My Life with Cleopatra

by Walter Wanger

  While they were in Rome with Santi, the budget arrived at was 5,200,000 dollars. Consequently, anybody could have figured out, by coming to England where they were shooting a five-day week instead of a six-day week, it must mount up to more. Also, we would be in two location operations—London and Rome—rather than just Rome, which again would run up expenses, especially under the Eady Plan, where we would have to take a lot of English staff wherever we went.

  On June 2nd, we received a budget which was 6,000,000 dollars. This terrified Skouras and Adler, and Mamoulian and myself went off to Paris to work with Durrell, the writer; and I called him on the next day and was informed that the picture had to be cut to a $5,000,000 budget to be made entirely in England with the exception of maybe locations but not definitely, depending on the budget, and that the picture would be made in Todd-AO. This was done without consultation with Mamoulian and myself and we thought it was not only ridiculous but impossible.

  Ever since May 20th we have been going around in circles, mostly due to the fact that Skouras and the Studio would refuse to read any reports, made not by Mamoulian and myself, but by the production staff hired by the Studio. Everyone connected with the picture has agreed that the cost in England would be greater than the cost anywhere else and also it is doubtful if the exteriors, even built here at great cost, could ever be shot because of the weather. If we are lucky and have an Indian summer, perhaps we can get this accomplished, but not with the quality that would be available elsewhere. Skouras has been here twice, as you know, and after meetings is still adamant in his insistence that the exteriors of Rome and Alexandria for Cleopatra will be shot in England. He is supported in his view by Bob Goldstein. They are, I am sure, doing this because they feel it would be cheaper and more efficient, although everyone on the production staff takes the opposite view, including every production executive that we have talked to over here. Even the English producers on small pictures go out of the country for exteriors to Spain, Italy, Germany, and France rather than attempting it here. Mamoulian and myself have not met one person who advocates shooting exteriors of this Mediterranean nature in England. We both feel it is our obligation to control the budget and we loathe to see an operation that is going to cost more and give less quality. As you know, one of the things promised Elizabeth when the deal was made was that the exteriors should be shot in Rome. Ever since I have been here, Goldstein and Skouras have been telling me that on account of the tax situation and the costs in Rome it would be impossible to go there. I know that they are exorbitant connected with American productions, but this isn’t an American production; this is an English Eady Production on a quota basis and as far as they know there would be no problem if we went there for a few weeks. On this last trip, however, Skouras has agreed to a desert location for the picture in Egypt or any other available place so that we can now arrive at a decision for a proper location for the Alexandria and Rome shots. Although this has been promised, it has not been finalized. We must get these locations in order to make a good picture. I think it is essential and also would mean a great deal to Elizabeth, overcoming her objections to the way her picture has been handled. Another thing I am worried about is the weather here, which is not very good in the fall, as a matter of fact it has been terrible this summer and Elizabeth is so susceptible to colds and bronchitis that from the enclosed chart you will see what weather conditions are liable to be in September/​October/​November here and you know what the delays, due to her health, cost this production.

  Incidentally, all of the things promised Adler by Goldstein have not been forthcoming:

  1. The Denham Studio, which he said he would get, which would have enabled us to make our production more practical from the budget standpoint, was not obtained.

  2. The proper number of draftsmen that are required to do this picture efficiently have never been available.

  3. The plasterers that we need are nowhere to be seen and this is delaying the finishing of the sets.

  As a matter of fact, the labor problem is so desperate here that the Rank Studios have put advertisements in the papers as well as putting slides on all the screens asking for plasterers to report. To date we have not received anything like the plasterers we need. Naturally, all of these delays and bonuses and promises to labor are going to run up the cost unnecessarily. In Italy, for instance, you can get 3—400 plasterers without any trouble. Here, we cannot get twenty!

  I have tried to discuss these matters with Skouras. He refuses to listen to them. As a matter of fact, he wouldn’t even discuss these matters.

  What I really want you to understand is that Mamoulian and myself are very concerned with the practical and financial problems concerned with the picture far more than the heads of the organization, who pretend to be such excellent businessmen. There has been featherbedding in connection with the picture, where they have labor that they have promised weekend and overtime to, as you can see by the enclosed advertisement. They have given them things to do that we don’t even need. The continual changes in the script have naturally held up the casting and the wardrobe and delayed preparing the picture properly, and the changes in the script have been due to the changes in budget from time to time. The thought that a picture of this type for Todd-AO could have been done on a limited budget—and 5 million dollars is limited when there have been the kind of expenses involved that have been involved in this—is something that is not too practical. I believe the picture eventually, with overtime and everything else, will exceed this, but I think that 6 million dollars would have been a far more reasonable budget to aim at than the four or five.

  We are naturally trying to carry out our instructions, but they are very often contrary to the findings of professional producers or executives or directors.

  I think if you get an opportunity to read the file I prepared for Skouras plus the enclosed, it will tell the story.

  Both Rouben and myself are convinced that this project can still be put back on the track and be the biggest blockbuster and a great picture for the international market, properly made, and professionally produced. Confidentially, George Skouras was here this week and thinks of the picture, as properly made with a six-million-dollar budget, as a lush, exciting picture and that it can do a world’s gross of 50 million dollars in Todd-AO. Spyros, on the other hand, argues with me that this picture has a ceiling of 20 million dollars, because it is not a biblical picture, and that it has a limited appeal to adults. I disagree violently with this point of view and I know that if it were done the way we planned, it would appeal to every female in the world from three to ninety! I could go on for days, but I hope Schwab will fill you in with the other details so you won’t be bored with any more of my reports … This represents the joint thinking of Mamoulian and myself and the reports of all the production minds available.

  Best regards and

  love to Dana, your

  son, and yourself.

  Walter Wanger

  JULY 16, 1960

  Bob Goldstein called from Hollywood to ask me to do a great favor for him: “Will you take over in my absence and run all of Europe for me?”

  I said I’d do anything I could, under the circumstances.

  Skouras, who was on the extension phone, said, “Walter, this is the greatest thing you have ever done in your life. I’ll never forget it.”

  Within hours I started getting wires of congratulations from everybody at the studio. I’m glad to help, but suspect I’ll have this job for no more than a month.

  — ATHENS —

  JULY 19, 1960

  To Greece to meet Skouras in Athens. Then to Egypt to check on locations for Cleopatra.

  Flying with Skouras is an adventure all by itself. When he gets on an airplane he talks to everybody—always fingering the worry beads. If there is a pretty woman aboard, he will go up to her and say, “You’re very pretty. Are you married?” If the answer is yes, he will say, “What a lucky man your husband is.”

  He never
gets to the plane until the last minute and has everybody in a nervous sweat all the time. One of his habits is to take a secretary from the office along in the car so he can dictate on his way to the airport. Invariably, however, he falls asleep and doesn’t dictate a single line.

  Tomorrow we go to Egypt where we will see Okasha, the Minister of Culture, and, hopefully, talk him into letting us shoot there.

  — CAIRO —

  JULY 20, 1960

  Skouras is incredible.

  Skouras is one of the most charming men in the world—when he wants to be. He seems to know everyone in the Egyptian government, and they love and respect him. At a big luncheon today he announced plans to make five pictures in Egypt, including Salammbo, starring Harry Belafonte and Gina Lollobrigida. He made it sound as though—thanks to him—Egypt would soon rival Rome as a world film center. The audience was enthusiastic.

  Then he introduced me as Walter Wanger, who “will be in charge of all Fox operations in Europe, the Near and Middle East.” That got a big hand too.

  The last thing he did before we raced at seventy miles an hour for the plane was to arrange for the services of 10,000 men from the Egyptian Army to play the legions of Cleopatra. He also arranged for several locations in Egypt.

  JULY 22, 1960

  Extract from a letter from Patrick Barthropp, Ltd:

  Thank you for your inquiry with regard to a car for Miss Taylor from 8th August, 1960, for a period of sixteen weeks. We have pleasure in reserving the same Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud that she had last year, with the same chauffeur, Mr. Peter Bowden.…

  JULY 27, 1960

  Dear Rouben:

  When the public buys tickets to see Cleopatra, they have every right to expect to see a great love story containing many passionate scenes between the most extraordinary people in history—Cleopatra, Caesar, and Antony. This is not in the shooting script and it is essential.

  I am glad we are in agreement about this shooting script and I am sending you the following memorandum in the event that you wish to use it with Durrell.

  I think some of his speeches are excellent and are of great value. However, for every good speech there have been injected more silly speeches than we have ever had in the script before. The elimination of these cozy, small-time sections of dialogue will help straighten out the shooting script in my opinion very much and should be done as soon as possible, even without Durrell.

  The main facts and the important defects are the fact that the script is no longer attempting to be taut, suspenseful, melodramatic, or full of fast action. The whole canvas of this great world, with four dynamic personalities fighting for its domination, has been reduced to a bucolic, domestic, provincial picture of the nature of Our Town. The opportunity of using the greatest background of antiquity and shooting actually on the spot in Egypt gives us the opportunity to lift this picture to the great heights that are, in my opinion, obligatory.

  To be precise, all of the scenes in the palace are completely without any sense of siege or feeling that the characters are prisoners in the palace and that there is doubt as to what is going to happen to our leading protagonists. It seems more like a nice weekend in Surrey where the water is going to be turned off. I still prefer the action and the impact in the potentials of the January 11th script as far as the great motion picture is concerned than I do this shooting script, although if the intent of the January 11th script can be injected into this shooting script, which I agree with you has better characterizations in many instances, we will get on the right track.

  To be of service to us, Durrell must follow our plans rather than to try to reorganize the entire matter into a soft and unsuspenseful sonnet. The feeling of conspiracy, of distrust, of fast-acting spies, of life and death at great price is all lacking. There is plenty of material in the January 11th script that can be quickly put back and improve the script from the standpoint of making a successful motion picture. (For example, there is Taylor in such vital scenes as the establishment of the tremendous excitement of her achievement in presenting Caesar with a child named Caesarion, who becomes the hostage, in her mind, that is going to help her achieve her ambition to assume for him the throne of the world.) As a matter of fact, not even the name of Caesarion is established before Caesar’s return to Rome. This is a vital thread in history and in the drama that must not be toyed with. Beyond that, it is essential that he be old enough to be reasonable in the last scenes. I do not believe that twelve years old, after a period of eighteen years, can be accepted by any intelligent picture-goer in 1961. I agree with you that the entrance into Rome is obligatory.

  I also feel that with the Zoo, the third largest in the world, in Cairo, plus some ingenuity in picking locations, we could do this at a proper price without going overboard.

  I think it is obligatory to establish the fact that Octavian clearly declared war on Cleopatra and not on Antony, and that in all the conferences prior to Actium, Cleopatra was the sore spot, just as she was instrumental by her activities in Rome in building toward Caesar’s assassination. I agree with you, the scene between Antony and Cleopatra after the assassination of Caesar is unemotional and weak, again with the important points left out and the tremendous feeling of defeat that she must have felt, having been so close to success, is unemotional and unrewarding. Following this scene, there must be a thrilling exit from Rome.

  I was most gratified last night that we are of one mind regarding these obligatory scenes and the type of dialogue that must be omitted in order to make the great motion picture that this subject matter offers. I feel our major error with Durrell was allowing him to deviate from improving actual scenes and trying to rewrite without sufficient experience in motion-picture scripts from start to finish. I have enormous faith in his talent, his ingenuity, and his ability to state things, but not in his ability to devise visual action with a beginning of a scene to a climax of a scene and a great curtain, all of which it is essential for you to have, so that we can fulfill our destiny with this tremendous project.

  I also agree with you that your concept of Cleopatra is the correct one. A woman of many moods, of many emotions, turning off and on her hate, her ambition, her love, her excitement, and her dreams. At present, she could be a placid heiress, living on a big estate in the British countryside, rather than the unique and most fascinating woman in the world with ambition to rule the world with Caesar and then to place her great son, Caesarion, on the throne as King of the World. The always-present spying, treacherous killing, dramatic Sword of Damocles over the existence of all the characters, the fantastic marriages for power, the deals, the accepted intrigue and suspicion which were indicated in the January 11th script, have been vacuumed out of this with weekend charades and silly sayings.

  Excuse the continuity of the memorandum and the English, which is not Elizabethan, but it has been dictated by a very concerned producer at five o’clock in the morning. As I am going to New York in connection with the script and the deal with Taylor, I am writing this memorandum so that I can present our ultimate concept to her as clearly and forcefully as possible. I know that the Egyptian potential gives us a chance that has never been done on the screen before. I hope we can have another meeting before I leave.

  With every good wish, as always,

  Yours,

  Walter Wanger

  — NEW YORK —

  JULY 28, 1960

  Elizabeth had refused to sign her contract so Goldstein ordered me to go to New York to “get her” to do it.

  I met Schreiber, who had come from California just for this, at my hotel. He was in a sweat, certain we’d never get her to sign, particularly since the starting date had been pushed back again, and we wanted a further extension of time from her. The new starting date is September 25.

  At the Park Lane, Elizabeth was lovely in a negligee, no make-up, demonstratively affectionate with Eddie in the living room. She was well aware of the turmoil she was causing with Skouras and Schreiber.

  Sh
e told me the contract was fine, gave me the delay in starting I requested, and suggested we look at Peter Finch for Caesar. She promised to sign the contract later in the afternoon but told me to tell Skouras she was “still looking it over” to keep him on edge a little while longer.

  While I was having dinner at the Colony, the contract was delivered to me as promised. I called Skouras instantly. “Walter, you are a miracle man,” he said, “How did you do it? I’ll never forget it.” I told him Elizabeth couldn’t have been nicer about the whole thing.

  In my room that night I read her contract, from Elizabeth’s point of view. If the picture runs over schedule a few months, as I suspect it must, she stands to make two or three million dollars.