by Mark Harris
“I felt rather ashamed of the way”: Grobel, The Hustons, 223.
“Anyone could see that”: Jack L. Warner with Dean Jennings, My First Hundred Years in Hollywood (New York: Random House, 1964), 255.
“There is something elemental about Bette”: John Huston, An Open Book (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1980), 81.
“one of the worst films made”: Davis on The Dick Cavett Show, 1971, cited in Sikov, Dark Victory, 188.
home movies from the time: Footage from Richard Schickel, The Men Who Made the Movies, documentary series (1973).
“Have you put your new Oscar”: Letter from John Ford to Mary Ford, April 4, 1942, JFC.
“pain in the ass”: Axel Madsen, William Wyler: The Authorized Biography (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1973), 223.
an idea to make a documentary: Herman, A Talent for Trouble, 239.
“You say you love America” to “to risk their lives for you!”: A. Scott Berg, Goldwyn (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1989), 369.
the rights to B. Traven’s novel: Behlmer, Inside Warner Bros., 276.
When his orders to report for duty arrived: File 1719, JHC.
“I can’t believe the Army would not allow him”: Vincent Sherman, Studio Affairs: My Life as a Film Director (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1996), 189–91.
Huston listed his father, not his wife: Military records for John Huston, April 29, 1942, file 1719, JHC.
Chapter 8: “It’s Going to Be a Problem and a Battle”
“was quite mad at us”: A. M. Sperber and Eric Lax, Bogart (New York: William Morrow, 1997), 187.
their only compensation for the next four weeks: Otto Friedrich, City of Nets: A Portrait of Hollywood in the 1940’s (New York: Harper & Row, 1986), 136.
“That,” he said, “is the kind of thing”: John Sanford, A Very Good Fall to Land With: Scenes from the Life of an American Jew, vol. 3 (Santa Rosa, CA: Black Sparrow, 1987), 210–16.
“So we’re necessary evils?”: Ibid.
He would require twenty-page scripts: Frank Capra, The Name Above the Title: An Autobiography (New York: Da Capo, 1997; originally published 1971), 335.
“the only way you could reach that guy”: Frank Capra interviewed by George Bailey, 1975, collected in Leland Poague, ed., Frank Capra Interviews (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2004), 127.
“Is there anything”: Sanford, A Very Good Fall to Land With, 210–216.
“He was a big Francoite”: Joseph McBride, Frank Capra: The Catastrophe of Success (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992; revised 2000), 458–60.
Capra commandeered a few small unoccupied warrens: Letter from Frank Capra to Ralph Block, Screen Writers Guild, March 4, 1942, FCA.
“start thinking seriously about whether you should come”: Letter from Frank Capra to Lucille Capra, March 1, 1942, FCA.
“I call them my seven little dwarfs”: Letter from Frank Capra to Lucille Capra, early March 1942, FCA.
“I was aghast,” he wrote: Capra, The Name Above the Title, 338.
“Frank thought everything was full”: McBride, Frank Capra, 458–60.
telling them that while he personally didn’t have a problem: Letter from Frank Capra to John Sanford, May 1942, FCA.
made a deal with the Department of the Interior: Memorandum by General Frederick Osborn, March 4, 1942, Mellett files, Records of the Office of War Information, box 1432, NA.
“I’ve got budget troubles”: Letters from Frank Capra to Lucille Capra, February 22, 1942, and March 1, 1942, FCA.
“a ‘Negro War Effort’ film”: Memorandum by General Frederick Osborn, March 4, 1942, Mellett files, Records of the Office of War Information, box 1432, NA.
“that rare balance of humor and dignity”: Otis Ferguson, “The Man in the Movies,” New Republic, September 1, 1941.
In a survey conducted in Harlem: Clayton R. Koppes and Gregory D. Black, Hollywood Goes to War: How Politics, Profits, and Propaganda Shaped World War II Movies (New York: Free Press, 1987), 86.
in the South, paranoid chatter: John W. Dower, War Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War (New York: Pantheon, 1986), 174.
It was Hellman’s notion: Carl Rollyson, Lillian Hellman: Her Legend and Her Legacy (New York: St. Martin’s, 1988), 192–93.
research tour of army bases in the Midwest and South: Jan Herman, a Talent for Trouble: The Life of Hollywood’s Most Acclaimed Director, William Wyler (New York: Da Capo, 1997), 241–42.
The Negro Soldier was still a “top priority”: Axel Madsen, William Wyler: The Authorized Biography (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1973), 226.
“Play down colored soldiers”: Thomas Cripps and David Culbert. “The Negro Soldier (1944): Film Propaganda in Black and White,” American Quarterly, Winter 1979.
“docile, tractable, light hearted”: Stephen E. Ambrose, D-Day—June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994), 147.
the Caravan was received at the White House: Herb Golden, “Capital Gives Victory Caravan Rousing Welcome,” Daily Variety, May 1, 1942; also New York Times, April 13, 1942; Theodore Strauss, “That Sandrich Man,” New York Times, July 12, 1942.
“I spent weeks and weeks doing nothing”: John Huston, An Open Book (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1980), 88.
“self-centered” with an “odd personality”: Jeffrey Meyers, John Huston: Courage and Art (New York: Crown Archetype, 2011), 47.
“a propaganda film”: Lawrence Grobel, The Hustons: The Life and Times of a Hollywood Dynasty, updated ed. (New York: Cooper Square, 2000), 234–35.
“Because it’s such a piece of junk”: Lillian Hellman interviewed in Directed by William Wyler (episode of American Masters, originally aired 1986 on PBS), produced by Catherine Wyler, narration and interviews by A. Scott Berg, directed by Aviva Slesin.
“the finest film yet made about the war”: Bosley Crowther, review (headline unavailable), New York Times, June 5, 1942.
Time called the film: “New Picture,” Time, June 29, 1942.
“so rightly done that it glows”: New York Post, June 5, 1942.
“one of the strongest pieces of propaganda against complacency”: Variety, May 13, 1942.
Some critics complained: Nation, December 26, 1942, and April 15, 1944.
President Roosevelt asked the Voice of America: Herman, A Talent for Trouble, 235.
“give us a Mrs. Miniver of China or Russia”: Office of War Information collection, speech by Nelson Poynter dated June 13, 1942, file 1556, NA.
“an exemplary propaganda film”: Herman, A Talent for Trouble, 250.
one of the ten best films ever made: MGM publicity material, August 1942, WWUCLA.
“wondering whether he was French or German”: Time, June 29, 1942.
“been some Catholic’s privilege to have directed”: Catholic World, September 1942.
“When I spoke to him,” said Wyler: William Wyler interviewed by Catherine Wyler, 1981, reprinted in Gabriel Miller, ed., William Wyler Interviews (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2009), 130–31.
“I was anxious to serve and give my talent”: Letter from Frank Capra to Lucille Capra, May 3, 1942, FCA.
“It’s almost a dime novel”: Ibid.
“Frankly and sincerely”: Letter from S. Charles Einfeld to Frank Capra, April 24, 1942, FCA.
“why they are fighting”: “First Capra Documentary Service Pic Due May 1,” Daily Variety, March 15, 1942.
Among those movies was Triumph of the Will: Thomas Doherty, Projections of War: Hollywood, American Culture, and World War II (New York: Columbia University Press, 1993), 20, 23.
“I could see where the kids of Germany”: Capra told the story of his viewing of Triumph of the Will many times; this quote is composited from remarks in Richard Schickel, The Men Who Made the Movies: Interviews with Frank Capra, George Cukor, Howard Hawks, Alfred Hitchcock, Vincente Minnelli, King Vidor, Raoul Walsh, and William E. Wellman (New York: Atheneum, 1975), 82; Dower, War Without Merc
y, 16; and “WWII: the Propaganda Battle,” in A Walk Through the 20th Century with Bill Moyers, documentary series.
“Let our boys hear the Nazis”: Dower, War Without Mercy, 16.
“gold mine”: Memorandum by General Frederick Osborn, March 4, 1942, Mellett files, Records of the Office of War Information, box 1432, NA.
“Producing important series information films”: Cable from Frank Capra to Eric Knight, April 16, 1942, Eric Knight papers, EKP.
“love at first sight”: Capra, The Name Above the Title, 331.
“to pull them all into a strong unity”: Letter from Eric Knight to Frank Capra, April 15, 1942, FCA.
“making clear the enemies’ ruthless objectives”: Letter from Frank Capra to Lowell Mellett, May 1942, cited in Matthew C. Gunter, The Capra Touch: A Study of the Director’s Hollywood Classics and War Documentaries, 1934–1945 (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2011).
on June 6, 1942, a directive was issued: McBride, Frank Capra, 457.
Chapter 9: “All I Know Is That I’m Not Courageous”
send John Ford to Midway: John Ford oral history, Naval Historical Center.
“exercise full responsibility”: Scott Eyman, Print the Legend: The Life and Times of John Ford (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999), 257.
annual operating budget of $1 million: Joseph McBride, Searching for John Ford: A Life (New York: St. Martin’s, 2001), 345–46.
Ford immediately volunteered himself for the mission: John Ford oral history, Naval Historical Center.
“Up here for a short visit”: Letter from John Ford to Mary Ford, June 1, 1942, JFC.
“I think at the time there was some report”: Ibid. Except where indicated, all subsequent quotes from Ford about Midway and accounts of his behavior in this section come from his Naval History Center oral history.
“the highest spot I could work from”: Jack Mackenzie Jr., as told to Alvin Wyckoff, “Fighting Cameramen,” American Cinematographer, February 1944.
their stories would soon be told in almost a dozen Hollywood movies: Among the most notable dramatic films to deal with the early war in the Pacific are Wake Island, Bataan, Corregidor, and Cry Havoc.
Midway brought America welcome news: David M. Kennedy, Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929–1945, Oxford History of the United States (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 543.
“photographing records of the destruction”: Mackenzie, “Fighting Cameramen.”
George Gay, watched his comrades perish: George Gay oral history, Naval History Center.
“I am really a coward”: John Ford interviewed by Philip Jenkinson, BBC, 1968 (transcribed by the author from video exhibit at Mémorial de la Shoah, Musée, Centre de documentation juive contemporaine, Paris).
the official medical report described: Medical History from H-8 report, June 4, 1942, JFC.
“OK. LOVE, JOHN FORD”: Eyman, Print the Legend, 259.
his wound was categorized by the navy: Medical History from H-8 report, June 4, 1942, JFC.
“Mary is a wise Navy wife”: McBride, Searching for John Ford, 366.
“We were thrilled at account of Midway action”: Cable from George Stevens to John Ford, June 18, 1942, JFC.
“I did all of it”: Peter Bogdanovich, John Ford, revised and enlarged ed. (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1978).
one Japanese pilot had gotten so close: Dan Ford, Pappy: The Life of John Ford (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1979), 170.
“I had one boy with me”: John Ford John Ford interviewed by Philip Jenkinson, BBC, 1968 (transcribed by the author from video exhibit at Mémorial de la Shoah, Musée, Centre de documentation juive contemporaine, Paris).
“had a lot to do with the success of the picture”: Mackenzie, “Fighting Cameramen.”
“Never mind the [travel] orders”: Robert Parrish, Growing Up in Hollywood (New York: Little, Brown, 1976). Parrish, who died in 1995, was a skilled memoirist and raconteur who told the story of the editing and recording of The Battle of Midway many times, often with variants and embellishments. In this section, I have tried to err on the side of his least extreme versions, and while the conversations he recalled can sound suspiciously scripted, there is no reason to doubt the broad strokes of his account.
“associate producers and public relations officers”: Ibid., 145.
“There’ll be no problem”: Ibid.
“This is a film for the mothers of America”: I have chosen the account offered by Joseph McBride in Searching for John Ford, 362, since it seems the likeliest and most characteristic reply that Ford would have given. but it is worth noting that Parrish recounted highly variant versions of this exchange over the years, including one to an interview for TV’s Omnibus in which Parrish paraphrased Ford’s reply as, “This is a film for the mothers of America. The fathers know about the war. The mothers don’t know their sons are dying.”
Ford soon joined Parrish on the West Coast: Parrish, Growing Up in Hollywood, 146.
Ford handed him a small spool of film: Ibid.
“wonderful”: Letter from A. Jack Bolton to John Ford, November 2, 1942, JFC.
“Maybe he’s right”: Robert Parrish, Hollywood Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (Boston: Little, Brown, 1988), 19.
“I want every mother in America to see this film”: Ibid.
Chapter 10: “Can You Use Me?”
“Americans . . . will be better haters”: Variety, May 20, 1942, cited in John W. Dower, War Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War (New York: Pantheon, 1986), 322.
he convinced General Osborn to let him move his unit: Frank Capra, The Name Above the Title: An Autobiography (New York: Da Capo, 1997; originally published 1971), 339.
“so far as it means we would see you less often”: Letter from Osborn to Frank Capra, July 16, 1942, FCA.
“Some carping individuals will accuse you”: Joseph McBride, Frank Capra: The Catastrophe of Success (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992; revised 2000), 474.
“a secret base at Shangri-La”: “Screen News Here and in Hollywood,” New York Times, June 25, 1942.
The bureau called the movie: Clayton R. Koppes and Gregory D. Black, Hollywood Goes to War: How Politics, Profits, and Propaganda Shaped World War II Movies (New York: Free Press, 1987), 75–76.
“creating a false picture of America” . . . “misled by propaganda”: Government Information Manual for the Motion Picture Industry (Washington, DC: Office of War Information, 1942).
“We didn’t bother about your way of life”: William J. Blakefield, “A War Within: The Making of Know Your Enemy—Japan,” Sight and Sound, Spring 1983.
he was in touch with the National Film Board of Canada: Letter from National Film Board of Canada to Frank Capra, August 21, 1942, FCA.
Janet Flanner, the Paris correspondent: Memo from Frank Capra, February 1943, FCA.
“We have eliminated the Battle of the Atlantic”: Letter from Frank Capra to Colonel Herman Beukema, August 26, 1942, FCA.
“as difficult to write as the Versailles Treaty”: Letter from Leonard Spigelgass to Frank Capra, September 22, 1942, FCA.
“Can you use me?”: Capra, The Name Above the Title, 339.
“getting over a bad spot”: “The New Pictures,” Time, February 16, 1942.
Louis B. Mayer had nervously forbidden him: Scott Eyman, Lion of Hollywood: The Life and Legend of Louis B. Mayer (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005), 342.
The New Yorker suggested: Russell Maloney, “The Current Cinema: A Good Movie,” New Yorker, February 7, 1942.
“the audience . . . accepting”: George Stevens interviewed in 1973, reprinted in Paul Cronin, ed., George Stevens Interviews (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2004), 87.
“Woman is a hell of a hit” to “All-Americans to pull us out of this one”: Letter from “Bill” to George Stevens, March 1, 1942, file 3196, GSC.
He had no shortage of reasons: Bruce Humleker Petri, “A Theory of America
n Film: The Films and Techniques of George Stevens” (doctoral thesis, Harvard University, May 1974; copyright 1987).
he began preparing The Talk of the Town: John Oller, Jean Arthur: The Actress Nobody Knew (New York: Limelight Editions, 1997), 136–44.
“one of the basic things we are fighting for”: Marilyn Ann Moss, Giant: George Stevens, a Life on Film (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2004), 95.
“While there are men of draft age” to “stay true to life”: Ibid., 96.
“You go in, this war will last seven years”: Unedited trasnscript of George Stevens interviewed by Robert Hughes, 1967, file 3677, GSC.
“The war was on”: Cronin, ed., George Stevens Interviews, 112.
“She doesn’t like me anymore”: Letter from “Mimi” to John Ford, apparently December 5, 1938, JFC.
“Dear Ma”: Letter from John Ford to Mary Ford, January 10, 1942, JFC.
“The kid is really tops”: Letter from John Ford to Commander W. J. Morcott, July 29, 1942, JFC.
feeling “like a failure”: Letter from Pat Ford to John Ford, July 20, 1943, JFC.
“I have seldom been so busy”: Jan Herman, A Talent for Trouble: The Life of Hollywood’s Most Acclaimed Director, William Wyler (New York: Da Capo, 1997), 245.
suspend the deal he had recently renewed: Letter from Samuel Goldwyn to William Wyler, August 25, 1943, in reference to suspension dated July 15, 1942, WWA.
“After sober reflection”: Cable from Irwin Shaw to William Wyler (repunctuated here for clarity), July 10, 1942, WWA.
John Huston’s departure from Hollywood: Lawrence Grobel, The Hustons: The Life and Times of a Hollywood Dynasty, updated ed. (New York: Cooper Square, 2000), 235.
he left Hollywood for Alaska: Memo, November 6, 1942, file 1719, JHC.
“very difficult” and “painful”: Grobel, The Hustons, 235.
“to determine the discretion”: Jeffrey Meyers, John Huston: Courage and Art (New York: Crown Archetype, 2011), 96–97.
Chapter 11: “A Good Partner to Have in Times of Trouble”
“Commander John Ford” . . . “factual film record”: “Film of ‘Midway’ Released by Navy,” New York Times, September 15, 1942.
