William Wyler (64 page)

23
. Berg,
Goldwyn
, 358.

24
. Telegram from Wyler to Goldwyn, March 21, 1941, Goldwyn Papers.

25
. Madsen,
William Wyler
, 210.

26
. Lillian Hellman also saw Regina as more multifaceted: “When I wrote it, I was amused by Regina—I never thought of her as a villainous character—all I meant was a big sexy woman.” She also referred to the play as a “dramatic comedy” and to Regina as “kind of funny.” Quoted in Peter Feibleman,
Lilly: Reminiscences of Lillian Hellman
(New York: William Morrow, 1989), 261.

27
. Leaming,
Bette Davis
, 196.

28
.
New York World-Telegram
, September 9, 1941.

29
. Leaming,
Bette Davis
, 199.

30
. Ibid.

31
. Stine,
Mother Goddam
, 151.

32
. Hellman to Davis, May 20, 1941, Wyler Collection.

33
. Bazin,
What Is Cinema?
69.

34
. Affron,
Star Acting
, 250.

35
. Anderegg,
William Wyler
, 106.

36
. Most of Hellman's early drafts begin with Oscar shooting at Lionnet. Zan is riding across a bridge as we hear gunshots, which startle her horse; this in turn causes Oscar to miss his shot. He tells Simon to inform Zan not to ride along the road again. Even the final script (April 15, 1941, Goldwyn Papers) opens with Zan and Addie riding through Lionnet as the camera reveals the house's disrepair. Addie is commenting on how fine the place once was when Simon stops them and warns them not to drive through while Oscar is shooting. Then there is a cut to the Hubbards' warehouse and Leo sneaking off the train.

37
. The box imagery is also discussed in Affron,
Star Acting
.

38
.
Directed by William Wyler
.

39
. Charles Higham and Joel Greenberg,
Hollywood in the Forties
(New York: Zwemmer and Barnes, 1968), 116.

40
. A similar shot with rain in the background is used in
Dodsworth
, when Fran tells Sam that she has decided to stay in Europe.

41
.
Directed by William Wyler
.

42
. Quoted in Stine,
Mother Goddam
, 159.

43
. Ibid.

44
. Rollyson,
Lillian Hellman
, 180.

45
. Ibid.

46
. Wright,
Lillian Hellman
, 161. Pendleton had played Leo in Mike Nichols's 1967 revival at Lincoln Center, which starred Anne Bancroft as Regina. Nichols, like Wyler, preferred a softer view of the Hubbards; he presented them as decent people who are transformed into monsters by events.

1
. Franklin D. Roosevelt, “FDR and the Four Freedoms Speech,” January 6, 1941,
Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum
(accessed January 30, 2012),
http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/fourfreedoms
.

2
. Draft letter from Wyler to Y. Frank Freeman, February 24, 1954, Wyler Collection.

3
.
Directed by William Wyler
.

4
. This charge was revived seven years later, and the studios were ordered to divorce production from exhibition and distribution.

5
. Bernard F. Dick,
The Star Spangled Screen
(Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1985), 89.

6
. Ibid., 90.

7
. Berg,
Goldwyn
, 368.

8
. Clayton R. Koppes and Gregory D. Black,
Hollywood Goes to War
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990), 224.

9
. According to Koppes and Black (
Hollywood Goes to War
, 225), RKO and MGM wanted to re-release
Gunga Din
and
Kim
to increase sympathy for the British. The OWI appealed to the studios to drop their plans, citing the dangers those pictures posed for Allied unity.

10
. Wyler to Hedda Hopper, August 2, 1942, Wyler Collection.

11
. Michael Troyan,
A Rose for Mrs. Miniver
(Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2005), 130.

12
. Script dated October 18, 1941, with pink page revisions dated as late as November 7, 1941, Wyler Collection.

13
.
Directed by William Wyler
.

14
. For the same reason, he would cut the more overtly preachy scenes from
The Best Years of Our Lives
four years later.

15
. Script, October 18, 1941, Wyler Collection.

16
. Bosley Crowther,
The Lion's Share
(New York: Dutton, 1957).

17
. Troyan,
A Rose for Mrs. Miniver
, 126.

18
. Ibid., 129.

19
. Unidentified clipping, August 2, 1942, Wyler Collection.

20
. The first air-raid episode in the film is experienced from the Beldons' point of view. They are forced into their basement along with their servants, and Mrs. Beldon objects to being ordered about by an air-raid warden. But when she hears the planes coming, Wyler isolates her in the frame, dwarfing her beside a large fireplace, and she seems diminished and alone.

21
. Script, October 18, 1941, Wyler Collection.

22
. Herman
A Talent for Trouble
, 235.

23
. Ibid.

24
. Letter, March 1942, Wyler Collection.

25
. Frank Capra,
The Name above the Title
(New York: Macmillan, 1971), 318.

26
. Lillian Hellman,
An Unfinished Woman
(New York: Bantam, 1970), 103.

27
. Ibid., 105.

28
. Ibid.

29
. The Russia film was eventually made as a full-length feature,
The North Star
, with a screenplay by Hellman. It was directed by Lewis Milestone and starred Anne Baxter, Dana Andrews, Walter Huston, and Walter Brennan.

30
. Telegram from Frank Capra to Wyler, April 8, 1942, Wyler Collection.

31
. Wyler, handwritten note, April 8, 1942, Wyler Collection.

32
. Wyler to Capra, April 22, 1942, Wyler Collection.

33
. Capra to Wyler, undated, Wyler Collection.

34
. May 25, 1942, Wyler Collection.

35
. Madsen,
William Wyler
, 225.

36
. Wyler's physical, May 25, 1942, Wyler Collection.

37
. Wyler's first choice for a writer was irwin Shaw, who was not eligible for a commission due to his age (twenty-eight) and his draft status (1-A). Memo, July 31, 1942, Wyler Collection.

38
. Army orders, August 22, 1942, Wyler Collection.

39
. Wyler to Commanding General of the Eighth Air Force, April 21, 1943, Wyler Collection.

40
. Ibid.

41
. Quoted in Herman,
A Talent for Trouble
, 249.

42
. Lieutenant Jerome Chodorov, October 6, 1942, Wyler Collection.

43
. “Wyler Escapes injury,”
New York Times
, February 4, 1943.

44
. Herman,
A Talent for Trouble
, 252.

45
.
Los Angeles Herald Express
, February 15, 1943.

46
. Herman,
A Talent for Trouble
, 252.

47
. Wyler to Mrs. H. J. Tannenbaum, May 5, 1943, Wyler Collection.

48
. Wyler, “Flying over Germany,” 25.

49
. Ibid.

50
. Wyler to Robert Lovett, June 28, 1943, Wyler Collection.

51
. August 26, 1943, Wyler Collection.

52
. Telegram from Wyler to Beirne Lay, July 27, 1943, Wyler Collection.

53
. Ibid.

54
. Wyler to Tex McCrary, November 6, 1943, Wyler Collection.

55
. Ibid.

56
. Uncredited, undated script, “Eighth Air Force,” August 6, 1943, Wyler Papers.

57
. Uncredited, undated script, Wyler Papers.

58
. Lester Koenig,
Memphis Belle
script, December 10, 1943, Wyler Collection.

59
. Ibid.

60
. Wyler, “Details of Service M/Sgt Lester H. Koenig,” Wyler Collection.

61
. He would return to these bucolic images again and again in his postwar work—for instance, in the shots of Boone City at the beginning of
The Best Years of Our Lives
and particularly in the vast expanses of land, space, and beauty in
Friendly Persuasion
and
The Big Country
. There is even a fleeting feel for the countryside in his dark and bitter final films,
The Collector
and
The Liberation of L. B. Jones
.

62
. Karel Reisz, “The Later Films of William Wyler,”
Sequence
13 (1951): 25.

63
. Herman,
A Talent for Trouble
, 265.

64
. Review by Bosley Crowther,
New York Times
, April 14, 1944.

65
. Zanuck to Wyler, April 2 1944, Wyler Collection.

66
. Wyler to Moss Hart, February 20, 1944, Wyler Collection.

67
. Wyler to Zanuck, February 22, 1944, Wyler Collection.

68
. Memo from Edward Munson Jr., May 18, 1944, Wyler Collection.

69
. Memo from Wyler, June 19, 1944, Wyler Collection.

70
. Herman,
A Talent for Trouble
, 271.

71
. Wyler to Tex, October 12, 1944, Wyler Collection.

72
. Madsen,
William Wyler
, 256.

73
. Lester Koenig, treatment, June 27, 1944, Wyler Collection.

74
. Ibid.

75
. Lester Koenig, revised treatment, June 17, 1944, Wyler Collection.

76
. Wyler to Francis Harmon, November 27, 1945, Wyler Collection.

77
. Wyler to Harmon, December 4, 1945, Wyler Collection.

78
. Ibid.

1
. Hermine Rich isaacs, “William Wyler: Director with a Passion and a Craft,”
Theatre Arts
31 no. 2 (February 1947).

2
. Marx,
Goldwyn
, 307.

3
. “The Way Home,”
Time
, August 7, 1944.

4
. Marx,
Goldwyn
, 308.

5
. Isaacs, “William Wyler,” 22.

6
. Pat Duggan to Goldwyn, June 15, 1945, Goldwyn Papers.

7
. Robert Sherwood to Goldwyn, August 27, 1945, Goldwyn Papers.

8
. Telegram from Goldwyn to Sherwood, September 4, 1945, Goldwyn Papers.

9
. Interoffice memo, November 16, 1945, Goldwyn Papers.

10
. Berg,
Goldwyn
, 410.

11
.
New York Times
, November 17, 1946.

12
. Wyler, “No Magic Wand,” 6.

13
. Ibid.

14
. Charles Affron and Jona Mirella Affron,
Best Years: Going to the Movies, 1945–1946
(New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2009), 226.

15
. Isaacs, “William Wyler,” 22–23.

16
. James Agee, “What Hollywood Can Do,”
Nation
, December 7, 1946, 14.

17
. In earlier versions of the script (Goldwyn Papers), the men discuss their families in more detail and even share some pictures. Fred sees Peggy for the first time—in a picture—and is immediately taken with her. Fred also talks about Gadorsky, the pilot he has nightmares about but never discusses in detail in the final film. Homer mentions a book he is reading,
Victory over Fear
, and remarks that “every one of us has got to fight out that battle inside himself.” Al later tells Fred, “A kid like Homer is lucky in a way…. He's got his scars where you can see them…. Maybe it's easier to have them where you can see them, than have them hidden inside.” Perhaps Wyler's three-shot framing was influenced by that line, which was eventually cut from the script.

18
. Miller,
William Wyler: Interviews
, 136.

19
. In Sherwood's earliest drafts, Fred goes right to the drugstore to see Mr. Bullard, who tells him that Marie no longer lives at home. He then calls his parents to get her address.

20
. Early script, November 17, 1945, Goldwyn Papers.

21
. Arthur Miller,
All My Sons
(New York: Reynal and Hitchcock, 1947), 31–32.

22
. Robert Sherwood, script entitled “Glory for Me,” December 10, 1945, Goldwyn Papers; additional revised page dated February 20, 1946.

23
. Wyler, “No Magic Wand,” 6–7.

24
. In an earlier version of the script (November 17, 1945, Goldwyn Papers), Peggy's boyfriend (named Payne) is puzzled that she would date a soda jerk. (in earlier versions, it should be remembered, Fred asks Marie for a divorce early in the film.) He says, “What happened to this country while I've been away? Has it turned into a democracy or something?”

25
. Wyler, “No Magic Wand,” 8.

26
. Griffith,
Samuel Goldwyn
, 41.

27
. Early script, November 17, 1945, Goldwyn Papers.

28
. Later draft of script, December 10, 1945, Goldwyn Papers.

29
. In a departure from the novel and from earlier versions of the script, Marie asks Fred for a divorce, claiming that she is sick of having no money and is tired of waiting for him to find a job.

30
. Later draft of script, December 10, 1945, Goldwyn Papers.

31
. Telegram from Wyler to Sherwood, June 6, 1946, Wyler Collection.

32
. Wyler, “No Magic Wand,” 9.

33
. Ibid., 10.