Mad as Hell: The Making of Network and the Fateful Vision of the Angriest Man in Movies
Page 28
Dunaway’s salary of $200,000: Parade, Aug. 14, 1977.
An item published in Variety: “A Spoofing ‘Network,’” Variety, Sept. 24, 1975.
“I was halfway through when I hit a hidden rock headfirst”: “William Holden Talks About … The Film I’ll Never Forget,” National Enquirer, Jan. 21, 1973.
“the hairline is receding, the skin has leathered”: Arthur Bell, Bell Tells (column), Village Voice, June 12, 1978.
“a whisky baritone buried by a coffee-table carton of Carleton cigarettes”: Jan Hodenfield, “Holden’s Network of Sighs,” New York Post, Nov. 1976.
“A crazy-faced middle aged man”: Rex Reed, “Holden: Movies Have Grown Up. So Have I,” Sunday News (New York), Nov. 21, 1976.
a family that claimed George Washington and Warren G. Harding among its relations: Alan Chester, “Game Farm for Holden,” CNS News Service, Newark Sunday News, Nov. 5, 1967. Holden’s mother was a descendant of Martha Bell, mother of George Washington, and his maternal grandfather, Samuel Bell, was a cousin of Warren G. Harding.
a fifty-dollar-a-week contract with the studio: William Holden, “The Player,” New Yorker, Oct. 21, 1961.
changed it to Holden: Sidney Skolsky, “Tintypes: William Holden,” New York Post, Oct. 12, 1974.
Rouben Mamoulian chose him from among some three thousand contenders: Chester, “Game Farm for Holden.”
“I’ve put up with a lot of asinine suggestions”: Holden, “The Player.”
a contract that paid him $3 million: “Liz’s ‘Cleo’ 10% Mebbe Soon; But Holden Coin Tops,” Variety, no date [1963?].
investments in nearly every part of the globe: Joe Hyams, “‘The Wasted Life’ of William Holden,” New York Herald Tribune, Sept. 28, 1960.
“I’m living in Switzerland”: James Bacon, “American in Alps: Holden Plans Films in Hollywood, Europe,” Associated Press, Newark Evening News, no date [1960?].
1,200 acres of ranch land near Nairobi: Chester, “Game Farm for Holden.”
played host to the likes of Bing Crosby and Lyndon B. Johnson: “William Holden: The Man,” Palm Springs Life, Nov. 1975.
the couple announced their separation: “William Holden, Wife Separate,” Associated Press, Aug. 26, 1963.
they briefly reconciled: Dwight Whitney, “To Africa, with Love,” TV Guide, Mar. 22–28, 1969.
finally divorced in 1971: Toni Holt, Column, Daily Mirror, July 9, 1971.
Holden was involved in a fatal car accident: “William Holden Is Involved in Fatal Car Crash in Italy,” Associated Press, New York Times, July 23, 1966.
ultimately cleared of any wrongdoing in the crash: “Holden Freed in Auto Death,” Associated Press, New York Times, Oct. 27, 1967.
Holden “had sought some solace in the bottle”: Whitney, “To Africa, with Love.”
he had quit drinking altogether: Earl Wilson, “Holden’s a Teetotaler Now,” It Happened Last Night (column), New York Post, Mar. 2, 1976.
Holden had recently been seeing the actress Stefanie Powers: Aljean Harmetz, “The Happy Journey of Holden and Powers,” New York Times, May 12, 1977.
“the one real embarrassment, the chief invasion of privacy”: William Holden, “Love in a Fishbowl: Movie Clinches Embarrass William Holden,” UPI, Newark Evening News, Sept. 17, 1962.
a generous bonus plan: CP, Box 214, Folder 2. According to the bonus schedule, Holden received $50,000 when the grosses for Network reached $2.5 million; Dunaway’s Port Bascom production company received $50,000 when the grosses reached $5 million; Holden received another $50,000 when the grosses reached $7.5 million; and so on.
“Bill Holden is Bill Holden”: Author interview with Howard Gottfried, Mar. 20, 2012.
“I’m all excited he returns my call”: Author interview with Barry Krost, Mar. 30, 2012.
Born Frederick George Peter Ingle-Finch in London in 1916: Elaine Dundy, Finch, Bloody Finch: A Life of Peter Finch (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1980), p. 29.
met George Finch at an officers’ dance during World War I: Ibid., p. 28.
put him in the care of Buddhist monks: Ibid., p. 37.
Peter had his head shaved and was dressed in yellow silk robes: 20th Century–Fox studio biography of Peter Finch, 1960, Peter Finch file, New York Public Library, Billy Rose Theatre Division.
an adventure, “sometimes in thinking and learning”: “Actor Apprenticed to Buddhist Monk,” Warner Bros. Rambling Reporter, June 18, 1959.
“it would destroy the British Empire”: David Galligan, “Peter Finch: A Lot of Phantasmagoria,” The Advocate, Mar. 23, 1977.
known as “Finch’s Follies”: 20th Century–Fox studio biography of Peter Finch, 1960.
a lunch-hour production of Molière’s The Imaginary Invalid: Richard Whitehall, “Peter Finch: Britain’s Best,” Personality of the Month (column), Films and Filming, July 1960.
After moving to London in 1948: Dundy, Finch, Bloody Finch, p. 130.
he was also slated to play Julius Caesar in Cleopatra: “Man in Waiting,” New York Times, May 31, 1964.
“Errol used to say we were the last ones in London”: David Barry, Arts & Pleasures (column), Women’s Wear Daily, Oct. 11, 1976.
“He had a streak of mad anger”: Dundy, Finch, Bloody Finch, p. 266.
An affair that Finch conducted during the 1950s: Richard Brooks, “Olivier Worn Out by Love and Lust of Vivien Leigh,” Sunday Times (London), Aug. 7, 2005.
divorce from his first wife: Dundy, Finch, Bloody Finch, p. 213.
divorced his second wife: “Peter Finch’s Wife Granted Decree,” Daily Mirror, Dec. 11, 1965.
Shirley Bassey was named a corespondent: Dundy, Finch, Bloody Finch, p. 280.
he himself had been the product of her adulterous liaison: Ibid., p. 259.
“Nobody can take away my car or my home or my swimming pool”: Roderick Mann, “A Barefoot Life for Peter Finch,” Sunday Express (London), Apr. 3, 1966.
an eleven-acre farm of citrus, banana, allspice, and timber trees: Vernon Scott, “Finch Farms: Raises Crops in Jamaica,” UPI, Newark Evening News, Sept. 17, 1967.
their first encounter was either at a party: “Queen’s Cardinal,” New York Post, Sept. 21, 1974.
or at a fence that Finch was climbing: Earl Wilson, “The Women in Peter’s (Film) Life,” New York Post, Nov. 13, 1976.
he married Eletha in 1973 at a civil ceremony in Rome: “Peter Finch Weds in Rome,” Associated Press, New York Post, Nov. 9, 1973.
“All women want to nest a little”: Enid Nemy, “Peter Finch, A Loner on the Loose,” New York Times, Sept. 22, 1968.
“I hear he has a fondness for black girls”: Parade, Nov. 21, 1971.
“his need for the gutter”: Yolande Finch, Finchy (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1981), p. 27. The none-too-subtle subtitle that appeared on the book’s cover was A Drunkard, a Womanizer, a Genius.
“The truth is, you try to get actors jobs”: Author interview with Barry Krost, Mar. 30, 2012.
“Howard said, ‘Bingo’—he’d got the part”: Ibid.
“to be perfectly candid … we were pretty ready to shoot the movie”: Author interview with Howard Gottfried, Mar. 20, 2012.
“‘Give me my bloody wallet’”: Author interview with Barry Krost, Mar. 30, 2012.
“Paddy did run the show”: Author interview with Juliet Taylor, Mar. 5, 2012.
“He didn’t have any of the Western thing going on”: Ibid.
“a handsome matron of fifty”: Chayefsky, The Screenplays Vol. II, p. 167.
Lumet had had his eye on Candice Bergen: Author interview with Howard Gottfried, Mar. 20, 2012.
in a single appointment on the morning of November 10: CP, Box 95, Folder 6.
“she had us weeping”: Bob Weiner, “A Straight Arrow Pierces the Heart,” Sunday News (New York), Nov. 14, 1976.
“A bobby grabbed my wrist”: Author interview with Marlene Warfield, Jan. 16, 2013.
Roberts Blossom … whom they cast this time as Arthur
Jensen: CP, Box 95, Folder 6.
who had played Frederick Douglass in a one-man show: “Arthur Burghardt to Dramatize Douglass on ABC,” Jet, July 8, 1976.
“At one point, this character bursts in the front door with a gun”: Author interview with Howard Gottfried, Mar. 9, 2012.
“I went looking very much like a deposed street punk/gangster”: Author interview with Arthur Burghardt, Feb. 11, 2012.
“how much of that was Sidney’s and Dad’s old friendship”: Author interview with Kathy Cronkite, Feb. 21, 2012.
“The expense of my fee is absolutely inconsequential”: Author interview with Philip Rosenberg, Mar. 23, 2012.
“the cinematographers were, for the most part, World War II vets”: Author interview with Tom Priestley Jr., Feb. 3, 2012.
“nobody from our production has had an opportunity to discuss the use of a wig”: CP, Box 96, Folder 7.
4. The Daily Parade of Lunacies
A Christmastime bombing at LaGuardia Airport in Queens: Peter Kihss, “Bombing Damage Is Put at $750,000,” New York Times, Jan. 6, 1976.
fires raged in South Brooklyn, where a series of fuel-oil tanks had exploded: David Vidal, “A Second Explosion Fans Fuel-Oil Fire in Brooklyn,” New York Times, Jan. 6, 1976.
stripped its streets of more than 4,200 police officers: Francis X. Clines, “994 More Job Cuts Proposed by Police,” New York Times, Jan. 6, 1976.
Zabar’s had sold out its supply of a new home appliance: Keith Love, “Store Cuts Cuisinart Price but Can’t Replenish Stock,” New York Times, Jan. 7, 1976.
a single-room-occupancy hotel on West Forty-Third Street that had previously served: David W. Dunlap, “An Aging Midtown Hotel That Will Not Go Gently,” New York Times, Nov. 7, 1993.
they found the hall unheated and had to flee: Kay Chapin, diary entry, Jan. 5, 1976.
“Bill and Peter took to each other instantly”: Dundy, Finch, Bloody Finch, p. 325.
“I’m a pain in the ass and I know it”: Ibid., p. 321.
“Sidney knows specifically what he wants and is very adept”: Chapin, diary entry, Jan. 6, 1976.
The company spent the next few days in the ballroom: Chapin, diary entries, Jan. 7 and 8, 1976.
he had given up his own acting career because he realized: Chapin, diary entry, Jan. 8, 1976.
“he looked everywhere but directly into her eyes”: Lumet, Making Movies, p. 66.
“I shot it,” she said, “and it scared the hell out of me”: Author interview with Kathy Cronkite, Feb. 21, 2012.
wrapped for the day at 10:00 A.M.: Network shooting script, Museum of the Moving Image, New York, NY.
“Paddy wants it less theatrical”: Chapin, diary entry, Jan. 16, 1976.
While playing a scene with Dame Edith Evans: Ibid.
In New York, it was simply not practical or affordable: Author interview with Philip Rosenberg, Mar. 23, 2012.
Union rules … created further financial complications: Author interview with Richard Wald, Feb. 2, 2012.
“we couldn’t get cooperation from any of the networks”: Author interview with Owen Roizman, Jan. 25, 2012.
MGM and United Artists executives stated in a January 9 memo: CP, Box 96, Folder 3.
“It took a lot of work for the script girl and Sidney”: Author interview with Philip Rosenberg, Mar. 23, 2012.
the Hotel Toronto on University Avenue: CP, Box 96, Folder 6.
“just then, Paddy and Bill Holden came walking by”: Author interview with Owen Roizman, Jan. 25, 2012.
Principal photography for Network began on Monday, January 19: Network shooting script.
he wanted the visual look of Network to proceed in three distinct phases: “Network and How It Was Photographed,” American Cinematographer 58, no. 4 (Apr. 1977).
“The movie was about corruption”: Lumet, Making Movies, p. 85.
“‘Cut, print, move on.’ That was his slogan”: Author interview with Fred Schuler, Jan. 28, 2012.
“He was, like, in a frenzy”: Author interview with Tom Priestley Jr., Feb. 3, 2012.
Lumet as prowling “like a caged tiger”: Chapin, diary entry, Jan. 20, 1976.
“He wasn’t a fusspot when it came to technical things”: Author interview with Owen Roizman, Jan. 25, 2012.
“they called it the Paddy light”: Author interview with Fred Schuler, Jan. 28, 2012.
“I told the guard to take in Peter Finch’s disheveled state”: Lumet, Making Movies, p. 43.
“In his mind, he wanted to retire”: Author interview with Diana Finch-Braley, Aug. 26, 2012.
“The physical transformation of Peter on the set was remarkable”: Dundy, Finch, Bloody Finch, p. 325.
“He was what you’d call a Method actor, without ever studying the Method”: Author interview with Diana Finch-Braley, Aug. 26, 2012.
“Like Daniel and the burning bush”: Ibid.
Take 3 was halted at the one-minute mark: Network shooting script.
it was back to “Mad as hell”: Network shooting script, and CP, Box 95, Folder 6.
“I want all of you to get up out of your chairs”: Chayefsky, The Screenplays Vol. II, pp. 173–74.
Lumet attempted it only twice, and Finch completed it only once: Network shooting script, and Lumet, Making Movies, p. 122.
“No reloading … No time lost between takes”: Lumet, Making Movies, p. 122.
“he just ran out of gas”: Sidney Lumet, Network DVD, director’s commentary.
from the first half of Take 2 and the second half of Take 1: Lumet, Making Movies, pp. 122–23.
a painted piece of canvas: Author interview with Philip Rosenberg, Mar. 23, 2012.
a reporter for the Toronto Sun found Chayefsky in the CFTO-TV cafeteria: George Anthony, “Chayefsky’s Latest—All Fabricated, All Fiction and All True,” Toronto Sun, Mar. 14, 1976.
“the first known instance of a man”: Chayefsky, The Screenplays Vol. II, p. 222.
“Everybody in the place—everybody in the studio”: Author interview with Arthur Burghardt, Feb. 11, 2012.
“you’ll see that Faye fumbles a few places”: Author interview with Alan Heim, Apr. 5, 2012.
“he was thinking of replacing Faye”: Ibid. Asked whom Lumet planned to replace Dunaway with, Heim politely replied, “I won’t tell you that. He did, but I won’t tell you. Nothing personal.”
“I said, ‘Walter, let the government sue us!’”: Chayefsky, The Screenplays Vol. II, pp. 190–91.
“I could not afford to stumble on a single word”: Dunaway, Looking for Gatsby, p. 300.
“There were long talks about it”: Ibid., p. 301.
Chayefsky had already deleted a scene: Network script, with Dan Melnick notes, dated June 2, 1975, archived at the Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Beverly Hills, CA.
“She wouldn’t budge”: Author interview with Howard Gottfried, Mar. 20, 2012.
a February 2 letter from Gottfried to Dunaway: CP, Box 96, Folder 4.
“some dreadful grief”: Chayefsky, The Screenplays Vol. II, pp. 192–93.
on Wednesday, February 4: Network shooting script.
the Apthorp building: CP, Box 95, Folder 6. Lumet says on his DVD commentary for Network that the scene was filmed in the apartment of “Alfred Maysles.” He may have meant the Grey Gardens and Gimme Shelter documentarian Albert Maysles, but he was more likely referring to his brother and codirector David Maysles, who lived in the building.
Scene 127: Network shooting script.
“This isn’t just some convention weekend with your secretary, is it?”: Chayefsky, The Screenplays Vol. II, pp. 192–93.
“‘I know more about divorce than you do’”: Lumet, Making Movies, p. 43.
“The word, of course, is emeritus”: Author interview with Alan Heim, Apr. 5, 2012.
there is “no America” and “no democracy”: Chayefsky, The Screenplays Vol. II, pp. 204–5.
“a lot of pressure was put on the president of the Exchange�
��: Author interview with Philip Rosenberg, Mar. 23, 2012.
the Network cast and crew had overlapped with Robert Altman and his team: In her diary, Kay Chapin records a January 28 visit by Altman, his production manager, and his assistant director to the cafeteria of CFTO-TV, where Network was being filmed.
“that little guy who smiled every three or four years or so”: Author interview with Ned Beatty, Mar. 8, 2012.
“‘I’ve got another offer, and it’s for more money’”: Ibid.
Chayefsky described with precision and specificity how the sequence should look: Chayefsky, The Screenplays Vol. II, p. 205.
“You’d have to put smoke in the room, and backlight the smoke”: Author interview with Owen Roizman, Jan. 25, 2012.
“He’s not just doing any ape”: Author interview with Ned Beatty, Mar. 8, 2012.
“how perspicacious of you to facilitate this scene”: Author interview with Tom Priestley Jr., Feb. 3, 2012.
“She flubs a lot and had a hard time getting through a long speech”: Chapin, diary entries, Feb. 2–6 and Feb. 9 and 10, 1976.
“knee deep in dog shit”: Chapin, diary entry, Feb. 19, 1976.
Filming there was scheduled for three days: Chapin, diary entry, Feb. 2–6, 1976.
He had special nicknames: Chapin, diary entry, Mar. 5, 1976.
he seemed either to have trouble remembering his lines: Ibid.
“watch somebody get guillotined, hung, electrocuted, gassed”: Chayefsky, The Screenplays Vol. II, pp. 119–20.
“fondling, fingering, noodling and nuzzling”: Ibid., p. 147.
“lying naked on a maelstrom of sheets”: Network shooting script.
“All of life is reduced to the common rubble of banality”: Chayefsky, The Screenplays Vol. II, p. 210.
“I said, ‘Bill, I want you to do just one thing’”: Lumet, Network DVD, director’s commentary.
“isn’t connected as a woman, doesn’t feel like a woman”: Dunaway, Looking for Gatsby, p. 302.
“Something happened in the focusing process”: Author interview with Alan Heim, Apr. 5, 2012.
The empty upper floors of the tower: Author interview with Philip Rosenberg, Mar. 23, 2012.
“He opened up the window and screamed out”: Author interview. This person asked not to be identified for attribution, for obvious reasons.