Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
(Chuck Koplinsky). Zinnemann thought hey, this is
a really great idea, because up until this point in
Deborah Kerr's career she played very prim, proper,
lady-like parts, and to have her cast in a role of a
woman who is unfaithful to her husband, who is promiscuous,
who sleeps around, that kind of counter-casting definitely
was interesting and it appealed to Cohn.
And they said yeah, let's give her this role, and it really,
really did give her career a boost because it opened up
a wide variety of different roles for her.
Then there is Eli Wallach.
He had just come out of the actors' studio,
he had made a couple films at this point, and
he was cast in the role of Maggio.
He was all set, he was ready to go, and then of course
Frank Sinatra intervened.
Sinatra's career was on the ropes at this point.
His voice was failing.
Many of the movies that he had made up to this point were very
light-hearted musicals, hadn't done anything serious.
And to add insult to injury, his marriage to Ava Gardner
was failing at the time, too.
He read the book, he knew that he could play the
role of Maggio to a T.
Some accounts say that he actually, he was on the set
in Africa of "Mogambo", which his wife Ava Gardner
was making with Clark Gable.
Some accounts say that he left the set, flew back to California
on his own dime, did a screen test which Cohn grudgingly
gave him, and offered to play the role for nothing.
There is, of course, that old story perpetuated by
"The Godfather" that certain outside influences were
put to bear for him to get this part.
Zinnemann says in his biography that there were no animals
harmed in the casting of Frank Sinatra...
[audience laughter].
for the film, thankfully.
He did end up signing for the role, of course, and he was paid
a paltry $8,000 for the part, but he was right.
It did save his career, it completely revitalized him,
and again, just like Kerr but even more so, opened up a
wide variety of roles for him.
Two years later he stars in "The Man With the Golden Arm",
about drug addiction.
He was nominated for an Oscar there.
"The Manchurian Candidate" is less than 10 years after this,
so really transformed his career as well.
The role of Lorene, played by Donna Reed.
Zinnemann wasn't too crazy about her, but he knew he couldn't win
every casting battle with Cohn.
She was under contract to Columbia and so
he relented and cast her.
He later said that he was happy that it worked out that way
because he was very pleased with what she did with the role.
The one casting decision that no one argued with
was that of Burt Lancaster.
He was the first choice for the role of Sergeant Warden.
And one curious thing I read when I was researching for this
was that he was actually intimidated by being in the film
with Montgomery Clift.
He said that he had never worked with an actor of his stature.
I mean, Clift is coming out with--what do they call it,
my mind is going blank--the Stanislavski Method, he was
one of the first Method actors, and apparently he felt,
he actually confided in friends that he was afraid he was
going to get blown off the screen by Montgomery Clift.
Burt Lancaster, who probably has more screen presence
than every movie star we have working today
in his little thumb.
Great still, I love that still with Sinatra looking on as well.
And then, of course, there's Ernest Borgnine.
There wasn't really much going on as far as his career
was concerned at this time but this is certainly one
that made his career, an indelible performance.
Apparently he was, the one bad thing about this role for him
was that he was cast as heavies then for about
the next 15 years.
In his biography he says that he had a hard time
shaking those roles because of this part.
And then of course there is Superman in the background
there, George Reeves.
There was also a rumor surrounding the film that
Reeves' part was much more significant, that a great deal
more footage had been shot than appeared in the movie,
but that was later discounted as being not true.
There's Zinnemann again.
Production starts in Hawaii.
It took them 41 days to shoot the film, only 41 days,
and the budget was $2 million.
I've seen figures of $2 million to $2.5 million, which made it
the most expensive film produced that year, just an
enormous amount of money at that time.
Interesting sidebar as far as that's concerned, as soon as
they green-lit the production, an effort was made to go through
Army surplus stores around the country to find uniforms and
equipment that was used during that time, and they just were
looking everywhere to get uniforms that would be accurate
to this time period, and also looking for soldiers
who knew how to use this stuff.
Many of the soldiers you see in the film in the background are
actual combat veterans or ones that were enlisted at the time.
And there we go, there it is, there's the cove where the
famous beach scene was shot.
Zinnemann says that in years to come after the movie was
released, this became a regular tourist destination.
Bus tours on the islands would stop there and point out
that this was the famous beach where Burt Lancaster
and Deborah Kerr embraced.
Another obstacle that they had to overcome was getting the
cooperation of the Army.
They knew that to really make this thing seem as
authentic as it should be, they needed the cooperation
of the State Department and the US Army, and of course
they were going to have to really jump through
a lot of hoops to get that done because, of course,
this is not the most positive look at the Armed Forces
and officers all the time.
Adler was a lieutenant colonel in the Army at the end of
World War II and he knew some people within the
State Department, and he was able to smooth over some of
the bumps and some of the opposition that they were
going to meet, and they actually did get permission
to shoot at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii.
And that's one of the great things, I think, about the film,
especially when you look at other war films
that were made in the early 1950s.
They don't have that sense of realism that
"From Here to Eternity" does, and I think it really helps
separate it from the other movies made during that period.
There is Zinnemann there with Clift on the set.
And Marlon Brando stopped by one day.
He knew Zinnemann from a film that they had made together
called "The Men", about World War II veterans coming home
dealing with their physical disabilities and also trying to
acclimate themselves back into civilian life.
Zinnemann really didn't have many problems with the cast
or anything like that.
And just as he had thought, Clift just threw himself into
the role preparing for it in every way he possibly could.
Claude Akins was a retired, he had been in the Army during
World War II as well, he was a boxer, you'll see him in
"From Here to Eternity."
He pops up in a couple of scenes, and Clift insisted that
he teach him how to box.
And I guess they worked long hours together on Clift's boxing
prowess which you really don't ever see in the movie.
When you watch it, you'll see there are a lot of tight shots,
a lot of cut-aways, because even though he worked and worked,
apparently he still to Zinnemann's mind didn't quite
have that boxing ability or the boxing skills that were needed
to pull this off.
He also worked tirelessly to learn how to play the bugle.
He knew that his bugle playing would be dubbed in but he felt
that he needed his throat and mouth movements to be precise,
that he needed to make sure that they were accurate and real
even though the playing would be dubbed in, and apparently
he worked tirelessly as well on that even though you only
see him play in the movie two or three times.
So he really, really put himself into the movie.
Jones was on the set, and apparently he made quick friends
with Sinatra and Clift.
He claims also to have suggested that Clift be cast in the film,
having met him at a literary party in New York about
six months before the film went into production.
He said later on that all of his girlfriends said that
Montgomery Clift acted just like he did in the movie.
Apparently, they would go on these long drinking binges
together, this motley trio, and their nights were very simply
summed up by Jones who said, well we would sit around,
we would drink, Montgomery Clift and I would talk about the
injustices of life and love, and Frank Sinatra
would talk about Ava Gardner.
[audience laughter].
And that's how their evenings were apparently.
According to Jones as well, apparently Sinatra, during the
course of the film became so despondent over the state of
his marriage that he had threatened to commit suicide
and that Clift had talked him out of it, according to Jones.