Greta hated tardiness and Marlene Dietrich, Crawford was constantly late and
played Dietrich’s records loudly on the set.
Crawford had another classic encounter with rival
Bette Davis on the set of
Whatever Happened To Baby Jane (1962). Betty, knowing that Joan was the widow of
Alfred Steele, the former head of the Pepsi Corporation, had a Coke dispenser
brought in for the cast and crew. When Joan was late Bette, an often nasty woman
but a total pro, would proclaim loudly, ”Is the Widow Steele ready yet?” Joan
retaliated by lining her dress pockets with weights so in a scene when Davis had
to drag Crawford’s nearly dead character across the floor, she almost broke her
back.
Male
stars don’t always get along either. On location in Japan, for the filming of
The Teahouse Of The August Moon (1956), Glenn Ford paid a visit to his co-star
Marlon Brando’s dressing room. “Marlon did you eat one of the chocolate chip
cookies my wife sent me?” “No I didn’t Glenn.” “OK.” Ford hesitated at the door.
“Marlon, all you to do was ask, you didn’t have to take one.” Ford left to shoot
his next scene giving the infuriated Brando time to go into Ford’s dressing room
and smash the remaining cookies with a sledgehammer.
Another Ford, Harrison, had a dustup with Brad Pitt during the making of The
Devil’s Own (1996). At first Pitt was excited to be working with the older
actor, but his enthusiasm waned as the script focus moved away from his
sympathetic young Irish killer to Ford’s middle-aged, happily married policeman.
Ford perhaps threatened by the younger star, accused Pitt of trying to be an
apologist for the IRA. The film was delayed almost every day for hours as Pitt,
Ford and director Alan Pakula would argue about the script. The budget
skyrocketed to over ninety million, became a box office failure and led to
Columbia Pictures head Mark Canton, being fired. During the production when the
two had stars had fight scenes together they took out their frustrations by
landing real blows.
An all star male cast can make it hard to stand out. Steve McQueen had been so
desperate to appear in The Magnificent Seven (1960), he had intentionally
crashed a car and used his minor injuries to temporarily get out of his
television series Wanted Dead Or Alive (1958-1961). He snuck down to Mexico
while he was “recuperating” to work on Magnificent. His new challenge was how
not to be overshadowed by the movie’s star Yul Brynner. The colorful, bigger
than life Brynner was actually five foot nine (same as McQueen) and concerned
about his height on screen. For the first scene between Chris (Brynner) and Vin
(McQueen) the Swiss Mongolian actor built a hill of dirt that would allow him to
tower over his co-star. But Steve kept blowing his lines. Before each new take
he would kick some dirt out from underneath Yul’s hill. By the time he got the
scene right Brynner was nearly standing in a hole.
Sometimes the
most petty arguments will break out between male stars and their leading ladies.
A tender scene in The Bishop’s Wife (1947) was delayed because
 Cary
Grant and Loretta Young couldn’t face each other. Both insisted that their left
profiles were more their more photogenic half and strongly pushed for that
position in front of the camera. After the standoff lasted a few hours the
furious producer Sam Goldwyn came down to the set and shouted,” If I photograph
only half, I pay only half!” The problem was solved with Young gazing out the
window and Grant coming up from behind, placing his arms around her and gently
resting his chin on her shoulder, so both left profiles remained in full view.
Ten years later Grant fell in love his leading lady Sophia Loren while making
Pride And Passion (1957). Their co-star Frank Sinatra got extremely jealous.
Trying to make friends Loren explained to Sinatra in Italian that she was
worried about her English for upcoming publicity interviews. As usual the devil
took over Sinatra. He advised her to use foul language in every sentence.
Especially the “F” word which was a term of endearment to Americans. When Sophia
conducted her first press conference the shocked reporters asked her where she
learned to speak like that. After a few good belly laughs, she was advised to
make Cary Grant her new English teacher.
#
Stephen Schochet
is the author and narrator of the audiobooks Fascinating Walt Disney and Tales
Of Hollywood. The Saint Louis Post Dispatch says,” these two elaborate
productions are exceptionally entertaining.” Hear RealAudio samples of these
great, unique gifts at
http://www.hollywoodstories.com.
#
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