I listened to this book as an audiobook, and I found its many stories about the production of the 5 Oscar nominees for 1967 delightful, surprising and hugely entertaining. They were Dr. Doolittle, In The Heat of the Night, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, and The Graduate.
There are many stories here, both central and tangential. The two most interesting characters, and a real focus of the book, are Warren Beatty and Sidney Poitier. I've taken Beatty for granted, but now I understand how daring it was of him to assume the role of producer; how surprising to me that the director he regularly sparred with on the set of Mickey One became his choice to direct Bonnie and Clyde. Poitier was an actor in the sometimes unenviable role of national civil rights symbol. Harris' recounting of his frustrations as an actor and civil rights activist were entirely new to me but fascinating.
Bonnie and Clyde's costume designer had never before worked on a film and at one point, Beatty, who'd hired her, snapped at her, "You don't know what you're doing, do you?" But her designs changed fashion that year and for years to come. Beatty is rumored to have gotten down on his knees to ask Jack Warner for the money; Beatty says that's not true but Harris asserts that while he met with Beatty, Warner insisted on pointing out the "Warner Bros." water tower with the "WB" on it; Beatty replied that those were his initials.
Bonnie and Clyde was intended to reflect the spirit and aesthetic of the French New Wave (which was in turn inspired by Hollywood movies) and Robert Benton and his co-writer originally hoped to have Francois Truffaut direct and even offered the film to Jean-Luc Godard.
The Graduate reveals that Dustin Hoffman was all wrong for the role and that well into the making of the film, Mike Nichols, its director, realized that he'd insisted on hiring Hoffman because Nichols identified with him. Meanwhile, Hoffman was catapulted from obscuring to stardom by a role in which he which he sometimes felt bewildered.
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? introduces Stanley Kramer, once very well-known as an "issues" director, and the complicated relationship of Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy to each other and their co-star, Sidney Poitier. When I learned how Tracy spoke to Hepburn in private, I was amazed.
I learned that In the Heat of the Night was actually filmed in Sparta, Illinois because it was thought that the film's subject matter was too incendiary to safely film any farther south.
Dr. Doolittle was an attempt by producer Arthur P. Jacobs to create a prestige children's picture like Disney's Mary Poppins. It was a flop, and aspects of the production were not only hellish (elements of the original were so fantastic that they were hard to film in the pre-CGI era) but parts of the finished film seemed laughable. Why was it nominated? Jacobs invested in a significant and successful lobbying campaign. He went on to produce the very profitable The Planet of the Apes series.
This book also conveys an industry in the midst of a huge, dislocating transition, much like the period we're living through now. If you're interested in film history or the history of the sixties, I'd strongly recommend this title.
There are many stories here, both central and tangential. The two most interesting characters, and a real focus of the book, are Warren Beatty and Sidney Poitier. I've taken Beatty for granted, but now I understand how daring it was of him to assume the role of producer; how surprising to me that the director he regularly sparred with on the set of Mickey One became his choice to direct Bonnie and Clyde. Poitier was an actor in the sometimes unenviable role of national civil rights symbol. Harris' recounting of his frustrations as an actor and civil rights activist were entirely new to me but fascinating.
Bonnie and Clyde's costume designer had never before worked on a film and at one point, Beatty, who'd hired her, snapped at her, "You don't know what you're doing, do you?" But her designs changed fashion that year and for years to come. Beatty is rumored to have gotten down on his knees to ask Jack Warner for the money; Beatty says that's not true but Harris asserts that while he met with Beatty, Warner insisted on pointing out the "Warner Bros." water tower with the "WB" on it; Beatty replied that those were his initials.
Bonnie and Clyde was intended to reflect the spirit and aesthetic of the French New Wave (which was in turn inspired by Hollywood movies) and Robert Benton and his co-writer originally hoped to have Francois Truffaut direct and even offered the film to Jean-Luc Godard.
The Graduate reveals that Dustin Hoffman was all wrong for the role and that well into the making of the film, Mike Nichols, its director, realized that he'd insisted on hiring Hoffman because Nichols identified with him. Meanwhile, Hoffman was catapulted from obscuring to stardom by a role in which he which he sometimes felt bewildered.
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? introduces Stanley Kramer, once very well-known as an "issues" director, and the complicated relationship of Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy to each other and their co-star, Sidney Poitier. When I learned how Tracy spoke to Hepburn in private, I was amazed.
I learned that In the Heat of the Night was actually filmed in Sparta, Illinois because it was thought that the film's subject matter was too incendiary to safely film any farther south.
Dr. Doolittle was an attempt by producer Arthur P. Jacobs to create a prestige children's picture like Disney's Mary Poppins. It was a flop, and aspects of the production were not only hellish (elements of the original were so fantastic that they were hard to film in the pre-CGI era) but parts of the finished film seemed laughable. Why was it nominated? Jacobs invested in a significant and successful lobbying campaign. He went on to produce the very profitable The Planet of the Apes series.
This book also conveys an industry in the midst of a huge, dislocating transition, much like the period we're living through now. If you're interested in film history or the history of the sixties, I'd strongly recommend this title.
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