On A Bad Film

The film seemed doomed from the start.

First of all, as with all films, the script is key. In this case, the screenplay was largely unfinished even as shooting began. Rewrites were submitted and often rejected weeks after shooting started. Several writers were brought in to help pound out something resembling a script, something the director and cameramen and techs and actors could put on film, but the story didn’t seem to have any direction. Several writers came and went. One writer who worked off an on to develop the script decided that it was too embarrassing to have his name associated with the project, and he declined any credit at all.

The leading man called for a tough guy, and actor George Raft was asked if he wanted to play the lead. No thanks, Raft said. This film reeked, and Raft wanted nothing to do with it. He declined the role, and it went to the producers’ second choice. Even this new guy wasn’t so sure about the film. He and his co-star, a lovely woman and a fine actress, would eat lunch together on the set and bemoan their situation, stuck as they felt they were in a story that was schmaltzy and cheesy, with sappy dialogue and sentimental claptrap. To pass the time while waiting for scenes to be written for them, the two played poker, the actor teaching his co-star how to bluff, when to fold, and how to bet. He told her that he should take his own advice and leave the picture–fold his hand–but he had committed to it and vowed to see it through. Sometimes, kid, he said, sometimes you just gotta tough it out, even if your cards are terrible.

The actress agreed. She was some 16 years younger than her co-star and wanted to be involved in more serious roles and not get pigeon-holed as a romantic female lead. The dialogue was vapid, she complained, and she would often say her lines and then roll her eyes at how silly they sounded. Oh, well, she told her male counterpart. We will look back on this experience one day and laugh that we were a part of such a silly little film.

Then there was the third billing actor. He had been a veteran of the silent film era, an international star in his day, and he had recently worked with Bette Davis. He saw himself as a leading man, so he resented having to play backseat/third banana to the “tough guy” character. And the director of the film—this actor loathed that guy. In fact, no one really liked the director. He was famous for being particularly difficult to work with. He often displayed a mean temper, he demeaned actors who didn’t meet his “standards,” and he sometimes belittled the techs who worked with him. One writer later said he was, “a tyrant…[whose] behavior is said to have inspired the formation of the Screen Actors Guild.” He was, in the words of one actor, “a pompus bastard.”

Ugh

Yet, despite all these issues, the film managed to limp to a conclusion. It finished over budget and shooting took longer than the studio had scheduled for the set. The cast, crew, writers, producers, and even the director left the shoot with sighs of relief and determined to put the filming experience behind them.

Yet, despite all of these issues, Casablanca stands today as one of the best films ever made.