Strange Stories: Making Hollywood Movies

Tinseltown thrives on fantasy and making dreams come to life on the silver screen.  Here are some behind the scenes Hollywood tales about making movies that, according to insiders, are absolutely true.

The first scene that was shot when making Gone With The Wind was the burning of Atlanta scene.  Producer David O. Selznick did this in order to be able to clear the back lot at the studio.  Among the buildings that can be seen on fire are the great gates from King Kong.  Because the role of Scarlett O’Hara had not been cast, a stuntman dressed as Scarlett rode in the wagon beside the stuntman dressed as Rhett Butler.  While filming the scene, Selznick’s brother, Myron, who was an agent, brought a new client to watch the filming.  The new client turned out to be Vivian Leigh, who Myron introduced to his brother by saying “David, I want you to meet your Scarlett O’Hara”.

This tale is rather shocking and is about an event that occurred while filming The African Queen while on location in what was then the Belgian Congo.  Director John Huston noted that there was a meat dish being served to the film crew by a local caterer who referred to it as “long pig”.  A few days later, local authorities arrest the caterer.  Men had been disappearing from local villages and cannibalism was suspected.

In The Wizard Of Oz, actor Frank Morgan, who played The Wizard and Professor Marvel, wears a tattered Prince Albert style coat.  The coat was bought off the rack from a second hand shop by the MGM wardrobe department.  One day Morgan happened to turn out the pocket and discovered a name tag sewn inside bearing the name L. Frank Baum, who was the original author of the book The Wizard Of Oz.  It was later confirmed by the coat’s tailor in Chicago that he did indeed tailor the coat for Mr. Baum.

In the 1973 movie Sleuth, Laurence Olivier plays a mystery writer who coerces a rival, played by Michael Caine, to ransack his house and rob him.  In the scene, Olivier sweeps a collection of figurines off a mantelpiece with his hand while describing the carnage.  As it turned out, he cut his hand while doing the scene.  Rather than stop filming, Olivier blotted the blood on the back of an upholstered chair, hid his bloody hand in his pocket and calmly finished the scene.  As soon as the director yelled “Cut!”, Olivier promptly asked to be taken to the hospital.  The shot remained in the film and Olivier can be seen grimacing as he cut his hand.

During filming of A Clockwork Orange (released in 1972), director Stanley Kubick asked Malcolm McDowell to sing a song while commiting “ulta-violence”.  McDowell started singing the first song that came to mind, “Singing In The Rain”.  Kubrick stopped filming and called MGM Studios and obtained permission to use the song in the movie.  Critics of the film have always marveled at the irony of the song choice when it was actually just a coincidence.

In the closing scene of The French Connection, released in 1971, Gene Hackman, as a crazed narcotics investigator, fires his gun at an unseen target after the screen goes black.  There was a lot of speculation as to the meaning of the shot fired.  What did it mean?  Absolutely nothing, says director William Friedkin, who admitted that he playfully told the editor “Let’s end the film with a bang and get it into the theatres.”

Other articles by Bren Parks include:

• Making Movies: Stars Who Collide
• Making Movies: Beyond the Call of Duty
• Artistic Eccentrics
• Strange Acts of Entertainment
• Six of the Greatest and Deadliest Bands in Rock and Roll
• Rock and Roll Suicides