William Wyler (34 page)

The goodwill was soon shattered, however, when the issue of salaries arose. Wyler asked Goldwyn to pay his salary to his wife in monthly installments while he was in Russia. Goldwyn's face changed color, and Hellman tried to break the tension by saying that she wanted her salary paid in two installments—“half on the day we started photography, half on the day I arrived home, even if I came back in a coffin.” But Goldwyn exploded, accusing Wyler and Hellman of lacking political convictions and being unpatriotic for expecting to be paid for their work on this film. Wyler shot back, “This picture is being made for commercial release, and you intend to profit on it as you profit on any other movie. The Russians, as a matter of fact, are giving you a free ride.” Hellman added that the entire argument was “nonsense” and that they should certainly be paid for their work. Goldwyn was incredulous: “You call it nonsense to take money away from your government?”
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Wyler and Hellman finally left, quite sure that they would be compensated, and this impression was confirmed when Goldwyn called and admitted that Wyler was right. The arguments, however, stalled the project.
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Some months later, Wyler heard from Capra, who wanted Wyler to make a film for his Why We Fight series. Wyler chose to make
The Negro Soldier
and asked Hellman to write the script. In April, Capra sent him a telegram: “When can you leave for picture we discussed Hellman agreeable.”
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On the back of Capra's telegram, Wyler noted, “Tried to reach you by phone. Am dubbing and scoring picture
[Mrs. Miniver]
for final preview end of next week which I would like to attend. Can leave by plane Sunday April 19th. If very urgent will of course leave sooner.”
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Two weeks later, Wyler telegrammed Capra: “Arriving Monday morning ready to work. Will call you upon arrival. Please don't forget hotel reservations.”
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Capra told him that he would be attached to Special Services as a civilian “expert consultant” at a salary of $10 a day.
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While these discussions were taking place, Hellman wired Wyler that she had asked Goldwyn to finance the film, and he was willing to do so. She had also asked Paul Robeson to appear in it. Her plans fell though, however, when Wyler opted for two other writers, Marc Connelly (
The Green Pastures
) and Carlton Moss, a black actor-writer who had worked with Orson Welles at the Federal Theater in Harlem.

After some delays, Wyler received orders that he would be traveling to Kansas City, Fort Riley, New Orleans, Alexandria, Camp Claiborne, Montgomery, Tuskegee, Fort Benning, and Fort Bragg to gather background information.
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Wyler was put off by the South, however, where Moss could not stay in the same hotels or ride in the same railway cars as Wyler and Connelly.
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At Tuskegee, George Washington Carver refused to see Wyler, although he agreed to speak with Connelly. Discouraged, Wyler began to lose interest in the project. He wanted to participate more actively in the war effort, and an opportunity soon came his way.

In June, screenwriter Sy Bartlett took Wyler to a party at the home of Major General Carl A. Spaatz. Spaatz had been ordered to organize the Eighth Air Force for combat, and his unit would be based in England. Wyler introduced himself to Spaatz and convinced the general that his efforts should be recorded on film. Spaatz, who was no doubt aware that
Mrs. Miniver
had just opened to great acclaim, agreed and turned Wyler over to his chief of staff, Brigadier General Claude E. Duncan. Wyler reported to Duncan's office at Bolling Field, where he was assigned the rank of major and subjected to a physical examination. He was found to be “22 pounds over ideal weight for age and height. But…recommended for General Military Service with waiver for weight and waiver for insufficient number of teeth.”
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On June 13, he received orders to proceed by military airplane or rail to Wright Field, Ohio, on temporary duty in connection with air force technical matters. He was accompanied by First Lieutenant Jerome Chodorov (who had worked on the script of
Dodsworth).
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Wyler's creative team also included cameraman William Clothier, an aerial photographer who had worked on
Wings
for William Wellman; cameraman William Skall, who had been recommended by an air force officer; and Harold Tannenbaum, a sound man at RKO who had served in the navy during World War I.

Wyler received orders to fly to London on July 23, with a stopover in New York, along with Chodorov, to purchase sound and motion picture equipment. Upon arriving in London, Wyler had difficulty finding a flat, so he decided to stay in a room at the Claridge Hotel, which was also home to a number of British film executives, including Alexander Korda. The hotel was conveniently located, only a short walk to both General Spaatz's headquarters and Wyler's office. His orders were to “organize and operate the activities of the Eighth Air Force Technical Training Film Unit,” produce films for “public morale and education,” and record “events of historic value.”
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He quickly outlined five projects that interested him and began his research. Those five original projects were
Nine Lives
, the story of a bombing mission and the crew of one ship;
Phyllis Was a Fortress
, based on the experiences of Lieutenant Paine and the crew of a B-17 on a bombing mission to Meaulte, in occupied France, on October 3, 1942;
R.A.F.-A.A.F.
, about the cooperation between the air forces of Great Britain and the United States;
Ferry Command
, about ships that delivered bombs; and
The First Americans
, about several members of the Eagle Squadron, who were the first Americans to fight in the war. Two of these projects contained the basic form of
Memphis Belle
, the first film Wyler would direct for the air force and one of the most acclaimed American war documentaries.

The story of the British and American air forces occupied most of Wyler's attention in the spring of 1943. He sent a detailed memo to the commanding general of the Eighth Air Force and enclosed a first draft of a story written by lieutenants Terrence Rattigan and Richard Sherman, “both prominent playwrights in civilian life.” The story concerned four airmen—two Americans and two Brits—and “intends to dramatize the following facts: a. The striking force of combined air power and the importance of this theater of war. b. The comradeship of British and American airmen. c. The harmony and cooperation that exists between the two Air Forces.”
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In the same memo, Wyler requested that Thornton Wilder, who was attached to the commanding general of the Army Air Forces, be assigned temporarily to the Eighth Air Force so that he could write a shooting script. He also requested that Lieutenant James Stewart be brought in to play one of the characters. The commander of the Eighth Air Force was very interested in the film and approved it the same day.

Back in September 1942, however, Wyler was still trying to beg, borrow, or steal equipment. That month, he met John Ford, who had two camera crews. Sick with envy, he managed to borrow some equipment from Ford. In early November, Wyler requested that he and his officers be put on flying status. To capture the real experience of the air war, he felt he needed to be aboard a plane on an actual bombing mission. His oft-repeated commitment to realism was articulated in a 1943 memo: “It is intended that the approach to these themes and the telling of the story be very realistic and represent a true picture of the life of combat crews.”
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Major General Ira B. Eaker agreed that Wyler needed to go on missions so that his films could “portray the U.S. Army Air Force carrying the air war to the enemy.” He went on to say, echoing Wyler's sentiments, “These films are conceived as documentary motion pictures exploiting the human element as contrasted to factual newsreel material.”
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To achieve flying status, Wyler and his officers had to undergo gunnery training at Bovington, and the required approval did not come through until February 1943.

Meanwhile, on November 3, 1942, Wyler's plans sustained a serious blow when he learned that all his equipment had been lost in transit while en route from Wright Field, Ohio. He would have to make do with forty handheld 16mm cameras obtained in London, and the finished film would have to be blown up later to 35mm.

In December, Beirne Lay was assigned to help Wyler negotiate the military bureaucracy by taking over the unit's logistical operations. Lay was a graduate of Yale and the author of the novel (and subsequent screenplay)
I Wanted Wings
. After the war, he wrote (with Sy Bartlett)
Twelve O'clock High
and
Strategic Air Command
. Lay recognized that Wyler was an artist and should be allowed creative freedom. One of Lay's earliest decisions was to transfer Chodorov back to the United States. Chodorov wrote his own request to be “relieved from his present temporary assignment,” stating that the change was “for the good of the service.”
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According to Lay, Wyler wanted all the combat footage to be shot during actual combat, and Chodorov argued about the need for so much authenticity.

Wyler and his crew finally attended gunnery school, where they also took courses in aircraft recognition. Learning these skills was difficult and, for Wyler, life threatening. The
New York Times
reported on February 4 that he “narrowly escaped serious injury when a 50-mm aerial cannon with which he was training exploded near his face.”
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This experience did not deter Wyler from going on his first bombing mission with the Ninety-First Bomb Group stationed at Bassingbourn. He reported on February 26 for his briefing and learned that the primary target would be the harbor facilities at Bremen, with the naval base at Wilhelmshaven as a secondary target. Wyler was assigned to a B-17 called the
Jersey Bounce
, piloted by Captain Robert C. Morgan. This was not Morgan's usual plane. Normally, he piloted the
Memphis Belle
, another B-17 that had been grounded for repairs after sustaining damage during a bombing mission over the submarine facilities at Saint-Nazaire.

Wyler's first mission resulted in only 250 feet of film, “the quality of which is doubtful,” he stated.
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Wyler, however, found the experience exhilarating: “Aerial warfare takes place in altitudes where the oil in your camera freezes, where you have to wear oxygen masks or die, where you can't move around too much and keep conscious…. These and other conditions are far removed from the comforts of Stage 18 in Burbank or Culver City. This is life at its fullest. With these experiences I could make a dozen
Mrs. Minivers
—only much better.”
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A week after this bombing mission, Wyler learned that he had won his first Oscar, for
Mrs. Miniver
. He was treated to a celebratory dinner by a variety of British and American officers but felt somewhat embarrassed: “Here I made this film and I didn't know what I was doing.” He had refused to attend a London screening of the film arranged by top military officials, and when he was finally pressured into attending, he found himself crying along with the rest of the audience at the end. His reaction: “Christ, what a tearjerker!”
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While in London, Wyler encountered Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh. Leigh invited him to see her perform in a revival of Shaw's
The Doctor's Dilemma
, and Olivier asked Wyler to direct him in a planned film version of Shakespeare's
Henry V
. Wyler turned him down, claiming, “I'm not a Shakespearian,” and admitting that he was more interested in working on his war documentary. Olivier, of course, went on to star in the film and direct it himself.

Wyler's second mission took place six weeks after the first. This time, he joined Morgan and his crew on the
Memphis Belle
, which was to bomb U-boat bases along the Atlantic coast in occupied France, 300 miles away. The planes were ordered to climb as quickly as possible and accomplish their mission before being spotted by German planes. The accelerated climb, coupled with the weight of the bombs they were carrying, damaged some of the planes, and they were forced to turn back. The
Memphis Belle
was one of those that never reached its target at Lorient.

Also on the mission was Wyler's sound man, Harold Tannenbaum, who was assigned to take pictures from a B-24 Liberator bomber. When his plane was shot down while returning from Brest, he was first declared missing in action and later confirmed dead. The loss of his colleague devastated Wyler. He wrote a heartfelt letter of condolence to Tannenbaum's widow: “I thought ‘Here is a man who knows what he's fighting for'—and he was fighting hard. No one had to tell him why. We both went to war for the same reasons—and we knew our reasons.”
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Wyler's third bombing mission, again on the
Memphis Belle
, consisted of another attempt over Lorient. After his fourth mission, on another B-17 nicknamed
Our Gang
, Wyler felt he had enough footage to assemble a film. In his essay “Flying over Germany,” published in the summer of 1943, he wrote about his experiences:

There are many difficulties of aerial combat photography. There aren't many openings for a camera. You're cluttered up with a 'chute, oxygen equipment, a Mae West heavy flying suit, gloves, camera. You try to squeeze yourself into a small space under a machine gun. About that time the glass you are trying to see through gets fogged up or your camera freezes. Then when you're all set to shoot forward, the principal action takes place astern. You focus, your exposures vary from one side to another, into the sun and out of it. Hot cartridges are coming down your neck. You can't move around too much because you're on oxygen and you may pass out.
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