William Wyler (62 page)

The Collector
(1965)

The Collector Company/William Wyler Production
Producers: Jud Kinberg and John Kohn
Director: William Wyler

Screenplay: Stanley Mann and John Kohn, based on the novel by John Fowles

Art direction: John Stoll

Editor and second unit director: Robert Swink
Music: Maurice Jarre
American staff:

Photography: Robert Surtees

Set decoration: Frank Tuttle

Music editor: Richard Harris

Assistant director: Sergei Petschnikoff

Camera operator: Andrew McIntyre

Sound supervision: Charles J. Rice

Sound: Jack Solomon

Script supervisor: Isabel Blodgett

British staff:

Photography: Robert Krasker

Editor: David Hawkins

Assistant director: Roy Baird

Camera operator: John Harris

Second unit cameraman: Norman Warwick

Production manager: Philip Shipway

Cast: Terence Stamp (Freddie Clegg), Samantha Eggar (Miranda Grey), Mona Washbourne (Aunt Annie), Maurice Dallimore (The Neighbor), William Beckley (Crutchley), Gordon Barclay and David Haviland (Clerks)

Distribution: Columbia Pictires
119 minutes

How to Steal a Million
(1966)
World Wide/William Wyler Production
Producer: Fred Kohlmar
Director: William Wyler

Screenplay: Harry Kurnitz, based on the story “Venus Rising” by George Bradshaw

Photography: Charles Lang

Second unit director and editor: Robert Swink

Miss Hepburn's clothes: Givenchy

Makeup: Alberto de Rossi and Frederick Williamson

Music: Johnny Williams

Orchestration: James Harbert

Sound: Joseph de Bretagne and David Dockendorf

Assistant director: Paul Feyder

Unit production manager: William Kaplan

Production assistant: François Moreuil

Main title design: Cinefx, Phill Norman

Cast: Audrey Hepburn (Nichole Bonnet), Peter O'Toole (Simon Dermott), Eli Wallach (David Leland), Hugh Griffith (Charles Bonnet), Charles Boyer (De Solnay), Fernand Garvey (Grammont), Marcel Dalio (Señor Paravideo), Jacques Marin (Chief Guard), Moustache (Guard), Roger Treville (Auctioneer), Eddie Malin (Insurance Clerk), Bert Bertram (Marcel)

Distribution: Twentieth Century-Fox
127 minutes

Funny Girl
(1968)

William Wyler/Ray Stark Production, presented by Columbia Pictures and Rastar Productions
Producer: Ray Stark
Director: William Wyler

Screenplay: Isobel Lennart, based on her musical play

Photography: Harry Stradling

Supervising editor: Robert Swink

Editors: Maury Winetrobe and William Sands

Art direction: Robert Luthardt

Set decoration: William Kiernan

Production design: Gene Callahan

Barbra Streisand's costume design: Irene Sharaff

Makeup supervision: Ben Lane

Makeup artist: Frank McCoy

Hairstyles: Vivienne Walker and Virginia Darcy

Musical numbers: directed by Herbert Ross

Music supervisor and conductor: Walter Scharf

Orchestrations: Hack Hayes, Walter Scharf, Leo Shuken, and Herbert Spencer

Vocal-dance arrangements: Betty Walberg

Music editor: Ted Sebern

Assistant directors: Jack Roe and Ray Gosnell

Sound: Charles J. Rice, Arthur Piantadosi, and Jack Solomon

Cast: Barbra Streisand (Fanny Brice), Omar Sharif (Nick Arnstein), Kay Medford (Rose Brice), Anne Francis (Georgia James), Walter Pidgeon (Florenz Ziegfeld), Lee Allen (Eddie Ryan), Mae Questel (Mrs. Strakosh), Gerald Mohr (Branca), Frank Faylen (Keeney), Mittie Lawrence (Emma), Gertrude Flynn (Mrs. O'Malley), Penny Santon (Mrs. Meeker), John Harmon (Company Manager), Thordis Brandt (Bettina Brenna), Virginia Ann Ford, Alena Johnson, Karen Lee, Mary Jane Mangler, Inga Neilsen, and Sharon Vaughn (Ziegfeld Girls)

Distribution: Columbia Pictures

151 minutes

The Liberation of L. B. Jones
(1970)
William Wyler–Ronald Lubin Production
Producer: Ronald Lubin
Director: William Wyler

Screenplay: Stirling Silliphant and Jesse Hill Ford, based on the novel by Jesse Hill Ford
Photography: Robert Surtees

Supervising film editor and second unit director: Robert Swink
Editor: Carl Kress

Production designer: Kenneth A. Reid
Music: Elmer Bernstein
Sound: Jack Solomon and Arthur Piantadosi
Camera operator: William Johnson

Assistant directors: Anthony Ray, M. Frankovich Jr., and Robert M. Jones
Cast: Lee J. Cobb (Oman Hedgepath), Anthony Zerbe (Willie Joe Worth), Roscoe Lee Browne (Lord Byron Jones), Lola Falana (Emma Jones), Lee Majors (Steve Mundine), Barbara Hershey (Nella Mundine), Yaphet Kotto (Sonny Boy Mosby), Arch Johnson (Stanley Bumpas), Chill Wills (Mr. Ike), Zara Cully (Mama Lavorn), Fayard Nicholas (Benny), Lauren Jones (Erleen), Dub Taylor (Mayor), Ray Teal (Police Chief), Joseph Attles (Henry), Brenda Sykes (Jelly), Larry D. Mann (Grocer), Eve McVeagh (Miss Griggs), Sonora McKeller (Miss Ponsella), Robert Van Meter (Blind Man), Jack Grinnage (Driver), John S. Jackson (Suspect)
Distribution: Columbia Pictures
102 minutes

1
. Roger Leenhardt, “À bas Ford / vive Wyler!”
L'Ecran francais
146 (April 13, 1948). Merve Fejzula, my research assistant, translated this article.

2
. Andrew Sarris,
The American Cinema
(New York: E. P. Dutton, 1968), 167.

3
.
Show
, March 1970, 15.

4
. Gabriel Miller,
William Wyler: Interviews
(Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2010), 129.

5
. William Wyler, “No Magic Wand,”
Screenwriter
2, no. 9 (February 1947): 10.

6
. Curtis Lee Hanson, “William Wyler,”
Cinema
3, no. 5 (Summer 1967): 24.

7
. David Bordwell, The
Classical Hollywood Cinema
(New York: Columbia University Press, 1985), 346.

8
. William Wyler, “Escape to Reality,”
Liberty
24, no. 1 (January 4, 1947), 16, reprinted in
Picturegoer
, March 15, 1947, 8.

9
.
Directed by William Wyler
(Tatge Productions, 1986; New York: Kino Video, 2002), DVD.

10
. Thomas Schatz,
The Genius of the System
(New York: Pantheon Books, 1988), 5–8, 225.

11
. Hanson, “William Wyler,” 24.

12
. Simon Callow,
Charles Laughton: A Difficult Actor
(New York: Grove Press, 1998), 290.

13
.
The New Biographical Dictionary of Film
(New York: Knopf, 20 04), 975.

14
. Wyler, “Escape to Reality,” 16.

15
.
New York Times
, June 18, 1950.

16
. Sarris,
American Cinema
, 167.

17
. Schatz,
Genius of the System
, 5.

18
. Miller,
William Wyler: Interviews
, 119.

19
. A. Scott Berg,
Goldwyn:
A
Biography
(New York: Ballantine, 1990), 271.

20
. Ibid., 273.

21
. Quoted in ibid., 272.

22
. Ibid., 309.

23
. Wyler to Y. Frank Freeman, February 24, 1954, William Wyler Collection, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Los Angeles, California.

24
. Jan Herman,
A Talent for Trouble: The Life of Hollywood's Most Acclaimed Director, William Wyler
(New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1995), 13.

25
. William Wyler, “Flying over Germany,”
News Digest
2, no. 13 (August 15, 1943): 26.

26
. André Bazin,
Bazin at Work: Major Essays and Reviews from the Forties and Fifties
, ed. and trans. Bert Cardullo and Alain Piette (New York: Routledge, 1997), 5.

27
. Charles Higham, “William Wyler,”
Action
8, no. 5 (September-October 1973): 20.

28
. Sidney Kingsley,
Five Prize Winning Plays
(Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1995), 244.

29
. On December 21, 2011, the
New York Times
reported that nearly sixty years after the film's release, the Writers' Guild of America West had restored Dalton Trumbo's writing credit for
Roman Holiday
.

30
. Hanson, “William Wyler,” 34.

31
.
Directed by William Wyler
.

32
. Joseph i. Anderson and Donald Ritchie,
The Japanese Film: Art and Industry
(Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1983), 382.

33
. Herman, A
Talent for Trouble
, 436.

34
. Quoted in Louis Giannetti,
Masters of the American Cinema
(Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1981), 206.

1
. “William Wyler,”
Film Reference
, last modified 2012,
http://filmreference.com/Directors-Ve-Y/Wyler-William.html
.

2
. Dave's boss, for instance, tells him that the people of Boonton have money but don't know how to spend it.

3
. Internal reports, November 16, 1928, Wyler Collection.

4
. Wyler would revisit a scene like this in
Funny Girl
almost forty years later.

5
. Herman,
A Talent for Trouble
, 88.

6
. Axel Madsen,
William Wyler: The Authorized Biography
(New York: Crowell, 1973), 68.

7
. Herman,
A Talent for Trouble
, 91.

8
. Ibid.

9
. Wyler rarely resorted to such imagery, but he would do so again in
Dodsworth
(1936), when Arnold Iselin sets fire to a letter that Fran Dodsworth received from her husband. Iselin wants Fran to leave her husband and forget the past. Wyler's camera follows the burning letter as it wafts across the balcony.

10
. Herman,
A Talent for Trouble
, 92.

11
. Carl Laemmle Jr. to Wyler, August 29, 1931, Wyler Collection.

12
. Laemmle Jr. to Wyler, September 3, 1931, Wyler Collection.

1
. Quoted in Madsen,
William Wyler
, 81.

2
. John Huston,
An Open Book
(New York: Knopf, 1980), 59.

3
. Wyler to Oliver La Farge, December 16, 1932, William Wyler Papers, 1925–1975, Arts Library Special Collections, Young Research Library, UCLA.

4
. Huston,
An Open Book
, 60.

5
. Wyler to La Farge, January 30, 1933, Wyler Collection.

6
. Huston,
An Open Book
, 60.

7
. Ibid. There is a copy of Huston's script in the Wyler Collection.

8
. Herman,
A Talent for Trouble
, 108.

9
. Wyler to Carl Laemmle, December 29, 1932, Wyler Collection.

10
. Madsen,
William Wyler
, 85.

11
. Elmer Rice,
Minority Report
(New York: Simon and Schuster, 1963), 164.

12
. Ibid., 121.

13
. Elmer Rice,
Seven Plays
(New York: Viking Press, 1950), 269.

14
. Madsen,
William Wyler
, 90.

15
. Telegram from Elmer Rice to Wyler, September 2, 1933, Wyler Collection.

16
. Rice,
Minority Report
, 332.

17
. Margot Peters,
The House of Barrymore
(New York: Knopf, 1990), 353.

18
. Madsen,
William Wyler
, 93.

19
. Herman,
A Talent for Trouble
, 114.

20
. Wyler to Carl Laemmle, September 9, 1933, Wyler Collection.

21
. Peters,
The House of Barrymore
, 354.

22
. Ibid., 586.

23
. Delays memo, 1933, Wyler Collection.

24
. Herman,
A Talent for Trouble
, 117.

25
. Ibid., 118.

26
. Ibid.

27
. Madsen,
William Wyler
, 93.

28
. Ibid., 94.

29
. Hanson, “William Wyler,” 30.

30
. Richard H. Pells,
Radical Visions and American Dreams
(New York: Harper and Row, 1973), 79.

31
. Pauline Kael,
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
(New York: Bantam, 1971), 311.

32
. Peters,
The House of Barrymore
, 354.

33
. James Rorty,
Where Life Is Better
(New York: John Day/Reynal and Hitchcock, 1932), 98.

34
. Interoffice communication, November 13, 1933, Wyler Collection.

35
. Telegram from Rice to Wyler, November 27, 1933, Wyler Collection.

1
. Berg,
Goldwyn
, 263.

2
. Ibid., 265.

3
. Joseph Breen to Samuel Goldwyn, July 31, 1935, Samuel Goldwyn Papers, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Los Angeles, California.

4
.
Directed by William Wyler
.

5
. Berg,
Goldwyn
, 267.

6
. Herman,
A Talent for Trouble
, 141.

7
. Doris V. Falk,
Lillian Hellman
(New York: Frederick Ungar, 1978), 37.

8
. Carl Rollyson,
Lillian Hellman: Her Legend and Her Legacy
(New York: St. Martin's Press, 1988), 65.

9
.
New York Times
, November 21, 1934.

10
. William Wright,
Lillian Hellman: The Image, the Woman
(New York: Ballantine, 1986), 79.

11
. Lillian Hellman,
Four Plays by Lillian Hellman
(New York: Random House, 1972), viii.

12
. Rollyson,
Lillian Hellman
, 70.

13
. William Wright,
Writers at Work: The Paris Review Interviews
, 3rd ser. (New York: Viking Press, 1967), 126.

14
. Hellman's early treatments are in folder 2356, Goldwyn Papers.

15
. Berg,
Goldwyn
, 267.

16
.
Directed by William Wyler
.

17
. Herman,
A Talent for Trouble
, 145.

18
. Hanson, “William Wyler,” 24.

19
. Douglas Slocombe, “The Work of Gregg Toland,”
Sequence
8 (Summer 1949): 68–69.

20
. André Bazin,
What Is Cinema?
vol. 1, ed. and trans. Hugh Gray (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967), 35–36.

21
. Hanson, “William Wyler,” 24.

22
. Mark Schorer,
Sinclair Lewis: An American Life
(New York: Dell, 1961), 616.

23
. Rollyson,
Lillian Hellman
, 86.

24
. John Baxter,
Hollywood in the Thirties
(New York: A. S. Barnes, 1968), 116; Bernard F. Dick,
Hellman in Hollywood
(Rutherford, N.J.: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1982), 34.

25
. Lillian Hellman,
Six Plays by Lillian Hellman
(New York: Vintage, 1979), 58.

26
. “Dialogue Continuity: A Version,” November 23, 1935, Wyler Papers.

27
. Graham Greene, “These Three,”
Spectator
, May 1, 1936.

28
. Telegram from David Selznick to Wyler, February 25, 1936, Goldwyn Papers.

29
. Telegram from Jesse Lasky to Wyler, undated, Wyler Collection.

1
. Sinclair Lewis,
Dodsworth
(New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1929), 11.

2
. Ibid., 142.

3
. Ibid., 192–93.

4
. Richard Lingeman,
Sinclair Lewis: Rebel from Main Street
(St. Paul, Minn.: Borealis Books, 2002), 333.

5
. Ibid., 332.

6
. Ibid, 255.

7
. Berg,
Goldwyn
, 277.

8
. Lawrence Grobel,
The Hustons
(New York: Avon Books, 1990), 169–70.

9
. Sidney Howard,
Sinclair Lewis's
Dodsworth (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1934), xvii.

10
. Ibid., xii.

11
. Grobel,
The Hustons
, 177.

12
. Memo from Wyler to Goldwyn, March 17, 1936, Goldwyn Papers.

13
. Madsen,
William Wyler
, 145.

14
. Sidney Howard, “Notes for a Treatment,” undated, Goldwyn Papers.

15
. H. C. Potter, early version of
Dodsworth
script, April 4, 1936, Goldwyn Papers.

16
. Herman,
A Talent for Trouble
, 153.

17
. Howard, “Notes for a Treatment.”

18
. Mary Astor, A
Life in Film
(New York: Delacorte Press, 1967), 119.

19
. Herman,
A Talent for Trouble
, 153.

20
. Ruth Chatterton's agent to Wyler, June 11, 1936, Goldwyn Papers.

21
. Astor, A
Life in Film
, 119.

22
. David Niven,
The Moon's a Balloon
(New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1972), 216–17.

23
. Herman,
A Talent for Trouble
, 154–55.

24
. Astor, A
Life in Film
, 118–19.

25
. Herman,
A Talent for Trouble
, 155.

26
. Ken Doeckel, “William Wyler,”
Films in Review
22, no. 8 (October 1971): 473.

27
. Berg,
Goldwyn
, 185.

28
. Madsen,
William Wyler
, 147.

29
. Howard,
Sinclair Lewis's
Dodsworth, 3.

30
. Astor, A
Life in Film
, 121.

31
. Berg,
Goldwyn
, 285.

32
. Ibid.

33
. Herman,
A Talent for Trouble
, 160.

1
. Sam Goldwyn to Edna Ferber, October 27, 1936, Goldwyn Papers.

2
. Joseph McBride,
Hawks on Hawks
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982), 85.

3
. Ibid.

4
. Berg,
Goldwyn
, 282.

5
. Ibid., 183.

6
. Madsen,
William Wyler
, 153.

7
. Berg,
Goldwyn
, 13.

8
. William Arnold,
Frances Farmer: Shadowland
(New York: Jove/ HBJ Books, 1979), 55–56.

9
. Herman,
A Talent for Trouble
, 162.

10
. Daniel Mandell transcript, Wyler Papers.

11
. Arthur Marx,
Goldwyn: A Biography of the Man behind the Myth
(New York: W. W. Norton, 1976), 225.