STACK #135 Jan 2016

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Badge of Courage , but Dore Schary let Huston know that he was apprehensive in hiring the novice actor for a starring role. The smooth talking Huston then presented a credible argument as to why he thought Murphy a perfect match for the lead role in the movie. "Dore, I've spoken to the kid about his part in the movie and do you know what he told me?" Schary shook his head. Huston dropped his voice a little, "Murphy said ten seconds after the first shot was fired at him by the enemy, combat was no longer glamorous. All he wanted to do after that was to stay alive. He got so scared that first day in combat he almost ran." Huston continued, "The kid then said that sometimes it takes more courage to run than to stay." Huston waited for a few seconds for that last sentence to be digested by Schary. "Dore, this kid has lived the role in real life and that's why he's a cert for the part." Schary looked directly at Huston for what seemed like an awfully long time, before he finally nodded. "Okay John, we go with the kid." This became the background to the meeting in Mayer's office, where Schary informed him that he had decided to let Huston make his picture and now needed Mayer to agree to the finances. Despite the vagaries of the box office and the subsequent faltering profits under his watch, Mayer still considered himself top dog at the studios that bore his name. He now stubbornly refused to allocate the funds for "Huston's damn civil war picture". Schary rose from the seat in front

 The role of producer went to Gottfried Reinhardt, the son of Austrian film director

Nicholas Schenck in NewYork for support in making The Red Badge of Courage , Schenck immediately backed him. Strenuous objections from an enraged Mayer ensued, which were overruled by Schenck. The following morning the  Los Angeles Times carried a column written by Hedda Hopper announcing that

Max Reinhardt, who set about procuring Huston's

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pre-production requirements, which consisted of 600 Union blue uniforms, 100 horses, four artillery teams and numerous authentic looking hook- on beards and crepe moustaches. During the initial script-reading rehearsals, Huston noticed that his leading man, Audie Murphy, appeared sullen and unresponsive

Director John Huston coaching Audie Murphy during the making of The Red Badge of Courage

Audie Murphy would star in The Red Badge of Courage , with John Huston directing. She concluded her column with, "For a change, we'll have a real soldier, playing a real soldier on the screen." When Mayer was shown the newspaper column he snorted, "I wouldn't make this damn film with Sam Goldwyn's money." (Mayer had always disliked Goldwyn.) The movie's budget was set at $1.6 million with a 30-day shooting schedule. Huston had wanted to film his battle scenes on location in Virginia where the actual battle took place, but the budget would not stretch that far. Consequently, he decided to film those scenes on his ranch in the San Fernando Valley, which was only 30 miles from the MGM studios, and the rest of the picture on the studio backlot. To further reduce costs, he cast relatively unknown actors for the main supporting characters: Douglas Dick as The Lieutenant; John Dierkes as The Tall Soldier; Royal Dano as The Tattered Man; Bill Maudlin, another WWII veteran, as The Loud Soldier; and a walk-on part for the western character actor Andy Devine, as The Cheery Soldier.

towards him and the rest of the cast. Huston guessed the kid was troubled and it would need a lot of one-on-one coaching from him to ease Murphy into the role of The Youth.  The following day Reinhardt contacted Huston and said, "John, we are going to have major problems putting this film together. Schary okayed the 600 uniforms from wardrobe, but now Mayer has countermanded it. You do know we are in the middle of two civil wars – the one on the screen and the one between Mayer and Schary." Louis B. Mayer had indeed grown increasingly critical of Schary's decision to make this movie, and studio scuttlebutt was buzzing with plots and counterplots. Even before he had filmed a single frame, Huston instinctively knew that his motion picture was being held hostage in a political war for the control of MGM studios. Treachery and betrayal would soon follow.

of Mayer's desk and said, "Louis, I'm sorry you feel that way for I believe it has a chance of becoming a highly important motion picture that will bring honour to the studio, and it is even possible that it will be a classic." Schary paused before adding, "I suggest we let Nick Schenck decide." During his short tenure, Schary had turned the studio around and the motion pictures he had green-lit to date had put the profits of MGM back into the black for the first time in two years. Consequently, as far as MGM's parent company Loew's was concerned, their young production chief could walk on water and had now become vital to the reversal of MGM's fortunes. Sure enough, when Schary contacted Loew's president

To be concluded...

JANUARY 2016

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