Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
But how many actors are really producers? Orson Welles.
Very good. Orson Welles, unfortunately, has not proven
successful in that direction. I disagree with you totally!
Oh, good heavens, Mr. G! I think "The Magnificent Ambersons" and "Citizen
Kane" were two of the finest pictures I've ever seen. I saw "The Magnificent Ambersons"
again the other day, and it seemed to me to be, by far,one of the most wonderful pictures
I've ever seen in my life. Orson Welles. I happen to like Orson tremendously.
Who wouldn't?! I think Orson Welles is a very brilliant director.
And actor! And the one fault I find with Orson Welles,
and I have told so many times; He thinks he's a writer, he is not a writer.
I think he is! And I don't care-
I disagree! - how good a producer he is or director, he
must respect the story! He does everything. I think he's a wonderful
writer. He, after all, wrote "The Magnificent Ambersons", or script of it.
I never can agree with you on -never can I agree with you on that point at all. Because
I know him, I watched his career. I know. Well, Then we must beg to differ!
Would you employ Orson Welles, Mr. Goldwyn, as a director.
Yes. As a director. But not as a writer. But do you agree-But Sam, do you agree that
"The Magnificent Ambersons" was a very finely written and directed picture? Because I believe
Orson did both. Yes, yes, I do.
You do agree? I do, I do.
Ah! That's good. But you cannot live on that for twenty years.
You see, you, you-No one is perfect. But you must have a better average than Orson Welles
has had. I think the peaks that he's reached are worth
a lot of other Hear, hear!
-mediocre peaks that other people have reached. Could we change for a moment from Orson Welles
to Mr. Goldwyn? I was reading the other day something that was written in 1940 about Mr.
Goldwyn. And I noticed that it was said "Hollywood is today the motion picture capital of the
world. And the principle reason is, that a man named Sam Goldwyn lives here." Well, today
Hollywood is no longer the motion picture capital of the world as it once was. You've
all said this. What went wrong? I'm not defending Hollywood, all of Hollywood's
pictures. But I do say this to you, that right now, as we stand today, Hollywood pictures
are more popular throughout the world than any other country. The chances are they may
beat us. Unless we improve. And we're on the way to improving. If you look what's happened
the last two or three years. They're going in that direction-to make fewer pictures and
make better pictures. Because they found out that the public would just not come and support
them. Well, I was simply thinking that if Hollywood
sort of lost its control of the movie houses, isn't it because people who came over from
Germany and from other parts of the Continent in the 20s-people like Billy Wilder, Fritz
Lang, that kind of person. Now, Hollywood seems to have stopped importing these enormously
talented people. Could it perhaps be that the talented Germans and Hungarians and Italians
nowadays prefer to stay at home, where perhaps they can operate with a little more, uh-
Freedom. Yes.
I don't know what you mean by freedom. Some people-Laurence Olivier doesn't need any freedom,
because he has freedom in his heart. He certainly does and he demands it, old boy!
He has freedom in his heart- No, you're wrong there!
And he knows how to use his freedom. The thing to do-
Sam! Sam! You're wrong there. He demands all the freedom in the world and he gets it!
I say he's an exception. There just a few. I'm happy to say! Except, of course, that
he didn't get the freedom to do "MacBeth," which was a great shame and a pity and a disgrace.
Speaking for myself again, I am not yet ready to put- shove under the doors 6 or 7 million
dollars-or 3 million dollars or 2 million dollars and go away fishing.
What does that mean? Mr. Goldwyn, this talk about shoving 6 million
dollars under the door and going fishing-I'm not quite clear what you sort of mean by that.
I didn't get that, I'm afraid. May I clarify that point? There are two kinds
of producers. One is, as Mr. Tynan said, an organizer. And the other really is a producer.
I do a great many things myself, that others leave to the director. And the chances are,
I may be wrong, but nevertheless I've been here for 46 years and I'm still working and
still doing all right. But I never give the final word to anyone but the Goldwyn. And
I shall continue to do that. And when the day comes when I cannot get away with it,
I'm going to stop making pictures. That won't be for a long time, I hope, Sam!
Mr. Goldwyn, I should have thought, in a way, that sort of overall control by one man in
some way impeded the liberty of the artist's concern.
You might as well say that about Cecil DeMille. No one likes Cecil DeMille's pictures in Hollywood
but the public-or critics, they don't like it. But the public seems to like them. And
after all, the public are the-they have the final word about anyone. So that's- am I making
myself clear now? Does that answer your question, Mr. Tynan?
Oh, yes! But I would be very interested to hear Mr Goldwyn on the question of if anybody
will be seeing Mr. DeMille's pictures in, say 50 years' time. Millions of people are
seeing them all over the world now, but I mean will they last as, for instance, "Citizen
Kane" will last? May I answer? May I answer that? He produced
a picture of the-30 years ago. It was a biblical picture. "The King-
"Sign of the Cross?" I forgot the name of the picture.
"The King of Kings" "Sign of the Cross," I think.
"Sign of the Cross!" No, it was not "The Sign of the Cross."
"The Ten Commandment?" "The King of Kings!"
Oh. Mr. Tynan, it's still being shown all over
the world. Really?
His pictures- In outlying islands in the South Pacific?
London? Some pictures he made were not as good as
others. And that applies to every writer, every director, every producer. None of us
can hit 100%. Anybody else's picture going to live?
I think "Wuthering Heights" is going to live. As long as I live.
So do I! And some of-"Best Years of Our Lives" or "Gone
With the Wind" or any of the outstanding pictures will live. Some of Shakespeare's plays live.
Oh, I think they live, don't you? They've done it for so long.
Shakespeare's plays and some of you films and anything else, Mr. Goldwyn? What else
will live? Shakespeare's things live, have lived for
100 years or more. Great things live. And the bad things die. It's the same with a man
and a woman. When they have bad health they die.
Our time is up. But I would guess that the movies and the theatre will remain healthy,
so long as we have producers like Goldwyn, actresses like Vivien Leigh and critics like
Ken Tynan. Next week's guests in just a moment. Next week on Small World; Madame Callas from
Milan, Sir Thomas Beechum from Nice and Victor Borge from Connecticut. Good night and good
luck! Remember, Sir Thomas Beechum from Nice, Victor
Borge from Connecticut and Maria Callas from Milan next week, when Small World will be
brought to you again by Olin Matheson.