THE SCREEN SPECTATOR - JANUARY 2024
In 1949, John Huston's We Were Strangers was released to near universal lack of interest.
Starring Jennifer Jones, John Garfield, and Gilbert Roland, the film tells the story of Cuban revolutionaries in 1933 attempting to overthrow the corrupt regime of Gerardo Machado.
In the film, John Garfield plays an Irish-American expatriate who recruits a diverse group of rebels to execute a daring plan: assassinate the president of the senate and blow up the remaining government officials attending the funeral.
The film reflected director John Huston's interest in exploring the human condition within the context of political and social upheavals, perfectly aligning with his publicly expressed political views. However, in the climate of the late 1940s and early 1950s, We Were Strangers was viewed through the lens of Cold War paranoia.
While mainstream critics, like Bosley Crowther and Time Magazine ignored the overt messaging of the film and focused their reviews on its dramatic shortcomings:
“Peter Viertel and Mr. Huston have been so austere in writing their script...that they've curiously suppressed the very elements of white-hot emotion which should conflagrate the wild attempt.” (Bosley Crowther, New York Times, April 28, 1949)
"We Were Strangers" (Horizon; Columbia) is the latest film by John Huston, maker of the 1948 prizewinner, "Treasure of the Sierra Madre." As movie melodramas go, it is above average, but it is not Grade A Huston. Purporting to be a courageous film about Cuba's 1933 revolution, "Strangers" is, unfortunately, no stranger to some old, slick Hollywood tricks. “ (Time Magazine May 2, 1949)
Other publications were loud in their condemnation of what they saw as open and outrageous communist propaganda. The Hollywood Reporter called it "a shameful handbook of Marxian dialectics... the heaviest dish of Red theory ever served to an audience outside the Soviet." An editorial in the Los Angeles Evening Citizen News accused the film as coming right from communist party headquarters.
Condemnation typically boosts ticket sales, but in the case of We Were Strangers, the film failed to attract even a curious audience. Financed by Huston and his producing partner Sam Spiegel through their independent company Horizon Pictures, the film's $900,000 failure put Huston in a financial hole. In order to save himself, he accepted an offer from MGM that included a two-picture deal and a personal loan of $100,000.
In 1949, John Huston arrived at MGM. His first assignment for the studio was to write, produce, and direct Quo Vadis? His cast would include Gregory Peck, Elizabeth Taylor, and his father, Walter Huston.
“This was my first experience at MGM, and I must say I was impressed. Each studio had its own ambiance, but Metro prided itself on being the best in everything. The place had a near languid air of elegance. The mythology of glamour, I swear orginated with Metro. The studio felt the image of a star was important on screen as well as on. One never heard of a Metro star being put on suspension. Metro was all one big happy family. There was an air of superiority to the place that was impressive. . .yet slightly absurd. . .It was a patriarchal system and the image of the father was supplied by LB Mayer. “1
Quo Vadis? was an adaptation of the 1896 book by Henryk Sienkiewicz. Set in Ancient Rome during the reign of Emperor Nero, it tells the story of a Roman patrician, Marcus Vinicius, and a Christian woman named Lygia. In the midst of Nero’s persecution of Christians, Marcus falls in love with Lygia and becomes increasingly drawn to the teachings of Christianity.
In development at MGM since the early 1930s, the most recent attempt to bring Quo Vadis to the screen was in the late 1930s, with location filming planned in Italy at Cinecittà studio. However, the outbreak of World War Two led to the cancellation of the project.
In January 1939, American studios withdrew their films from the Italian market. When the American films returned, Italian audiences eagerly devoured six years' worth of movies. MGM found itself with millions of dollars trapped in Italy from the profitable release of its backlog of film titles. However, the studio was not allowed to take the money out of the country. The Italian government, concerned about the success of Hollywood-produced films, had imposed laws to protect its own home film industry, making it difficult for money made in Italy to leave its shores. Despite this restriction, MGM could use the funds to finance films shot on location2 Quo Vadis, with its ancient Roman setting and previous planned location shoot, was the perfect project to produce in Italy.
As Huston and co-writer Hugh Gray got to work on the script, they settled on the concept of making the story an analogy.
“Gray and I were writing a modern treatment about Nero and his fantastical determination to eliminate the Christians in much the same manner as his historic counterpart and fellow madman Adolf Hitler tried to destroy the Jews 2000 years later.”3
However, this was not the story Louis B. Mayer had in mind. Mayer saw Quo Vadis as a biblical epic, a grand and sweeping historical and romantic tale with set pieces featuring lions devouring righteous Christians in the coliseum. He wanted less analogy and more Cecil B. DeMille.
DeMille, a top director at Paramount Studios, was known for his epic productions marked by biblical and historical themes, extravagant sets, and star-studded casts. His films, such as The Ten Commandments, Cleopatra, and Samson and Delilah, blended spectacle with moral and religious themes. DeMille had the ability to combine grandiosity with exciting crowd-pleasing storytelling — all the things Mayer loved in a movie.
From the beginning, Huston and Mayer were never going to have a unified vision of the story. Louis B. Mayer believed in the myth of the dream factory—the fantasy, beautiful stars, escapist stories, songs and dance, happy families, and apple pie. On the other hand, Huston told tough and gritty stories about complicated, corrupted, and less than honorable people.
Politically, they were on opposite ends of the spectrum. Huston had been a member of the Committee of the First Amendment, a group formed by Hollywood writers, directors, and actors in 1947 to protest against the House Un-American Activities Committee's investigations into alleged communist influence in the film industry. In contrast, Mayer appeared as a friendly witness in front of HUAC in 1947 to defend the wartime pro-Russian film Song of Russia and to announce that he thought anyone who was for communism was “cracked.”
Although Huston may have been the polar opposite of Mayer, he was very much in sync politically with MGM head of production Dore Schary, and he found an ally in his artistic vision in Schary. He also found an ally in producer Arthur Hornblow. Hornblow had been attached to Quo Vadis since coming to MGM from Paramount in 1942, and he also preferred Huston and Gray's approach to the story.
The early stages of pre-production on Quo Vadis intensified the animosity between Schary and Mayer. Schary liked Huston and Gray’s analogy to the Nazi persecution of the Jews; Mayer did not. Earlier that year, the two had clashed over Battleground, Schary's first project at MGM after leaving RKO. Mayer thought the World War Two movie was a terrible idea and was vocally against the film. He was wrong; the film was a hit.
Besides their fight over Battleground, the two had gone head to head over loyalty oaths. During the Cold War era, loyalty oaths were statements or declarations that individuals were required to sign or affirm as a means of demonstrating their allegiance to the government and their opposition to communism. These loyalty oaths became prevalent during the late 1940s and the 1950s, as heightened anti-communist sentiments and the fear of communist infiltration took hold.
Mayer wanted everyone employed at the studio to an oath. Schary was against it. Shary won. These public and ongoing battles between the two led to a fracturing among MGM employees as they divided themselves into team Schary and Team Mayer. The Quo Vadis group were decidedly team Schary.
The issues with the script reached a critical point one morning when Mayer summoned Huston to breakfast. Mayer proceeded to share a story about how he personally instructed Jeanette MacDonald to emote while sing "Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life" in the film Naughty Marietta (1935) by singing to her. Mayer told Huston that MacDonald was so moved she cried. Mayer expressed his desire for Quo Vadis to be a film that moved people to tears. He then proceeded to sing to Huston, crawl on his knees and kiss his hands
Mayer was known for his theatrics and over-the-top performances; he used them to manipulate his stars and creatives to get his way. Every year at his birthday party, attended by all the studio stars, he would cry over his birthday cake, then faint and have to be carried away. He was known to argue, fall onto his office floor, cry, sob, and throw temper tantrums.
These theatrics did not work on Schary. Mayer, comparing Schary to former MGM head of production Irving Thalberg, said, “Irving and I used to bat things around and come up with something we could both live with, but Schary doesn’t argue, doesn’t discuss; he states his case and then waltzes out of the office, with nothing further to say except to ask Schenk to referee.”4
Asking Schenk to referee is exactly what Schary did. He took the disagreement over the Quo Vadis? screenplay it to the boss, Nicolas Schenk, president of Lowe’s Inc., the parent company of MGM.
Schenk approved the Huston script.
But, after all the wrangling and back-and-forth, tears, and sob stories, this version of Quo Vadis would never be produced. Shortly before filming began, Gregory Peck was hospitalized with a severe eye infection, and production was initially postponed for a few weeks and then for one year.
When the production was finally ready to resume, Quo Vadis? had a new director, Mervyn LeRoy, a new script by S.N. Berman, Sonya Levien, and John Lee Mahin, and two new stars, Robert Taylor and Deborah Kerr.
Released in 1951, Quo Vadis? would have all the hallmarks of a DeMille epic. It had everything Mayer wanted, including lions devouring Christians in the coliseum. The icing on the cake was the fourteen million dollars the film brought in at the box office.
The delay to Quo Vadis? forced John Huston to look around for another project to fulfill his two picture deal. He discovered that MGM owned the rights to the most recent book by one of his favorite authors, W.R. Burnett - - - The Asphalt Jungle.
But that is another story.
FURTHER READING
The Robert Taylor blog has the film program book sold to moviegoers in 1951 for 35 cents.
Lion of Hollywood: The Life and Legend of Louis B. Mayer by Scott Eyeman
“Lion of Hollywood is a three-dimensional biography of a figure often caricatured and vilified as the paragon of the studio system. Mayer could be arrogant and tyrannical, but under his leadership MGM made such unforgettable films as The Big Parade, Ninotchka, The Wizard of Oz, Meet Me in St. Louis, and An American in Paris.
Film historian Scott Eyman interviewed more than 150 people and researched some previously unavailable archives to write this major new biography of a man who defined an industry and an era.”
you can buy LION OF HOLLYWOOD here
An Open Book by John Huston
“In An Open Book, this veteran of five marriages, innumerable friendships, practical jokes, horses, love affairs, and intellectual obsessions tells his own story in his own way. It is direct, unadorned, complete-and wonderful reading.”
Blu-Ray/DVD SHELF
So Proudly We Hail!
Just picked this one up on Blu-ray.
Based on a true story about American Army nurses during World War II.So Proudly We Hail! Stars Claudette Colbert, Paulette Goddard and Veronica Lake. Colbert plays Lt. Janet Davidson, in charge of nine nurses serving in the Pacific. From the bombing of Pearl Harbor to the time they are shipped home, these extraordinary women tirelessly treat the wounded despite constant reminders of danger, romance and heartbreak. Made during wartime with the cooperation of the American Red Cross, the War Department and the Army Nurses Corp, this stirring tribute to the brave “Angels of Bataan” received Academy Award nominations for acting (Goddard), writing (Allan Scott, Blue Skies), cinematography (Charles Lang, A Farewell to Arms) and visual effects. So Proudly We Hail also features George Reeves (TV’s Adventures of Superman), Barbara Britton (The Virginian), Walter Abel (Arise, My Love) and Sonny Tufts (The Crooked Way) with rousing direction by Mark Sandrich (Holiday Inn).
Special Features:
-Brand New 2K Master
-NEW Audio Commentary by Film Historian and Writer Julie Kirgo
-Theatrical Trailer
-Optional English Subtitles
You can purchase SO PROUDLY WE HAIL here
NEW TO THE BOOKSHELF
Wild Bill Wellman: Hollywood Rebel by William Wellman Jr.
“Here is a revealing, boisterous portrait of the handsome, tough-talking, hard-drinking, uncompromising maverick (he called himself a “crazy bastard”)—juvenile delinquent; professional ice-hockey player as a kid; World War I flying ace at twenty-one in the Lafayette Flying Corps (the Lafayette Escadrille), crashing more than six planes (“We only had four instruments, none of which worked. And no parachutes . . . Greatest goddamn acrobatics you ever saw in your life”)—whose own life story was more adventurous and more unpredictable than anything in the movies. Wellman was a wing-walking stunt pilot in barnstorming air shows, recipient of the Croix de Guerre with two Gold Palm Leaves and five United States citations; a bad actor but good studio messenger at Goldwyn Pictures who worked his way up from assistant cutter to director”
The Man Who Seduced Hollywood: The Life and Loves of Greg Bautzer, Tinseltown's Most Powerful Lawyer by B. James Gladsotone
“Open any movie magazine from the 1930s, ’40s, or ’50s and you’ll find a picture of attorney Greg Bautzer with a beautiful starlet. Columnists dubbed him “Hollywood Bachelor Number One,” and for good reason. His long-term relationships and momentary conquests were a who’s who of leading ladies, including Joan Crawford, Lana Turner, Ginger Rogers, Ava Gardner, Rita Hayworth, Jane Wyman, Dorothy Lamour, Ann Sothern, Greer Garson, Merle Oberon, and Peggy Lee, to name just a few.
Yet Bautzer was more than a Hollywood Don Juan. As a lawyer, he represented nearly every major star of his era, as well as the richest man in the world, Howard Hughes, for whom he served as adviser, confidant, and best friend.”
you can buy THE MAN WHO SEDUCED HOLLYWOOD here
UPCOMING NEW BOOK RELEASES
Casablanca’s Conscience by Robert Weldon Whalen
“Much has already been written about the film and the career-defining performances of Bogart and Bergman. Casablanca is an epic tale of love, betrayal, and sacrifice set against the backdrop of World War II. Yet decades later, it continues to capture the imagination of filmgoers. In Casablanca’s Conscience, author Robert Weldon Whalen explains why it still resonates so deeply. Applying a new lens to an old classic, Whalen focuses on the film’s timeless themes―Exile, Purgatory, Irony, Love, Resistance, and Memory. He then engages the fictional characters―Rick, Ilsa, and the others―against the philosophical and theological discourse of their real contemporaries, Hannah Arendt, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Albert Camus. The relationships between fictional and historical persons illuminate both the film’s era as well as perennial human concerns. Both the film and the work of the philosophers explore dimensions of the human experience, which, while extreme, are familiar to everyone. It’s the themes that resonate with the viewer, that have sustained it as an evergreen classic all these years.”
You can preorder CASABLANCA’S CONSCIENCE here
LOVE IS WHERE YOU FIND IT
The second best part of the box office bomb that was the THE KISSING BANDIT (1948)
BUT JUST REMBER TO REMEMBER. . .
I just love this little bit of song from the opening credits of THE LATE SHOW (1977). Sung by Bev Kelly who's still going strong at 89 years old, It’s a bittersweet pull of nostalgia that sometimes gets me right in my feelings. For years, I’ve looked here and there for a full version, sadly, there’s only a reprise in the closing credits.
FALLING FOR WILD BILL
I’ve got a wild attraction to true mavericks, pioneers, men, and women who fly in the face of authority to chart their own course creatively and spiritually. William 'Wild Bill' Wellman fits that description. After watching this documentary, “WILD BILL: HOLLYWOOD MAVERICK” I found it very hard not to fall a little in love with the man.
and finally. . .
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An Open Book, John Huston, pg. 174
https://cinecensura.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Film-censorship-during-Fascism_Guli.pdf
An Open Book, John Huston, pg. 174
Fade Out, Peter Bart, pg. 288
Louis B. Mayer was raised in Saint John, New Brunswick, so I always consider him one of the Canadians who built Hollywood.
I'd be interested to see what Huston could have done with Quo Vadis?. I don't really remember being super impressed with LeRoy's effort, though to be fair, that may have had more to do with Robert Taylor's acting than anything else. But if I had to choose between a Huston-directed Quo Vadis? or The Asphalt Jungle, I'm picking The Asphalt Jungle. I think Dix would back me up on that one.