Comments on: Movie Legends Revealed #8

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 21:42:52 +0000

The legend about John Gilbert does miss a key point in the story of his downfall. As you state, He and Mayer did hate each other, and it eventually boiled down to a film Gilbert deperately wanted to make about a young boy growing up with a mother who was prostitute. When Mayer said that no one wanted to have anything to do with a movie about mom who was a whore, Gilbert revealed that the film was basically an autobiography and said, “Well, my mother was a whore, what’s wrong with that?” Apparently, Mayer then decked Gilbert in the mouth.

That incident, combined with alcoholism, truly ended Gilbert’s career.

By: Derek

Derek — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 02:20:27 +0000

I’ve loved Oliver Reed since I discovered him as a kid in the 80s. Such a wonderfully intense actor who was always interesting and fun to watch. I actually watched Women In Love as a 13 year old solely for Reed. Naked wrestling match (with Alan Bates) and all.

By: Thomas

Thomas — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 22:38:53 +0000

Oliver Reed would have already completed his part by the time he died, but after watching the rushes, Scott and Wicke decided to lengthen Reed’s part, so that he would be the sole survivor. He had some more scenes to do in Malta, then he would have had to return briefly to Morocco, so they could film the ending.

Also, Reed WAS considered for Bond. Broccoli noted that Reed was their choice when Sean left the series, but because of Reed’s reputation in England as a hellraiser and womanizer, they would have to rewrite the image of Bond. So, we got stuck with Roger Moore instead of a scarred blue-eyed moody Bond. But Ollie told us it was all for naught anyway, as he never would have stayed on the Bond films. One of the biggest missed moments in Film history.

By: Brian Cronin

Brian Cronin — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 04:41:17 +0000

Did you mean this,
“The tale was of a now older Leland visiting his adult daughter at her big fancy corporate office for the company Christmas party, hoping to reconcile. As the two are reconciled, however, German terrorists attack the building and Leland is forced to take them down one by one, helped by radio contact with an outside cop named Al Powell.”

Works for me, Mike!

Thanks.

By: Brian Cronin

Brian Cronin — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 04:39:21 +0000

Oh sure, Michael, I dig John McClane.

I just don’t buy “he’s so good that we can just take other movie plots and plop him down into them” as a GOOD thing.

By: Michael Mayket

Michael Mayket — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 03:51:50 +0000

You do agree that John McClane is a great character though, right? Because he is!

By: Mike Viola

Mike Viola — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 13:07:22 +0000

Did you mean this,
“The tale was of a now older Leland visiting his adult daughter at her big fancy corporate office for the company Christmas party, hoping to reconcile. As the two are reconciled, however, German terrorists attack the building and Leland is forced to take them down one by one, helped by radio contact with an outside cop named Al Powell.”

By: Brian Cronin

Brian Cronin — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 00:50:26 +0000

That’s very possible, Simon, seeing as how Proximo really didn’t NEED to return in the film, plot-wise (I mean, if he had never returned, I don’t think anyone would have been, “Where the hell is Proximo?!?”).

That said, they specifically mentioned at the time of his death that he was on a “break” between filming, so that would suggest they planned on more scenes for him, no?

By: Simon K

Simon K — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 23:22:28 +0000

The Oliver Reed in Gladiator thing; I had heard that the reason that they filmed the extra scenes after his death was not that they were integral to the movie but quite the opposite, they were only written after his death! I dont know how true it is, but I was told (or possibly read somewhere around the time gladiator was being released) that following Reeds death Ridley Scott decided that if Gladiator was going to be Reeds last film then he shouldnt be a villain in it, so they rewrote some scenes to make Proximo more heroic/sympathetic and used the body double/CGI to film them.

By: Kamino Neko

Kamino Neko — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 13:52:32 +0000

The third isn’t particularly remarkable, save that it was a secondary character they did it with, and possibly doing a full 2 minutes using it - they did essentially the same thing several years earlier after Brandon Lee’s death, in order to complete The Crow. They even used similar tricks - darkness (not that The Crow was a brightly lit movie to begin with), and breaking up the image of the actor’s face (in the case of The Crow, by having him apply his makeup in a broken mirror) - to hide it. (As to the length, I have no idea how much footage in The Crow was the double with Lee’s face, rather than actually Lee, or the double with his face hidden entirely.)

On the other hand, it is interesting (if not terribly surprising) that they did it again, and the circumstances surrounding Reed’s death could probably make an interesting article in themselves.