The Crack of Dawn

Volume #184

12/10/22

Newsletter #184

The Crack of Dawn

My old buddy Sheldon used to write at the farmer’s market in W. Hollywood, across the street from CBS Television City.  It’s a big enclosed area with many vendors and a lot of tables, often filled with quite a few people.  Sheldon sat at a table with his pad writing when an elderly lady, unable to find an empty table, asked if she might sit down.  Sheldon said certainly.  The lady sat down, they began to talk, and inevitably the subject of the movie business came up.  The lady said, “My son is in the film and TV business.  Maybe you’ve heard of him.  Alexander Courage.”

Sheldon’s eyes widened.  “The Alexander Courage who did the music for Star Trek?”  She said, “Yes, that one.”  So, they had a nice talk.  But if you know Alexander Courage’s name, and read credits, he is the arranger on so many big musicals of the 1950s it’s incredible.

One of the cinematographer’s on the original Star Trek was Ernest Haller, who won an Oscar for shooting a little picture called Gone With the Wind (1939).  Haller started in the movies in 1914 as a camera assistant for D.W. Griffith. 

One of my favorite director-writers is Billy Wilder.  He was very good friends with my favorite director, Willy Wyler.  They were both from Austria, about the same age, had similar accents and were often mistaken for one another.  But they never made any effort to straighten anybody out.  If someone said to Billy Wilder, “I love The Best Years of Our Lives,” which was made by Willy Wyler, Billy would just say thanks.  And so would Willy when people complimented him for Sunset Blvd.”

Billy Wilder made a picture that I don’t much care for, Love in the Afternoon (1957), with Gary Cooper and Audrey Hepburn, about a May/December romance.  Right before the release Wilder was called before the head honchos at Paramount and informed that they didn’t like his title.  He admitted that it wasn’t a great title, but it was appropriate, and maybe a little racy, so he liked it.  They said he had to change it.  Billy asked, “So, what do you consider a good title?”  They conferred, then announced, “Tulsa.”  Wilder asked, “Why is that a good title?  It’s the name of a city.”  They told him to just think about it and the meeting ended.  The film came out as Love in the Afternoon. 

People loved the movie Red River (1950), with John Wayne and Walter Brennen, and it was a big hit.  People complimented John Ford frequently for it, except it was directed by Howard Hawks.  Ford too just thanked them and never corrected them.

John Ford had a real asshole streak in him, but wasn’t like that most of the time.  The one thing you didn’t want to do was question his authority or taste.  On How Green Was My Valley (Best Picture, 1941), which was the wonderful Maureen O’Hara’s second movie, she was handed a basket as a prop.  Maureen foolishly said that she thought it was a poor prop, and she herself owned many nicer baskets.  John Ford nodded thoughtfully, no doubt smoking a cigar or a pipe, and asked, “You don’t like the prop?”  O’Hara said no.  Ford said, “You see that hill way over there?”  She said yes.  Ford told her to go sit there.  Maureen O’Hara did as she was told, then Ford left her there all day.  I suspect that she never questioned the props on a John Ford film again.

Bruce Campell and I are supposed to go bowling today.  That should be fun, since we both stink.