My Life with Cleopatra (5 page)

Mr. Gregson Bautzer

Bautzer & Grant Attys.

190 North Canon Drive

Beverly Hills, California

Dear Greg:

I tried to reach you on the phone the other day to offer my sympathy because I know how upset you must be about the tragic passing of poor Buddy. Naturally, I am bewildered by the inexplicable turn of events that can cause such an early death, but what is there to say.

Regarding the material things in life, I started to write you a letter on July 5th, which I have rewritten after discussing the entire situation with Schwab, and I will try to make it as short as possible, but I am sure you can read between the lines. Naturally, I am very disturbed over the many delays and misadventures regarding
Cleopatra
. We certainly started out with a wonderful project that five stars wanted to do. After great difficulties, as you know, we had finally secured
the services of Elizabeth Taylor and then we went after Olivier, who could have been signed up had the studio acted promptly enough. I am not going into all the details of how they kept operating without advising me of their activities when they sent Kurt Frings abroad to talk to Hepburn and to Elizabeth, nor am I going to belabor the point regarding the fact that Mamoulian and myself came to England November/December of 1959 and decided that would not be the ideal place to shoot the picture, but perhaps we might do the interiors provided we get a large enough stage. Then, on our return to America, we discovered that Skouras and everybody else was enchanted by Santi, and they suddenly decided to make the picture with Santi, and at that time they went over my head by sending Mamoulian, the art director, and the production manager Johnny Johnston to New York for conference with Rogell, Adler, and Skouras, telling me that they didn’t want me there, I don’t know for what reason, and they would be going for a week to Italy on a survey. DeCuir, Johnston, and Mamoulian were gone five weeks. On their return, the entire matter turned out to be a fiasco. They, Rogell and myself and Mamoulian proposed making the whole picture in Italy where it should have been made, and this was turned down in favor of an Eady Plan quota production whereby we shoot the interiors in London and the exteriors in Rome and the desert. Then came Adler’s trip to Rome where, due to Goldstein’s influence, he reversed himself and decided not to do anything in Rome because Goldstein had promised adequate stage space and workmen which, I said, were impossible to find, as you can see by the wires, and we were to do the entire picture in England. From then on, I think, the wires in the file that I had prepared for Skouras clarify the situation, with the exception of the fact that when Adler sent his congratulatory wire, it was implying that the plan was Goldstein’s while it was Mamoulian’s
and my plan which we had to put over in opposition to Goldstein.

While they were in Rome with Santi, the budget arrived at was 5,200,000 dollars. Consequently, anybody could have figured out, by coming to England where they were shooting a five-day week instead of a six-day week, it must mount up to more. Also, we would be in two location operations—London and Rome—rather than just Rome, which again would run up expenses, especially under the Eady Plan, where we would have to take a lot of English staff wherever we went.

On June 2nd, we received a budget which was 6,000,000 dollars. This terrified Skouras and Adler, and Mamoulian and myself went off to Paris to work with Durrell, the writer; and I called him on the next day and was informed that the picture had to be cut to a $5,000,000 budget to be made entirely in England with the exception of maybe locations but not definitely, depending on the budget, and that the picture would be made in Todd-AO. This was done without consultation with Mamoulian and myself and we thought it was not only ridiculous but impossible.

Ever since May 20th we have been going around in circles, mostly due to the fact that Skouras and the Studio would refuse to read any reports, made not by Mamoulian and myself, but by the production staff hired by the Studio. Everyone connected with the picture has agreed that the cost in England would be greater than the cost anywhere else and also it is doubtful if the exteriors, even built here at great cost, could ever be shot because of the weather. If we are lucky and have an Indian summer, perhaps we can get this accomplished, but not with the quality that would be available elsewhere. Skouras has been here twice, as you know, and after meetings is still adamant in his insistence that the exteriors of Rome and Alexandria for
Cleopatra
will be shot in England. He is supported in his view by Bob Goldstein. They are, I am sure, doing this because they feel it would be cheaper and more efficient, although everyone on the production staff takes the opposite view, including every production executive that we have talked to over here. Even the English producers on small pictures go out of the country for exteriors to Spain, Italy, Germany, and France rather than attempting it here. Mamoulian and myself have not met one person who advocates shooting exteriors of this Mediterranean nature in England. We both feel it is our obligation to control the budget and we loathe to see an operation that is going to cost more and give less quality. As you know, one of the things promised Elizabeth when the deal was made was that the exteriors should be shot in Rome. Ever since I have been here, Goldstein and Skouras have been telling me that on account of the tax situation and the costs in Rome it would be impossible to go there. I know that they are exorbitant connected with American productions, but this isn’t an American production; this is an English Eady Production on a quota basis and as far as they know there would be no problem if we went there for a few weeks. On this last trip, however, Skouras has agreed to a desert location for the picture in Egypt or any other available place so that we can now arrive at a decision for a proper location for the Alexandria and Rome shots. Although this has been promised, it has not been finalized. We must get these locations in order to make a good picture. I think it is essential and also would mean a great deal to Elizabeth, overcoming her objections to the way her picture has been handled. Another thing I am worried about is the weather here, which is not very good in the fall, as a matter of fact it has been terrible this summer and Elizabeth is so susceptible to colds and bronchitis that from the enclosed chart you will see what weather conditions are liable to be
in September/​October/​November here and you know what the delays, due to her health, cost this production.

Incidentally, all of the things promised Adler by Goldstein have not been forthcoming:

1. The Denham Studio, which he said he would get, which would have enabled us to make our production more practical from the budget standpoint, was not obtained.

2. The proper number of draftsmen that are required to do this picture efficiently have never been available.

3. The plasterers that we need are nowhere to be seen and this is delaying the finishing of the sets.

As a matter of fact, the labor problem is so desperate here that the Rank Studios have put advertisements in the papers as well as putting slides on all the screens asking for plasterers to report. To date we have not received anything like the plasterers we need. Naturally, all of these delays and bonuses and promises to labor are going to run up the cost unnecessarily. In Italy, for instance, you can get 3—400 plasterers without any trouble. Here, we cannot get twenty!

I have tried to discuss these matters with Skouras. He refuses to listen to them. As a matter of fact, he wouldn’t even discuss these matters.

What I really want you to understand is that Mamoulian and myself are very concerned with the practical and financial problems concerned with the picture far more than the heads of the organization, who pretend to be such excellent businessmen. There has been featherbedding in connection with the picture, where they have labor that they have promised weekend and overtime to, as you can see by the enclosed advertisement. They have given them things to do that we
don’t even need. The continual changes in the script have naturally held up the casting and the wardrobe and delayed preparing the picture properly, and the changes in the script have been due to the changes in budget from time to time. The thought that a picture of this type for Todd-AO could have been done on a limited budget—and 5 million dollars is limited when there have been the kind of expenses involved that have been involved in this—is something that is not too practical. I believe the picture eventually, with overtime and everything else, will exceed this, but I think that 6 million dollars would have been a far more reasonable budget to aim at than the four or five.

We are naturally trying to carry out our instructions, but they are very often contrary to the findings of professional producers or executives or directors.

I think if you get an opportunity to read the file I prepared for Skouras plus the enclosed, it will tell the story.

Both Rouben and myself are convinced that this project can still be put back on the track and be the biggest blockbuster and a great picture for the international market, properly made, and professionally produced. Confidentially, George Skouras was here this week and thinks of the picture, as properly made with a six-million-dollar budget, as a lush, exciting picture and that it can do a world’s gross of 50 million dollars in Todd-AO. Spyros, on the other hand, argues with me that this picture has a ceiling of 20 million dollars, because it is not a biblical picture, and that it has a limited appeal to adults. I disagree violently with this point of view and I know that if it were done the way we planned, it would appeal to every female in the world from three to ninety! I could go on for days, but I hope Schwab will fill you in with the other details so you won’t be bored with any more of my reports … This represents the joint thinking of
Mamoulian and myself and the reports of all the production minds available.

Best regards and
love to Dana, your
son, and yourself.
Walter Wanger