Hollywood Exile, or How I Learned to Love the Blacklist by Bernard Gordon

Author:Bernard Gordon [Gordon, Bernard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Texas Press

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Work on the circus film started very early in my career with Yordan and continued on and off for years. The project intersected virtually all the others with which I was eventually involved.

Despite the fact that I had initiated the circus project, had suggested the basic story of a search for the greatest acts anywhere in the world, and had worked with Nick Ray to deliver a completed script that was accepted by Ray and Yordan, matters beyond the control of any of us resulted in a series of reincarnations that, while interesting, eventually left me out of the picture—a film ultimately released in 1964 under the title of Circus World. According to Yordan, Bronston and his close associates in Madrid, especially his wife Dorothea, decided that Circus was not up to the elevated standards Bronston now set for himself. El Cid was in distribution and, though not a smash hit, it was regarded as a succès d’estime, enough to make Bronston want to deal in major historical subjects. Yordan assured me this change was not a criticism of the script I had written. No one had even bothered to read the script. It was a sudden change of direction for the Bronston enterprise.

Much later, even while 55 Days at Peking was actually in production and there were almost daily demands on me to rewrite those scenes, I was also rewriting the Circus script. Yordan had not entirely abandoned it and wanted me to work up a more conventional personal story. It seemed to me at this point that most of my time was spent working away at unrewarding and frustrating assignments that seemed to go nowhere. For instance, the Circus script needed work in an effort to please someone. I didn’t know exactly who. A half-dozen other projects were always in some stage of progress, where I was supposed to help other writers or take a crack at them myself.

Shortly after I had started on Circus again, word came down that Bronston had signed Frank Capra to direct it. The account I heard from Yordan, and I had no reason to doubt it, was that Bronston, once again in Rome, had run into the eminent old director. Bronston, drunk at the time, approached Capra with a deal. Capra, of course, the beloved director of such all-time hits as It Happened One Night, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, It’s a Wonderful Life, was apparently past his prime and not getting many offers to direct. He accepted Bronston’s offer and the handsome remuneration without asking to read the script. Ah. Niven again? It was evident that Bronston wanted, above all, to establish his respectability as a great and memorable filmmaker. Using the right stars helped, and using a director like Capra would be a real feather in his cap.

I didn’t know whether I would have anything more to do with the script, though, of course, I was impressed with the name Capra and thought it would be gratifying to work with him.

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