Oscar Flashback – Great People Behind Great Movies

For some reason I never got around to seeing The Kid Stays in the Picture when it was released a few years back. Now that it’s in rotation on HBO, I had the great opportunity to be schooled in the way Hollywood works.

The Kid Stays in the Picture is absolutely worth a look, if you haven’t seen it already. It chronicles the beginnings of Evans’ career, where he wasn’t taken seriously for any reason, being a clothing salesman first, and an actor where he was “discovered” by Norma Shearer at the Beverly Hills Hotel. The press lampooned him as a joke, but somehow he made his way to Paramount, where he became a muckity muck.

More than that, though, it is probably the best film to illustrate two things. 1) There is nothing new under the sun. 2) Films are only going to be as good as the people who make them.

There is Nothing New Under the Sun

Going all the way back to the early days of Hollywood, and especially the Oscars, the way things work has always been mostly the same. The whole thing is feuled by: egos, money, publicity, scandal.

There have always been, and there will always be, pretty starlets on the rise, moguls who make good decisions and really and really bad decisions. ¬†Something can look so great on paper and then, for whatever reason, it can all collapse in a puddle of lost opportunity. ¬†In this case, The Cotton Club was the beginning of the end of Robert Evans as alpha male mogul and producer. ¬†He wanted Sylvester Stallone for the lead but Sly backed out because he didn’t like the script. ¬†The film was a disaster – complete with in-fighting and a ballooning budget.

There are always going to be films that have everything going in and are executed with just the right combination of things. ¬†Robert Evans knew The Godfather was going to be good. ¬†So did Peter Bart (who thought up the title, as I recall). ¬†There were no Italian directors at the time working in Hollywood. ¬†They were all Jews, said Evans. ¬†Hiring Coppola was a risk for many reasons but most of all because Coppola didn’t want to disparage the Italian community and wanted to portray them as anything but mafiosos. ¬†Somehow, in that push-me, pull-you relationship a masterpiece was born. ¬†Take away any of the key ingredients and you wouldn’t have the same film.

Although this isn’t specifically addressed in the film, there was a point about Chinatown’s ending that made the difference between that film being a masterpiece and a flop and it had to do with the ending. ¬†Whether Bob Evans had anything to do with that decision or not is still unclear (to me anyway). ¬†From Film Reference:

In addition to trimming and tightening Towne’s screenplay in an effort to make it less convoluted and more focused, Polanski insisted on enhancing the romantic relationship between Nicholson and Dunaway, which helps to further illustrate the concept that Nicholson’s character is inadvertently repeating his past. To the same end, he altered Towne’s conclusion. Towne’s original script not only did not conclude in Chinatown, but it ended on a very different, upbeat note with Dunaway’s character (Evelyn Mulwray) surviving and her loathsome monster of a father dead; justice triumphs and Evelyn and Jake go off into the pre-smog L.A. sunset together. Towne to this day disdains Polanski’s downbeat finale, which is set in Chinatown, as a too-literal and ghoulish example of “bleak chic.” But it is Polanski’s ending that transforms the film from a polished, superbly acted evocation of the vanished pre-World War II milieu of Hammett and Chandler into a detective story of considerable and disturbing power‚Äîa seminal film of the 1970s. Indeed, it is difficult to conceive of Chinatown ending any other way than it does. Polanski’s alteration gives the film its meaning (troubling though it may be); it’s what the story is all about.

The struggle between writer and director that existed then still exists today. ¬†Sometimes the right decision is made, sometimes it isn’t. ¬†The process, though, is no different.

Diva actors were diva actors then as they are now. ¬†The only difference is that there are no longer big studios controlling the stars the way they used to. It’s more of a free-for-all now. ¬†Jennifer Hudson broke through after appearing on American Idol. ¬†All it takes now to recognized is a good performance, and a resourceful casting director or producer to hire them in the first place no matter who they are.

One of the film’s best stories is about Mia Farrow and Frank Sinatra. ¬†Frank didn’t want her (his then wife) to finish shooting Rosemary’s Baby because it would cut into the time she was supposed to be filming a movie with him. ¬†Bob Evans had to talk Farrow into staying — and he did so by showing her clips from the film. ¬†He told her she would win the Oscar for her performance. ¬†Well, she didn’t win the Oscar, but the temptation was enough for her to end her marriage to Sinatra and continue filming Rosemary’s Baby. ¬†It was a huge blockbuster and made her a star.

Ironically, Bob Evans also ushered in True Grit, starring John Wayne, a film that is being remade, Coen brothers style, this year.

Nobody knew anything then, and nobody knows anything now. ¬†Bob Evans couldn’t get anyone to direct or support Love Story until Arthur Hiller came aboard. ¬†It had been optioned by Ali MacGraw who then starred in it. The movie was one of the biggest ever and Ali MacGraw became a huge star, and now was married to Evans. ¬†They had two kids together before she left him for Steve McQueen on the set of The Getaway. ¬†That was probably as big a scandal as the Angelina Jolie/Brad Pitt/Jennifer Aniston mishegoss. ¬†Before that it was Liz Taylor and Eddie Fisher and Liz Taylor and Richard Burton: there is nothing new under the sun.

No, not even making a movie about a fallen icon, Joaquin Phoenix.  Stars were born to burn out.  The public was born to consume them.

Films are only going to be as good as the people who make them

They might not get the same credit the director gets to the public, but they are often responsible for the seeds of great ideas.  It is an open-minded and intelligent visionary who has the smarts to bring great projects in and see them through.

At Paramount, Evans ushered in Rosemary’s Baby, Love Story, Marathon Man and most importantly, The Godfather. Evans was the producer on Chinatown and Marathon Man but, according to his doc, he was the driving force behind getting Rosemary’s Baby made and hiring Roman Polanski. Those kinds of moments shaped Hollywood history. The Oscars reflect those who were in charge of studios at the time, and the producers who fought to get films made.

There hasn’t been a better era for Hollywood than the 1970s except maybe for right now. ¬†The independent film movement redefined the role of the producer even more. ¬†Big Hollywood still drives the film business, no doubt about it. ¬†The independents have influenced Big Studio to the point where the product out of the studios is getting better and better. ¬†Why? Because they feel more comfortable taking risks.

A guy like Bob Evans in his prime was young, dumb and full of … he hadn’t yet been beaten down by a major flop or a divorce (that would come later). ¬†He had nothing but high expectations and good taste. ¬†His good taste gave him the confidence to take risks.

Both James Schamus and Scott Rudin spring to mind as producers who think about good projects before they think about profits. ¬†Did Bob Evans look at Rosemary’s Baby and say “this is going to make a shitload of money”? ¬†Probably not. ¬†Even if he did that wasn’t his main motivation behind acquiring it. ¬†He wanted to make a good movie. ¬†This year, many of the Big Studio films seem uncompromising — like Inception, Shutter Island, The Social Network, The Town, Hereafter. ¬†It’s been a while since there were so many good films coming out of the majors.

Even more valuable than Evans’ rise to power is Evans’ inevitable fall. ¬†He loses everything and ends up in a mental ward from which he must escape. ¬†He loses everything he worked for – and up his nose went his office at Paramount, his dream house, all of his money. His old friends helped him out in the end. ¬†Jack Nicholson has to make a personal appearance to help him get his dream house back. ¬†Producer Stanley Jaffe helped him get back his office at Paramount where he continues to work, an alpha male ¬†no more.

The film ends on a melancholy, haunting note about how his friends are doing now. ¬†Are some of them wealthy? ¬†Yeah, some. ¬†Are some of them destitute? ¬†Yes, many. ¬†You can have everything and lose it all. ¬†Nothing lasts forever. Evans does have a life to be proud of, however, and participation in an era that has yet to be equaled in Oscar history at least. ¬†Those in charge changed the paradigm of how Oscar voters selected their best picture winners. ¬†The path was forged by brave men (women? ¬†not really, not then). ¬†The transition came slowly and it perhaps best illustrated by Robert Altman’s The Player where it clearly shows stupid people running studios choosing stupid projects that go nowhere.

The Kid Stays in the Picture is a sobering sit. ¬†One doesn’t often have the opportunity to learn what life has in store for many us. ¬†Depending on the choices we make, the visions we chase, the promises we keep and make — our foundations are fragile. ¬†All we really have for sure is right now.