William Wyler (65 page)

34
. Ibid.

35
. Slocombe, “The Work of Gregg Toland,” 75.

36
. Ibid.

37
. André Bazin,
William Wyler ou le janséniste de la mise en scene, Revue du Cinema
(1948), reprinted in
Qu'est-ceque le cinema
(1958). Hugh Gray did not translate this essay or include it in the American edition of Bazin's
What Is Cinema?
it was later translated by Bert Cardullo and included in
Bazin at Work
.

38
. Anderegg,
William Wyler
, 142.

39
. Wyler, “No Magic Wand,” 10.

40
. Madsen,
William Wyler
, 274.

41
. “MacKinlay Kantor's Charges Baffle Him,” undated clipping, Goldwyn Papers.

42
. Wyler to lawyer, June 6, 1948, Wyler Collection.

1
. Joseph McBride,
Frank Capra: The Catastrophe of Success
(New York: Simon and Schuster, 1992), 507.

2
. Madsen,
William Wyler
, 280.

3
. McBride,
Frank Capra
, 507.

4
.
Film Daily
, November, 13 1946.

5
. “The Story of Liberty Films,” Wyler Collection.

6
. Quoted in McBride,
Frank Capra
, 530.

7
. Madsen,
William Wyler
, 288.

8
. Wyler memo, August 10, 1948, Wyler Collection.

9
. Herman, A
Talent for Trouble
, 307.

10
. In the casting notes for the play, then titled “Washington Square,” a second page of possible actors to play Morris includes Montgomery Clift and Henry Fonda; Gene Barry and John Forsythe also appear on the list. The list for Catherine includes Olivia de Havilland and her sister Joan Fontaine; Wyler's first wife, Margaret Sullavan; and Jane Wyatt, Jessica Tandy, and Mercedes McCambridge. The candidates for Dr. Sloper include Ralph Richardson, Cedric Hardwick, and Wyler favorite Walter Huston, along with Vincent Price, Louis Calhearn, and Ronald Colman.

11
. Patricia Bosworth,
Montgomery Clift
(New York: Bantam, 1979), 142.

12
. Ibid.

13
. Ibid., 142, 143.

14
. Herman,
A Talent for Trouble
, 310.

15
. Hanson, “William Wyler,” 28.

16
. In a letter, the Goetzes describe the origins of their play:

Well, our latest play, “One Man Show,” closed after five weeks…. We thought it was a very good play…. One of us said to the other: “Well, we're better off than Henry James.” Mr. James had the experience to stop all experiences. He came out on the stage the opening night of “Guy Donville” to calls of “Author, Author,” and then was hooted. Thinking about James, one day we picked up an early novel of his, “Washington Square.”…As dramatists we saw in it a number of things: First, it was about the father-daughter relationship of which we still had much to say; second, it was told in terms of characters who did what people always do, the worst things for the best reasons; third, there was the real challenge of turning poor, dull “Catherine Sloper” into a true heroine. We could not forget that girl. She kept at us.

Ruth and Augustus Goetz to John Chapman, March 17, 1948, Ruth and Augustus Goetz Papers, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison.

17
. Lee Sabinson pointed out this stark portrait of a world comprising unattractive characters in his evaluation of the play, which he read in manuscript and declined to produce: “I found Washington Square an extremely well-written and interesting character study but unfortunately nowhere in the play did I find a single character I was interested enough to root for one hundred per cent. Catherine…I found completely unattractive…. Dr. Sloper is psychotic on the subject of his daughter…and the final denouement of her inner struggle comes too late in the play for me to care about her.” Letter from the Goetzes' agent to Leah Salisbury, July 23, 1946, Goetz Papers.

18
. That early script also indicates that the Goetzes wanted to experiment with a narrator whose voice would introduce the characters, but they wisely dispensed with that approach.

19
. John Hobart, “Director William Wyler and
The Heiress,”
unidentified newspaper clipping, Wyler Papers.

20
. Ruth Goetz and Augustus Goetz,
The Heiress
(New York: Dramatists Play Service, 1975), 41, 52.

21
. The dialogue for this confrontation was created for the film. In the play, Catherine avoids an encounter with her father by excusing herself, telling him, “I have some letters to write.”

22
.
New York Times
, October 7, 1949.

23
.
Variety
, May 26, 1950, Wyler Collection.

24
. Ronald Davis, “Southern Methodist University Oral History Project: William Wyler (1979),” reprinted in Miller,
William Wyler: Interviews
, 101.

1
. Theodore Dreiser,
Sister Carrie
(1900; reprint, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1959), 55.

2
. Herman,
A Talent for Trouble
, 318.

3
. Terry Coleman,
Olivier
(New York: Henry Holt, 2005), 220.

4
. David O. Selznick to Wyler, June 14, 1950, Wyler Papers.

5
. Coleman,
Olivier
, 223.

6
. Ibid., 222.

7
. Elia Kazan, A
Life
(New York: Knopf, 1988), 144.

8
. Coleman,
Olivier
, 222–23.

9
. Stephen C. Brennan,
“Sister Carrie
Becomes
Carrie,”
in
Nineteenth-Century American Fiction on Screen
, ed. R. Barton Palmer (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), 187.

10
.
Variety
, October 12, 1949.

11
.
San Francisco Chronicle
, November 12, 1949.

12
. Madsen,
William Wyler
, 299.

13
. Wyler to Goetzes, June 7, 1949, Wyler Collection.

14
. In light of the Breen office's objections to the material, it is interesting that RKO commissioned a “story test report” on
Sister Carrie
—which was to star Ingrid Bergman—from Audience Research inc. That agency concluded that the story “has below average appeal for moviegoers both as to subject matter and as a vehicle for Ingrid Bergman.” Audience Research inc., “Story Test Report,” July 21, 1944, Wyler Papers.

15
. Goetzes' treatment, May 27, 1949, Goetz Papers.

16
. Goetzes to Wyler, May 31, 1949, Goetz Papers.

17
. Wyler to Goetzes, June 7, 1949, Goetz Papers.

18
. ibid.

19
. Even in one of the later versions of the script, the Goetzes are still portraying Hurstwood as an aggressive man with a quick temper. For example, when Carrie visits him at the restaurant and Slawson catches the couple in an embrace and orders them to “carry that on in the back room,” Hurstwood retorts, “Keep your filthy mouth to yourself. You fathead!” He then throws down his coat and walks out. He never exhibits this kind of bravado in the released film.

20
. Archer Winston,
New York Post
, February 11, 1952.

21
. Brandon French,
On the Verge of Revolt: Women in American Films of the Fifties
(New York: Frederick Ungar, 1978).

22
. This is not an unusual view for a Wyler film. A similar pessimism informs
Counsellor-at-Law, Dodsworth, The Little Foxes, The Heiress
, and, to some extent,
The Best Years of Our Lives
, although in all but
The Heiress
, the negativity is balanced by a promise that happiness is possible with the right partner. Dodsworth seems headed for a happier future with Edith Cortwright, Regina's blighted marriage is contrasted by her daughter's love for David Hewitt, and the failure of Fred Derry's marriage is offset by his love for Peggy and the marriage of Homer and Wilma. No such balance is offered here.

23
. Bosley Crowther, “‘Carrie,' with Laurence Olivier and Jennifer Jones, is New Feature at the Capitol,”
New York Times
, July 17, 1952.

24
. Herman,
A Talent for Trouble
, 330.

25
. David Selznick to Frank Freeman, August 22, 1951, Wyler Papers.

26
. Herman,
A Talent for Trouble
, 330.

1
. “Committee to Defend the Motion Picture industry against Unjust Attacks,” undated, Wyler Collection.

2
. Quoted in Herman, A
Talent for Trouble
, 299.

3
.
Washington Daily News
, November 6, 1947.

4
. Dunne,
Take Two
, 194.

5
. Ibid., 199.

6
. Herman,
A Talent for Trouble
, 301.

7
. Dunne,
Take Two
, 197.

8
. Ibid., 199.

9
. Madsen,
William Wyler
, 286.

10
. Dunne,
Take Two
, 198.

11
. Gordon Kahn,
Hollywood on Trial
(New York: Boni and Gaer, 1948), 219–20.

12
. Ibid., 223.

13
. Ibid., 221.

14
.
Valley Times
, May 7, 1947. The August 25, 1947, issue of
Newsweek
reported that
Best Years
was on a list, compiled by the HUAC, of films that portray “congressmen as crooks and bankers as stony-hearted villains.” Examples of un-Americanism cited in the film include the Dana Andrews character (Fred Derry) being denied a plane reservation on his way home, even though a prosperous fat citizen has no trouble getting one; Fred being turned down for anything better than his former job as a soda jerk by the 4-F personnel manager of an unsympathetic drugstore chain; and the Fredric March character (Al Stephenson) as an ex-sergeant who is unhappy in his postwar job as vice president of a bank, which heartlessly insists on collateral for loans to ex-Gis.

15
. Kahn,
Hollywood on Trial
, 184.

16
. “Wallace Talks to 12,000 after Secret Fund Raising,”
Los Angeles Examiner
, May 17, 1948.

17
. Letter from Wyler on behalf of Adrian Scott, November 28, 1950, Wyler Collection.

18
. Herman, A
Talent for Trouble
, 339.

19
. Wyler to Bosley Crowther, undated, Wyler Collection.

20
. Kingsley,
Five Prize Winning Plays
, 241, 242.

21
. Ibid., 243–44.

22
.
New York Times
, July 23, 1950.

23
. The filmmakers inserted a scene at the beginning in which McLeod and Mary meet in a cab and she tells him about a doctor's visit for another failed pregnancy.

24
. Kingsley,
Five Prize Winning Plays
, 320.

25
. Kirk Douglas,
The Ragman's Son
(New York: Pocket Books, 1989), 163. Wyler's recollection was different: he claimed that he suggested Douglas play the part on stage in Phoenix, “where a troupe was doing a revival of the play. They were delighted to have him. He got a hundred dollars, maybe.” Herman,
A Talent for Trouble
, 335.

26
. Douglas,
The Ragman's Son
, 165.

27
. George Stevens Jr. et al., “The Test of Time: William Wyler,”
American Film
1, no. 6 (April 1976). The others were Howard Hawks, Billy Wilder, Elia Kazan, and Joseph Mankiewicz.

28
. Charles Higham,
Hollywood Cameramen
(Bloomington: indiana University Press, 1970), 51–52.

29
. Anderegg,
William Wyler
, 175.

30
. Ibid.

31
. It is interesting to note that in the second draft of the screenplay, that conversation takes place in a bar called the Hangout, not in the privacy of a cab. When Mary tells McLeod that she cannot have a baby and suggests a trip to Lake Tahoe, he turns her down because of the Schneider case: “I can't sleep with that killer loose in the city.” Clearly, Wyler wants to introduce McLeod sympathetically, as a family man. First draft of
Dead End
, November 11, 1950, Wyler Collection.

32
. Kingsley,
Five Prize Winning Plays
, 280.

33
.
New York Times
, November 17, 1951.

34
. Madsen,
William Wyler
, 304.

35
. Herman, A
Talent for Trouble
, 347.

36
. Paul Kohner to Wyler, January 22, 1953, Wyler Collection. In his autobiography
An Open Book
, John Huston wrote (135–36):

In 1952 both José Ferrer and I ran head-on into trouble after bringing
Moulin Rouge
back from Paris for its premiere in Los Angeles. Joe had a reputation for being far left but he was in fact no more a Communist than my grandmother. Nevertheless, when we opened in Los Angeles some splinter groups from the American Legion—inspired, no doubt, by Hedda Hopper's constantly raking me over the coals in her column—paraded in front of the theater with placards declaring that José Ferrer and John Huston were Communists. I must say it took the edge off the festivities.

37
. Arthur Jacobs to Paul Kohner, January 21, 1953, Wyler Collection.

38
. Kohner to Wyler, February 14, 1953, Wyler Collection.

39
. Art Arthur to Wyler, April 4 and 8, 1953, Wyler Collection.

40
. Y. Frank Freeman to Wyler, January 2, 1954, Wyler Collection.

41
. Draft of letter from Wyler to Freeman, February 24, 1954, Wyler Collection.