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Reading the Trivia, Sinatra must have been a real beep

posted 9 years ago by titusbeertsen
2 replies | jump to latest

"Doris Day wrote that Frank Sinatra disliked Day's husband/manager Martin Melcher so much that he threatened to walk off this film unless Melcher was banned from the Warner Brothers lot during production. Jack L. Warner issued this order to all studio security guards so that production would not be shut down."

"Doris Day wrote that this film started with Charles Lang as Director of Photography. Frank Sinatra did not like to rehearse and was accustomed to doing scenes in one take, and he complained that the meticulous Lang was taking far too long to set up camera shots and wanted to do repeated takes. Sinatra walked off the film and threatened to quit unless Lang was fired. Lang was replaced by Ted D. McCord."

"This film is a remake of Four Daughters (1938) in which the character played by John Garfield dies. Frank Sinatra plays the character in this film, but Sinatra refused to accept the role unless the film was rewritten so that the character lives. Doris Day wrote that Sinatra put it on a take-me-or-leave-me basis. After many hectic conferences, the producers caved in and changed the ending to satisfy Sinatra."

'The willow sees the heron's image upside down' - from 'Sans Soleil'

[–] ModernAudrey 9 years ago

all fairness, Marty Melcher was alledgedly a real jerk who could be very controlling on the set. I can't say I'd want him around either. And although I do believe the movie would have been better with the original ending, I don't really see why its such a big deal that Sinatra would only accept the part if his character lived. Negotiations are standard practice, and, after all, they did have the option to choose a different actor.

[–] midwestmoviemaven 8 years ago

Melcher was a jerk who dominated over his wife and eventually stole a huge chunk of Doris' money.

Frank wasn't just being lazy with the one-take thing. It was probably in his contract because everyone knew that the more takes he did, the more mechanical he became. Frank Capra, when he directed Frank in A Hole in the Head, actually found a solution to the problem of Frank being quite solid in his first or second takes (but losing steam the more takes they did) and his co-stars taking several takes to nail it. Capra secretly told the co-stars to improvise and even interrupt Sinatra's lines (which made sense within the context of the scene--because the character was being condescended to). The actors were worried but they did it. And it actually worked. Frank (after about a half second of shock) rolled right along with the improvisation and the scenes were fixed.

Also, on the set of Young at Heart, after a crying scene, a crewman rudely threw a box of Kleenex at Doris Day. This pissed off Frank and he yelled at the guy for being so rude. Doris always appreciated that. Frank, being difficult about her husband, was of course awkward. But she said years later that she appreciated that Frank was looking out for her.

Sinatra was a complicated man with many flaws but he also had quite a few good traits. And people shouldn't assume that everything he did was mean-spirited. People tend to think that he was a sociopathic mobster who dabbled in acting and singing. The truth was that he was a singer/actor who may have been bipolar and who dabbled in hanging out with the mobsters who worshipped him. There is a difference (certainly in degree) between those two types of people.

"You are not only wrong. You are wrong at the top of your voice."

Reading the Trivia, Sinatra must have been a real *beep*

Reading the Trivia, Sinatra must have been a real beep