The Crack of Dawn

Volume #222

1/17/23

Newsletter #222

The Crack of Dawn

General George “Blood and Guts” Patton was considered America’s toughest general during Word War II.  A little-known fact about Patton was that he was the richest general in the army, coming from an exceptionally wealthy southern family.  After all of his exploits during the war, he remained in Germany after the war as a military governor.  One day as he was being driven to work, the driver hit the brakes hard and Patton flew forward off the back seat and hit his head on the front seat.  Somehow this minor fall caused General George Patton to break his neck and he died soon thereafter.

I saw The Sound of Music on its initial roadshow release in 1965.  Back then if a movie studio thought they had an important picture, then – exactly opposite of today – they went out of their way to make it difficult to see.  This was called the Roadshow or Platform release.  In some cases they would only open the film in L.A. and New York, making it impossible for anyone in between to see.  Generally, though, they’d open one print in 5-10 major cities; often 70mm prints.  If you wanted to see the film, and you lived anywhere outside one of those major cities, you had to drive into town to see it.  And they treated these roadshow showings like they were Broadway plays – assigned seating, no candy, there was a bowl of punch, and everybody dressed to the nines.  As might be expected, I found the entire experience enchanting.  But even though I was only 7-8 years old, I can vaguely recall wondering, “What kind of naval captain is Captain von Trapp?”

Well, Captain Georg Ludwig Ritter von Trapp was a German U-boat captain during World War I.  He is remembered not only as the stern-but-loving father of the Von Trapp Singers, but as the most successful (meaning deadly) U-boat captain of the war.  He killed hundreds of people.  He sank 11 Allied merchant ships, 2 warships and a submarine.  This information caused me to view The Sound of Music a little differently the last time I saw it.

For whatever it’s worth, William Wyler was slated to direct The Sound of Music, and spent over a year preparing the production.  When the financing was simply taking too long to come through, Wyler (feeling old at the age of 60) decided instead to make a little British horror movie called The Collector (1965).  I’ve never cared for the film, but it was taken very seriously at the time.  What I do appreciate is Wyler’s desire to make every kind of movie, which he did, successfully.  And since he didn’t get to direct The Sound of Music, and he still wanted to make a musical, he made Funny Girl (1968), which was an enormous success and launched Barbra Streisand’s career.

I’ve spent my life recommending movies to people that I know they never see, but so what?  I can’t recommend this documentary highly enough – Directed by William Wyler (1986).  It’s a blessed movie.  First of all, when they shot it almost everybody was alive that had starred in Wyler’s movies – Bette Davis, Laurence Olivier, Gregory Peck, Charlton Heston, Greer Garson, Barbra Streisand – and they are all more than happy to talk about Willy Wyler.  Obviously, working with Wyler was the highlight of their career.

In the film Wyler is as vibrant as he could be, and completely denies his nickname of “40-Take Wyler.”  He says with a grin, “I only took as many takes as it took.”  Then it goes into a lovely montage of each of these actors remembering a number, like Heston saying, “Forty-eight,” and Olivier saying, “Fifty-nine,” and Peck saying, “Sixty-three,” then Greer Garson says in her gorgeous British accent, “I can recall through the mist of time the number seventy-two, but that couldn’t possibly be right. Seventy-two takes.”  But what makes this movie blessed is that William Wyler, who is 100% sharp in the interview, dropped dead a few days after filming at the age of 81.

Apparently, I can get any topic to come back around to William Wyler.  It’s a gift.

And may your first child be a masculine child.