Wyler Quotes

During his time at VGIK, Tarkovsky and his fellow students studied all aspects of filmmaking, watching the classics of Soviet cinema and taking part in workshops in which they would demonstrate their technical ability. This even included acting; Tarkovsky’s fellow student and friend, Alexander Gordon, remembers him giving a superb performance as the aging Prince Bolkonsky when Romm got the students to perform scenes from War and Peace during their third year at VGIK. Tarkovsky saw many classics from outside the Soviet Union, including Citizen Kane, the films of John Ford and William Wyler, and the works of the fathers of the French New Wave, Jean Renoir and Jean Vigo. Tarkovsky developed a personal pantheon that included Bergman, Bunuel, Mizoguchi and Kurosawa, Fellini and Antonioni. The only Soviet director who made it into his pantheon was Dovzhenko, although he was good friends with the Georgian director Sergei Parajanov, whom he regarded as ‘a genius in everything’. He also spoke highly of Iosseliani, and, on occasion, of Boris Barnet. But above them all was the towering figure of Robert Bresson, whom Tarkovsky regarded as the ultimate film artist.

With William Wyler off in the Army, the fact that the Goldwyn Studio flourished during the war years was an accomplishment for which a former borscht belt comedian, Danny Kaye, should be given most of the credit. His first film for Goldwyn, Up in Arms, was a mediocre remake of Eddie Cantor’s 1930 hit Whoopee! The film was a big moneymaker for Goldwyn, and made an instant star of Danny Kaye. In 1948, Goldwyn was in danger of losing Danny, who was unhappy with the rehashed scripts he was being asked to do, particularly A Song Is Born, a dismal remake of Ball of Fire, a wonderful film Goldwyn had produced only seven years earlier starring Barbara Stanwyck and Gary Cooper. Goldwyn was smart enough to leave Danny alone, but he forced Virginia Mayo to watch Stanwyck’s performance in the original over and over. Used correctly, as Wyler used her in The Best Years of Our Lives, Virginia could be very effective, but she could never replicate Barbara Stanwyck, who was one of the most unique talents in the history of film.

When I was a kid I adored Katharine Hepburn, especially when she played Jo, the ballsy sister in Little Women. All the kids in school started calling me “Jo.” I also loved Barbara Stanwyck, Ann Sheridan, Bette Davis, Claire Trevor—I didn’t know them but after seeing them in so many movies, I felt like I knew them. They weren’t feminists, they were just strong women, and I always admired anyone who had some guts. All those sweet, quiet, polite, ladylike little things just bored me to death. Back then there were so many wonderful women’s stories being filmed, and so many strong actresses. But by the time I started doing movies they were mostly making men’s stories. It has always saddened me that I never got to work with directors like George Cukor and William Wyler, directors who could really pull such marvelous performances from actresses." - Jane Russell

For all Cooper’s fame and success, he was as insecure as anyone in Hollywood, where you were judged not by your body of work but by what you had done lately. He was a contract player, part of a studio system that, in effect, owned him. Don’t do the part, and I’ll sue you, Sam Goldwyn told Cooper. William Wyler—who had his own conflicts as a contract director working for Goldwyn—was assigned to The Westerner. The director saw the humor and the fun of pitting Cooper against Brennan—especially when Niven Busch rewrote the script not only to build up Cooper’s role, but also to exploit a sentimental vulnerability in Bean, who is besotted with the English actress Lily Langtry. Cooper, as Cole Harden, sentenced to hang, tricks Bean into believing that the cowboy knows the stage star and can arrange for Bean to meet her. Thus Harden delays his hanging and embarks on a trip with the credulous judge to accost his idol. Watching the wizened old judge become giddy over the very idea of sharing a moment with his beloved Lily turns The Westerner into a powerfully amusing take on how a devotion to stardom can overcome even the hardest case. It would all be such fun, Wyler assured Cooper.

In The New Biographical Dictionary of Film, David Thomson argues that Brennan should have won awards for even better performances in To Have and Have Not (1944), My Darling Clementine (1946), Red River (1948), The Far Country (1955), and Rio Bravo (1959). Thomson counts no less than twenty-eight high caliber Brennan performances in still more films, including These Three (1936), Fury (1936), Meet John Doe (1941), and Bad Day At Black Rock (1955). Brennan worked with Hollywood’s greatest directors—John Ford, Howard Hawks, William Wyler, King Vidor, and Fritz Lang—while also starring in Jean Renoir’s Hollywood directorial debut, Swamp Water (1941). To discuss Brennan’s greatest performances is also to comment on the work of Gary Cooper, Henry Fonda, Dana Andrews, Spencer Tracy, John Wayne, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Anne Baxter, Barbara Stanwyck, Lana Turner, Linda Darnell, Ginger Rogers, Loretta Young, and many other stars.

Barbary Coast was rather a mess when Howard Hawks took over direction of a film initially assigned by Sam Goldwyn to William Wyler. Hawks was famous—and sometimes notorious—for rewriting scripts on the set, inviting his actors to contribute lines. At the same time, he was loath to cede his authority, or to allow actors to take over a production. Meta Carpenter, Hawks’s secretary and sometime script supervisor, vividly recalled how curt—even insulting—the director could be. “Shut up, Walter,” Hawks barked after Brennan apparently offered one too many suggestions. Carpenter never forgot the sight of the deflated actor, who took a day to recover from this rebuff. But Walter was resilient and adaptable. He later told his granddaughter Claudia that he survived the exhausting work of filmmaking by taking catnaps during breaks. He could sleep anywhere on anything—even a coil of rope.

Whatever misgivings Cooper had about entering the ring with Brennan, he also realized that Walter was too good an actor and had too refined a sense of ensemble acting to do anything other than make Cooper look good. It was all good, as a matter of fact. Wyler was able to shoot the film on location in Tucson, Arizona, benefitting from Goldwyn’s million-dollar budget, which allowed for the construction of a replica of the opera house that Lilly Langtry appeared in. For Wyler, Brennan, and Cooper what mattered was the work.

-Y no, en casa no me espera nadie, ¿pensabas que sí? -Entonces la única explicación es que vives rodeada de ciegos y sordos.

Aquello era una locura pero Graziella pensó que las locuras eran maravillosas

Rocko. La primera vez que lo vi fue por Rocko, un perro que no era mío ni del todo suyo. La historia que cambió mi vida comenzó por un perro pastor alemán de tres años llamado Rocko.

If the Rapture happened today, would you be untakenable?

Ruth Chatterton wanted to play Fran as totally self-centered, without any redeeming features. The director insisted it be done his way, all the while smiling, which only increased her outrage. On one occasion she slapped him and stormed off to her dressing room. Thanks to Wyler’s intransigence, Chatterton gave her greatest screen performance, but the public held the part against her. Dodsworth was the last movie she made in America. After two more movies made in Britain she returned to the stage.

- Vai dar tudo certo, senhor - Harry repetia sem parar, mais preocupado com o silêncio de Dumbledore do que estivera com a fraqueza de sua voz. - Estamos quase chegando... Posso Aparatar com o senhor para voltarmos... não se preocupe... - Não estou preocupado, Harry - disse Dumbledore, sua voz um pouco mais forte apesar da frieza da água. - Estou com você.

Directed By: William Wyler Starring: Gregory