Photo: William Castle on left. Studio Head Robert Evans on the right.
Producer/director William Castle (House on Haunted Hill) said: “When my gimmick horror movies began to have dwindling profits, I was ready to throw in the towel. Desperately I searched for a miracle that would save my career. Then from heaven a miracle appeared. Or was if from hell?”
He bought the movie rights to the novel Rosemary’s Baby for $150,000 and 5% of the net profits. Castle intended to direct. However, studio head, Robert Evans, pushed him to meet with Roman Polanski about directing.
Castle said: “I tested Polanski by saying, ‘We’ll make changes in the novel, right?.’ Polanski said, ‘No, the book is perfect.’ Point one for Polanski. ‘We need lots of weird camera angels, right?’ ‘No, Polanski replied, ‘No camera tricks. Let the actors tell the story.’ Point two for Polanski. ‘Who will write the script?’ ‘I will,’ Polanski said. ‘Why?’ ‘Because I’ll stick to the book.’ So, I let Polanski direct.”
Both Castle and Polanski wanted Robert Redford for the husband as he would be the handsome, all-American boy that got corrupted for the sake of fame. Redford wanted to do it, but with his lawsuit against the studio, he was out.
Castle wanted Tuesday Weld for Rosemary. But Polanski said, “Weld is too strong and healthy looking.” He wanted the frail persona of Mia Farrow.
For the part of the husband, Paul Newman, Tony Curtis, Steve McQueen and Robert Wagner were considered. Three days before filming John Cassavetes was hired as the husband, though it was felt he already looked like a villain and would give away the plot.
Polanski wanted to play the part of Dr. Sapirstein, but Castle was against it, knowing he’d have enough trouble keep Polanski on schedule without him being in the movie. Ralph Bellamy was hired.
After three days of filming, Polanski’s attention to details put the company two weeks behind schedule. “I could have finished that street scene of the suicide in one night, not three,” Castle said. The studio kept pushing Castle to go faster. Castle gently pushed Polanski, but Polanski kept his same slow pace.
Running into director Otto Preminger, Polanski confident in him about the studio pushing to go faster. “How do the dailies look?” Preminger asked. “Great.” “Then don’t worry about the studio.”
The book becoming a best seller gave both Polanski and Castle the confidence to know they wouldn’t be pulled off the movie.
An unknown actor with devil claws and make-up laid on top of Mia Farrow for hours to get the impregnation scene. Mia said, “When we were done, he moved off me and said, ‘It was great working with you Miss Farrow’. I thought that was so funny.”
Polanski had Mia J-walking across the New York’s Fifth Avenue at its busiest time with no traffic control. She had to do it twice with Polanski assuring her, “Don’t worry. No one is going to hit a pregnant woman.”
When Rosemary calls the blind actor (who we don’t see), Polanski secretly had Tony Curtis on the other end. “I thought I knew that voice,” Mia later said. “Mia’s bewilderment as to who it was, helped her performance,” Polanski said. Curtis’ voices remained in the movie.
To make up for lost time, Polanski filmed the 8-page first dinner scene at Roman and Minnie’s apartment in one day, getting the studio temporarily off Castles back for being behind schedule.
Frank Sinatra told Castle to let Mia go to film his movie The Detective. “But Frank, they’ll shut down my movie.” “I don’t care,” Sinatra said. “Just do it.”
“I love Frank. I have to leave,’ Mia told studio head Robert Evans. Evans said, “I showed Mia a one-hour rough-cut of the movie saying ‘Mia, you’re a shoe-in for an Academy Award.’ Suddenly, it was ‘Frank who?’”
After being served divorce papers from Sinatra on the set by his lawyer, Charles Grodin, who played Dr. Hill, comically asked her, “So, are you seeing anyone?” Which caused Mia to laugh.
Castle and Polanski debated about whether to show the baby. “At least show some cat’s eyes,” Castle said. “I disagree,” Polanski said. “I’ll film it so people think that saw the baby.” Sure enough, many claim to this day they saw the baby. There is a quick super-imposed shot of Cassavetes as the devil in that scene that might have made that impression.
“You have unleased evil on the world. You will not live long enough to reap your rewards” It was just one of hundreds of hate mail that Castle received as the movie became popular.
Mia was nominated for Best Actress, but didn’t win. Ruth Gordin won Best Supporting Actress. Polanski was nominated for Best Screenplay.
Castle went on to produce a few more movies. He always emulated Alfred Hitchcock by appearing in trailers of his movies, making cameo appearances in his films, and creating a trademark silhouette of him in the director’s chair. When Hitchcock saw the big grosses of Castle’s House on Haunted Hill and The Tingler, he emulated Castle by making his own low-budget, black and white thriller, Psycho.
I was a member of the William Castle Fan Club. He told us fans to repeat, three times a day: “William Castle is the master of movie magic.” I still do, occasionally.
Mia Farrow, age 19, was filming the Peyton Place TV series when she ventured onto the soundstage where Frank Sinatra, age 49, was filming Von Ryan’s Express. He invited her to his home in Palm Springs for a party, and they became a couple.
A few months later, Frank’s first ex-wife, Big Nancy, and daughter, singer Nancy Sinatra, were planning a large birthday party for him.
Since Frank’s and Mia’s affair was big, scandalous news, Big Nancy did not want Mia to attend because all the party-goers’ attention would be on her. It was assumed that Mia was being with Frank for the sake of career opportunism.
According to Frank’s long-time valet George Jacobs said, “There was a lot of phone calls between Big Nancy, Nancy and Frank, with yelling and hang-ups about whether Mia should attend or not. Finally daughter Nancy convinced Big Nancy that Mia should come to make Frank happy.”
So, Mia went to a Beverly Hills shop and bought a chiffon dress and was ready to go.
When Frank Jr. heard that Mia was going, he called his father and said, “How can you embarrass mom this way?” Big Frank slammed the phone down on him.” Frank Jr. stayed in New York where he was performing.
Big Frank finally told Mia not to come. When Frank came to her apartment after his party, he found Mia reeking of marijuana with her long hair chopped off. She showed him not to dis-invite her, and who the real center of attention was.
Mia claims she cut her hair when she was at her studio dressing room. But Peyton Place actor Ryan O’Neil said, “She came to the studio already cut.”
Image consultants will tell you: “When a woman has long flowing hair, cutting it to a pixie-cut is probably the most dramatic thing she can do. It transforms her entire look by re-defining the structure of her face, and highlighting her eyes/eyebrows, nose, and cheeks.”
The Peyton Place producers were horrified because Mia never discussed it with them. They gave her a wig, and then the writers went into a panic and wrote her character to have an ‘amnesia-induced nervous breakdown’ to justify her sudden short hair, which was instantly front page news.
Sinatra’s 2nd ex-wife, Ava Gardner said, “I always knew Frank would end up in bed with a boy.” (Mia once said, “I have a 20-20-20 figure.”)
As for the big birthday bash, George Jacobs said, “The only time Frank had a genuine smile was when Sammy Davis Jr, having secretly flown in from NYC, jumped out of a fake birthday cake.”
Frank and Mia got married. Two years later, Frank read the script for Rosemary’s Baby and told Mia, “It’s not for you.” But she did the movie and would get an even shorter haircut by Vidal Sassoon for the part of Rosemary.
She was served divorce papers on the set by Frank’s lawyer because her delayed schedule kept her from appearing in Frank’s movie The Detective.
Franks movie was popular. Mia’s movie came out at the same time and was more popular.
Mia asked the head of Paramount, Robert Evans, to put the two movie’s weekly grosses side by side in Variety to show Frank she was best. Evans told her that he couldn’t do it.
Evans said, “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.”
Omar Sharif is famous for acting in Dr. Zhivago and Lawrence of Arabia.
“I lost millions of dollars gambling,” Omar Sharif said. “I know I have for sure, because I’ve made millions of dollars and I don’t have it now.”
However, this happened: In 1966, Omar was at a film promotion dinner in Italy. He was sitting next to a ‘gorgeous’ Italian starlet with ‘an amazing figure’. They began flirting. Then they went to a disco where they began making-out in a booth.
Finally. Omar said, “Would you like to come to my room for a nightcap?”
She said, “No.”
“How can you say no?” Omar asked. “We’ve been making-out for four hours.”
But her no was final.
Omar tells the story: “I couldn’t believe that she said no. I had just made Dr. Zhivago and thought I was irresistible. But she said, ‘I don’t go to men’s rooms.’ So I said, ‘Okay’.
“Since I had been very worked up, I got upset and went to the casino. I put all my money on one number three times and won on every number. Then they closed the table because I had broken the bank.
NOTE:The payback on betting on a single number is 35 times his bet. It would only take a small bet to break the bank, letting it ride at: 35x35x35.
Omar continues: “They gave me a big pile of money. I was afraid of being robbed, so I packed my bags and took a taxi to Rome. I was a little drunk, so I didn’t count the money that night. The next day, I counted it. $1,164,000. ($9.3 million today).
“I thought, because that girl turned me down, I had this amazing luck. She was part of my good fortune. I have to do something for this girl, I told myself.
“I thought about giving her 10%, but then I figured I shouldn’t give her money. That’s not so cool between a man and a woman that just met once. It might seem like I’m trying to buy her affections to meet up again.
“So I called the florist and said. ‘I want to buy every flower you have.’ The florist said, ‘You can’t do that’. I said, ‘Yes, I can.’ ‘But we have 25 tons of flowers.’ I said, ‘That’s good. Send them.’ It cost me $100,000.
“Five trucks of flowers were sent to the girl’s hotel with a message from me saying, You would have been the most expensive affair I ever had.”
Like Brad Pitt in ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’, The Lone Ranger actually visited George at Spahn Ranch.
Yes, Clayton Moore was the real Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) from ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’. Three weeks before the infamous Manson attack, August 1969, Clayton was taking his 11-year-old daughter around to locations where he had filmed ‘The Lone Ranger’ TV show. Since he was close to the Spahn movie ranch, he decided to visit his friend George Spahn. He hadn’t seen him for eight years.
Clayton’s daughter said: “The ranch was dusty, dirty, falling-down with half-dead horses, and mangy dogs running around. When we pulled up, a bunch of hippies came out. Dad is super-nice to everybody, and says, ‘Hi. I’m a friend of George’s and I haven’t seen him in a while. Is he here?’ One hippie says, ‘Yeah, he’s here, so what do you want?’ ‘I’d just like to say hi.’ ‘Well, he’s not available right now.’ ‘Yeah, but if he’s here, I’d really like to see him.’ Dad got some more pushback, but if dad wants to do something, he’s gonna do it.”
Clayton said: “One of the guys pointed to a dilapidated trailer and said, ‘Over there.’ My daughter and I walked into the trailer which was totally dark. I said, ‘Hi, George. It’s Clayton.’ I quickly realized that he was blind as he said, ‘Clayton, is that you?’ and started to cry.
“We talked for about an hour. Then a young woman brought him a plate of food and said brightly, ‘Hey, George. It’s lunchtime.’ She dropped the tray on the table, push it roughly toward George, and left without acknowledging us. It must have been ‘Squeaky’ Fromme. She was hoping that George would will his ranch to her. He never did, which was probably all that kept him alive.
“As we left, I asked, ‘Is there anything I can do for you, George?’ He answered, “Just come back to see me.’ I said, ‘I promise that I will’.”
Three weeks later, the Manson murders happened.
Clayton said: “When I read about the murders, I couldn’t help but think; Those murderers had once been innocent kids who may have been fans of The Lone Ranger. How did they take such a wrong turn in their lives? It made me more determined to stand for decency, honesty, and compassion. If kid’s minds are shaped by outside forces, then I was determined that my influence, however small, would be for good … always.”
When Mac Davis was six, he had a best friend that lived in the ghetto on a dirt street. He couldn’t understand why his friend had to live there. As an adult, he thought about how young men from those parts of towns are killed and another takes his place. He wrote a song called The Vicious Cycle, but since cycle had no rhyming words, he changed it to In the Ghetto.
According to Elvis’ girlfriend Linda Thompson: “Mac proposed the song to Sammy Davis Jr. But Sammy said, ‘I can’t do this song because I never lived like that. But I’ll tell you who grew up poor, Elvis Presley’. “Anyone that knows the song,” Linda continued, “is reminded of the powerful love Elvis had for his mother when he repeats the line ‘and his mama cried’.”
Davis said, “Col. Tom Parker and RCA didn’t want Elvis to record that song because it was against the image they had for him. But Elvis fought to record it. I ended the song with the words ‘in the ghetto’, but Elvis adlibbed an additional ‘and his mama cried’ at the end, and it was brilliant.”
At the recording studio, Col. Tom approached Davis and asked, “Do you want to be a star?”
Davis replied, “Sure.”
Col. Tom stretched out his hands and said, “Then kneel down.”
Davis looked around the studio not knowing what to do. Elvis’ entourage encouraged him to do it, so Davis kneeled.
Col. Tom put his hands on Davis’ head and said, “This boy will be a star.”
Davis said, “I first heard the recording when I was driving. I remember thinking, I wish Elvis hadn’t pronounced ‘get-toe’. But that lasted about five seconds. Then I knew it would be a huge hit.
“I remember the first royalty check that came in. It had Elvis’ picture on it. I had never made more than $12,000 a year in my life. I walked into my bank with this big check with a lot of zeroes on it. I told the teller, ‘I want to deposit this and get a cashier’s check for $10,000 because I’ve got a Mercedes picked out’.”
Oh yeah. Davis became a star, both in music and movies. We can only wonder if it was because of Col. Tom’s divine touch.
Do these 18 things to save money, time, and headaches.
1 – When you announce that you will make a movie, you’ll get inundated by home musicians wanting to score your project.
Quentin Tarantino said, “Why give the soul of your movie to someone else?” Indeed, I believe he only used a composer twice: Ennio Morricone for The Hateful Eight and Django thatused both original & existing tracks.
Stanley Kubrick used mostly previously recorded music. So does Martin Scorsese.
In fact, for 2001-A Space Odyssey, Kubrick dumped the entire 40 minutes of Alex North’s score and used pre-recorded music instead, even though North had 15 Acadamy Award nominations. Kubrick said, “It’s a very good piece of music, but doesn’t fit my movie.”
Go to sounddogs.com and pond5.com (I’m not associated with them). They have thousands of music choices. Take time to search and listen to many. You don’t have to put in your credit card to listen. Only when you’re in post-production do you have to use your credit card to purchase.
They also have half-a-million sound effects and ambiance. Most of the music tracks there have a variety of lengths and instrument mixes. You can score and sound effect your entire movie using sounddogs.
I tried to help a want-to-be musician by using him to score one of my movies. It was his first movie and it caused problems, wasted time, and expense.
Example:
Me: “I’ll find some music tracks that I like for examples.” (Like George Lucus did with John Williams on Star Wars.)
Him: “Musicians like to work alone with no imput from the director.”
Other time & money wasting problems happened from there, including sending the final music files a few hours before the final mix. I had to do a rush job inserting his music into the track.
I ended up using sounddogs for half of the score. It was less expensive and had the same type music that he provided. Yet, what he provided (on his 2nd try) fit the movie well and I ended up really liking it.
We got a Best Music nomination from the Oklahoma Film Festival. And his music supported the story enough for the movie itself to get 28 Best Picture, Thriller & Science Fiction awards at other festivals.
However, I’ll never use a composer again on a movie that I’m financing.
If you have a friend that wants to break into movie-music, let him search music on sounddogs with you, edit it into the movie and help with the sound mix. You can give him Music Supervisor or Music Editor or similar credit. But as the money-producer, you have the final word on the music.
2 – Time your movie script by acting out each scene with the stopwatch on your phone. I did not time out my first movie The Tournament and it ended up at 63 minutes and I could not go back to film more.
Fortunately, I timed the script for my movie Forbidden Power. I could have sworn it would be 90 minutes. But it was only 70 minutes. I was shocked. “Oh, no. Not again.”
So, I wrote twelve more scenes which brought it to 94 minutes in the final cut. Those additional scenes turned out to be some of the best in the movie.
3 – Akira Kurasawa said, “New directors should learn how to write.” I learned: Once you do all your fancy camera work, designed shots, and special effects, you end up with your screenplay right there on your editing machine.
So, concentrate on the story instead of film technology. Quentin Tarantino said, “I concentrate on what goes onto the page. Making that perfect. So when I’m finished, I’m satisfied with the story whether I make the movie or not.”
Make sure your script has at least 65 scenes. This guarantees that the average scene will be 1.5 minutes. Plus, you’ll have 65 pieces of story and entertainment.
4 – Be ambitious. I read an article about indie-film budgets that said: “If you have $5,000 you are allowed two actors, one location, one cameraman and one sound man.”
The article continued on to ‘allow’ you more in each category for each increase of budget. Forget all that. Write the story that you want and budget for it. Forget that one or two locations idea.
The more locations, actors and extras you have, the better your film will look and the more entertaining it will be.
Forbidden Power was filmed in 17 days and had locations in: Seattle, San Francisco, San Jose, Las Vegas & Winslow, Arizona. We had 7 lead actors and about 20 supporting roles.
Introducing new characters and locations ‘refreshes‘ your story and ‘wakes up‘ the audience. So do twists, turns and surprises in your story.
You don’t have to follow script formulas from books that tell you there must be three acts and ‘The hero must discover something at exactly 22 minutes and 30 seconds‘. Look at Tarantino’s movies, they never follow a formula. Tell the story the way you want.
Every viewer of your movie is aiming his remote control switch at your movie on his TV screen. If he gets bored for one minute (with no movie stars) he’s going to switch off your movie and jump to another one.
Director Robert Wise (West Side Story) said, “Pace is not speed. Pace is keeping interest in your story. I try to grab the audience’s attention at the beginning and never let it go.”
Speaking of pace and Robert Wise, West Side Story only had its main title at the beginning of the movie, not the cast. If you don’t have stars, why tell your audience that? Just put up the main title and jump right into the story before your audience has a chance to change their minds and click to something else.
Your story should have a promise of things to come and lead the viewer into the next scene to ‘see what happens next‘. I think the Back to the Future movies are a good example of one scene leading the viewer to the next.
Those movies are also a good example of clear writing. The co-writers said they spent a long time trying to make the time-travel and alternate-timelines ideas clear to the audience.
In Forbidden Power, I have a beautiful, mysterious woman give the hero her card and say, “Call me.” So, now the viewer might stick around to see if he does and what will happen if she shows up at his hotel room.
Thinking she’s a prostitute, he goes to the lobby and gets cash from the ATM machine, then buys condoms, then in the elevator says to himself, “What are you doing, you stupid jerk?“
After many screenings, I saw that the audience was hooked. But that’s not enough. Those hooks and questions must happen throughout the story to keep that guy from switching off your movie.
This begs the question: Am I making the movie for the audience or myself?
My answer is: I make if for the audience, knowing my individuality will be in every line of dialogue, scene and character.
Psycho screenplay writer Joseph Stefano (name drop) told me: “Hitchcock is the only director I worked for that talked about the audience.“
Quentin Tarantino said, “I make movies for an audience with big set-pieces that gets an audience reaction.”
Tarantino often uses the expression ‘I have to deliver the goods.’ Meaning, deliver entertainment to the audience in the genre that he’s working in. After that, he can insert his personal, artistic ideas.
The choice of how much for you and how much is for the audience is up to you as a writer.
Most movies these days are a one-incident story. Die Hard comes to mind. That’s great. But consider having a story that unfolds over time such as Knowing, The Dead Zone and Joker. Signs is kind of one-incident, but unfolds over time with each scene holding the viewer till the next scene.
John Frankenheimer’s 1962 The Manchurian Candidate, starring Frank Sinatra, unfolds combining war, politics, weird flashbacks, friendships, mystery, karate fight, brainwashing, love story, and assassinations. The story constantly refreshes. Not just a one-incident story or even one subject story.
5 – Write exactly what the erotic or kissing scenes will be in your script, especially for your female actors. Put in the exact seconds that a kiss will take place and what she will be wearing and what it will look like on the screen. This way you won’t waste time on the set when it comes to staging those scenes.
If the actress suddenly gets cold feet or lied about doing the scene to get the part? Good luck. That’s the fun of the movie business.
For Killer Joe, an actress asked director William Friedkin, “How will you film the sex scenes?” He replied, “Exactly as it says in the script.”
6 – Hire actors that have at least some stage experience. They’ve put in the time and work on productions. They’ve showed up on time, dialogue learned, and ready to perform. This is important for any actors that are needed longer than just one day.
You’ll be asked by many to act in your production. The problem is there are those that are dabblers. They just want to take a shot at acting. But after one or two days of the often laborious, long-hours, work of moviemaking, they decide they’ve had enough and don’t show up.
This happened on my movie Death Machines. I hired four real bikers and ten other actors for a cafe fight scene scheduled for the weekend. During the first day, I happened to mention we would complete the scene the next day. One of the bikers said, “We can’t come tomorrow because every Sunday we go on a putt.” (Bike ride).
I reminded him about their weekend commitment to film. “Oh, we never miss a putt.” So, I was forced to film the four bikers being knocked out during the fight on that first day. They weren’t serious actors. They were just there to dabble at it.
Russ Meyer, who financed, wrote, directed, edited, filmed, and distributed his movies said, “I hire only SAG actors because they are serious about their careers, pay dues, and will show up on time to stay in the good graces of the SAG.”
This should also pertain to your crew, but as least you can replace a crewmember. You can’t replace an actor that has filmed many scenes that are expensive to re-film. They can ruin your production entirely. You have enough to worry about with your actors possibly becoming sick or injured during production. You don’t also need to worry about losing them to a putt.
7 – Pay your cast and crew. Do not defer wages. This way they will take your movie seriously and show up on time. On Forbidden Power, even though we were not a SAG shoot, I paid the actors SAG scale.
The main reason is this: When you tell someone you are working on a movie, either as cast or crew, do they ask what the movie is about? No. They always ask, “How much are they paying you?” Especially jealous boyfriends of the female actors.
Forbidden Power has six erotic scenes, one actress had four of them. When asked, she could reply to her boyfriend, “I’m getting paid SAG scale.” Even so, one boyfriend got so jealous that he refused to read lines with his girlfriend, so she broke up with him saying, “I’m going to do this part exactly as written.“
8 – Coming up with your budget is not so complicated. Figure out the daily cost of cast and crew, multiply by the number of days you’ll need to film it, and then add your other costs. You’ll get to the final figure easily if you consider each item and salary.
There will be a lot of unexpected expenses that come up, so add a lot of contingency money and have a lot of credit available on your cards.
Making a movie is about money; writing checks, using your credit cards, peeling off cash from your pocket. This is endless until your post-production finishes. Then comes more money for marketing.
9 – Novelize your script. A script is just a tool to make a movie. You can’t give a script to someone as a completed artistic project. And it might take you a while to come up with the money to make your movie.
How about turning your script into a novel, designing a great cover and putting it on amazon Kindle and print-on-demand? Quentin Tarantino did it with Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. (After making the movie.)
It only takes a few bucks and time. Now you have a completed project you can hand to people. It also advertises your movie. For movie financers you can give both the script and your novel to them. It shows how serious you are about that particular story.
George Pal wrote The Time Machine 2 as a novel to promote getting his sequel financed. Unfortunaltly, it was never made. But the book is out, George told his story, and now available on Amazon & eBay.
10 – Make a full-cast audio-book of your movie. With home-recording and editing easily available you can turn your novel into a recording script with narrator and actors. Then add music and sound effects (from sounddogs) and put it on your you-tube channel.
I produced four full-cast audio-books with stars of the ‘60s such as Rod Taylor, David Hedison and George Chakiris with film-quality effects and music. You can listen to them for free on my youtube channel: Paul Kyriazi.
That’s another way to promote your movie and it’s another completed project. In the creative business that has much competition, it’s completed projects that win over just talking about a project.
Speaking of competition, as Wallace D. Wattles says in his book, The Science of Getting Rich, “We must change from the competitive mind to the creative mind.”
When we compete directly with someone, we stay on their level. When embracing our creative minds, we are open to express our individuality more freely. Walt Disney called his creative team ‘imagineers‘, not ‘competiteers‘.
11 – When searching for financing, people will ask you; ‘How much money do you have in your project?’ As you’ve seen on Shark Tank, business-people like to know that you’re ‘all in’.
12 – When filming your movie, try for some designed shots instead of just the medium, over-the-shoulder, and close-up shots. This will make your movie look more theatrical than like a TV episode where the director just supplies coverage so the editor has many choices.
Take a look at the early films of Mike Nichols to see well designed long-running shots that utilize the moving-camera.
Woody Allen does that most of the time, though they are usually wide shots that don’t move so much.
In Back to the Future 3, almost every shot is designed and not ‘covered for editing’ later.
12 Angry Men (1957) takes place in one room, but the designed shots and actor staging keeps the drama fresh and real.
You’ll most likely be using stage actors or amateur actors in your indie-movie. They do better with long running shots. It may take many takes to get a perfect one, but when you do the performances will be better than just having the camera on them in singles and over-the-shoulder shots. It will also give your movie a more personal style that shows ‘there is thought behind every shot‘.
Using designed long-running takes for many of your scenes will help you get more scenes per day filmed.
13 – Film in 6K so that if you filmed a master-designed shot and you need to cut it down in the editing room, you can jump into a closer shot with no loss in quality and it will look like a separate camera-set up.
This also gives you the freedom to re-frame shots in post like David Fincher (Gone Girl) often does.
14 — If you plan to make a short movie, why not make it a feature? I got this idea from an indie producer who spent $5,000 on a short film and then said, “For that money, I could have made a feature.”
Technically speaking, with digital filming, all you have to do is let the camera run for 90 minutes and you’ve got a feature film. But seriously, you just have to add more scenes to your story to make it a feature.
15 – Get each scene in the can completely on the day you plan to film it. None of that, “We’ll get the rest tomorrow.” Tomorrow you may not get the location, actors or extras back. It could rain. Complete your scene even if you get less shots or less action than you wanted. If you’ve scheduled a scene for two or three days, that’s fine, but complete it in that time.
16 – Never go off schedule. Doing that causes so many problems that it’s better to stay on schedule no matter what. When you go off schedule, all the actors and locations have to be called up to change.
When you go off-schedule you’ll increase the chances of not finishing your movie that has a limited budget. You’ll have enough risk such as: weather, actor illness, kicked off locations, props not there, etc. So why add to that risk by going off schedule?
17 – Now for the big one. You don’t really make a movie. You don’t gamble all your money and other people’s money on a movie. You gamble it on a story.
So instead of having various scripts that you want to turn into movies, choose that one story that makes you so excited that you are willing to go into debt to get it made, willing to take two jobs to pay off the loans and credit cards you’ve used to make it. One story that shows who you are, be it science fiction, drama or comedy. One story that your satisfied with if you never get to make another movie again. A story you will be excited about to novelize, make a full-cast audio-book off and design a poster for.
Producer Saul Zantz (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest) said: “If your movie is a success, everyone comes around and you have a party. If your movie is a failure, you’re stuck alone with the bills to pay.”
That’s the hard reality you have to face when you gamble your money on a story. So why not make it your ultimate story? A story that you might be ‘stuck alone’ with, as you ‘pay the bills’.
18 — Last and certainly first: Any indie producer will tell you, “Never give your movie to a distributor.” Listen to all the producers on film podcasts. They’ll tell you.
My movie Weapons of Death broke house records in a NYC theater and San Francisco theater, played the USA and sold around the world. Not one dime was sent to me.
When the distributor sold the video rights for $40,000, I called and asked, “Where’s my half?” The reply was, “Oh, our salesman was robbed in the airport.”
I’m happy to have Forbidden Power on Amazon that gives me daily reports and monthly deposits into my bank account. Since I financed the movie 100% myself, I own 100%.
I’ve turned down five distributors that came trolling once they saw it on Amazon. I didn’t waste time asking if there would be any up-front money because I knew there wouldn’t be. So, I politley told them, “I already have a distributor.” (Me)
If I sign with just one distributor for one of the rights, they can make a case that they own all of it. And they would have the money to tie it up in court for years.
By owning the movie, its value could go up by one of the actors becoming famous, winning film festivals or it being discovered by movie cult-groups.
Also, it becomes an ownership that you can passed down to someone. Think of it this way; would you sign over your $200,000 house to a stranger who says they will give you 50% IF he can sell it?
And of course, there are other avenues besides Amazon to explore for sales, as well.
Finally – Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez were interviewed together. Tarantino said, “It’s the best time to make movies. Anyone can make a movie and have a platform to show it on.”
Rodriguez said, “Yes, but there’s so much more competition now.”
Tarantino shook his head. “But all those crappy movies aren’t competition. Just waves coming onto the shore. Make the best kick-ass movie that you can. That beats all of those waves.”
I wish you great luck and an enjoyable experiences on all your creative endeavors.
When Jack Arnold was directing The Incredible Shrinking Man, he needed the 3-inch character to catch giant drops of water to drink. But water doesn’t fall in giant drops. Jack said: “I remembered when I was a boy and found some balloons in my father’s bedroom drawer. I didn’t know why he had those balloons, but I took some, filled them with water and dropped them on people from my balcony. We tested one on the set and it made a perfect, giant teardrop. So, I ordered 100-gross of them.” (14,400) “When we finished the movie, I was called into the studio boss’ office surrounded by his accountants.” “The movie looks great,’ the boss said. ‘But what’s this charge for 100-gross of condoms?” “Ah come on, fellas,” I said. “It was a tough shoot. We had a wrap party.”
March 23, 1956 – Elvis Presley’s first record album hits #1 on the Billboard charts and stays there for 10 weeks.
April 3, 1956 – Elvis makes the first of two appearances on the Milton Berle show getting 50,000 hate letters.
July 1, 1956 – On the Steve Allen Show, Elvis sings Hound Dog to a hound dog and for the first time, beats The Ed Sullivan Show’s ratings.
September 9, 1956 – After swearing that he will never book Elvis on his show, Ed Sullivan pays Elvis $50,000 ($544,625 today) for three appearances. 60 million viewers watch him; 82 percent of the USA viewing audience. This one event, more than any other, makes Elvis a national celebrity.
On the show he sings Love Me Tender before the record is released. The over a million advance record orders shatters all records.
But no, the Sullivan Show was NOT Tom Parker’s best decision.
March 26, 1956 – Elvis does screen tests for three days at Paramount Studios. He lip-syncs Blue Sued Shoes and performs two scenes from The Rainmaker. An unknown George Chakiris wanders in and sees the filming.
Elvis is offered the 3rd lead in The Rainmaker to star Burt Lancaster and Katherine Hepburn. A big, color production. Bang! Success!
Elvis is excited. Any agent or manager would have instantly grabbed it.
However, Tom Parker turns it down. His best decision. Earl Holliman takes the part.
Parker signs up Elvis for the third lead in the smaller black and white civil war drama The Reno Brothers. It stars lesser weight actors Richard Egan and Debra Paget. Elvis is paid $100,000. ($1,089,250 today) and gets an Introducing Elvis Presley credit.
With the recording of the song Love Me Tender a massive hit, the movie’s title is changed to that. Four songs are added to the movie.
Elvis doesn’t want to do it “because my character dies in it.” But his girlfriend, June Juanico tells him, “Audiences remember tragic heroes.”
Tom Parkers reasoning was, though he is 3rd billed, with the title change, songs added, and having the pivotal role of being married to his brother’s girlfriend when the brother is thought dead, Elvis would be seen at the star of the movie. That wouldn’t have been the case with the dynamic big star Burt Lancaster in the lead.
The studio released a record-breaking 575 prints, instead of the usual 200 – 300.
The movie, budgeted at 1.2 million, grossed $540,000 in its first week making it #2 at the box office. (Giant was #1).
The Los Angeles Times wrote: “Elvis can act. S’help me the boy’s real good, even when he isn’t singing.”
Elvis said: “My dream was to get into the movies, and then I spent my first two days behind a mule and plow.”
That information really gets the 32-year-old, muscular man’s attention. “Oh, yeah?” Vaughn Greenwood says as he shoves his just bought drugs into his pocket and hands over his grimy twenty-dollar bills. “That football movie. Right?”
“Yeah. And that canoe movie, too,” the pusher adds. “Big hits.”
“Maybe I’ll pay him a visit,” Greenwood says.
“Yeah, whatever,” the pusher says. “Stay cool, brother. You know how to find me when your stash runs out.”
“Yeah, sure,” Greenwood says keeping his eye on Reynold’s house that’s up a hill amongst other homes.
The dealer and his backup man walk off leaving Greenwood, who already has eleven killings under his belt, contemplating the movie star’s home. Should I go back to my run-down house, he thinks, pick up my machete and come back to this star’s nice house and show him who’s the better man?
Yes, I will, Greenwood decides and heads for Skid Row which covers fifty city blocks in east-central Los Angeles. It’s a long walk there, and back, but Greenwood knows it’ll be worth the trek.
He returns to Reynold’s neighborhood just before midnight, machete in hand. He goes around back and climbs the dirt hill that leads to Reynold’s home. Breaking a window, he enters. Greenwood is ready to slash Reynolds or whoever else might be there. He isn’t known as the Skid Row Slasher for nothing.
The small lamp that’s on in the large living room gives The Slasher a view of the Western art on display: panoramas, bronzes, carvings, and portraits of the long dead that tamed the west.
Finding his way to the bedroom where he hopes to find a sleeping Reynolds, The Slasher hesitates as he hears a soft gurgling sound coming from there. He approaches slowly with his machete raised. He notices the bedroom is bathed in a soft blue light.
Entering the bedroom, he sees the light and the sound are coming from a fish aquarium that faces the large bed. He lowers his machete in disappointment seeing that Reynold’s resting place won’t be his place of rest.
A friend once told Burt that the aquarium in his bedroom must have the most entertained fish in the world. If The Slasher has his way tonight, they’ll be the most horrified fish in the world.
The movie star has to come home sometime tonight, The Slasher thinks. I’ll just hide and wait it out. When he’s a sleep, he’ll be an easy target.
He opens the large closet door, finds the light switch inside, and turns it on. In the long row of clothes The Slasher eyes the Holy Grail of many film fans. The hat and serape that Clint Eastwood wore in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
Does The Slasher know that movie or costume? Whether he does or not, he immediately fancies it and puts the serape over his huge neck and shoulders which he earned from years of prison weightlifting. Then he dons the hat, making him bad and ugly, and far from good.
Sliding open a small drawer he finds another nice souvenir of his upcoming killing and takes it. Then he switches off the light, slowly closes the closet door and stands in the darkness, gripping his machete tightly.
Will that movie star prick be asleep when I strike him? The Slasher gleefully wonders. Will he live long enough to see it’s somebody wearing his clothes that’s killing him?
And then he thinks, I wonder if he’ll have his shoes by the bed or if I’ll have to search for them.
Events that started three years earlier, would result in Burt’s deliverance from the Skid Row Slasher.
2
Burt and Miko
Three Years Earlier – March 15, 1972
“Wake up, Doc,” Miko Mayama says, gently shaking the sleeping Burt Reynolds. Because she learned English by watching cartoons, What’s up, Doc? was the first words she had said to Burt when they first met in Japan four years earlier. Sometimes she calls him Doc to conjure up happy memories.
“What?” Burt groans, rolling over onto his back to see his beautiful live-in girlfriend smiling down on him.
“You’re due at the studio in two hours. How about some breakfast?”
“Oh, yeah,” Burt remembers. “Dinah’s Place or whatever it’s called.”
The 32-year-old Burt first met the 29-year-old Miko when he was on his way to the Philippines to star in the treasure hunt movie Impasse. During his week layover in Japan, he saw a Takarazuka Revue show. An all-women, lavish, Broadway-style production of singing and dancing. Watching the forty women perform, one of them stood out from the rest: Miko.
Burt was thunderstruck by her flawless face, waist-length black hair, and voluptuous figure. After meeting Miko backstage, her throaty, sultry voice completed the allure.
They saw each other every night that week. Though Miko’s English was limited, Burt made it clear that he wanted to take her to America after finishing his movie. Using Miko’s brother as an interpreter, Burt had a hard time getting Miko’s parents’ permission. He made a lot of promises and was sincere about keeping them. Finally, they agreed.
Burt got Miko a part in Impasse. After finishing it, they flew to America. “I plan to spend the rest of my life with Miko,” Burt told his friends.
Burt’s Police Chief father spent three years in Japan after being a hero on Normandy Beach during World War ll. So Burt didn’t think he’d have a problem taking his new love to Florida to meet his parents. The first thing his father said when he saw Burt with Miko was, “What are you going to do, open a restaurant?”
Burt was furious. He grabbed Miko and left. Now, though four years have passed, Miko’s wedding finger is still naked.
“Why did you decide to do Dinah’s show?” Miko asks, as Burt gets slowly out of bed.
“Why not?”
“Well, after that nude centerfold you did that you say cost you the Oscar for Deliver …”
“Yeah. That should make an impression on daytime audiences.”
“Isn’t that too risky for just a talk show?”
“I’ve done stunts on lousy movies with less of an audience than Dinah’s got.”
“Well,” she shrugs. “Better wear some pads.”
“Nah. I’ll be alright.”
3
Closeted Freak
Vaughn Orrin Greenwood had killed two men in 1966 but got clean away before the bodies were discovered. He attempted to kill another man, was caught in the act, and sentenced to five years in prison. He was released in 1974, while Burt Reynolds was in Georgia State Prison filming The Longest Yard.
Immediately upon his release, Greenwood claimed his third victim, a 46-year-old alcoholic drifter, on the same spot he had killed his first victim a decade earlier.
Now standing in the darkness of Burt Reynold’s closet, Greenwood The Slasher contemplates the pile of eleven bodies he’s left in his wake, hoping … knowing that Reynolds would make a nice movie-star cherry on top of an even dozen-body-sundae.
He squeezes his machete to keep his mind on the purpose. The friendless freak who considers himself an artist, painting pictures in blood, is now ready to hang his own Rembrandt.
4
A Wonderful Guy
“What are you doing up there?” singer Dinah Shore, 23 years his senior, asks Burt. He’s standing on the kitchen counter of her daily television show set.
“I’m gonna come to you.” With a pre-arranged drum-roll, Burt hurls himself off the counter, diving onto a small table that breaks almost sliding into Dinah’s ankle. The set shakes so hard it dislodges a large painting off the wall.
“Burt, Burt,” Dinah calls out as she quickly kneels next to him on the floor. “Are you alright?”
Later in the show, Burt starts demonstrating on Dinah the ‘certain point on the hand’ when massaged, relaxes you. His touch makes Dinah unable to get her words out correctly. “When the hus … husband comes home from the off … office … when he … Oh,” she sighs and then breaks into song, “I’m in love, I’m in love with a wonderful guy.”
At the end of the show Burt tells her, “I’d like to take you off to Palm Springs possibly for … you know …”
“How long?”
“… to get acquainted.”
“Oh, really?” she says looking at him. “Now?”
“Well, after the show …”
“Well, goodbye folks,” Dinah says obviously shaken as she looks back at the camera. “I hope you enjoyed our show today.” She blows a kiss to the audience as Burt keeps his eyes on her and makes a devilish smirk.
They do go to Palm Springs for the Dinah Shore Golf Tournament. Dinah plays. Burt carries her clubs. They both know they’re in love, but they don’t want to rush it.
Burt later said, “We were both from the south, loved sports and in all our time together, we never had a fight.”
Burt follows her from city to city on her golf tour. Finally, he has to go to Chicago to do a play. That night, from the stage, Burt looks out into the audience and is surprised to see Dinah. That same night, she invites him to her hotel room.
Burt later said, “For the first time, I was sharing intimacy with my heart full of genuine, unconditional love. I not only loved Dinah, I admired her. I never felt that way about a woman before.”
5
Out of the Closet
In the darkness of Burt’s closet, The Slasher is getting impatient. He’s been standing here for an hour or more waiting for his bloodlust to be satisfied, his machete’s thirst to be quenched.
Enough of this, he thinks. What if that prick movie star never comes home tonight? There must be easier pickings.
He opens the closet door and walks out of the bedroom, still on guard in case Reynolds has returned. But there’s not a light on, not a sound.
The Slasher heads up the hill to another home to take out his frustration on whoever he might find there. It’s been a long night. He can’t return home with a bloodless machete.
6
Record Albums
“Miko, I have to talk with you,” Burt says entering his home, travel bag slung over his shoulder.
“Oh?” Miko says, as she approaches him in the living room. “Did something happen? Are you alright?”
“No … yes … I’m okay,” he relaxes his voice a little as he sets down his bag. “Sorry for the bad entrance. I’m just not good at stuff like this.”
“What is it, Burt?”
“I want to go over some things with you, darling. And I’m afraid it’s going to be a little rough.”
“Did I do something?”
“No, no. You’re fine.”
She sits down on the cowhide sofa. “Then, what is it?”
Burt sits next to her but keeps a space between them. “These last two weeks of traveling and then acting in the play … well … I haven’t been alone.”
“I never ask about those things,” she says quietly.
“I know, Miko. And I’ve always appreciated that.” He takes a deep breath. “But this time I was with Dinah.”
“Dinah Shore?” she asks. “But she’s … I mean …”
Burt gives her time to finish, but she doesn’t. So he says, “I mean, I wasn’t exactly ‘with her’, just kind of hanging around … not until recently … But we were together … you know.”
“Ah … No I don’t exactly … But … maybe …”
“Yeah … Now things have gotten a little serious, and I think I’d like to … I guess I’d like to pursue that relationship.”
“Oh,” Miko says gently. “But we spoke of marriage.”
“I know we did, darling. I don’t want to hurt you, but I think that’s not possible now.”
She looks down at the floor. “So what do we do now? I mean, what do you want me to do?”
Burt leans back on the sofa. “Well, I think it’s best in a couple of days that you … you know … slowly find another place and … move out.”
“I guess,” she says sadly, but stays composed.
“But you can take whatever you want. I want us to remain friends and …”
“Remain friends?”
“At least not enemies.
“Yes.”
“So take anything you want when you leave.”
They don’t speak for half a minute, nor look at each other. Then she says, “Well, I’d like you to pay for an apartment for me. And also, please give me some expense money for a while to tide me over between acting jobs.”
Burt sits up slowly, slightly perplexed, and then chuckles. “Oh … I thought you might just want some record albums.”
Miko doesn’t know if he’s serious or joking. She doesn’t react. This was six years before actor Lee Marvin was sued by his live-in girlfriend of three years for what would become known as Palimony.
“Also,” Miko continues demurely, “I’d like a car.”
“A car? Okay … Sure.”
“A Cadillac convertible.”
“Well … I guess,” Burt nods several times. “Okay … That’s fine.”
“Good … Thank you.”
“So … ah … what kind of money are you thinking about?”
She tilts her head in thought. “How about … you know … maybe $500 a week for two years?”
“Hmm … I can do that.”
“And make that an apartment near the beach in Santa Monica or Malibu … if you can.”
“Okay. Near the ocean it is. Anything else?”
“No, that’s fine.”
“And what record albums do you want?” Burt chuckles.
“Come on, Burt,” she controls a smile. “This is sad.”
“Yeah, I know.”
7
Night of the Slasher
February 3, 1975. 1:20am
Coming from Burt’s house, The Slasher forces open the back door of the house next to it. Inside, he encounters the owner, Clyde Hays and his house guest Kenneth Richer. Though late at night, they’re in the living room having a relaxed conversation with wine glasses and a few plates of food on the coffee table. They jump to their feet as The Slasher charges Hays who’s closest to him.
The first chop of the machete cuts off Hays’ scream, the second chop, his life. In an instinctive action to survive, Richer grabs The Slasher around the waist. As The Slasher chops him several times in the back, Richer, screaming, pushes him into the window, shattering it as they both fall through it to the ground below. The Slasher stands, takes a final chop at Richer, and then limps off into the darkness.
Minutes later, he’s awakened by a scraping sound in his bedroom. He sits up and looks down to see Richer crawling toward him on the floor. He’s covered in blood, and so injured that he can’t speak.
Burt jumps to his feet to call for an ambulance. As he grabs the phone, he looks out the bedroom door into his living room. Standing 20 feet away from him, wearing the Clint Eastwood hat and serape, is The Slasher, bloody machete in hand. He stares at Burt. Burt, momentarily frozen, stares back. They are locked together, movie star and monster.
To Burt, The Slasher looks like a psycho-killer in a badly cast movie: a character actor too much in character to be believed.
Burt slams the bedroom door shut and begins looking for a weapon: a bottle, a knife, anything. Unfortunately, Lewis Medlock’s Deliverance bow and arrow is in storage. So there will be no ‘center shot’ for this intruder.
Hearing heavy footsteps walking off and the back door slam open, Burt figures The Slasher has gone. He makes the phone call and soon the police helicopters start circling noisily above him. Then comes the ambulance and police cars sirens.
Richer is taken to the hospital and survives.
And The Slasher? He slid down the back hill and escaped. Burt has escaped too … from death. Deliverance, just a few years after being delivered from B movies via Deliverance.
8
The Deadly Note Pad
The next day, Burt flies off to Nashville to make W.W. and the Dixie Dance Kings. The day after that, he gets a call from the Los Angeles police. “We got him,” the detective says.
“What?” Burt replies.
“We’ve got the Skid Row Slasher. When he slid down the hill behind your house, an envelope of food stamps addressed to him came out of his pocket. We traced it to his house and got him.”
“Thank God,” Burt says. “I don’t want him on the loose and visiting my place again.”
“Would you mind, flying back and identifying him? It would make it a lot easier putting this guy away.”
“Sure. No problem,” Burt says.
Arriving at the Los Angeles Police Station, the detective takes Burt into the bowels of the basement. “So you’re sure you saw the guy clearly?” the detective asks as they walk.
“Yeah, sure,” Burt says. “I looked right into his eyes.”
“Now when you enter the room, don’t look away from him. Look right at him. Don’t be intimidated.”
“I’m not going to be intimidated,” Burt says. “Don’t worry about it.”
They enter a concrete-walled room where The Slasher sits in handcuffs and shackles. He’s guarded by two large policemen, though not as large as The Slasher, who looks up as Burt and the detective enter. Seeing Burt, The Slasher gives him a big smile, as if to say, Just try to identify me and see what happens.
Unintimidated, Burt smiles back.
Later, Burt would say, “He was so big and mean looking that if O.J. Simpson read for The Slasher’s part in a movie, he’d be too weak.”
Also seated in the room are a public defender, representing The Slasher, and a judge wearing his black robe.
As he stares at Burt, The Slasher is continuously writing something down on a pad of paper, but he keeps his eyes on Burt as he writes. Then The Slasher stops smiling and narrows his eyes as if to say, I’ll get you sooner or later, movie star prick.
The public defender stands and asks Burt, “Do you know who this is?” pointing to The Slasher.
“Yeah,” Burt says casually. “That’s the guy in my house with the machete.”
The defender approaches Burt. “How can you say for sure?”
“Because I saw him, and he has my clothes on.”
“What do you mean your clothes?”
“That’s my serape that Clint Eastwood gave me from The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. And there’s a cleaning slip inside it with my name on it.”
The judge motions to one of the policemen who turns over the serape. Pinned to the back of it is a small piece of paper that reads: REYO, the cleaners special mark for Reynolds.
The judge looks at it and says, “Hmm … okay.”
All this time, The Slasher is staring at Burt. Without looking down at his pad, he continues writing and writing.
The judge says to Burt, “You’re an actor, aren’t you?”
Burt smirks and says, “Well, the jury’s still out on that.”
“This is not The Tonight Show, Mr. Reynolds,” the judge says. “Just answer the question.”
“Yes, your honor,” Burt says, changing his tone. “And I also would like to point out that he’s wearing my I.D bracelet.” I nailed him, Burt thinks.
“Okay,” Mr. Reynold’s,” the judge says. “That’ll be all for now. Thank you for coming in.”
“No problem, your honor,” Burt says standing up. As he passes by The Slasher, Burt looks down at the pad that he continues to write on. He sees, written about 50 times: Kill Burt Reynolds, Kill Burt Reynolds, Kill Burt Reynolds.
9
Deliverance
The Slasher was convicted on nine counts of murder and sentenced to 32 years to life in prison. The judge recommended that he never be released because: “His presence in any community would constitute a menace.”
So they could positively identify the Skid Row Slasher, once he was found, the police held back one fact from the press: The Slasher always took off the shoes of his dead victims and pointed them at each side of his head.
Years later, on a reunion TV show, Burt said to Dinah Shore, “If I hadn’t been with you that night, I would have come home probably at nine. The guy would have been there, and I’d be lying on my bedroom floor right now with my shoes pointed at my head. And my obituary would have said, ‘His only good movie was The Wild One’, which I wasn’t even in, because they often confused me with Marlon Brando.”
“But you made Deliverance by then,” Dinah said.
“Yeah, that’s true,” Burt agreed.
“That’s one of my favorite movies of all time. You should have gotten the Academy Award for that.”
“Thank you,” Burt said. “And thank God for Deliverance. I waited 15 years to do a really good movie. I made many bad pictures in the past because I was never able to turn anyone down. And I found out that the greatest curse in Hollywood is to be a well-known unknown.”
After four years, Burt wanted to marry Dinah, but she refused, so though they remained devoted friends, they ended their close relationship.
A year later, Burt told friends, “Breaking up with Dinah was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life. I knew it was time to get married or move on, and she refused to marry me. And also, I had to admit to myself that I wanted a child, and in that respect, our 23-year age difference was a factor. Dinah knew that as well.”
On that reunion show, Burt told Dinah, “If I have any class in my life and my career, you gave it to me.”
Dinah emotionally replied, “You gave me confidence as a woman.”
In 2018, the year he passed, Burt said, “My biggest regret is parting ways with Dinah; it was so stupid of me. We were soulmates … I was so lucky to have had someone like her in my life. She was so young of heart and spirit in every way.”
In her 50 years in show business, Dinah was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame, had a dozen gold records, won 10 Emmys and a Golden Globe. She was most proud of her Peabody Award for excellence in storytelling.
After Dinah died, Burt visited her grave every February, her birth month.
Burt’s ex-girlfriend, Miko Mayama, went on to make 29 movie and TV appearances. Playing Charlton Heston’s mistress in The Hawaiians, she steals the show with her nude descent into a hot tub. Heston, already in the tub, eyes her with nearly the same expression he had when he first laid eyes on the mounted apes.
“My name is Fumiko,” she says to Heston. “I can speak English.”
“Fumiko,” he replies. “You don’t have to.”
Exactly one day before the two years of Burt’s payments were up, Miko married Barbra Streisand’s manager. Ironically, Burt’s breakup with Miko probably saved her life, as she would have most likely been at Burt’s house that horrific night.
Burt made the movie City Heat with Clint Eastwood. According to Burt, early in their careers, his and Eastwood’s Universal Studio contracts were terminated on the same day. A studio executive said: “Clint Eastwood’s Adam’s-apple is too large, and Burt Reynolds can’t act.“
On the way to their cars in the Universal parking lot, Burt said to Clint, “I can always learn to act. But you’ll never get rid of that damned Adam’s apple.”
Burt has 186 TV and movie credits including four TV series: Riverboat, Gunsmoke, Hawk and Dan August.
Director James Brooks offered Burt the astronaut role in Terms of Endearment, but he turned it down to make yet another action-comedy movie: Stroker Ace. Jack Nicholson won the academy Award for the astronaut role.
Burt said, “I owed my director friend Hal Needham a lot in my life, so I did his movie Stroker Ace instead of Terms of Endearment. My career never recovered from that. That’s when I lost my fans.”
Burt ranked #1 box office star, five years in a row, from 1978 to 1982. The only other actors to rank #1 for five years are: Bing Crosby, Shirley Temple, Tom Hanks, Clint Eastwood, and Tom Cruise, who has seven years to his credit.
The movie Deliverance put Burt on top. His character of the macho Lewis Medlock still impresses to this day.
He was at the table-read for Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood playing the part of George Spawn. Burt’s son Quinton said, “Dad was studying his lines for the movie when he died.”
Two years before that, Burt said, “I made a lot of movies, made big money, and then I went bankrupt … but I sure had a lot of fun.”
Paul Kyriazi 