Old Hollywood
Cinema
1900-1979
Nostalgia is a seductive liar - George Wildman Ball
“Why am I so good at playing bitches? I think it’s because I’m not a bitch. Maybe that’s why Joan Crawford always plays ladies.” -Bette Davis 

“Why am I so good at playing bitches? I think it’s because I’m not a bitch. Maybe that’s why Joan Crawford always plays ladies.”

-Bette Davis 

Faye Dunaway tries to kill director/Fugitive to the Stars Roman Polanski with her mind on the set of Chinatown (1974) Polanski vs. Dunaway, Or: It’s All Fun & Games Until Someone Gets a Face Full of Urine “The actors were used to the American warm bath school of directing, which is to say, a collaborative approach. That was not Polanski’s way. ‘Roman is Napoleon with actors, ‘They do what I tell them to do,” says [Paramount production head Robert] Evans. ‘He’d say, ‘In Poland, I could just go make my fucking movies.’ He was dictatorial & controlling. He gave Jack Nicholson so many line readings that Anthea Sylbert, the costume designer, half expected Nicholson to begin speaking with a Polish accent. But Nicholson & Polanski were good friends and Nicholson was more often than not amused by Polanski’s eccentricities. Dunaway, on the contrary, was decidedly not. Dunaway was puzzled about her character’s motivation, and by all accounts, got little guidance from Polanski. He would shout, ‘Say the fucking words. Your salary is your motivation.’ Things came to a head two weeks into shooting. According to Polanski, ‘There was one hair that would stick out from her hairdo and catch the light and I was trying to get rid of it, trying to flatten it and it would not stay.’ Polanski walked around behind her and plucked the hair. Dunaway screamed, ‘That motherfucker plucked my hair!’ and stormed off the set. Polanski did the same. Evans arranged a truce between the director and his leading lady, but it didn’t last long. ‘There was a scene where she gets in the car after seeing her daughter, and Jack is in the car waiting for her and scares the shit out of her,’ recalls John Alonzo, the DP. ‘She kept saying to Roman, ‘Roman, I have to pee. I have to pee.’ ‘No. No. You stay there. You stay there. We shoot, we shoot.’ And then he said, ‘Roll the window down. I got to talk to you. You’re turning too far right. Don’t look at Jack, look ahead.’ Then she threw a coffee-cup full of liquid in Roman’s face. He said, ‘You cunt, that’s piss!’ And she said, ‘Yes, you little putz,’ and rolled the window up. We were all speculating that maybe Jack peed in the cup for her. [Or maybe] she had a small bladder or something.” -excerpted from Peter Biskind’s Easy Riders, Raging Bulls

Faye Dunaway tries to kill director/Fugitive to the Stars Roman Polanski with her mind on the set of Chinatown (1974)

Polanski vs. Dunaway, Or: It’s All Fun & Games Until Someone Gets a Face Full of Urine

“The actors were used to the American warm bath school of directing, which is to say, a collaborative approach. That was not Polanski’s way. ‘Roman is Napoleon with actors, ‘They do what I tell them to do,” says [Paramount production head Robert] Evans. ‘He’d say, ‘In Poland, I could just go make my fucking movies.’ He was dictatorial & controlling. He gave Jack Nicholson so many line readings that Anthea Sylbert, the costume designer, half expected Nicholson to begin speaking with a Polish accent. But Nicholson & Polanski were good friends and Nicholson was more often than not amused by Polanski’s eccentricities. Dunaway, on the contrary, was decidedly not.

Dunaway was puzzled about her character’s motivation, and by all accounts, got little guidance from Polanski. He would shout, ‘Say the fucking words. Your salary is your motivation.’ Things came to a head two weeks into shooting. According to Polanski, ‘There was one hair that would stick out from her hairdo and catch the light and I was trying to get rid of it, trying to flatten it and it would not stay.’ Polanski walked around behind her and plucked the hair. Dunaway screamed, ‘That motherfucker plucked my hair!’ and stormed off the set. Polanski did the same.

Evans arranged a truce between the director and his leading lady, but it didn’t last long. ‘There was a scene where she gets in the car after seeing her daughter, and Jack is in the car waiting for her and scares the shit out of her,’ recalls John Alonzo, the DP. ‘She kept saying to Roman, ‘Roman, I have to pee. I have to pee.’ ‘No. No. You stay there. You stay there. We shoot, we shoot.’ And then he said, ‘Roll the window down. I got to talk to you. You’re turning too far right. Don’t look at Jack, look ahead.’ Then she threw a coffee-cup full of liquid in Roman’s face. He said, ‘You cunt, that’s piss!’ And she said, ‘Yes, you little putz,’ and rolled the window up. We were all speculating that maybe Jack peed in the cup for her. [Or maybe] she had a small bladder or something.”

-excerpted from Peter Biskind’s Easy Riders, Raging Bulls

Joan Crawford (top left) and Bette Davis (right, with cigarette) at a reading rehearsal for Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) “One day I was given 20 minues to shoot [the Baby Jane reading rehearsal] from the catwalk above. At the time, Crawford was married to the president of Pepsi-Cola. A Pepsi bottle was next to her at all times, and she occasionally sipped from it. Without even looking upward, she sensed my movements on the catwalk - and while reading her lines, she would deftly move the bottle & its logo so that none of the other actors would obscure it in my shots. In this shot, Crawford and Davis seem quite affable. They each had a portable dressing room. Crawford wanted certain adjustments made. She wanted a ledge for her social secretary to put papers on, and an air-conditioner. She also wanted several other things. She had the men take care of it. As they left Crawford’s dressing room with their tools, Davis just stood a few feet away watching. One of the grips said, ‘Hey Bette, anything we can do for you?’ She said, ‘No, thank you. Dressing rooms don’t make pictures.’ After the wrap each evening, Crawford would leave the sound stage followed by her entourage: hairdresser, makeup man, costumer, social secretary. Davis just left with Davis.” -photographer Phil Stern (via)

Joan Crawford (top left) and Bette Davis (right, with cigarette) at a reading rehearsal for Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)

“One day I was given 20 minues to shoot [the Baby Jane reading rehearsal] from the catwalk above. At the time, Crawford was married to the president of Pepsi-Cola. A Pepsi bottle was next to her at all times, and she occasionally sipped from it. Without even looking upward, she sensed my movements on the catwalk - and while reading her lines, she would deftly move the bottle & its logo so that none of the other actors would obscure it in my shots.

In this shot, Crawford and Davis seem quite affable. They each had a portable dressing room. Crawford wanted certain adjustments made. She wanted a ledge for her social secretary to put papers on, and an air-conditioner. She also wanted several other things. She had the men take care of it. As they left Crawford’s dressing room with their tools, Davis just stood a few feet away watching. One of the grips said, ‘Hey Bette, anything we can do for you?’ She said, ‘No, thank you. Dressing rooms don’t make pictures.’

After the wrap each evening, Crawford would leave the sound stage followed by her entourage: hairdresser, makeup man, costumer, social secretary. Davis just left with Davis.”

-photographer Phil Stern (via)