Weird Movie Trivia: Warped Tales from the Bottom of the Barrel
by Bill Chinaski
"I lost a million dollars and it wasn't even lunchtime." --Andrew "Dice" Clay
- Film criticism unofficially began with a brief review of May Irwin Kiss [1896] in the Chap Book for June 15, 1896: ". . . absolutely disgusting."
- Robert Mitchum got his start in a Hopalong Cassidy film.
- The private detective who tracks Henry Chinaski (Mickey Rourke) down in Barfly is none other than Jack "Eraserhead" Nance.
- In a 1975 interview, Jane Fonda called Billy Jack an "extremely progressive film."
- Original titles for Annie Hall included Anhedonia (meaning incapable of experiencing pleasure) and Anxiety, Annie and Alvy.
- Ione Skye Leitch (Clarissa in River's Edge) is the daughter of '60s folk singer Donovan.
- Film critic Roger Ebert wrote the screenplay for Beyond the Valley of the Dolls.
- In preparation for his role as Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver, Robert DeNiro lost 35 pounds, drove a cab and read books on Green Berets.
- In The Manchurian Candidate, 37-year-old Angela Lansbury portrays the mother of 34-year-old Laurence Harvey.
- The Exorcist was the first horror flick to be nominated for a Best Picture Oscar.
- "That was the best ice cream soda I ever tasted . . ." --last words, Lou Costello, March 3, 1959
- The shoes eaten by Charlie Chaplin in The Gold Rush were made of licorice.
- Ronald Reagan and Ann Sheridan were originally cast for the lead roles in Casablanca.
- "Dear Sir: Please don't send me any more pictures where they write with feathers." --Iowa movie theater owner, writing to MGM about costume dramas, circa 1940s
- Al Capone loved Paul Muni's performance in Scarface [1932] so much that he owned his own print.
- Buddy Ebsen ("Barnaby Jones") was originally cast as the Scarecrow and Ray Bolger as the Tin Woodman in The Wizard of Oz. However, they switched roles and Ebsen got a severe allergic reaction to the aluminum dust and Jack Haley had to replace him.
- Marcel Ophuls' Hotel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie [1988], which runs 267 minutes, was culled from 120 hours of interviews.
- From 1961 to 1968, Elvis Presley starred in 21 movies.
- On the amusement park set during the filming of Strangers on a Train [1951], Alfred Hitchcock stranded his daughter (who was afraid of heights) on the top of the Ferris wheel for over an hour - just for kicks!
- The 1956 Oscar for Best Screenplay went to a writer named "Robert Rich" for The Brave One. No such person existed. Turns out it was actually blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo.
- Approximately two hours before his fatal car crash, James Dean received a speeding ticket for driving 75 miles per hour in a 45 mile per hour zone. He shrugged it off and sped off down the highway.
- The Parent-Teachers Association of America dismissed Cat People [1942] as "morbid" and "unconstructive."
- Watergate security guard Frank Mills played himself in All the President's Men [1976].
- Lee J. Cobb's tough guy role in On the Waterfront [1954] was based on mobster Albert Anastasia.
- The Russians retitled The Roaring Twenties [1939], which starred James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart, as The Fate of a Soldier in America.
- The son of strict Calvinists, screenwriter Paul Schrader (Taxi Driver) didn't see a single movie until he reached the age of 18.
- Greer Garson's acceptance speech for winning Best Actress in Mrs. Miniver ran over a half hour - the longest acceptance speech in Academy Award history.
- A jealous W.C. Fields once spiked the orange juice of scene-stealing Baby LeRoy.
- Director John Frankenheimer (The Manchurian Candidate) drove his good friend Robert Kennedy to the hotel on the night he was assassinated.
- The plot of Alien [1979] was stolen outright from a 1950's B-movie called The Terror from Beyond Space.
- Mae West and Montgomery Clift both turned down the lead roles in Sunset Boulevard [1950].
- In her very first screen role, Jo Van Fleet won the best supporting actress Oscar for East of Eden [1955].
- Erich von Stroheim's masterpiece, Greed [1924], originally ran nearly 10 hours long but the studio cut it to 150 minutes. All excised footage was destroyed!
- The "realistic" trench warfare scenes in All Quiet on the Western Front [1930] were actually filmed on a hill near Newport Beach.
- Everyone knows that Robert Blake appeared as "Mickey" in the Our Gang shorts but also look for him as the Mexican boy who sells Bogart a winning lottery ticket in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre [1948].
- The Black Panthers used Gillo Pontecorvo's The Battle of Algiers [1967] to train its members in urban guerilla warfare.
- Jack "Joe Friday" Webb plays bohemian writer Artie Green in Sunset Boulevard [1950].
- "Easy Rider is a Southern term for a whore's old man. Not a pimp but the dude who lives with the chick. Because he's got an easy ride. Well, that's what's happening to America, man. Liberty's become a whore and we're all taking the easy ride." --Peter Fonda
- Bela Lugosi turned down the role of the monster in Frankenstein [1931].
- "What must one do to receive an Oscar? Play Biblical characters, priests and victims of sad tragic disabilities." --Marlene Dietrich
- Known as the "first" western, The Great Train Robbery [1903] was actually filmed in New Jersey.
- Gary Oldman dropped 40 pounds (150 to 110) to portray Sid Vicious in Sid and Nancy [1986].
- "Funny, we've been running it this way all day and you're the first person who's complained." --Ft. Lauderdale movie theater manager, after a patron informed him that the reels for The Two Jakes, the dismal sequel to Chinatown, were being show out of sequence.
- Clark Gable tried out for the lead role in Little Caesar but was beat out by none other than Edward G. Robinson.
- Vivien Leigh received only $15,000 for her performance as Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With the Wind.
- According to the Guinness' Movie Facts and Feats, a Welsh woman named Myra Franklin sat through 940 screenings of The Sound of Music.
- Laurence Olivier was considered for the part of Don Corleone in The Godfather.
- "They ruined it. Even the villain looks pink and cheerful." --Frank Capra, on the colorization of his film It's a Wonderful Life
- Katherine Hepburn based her role in The African Queen on Eleanor Roosevelt.
- The studio had wanted to cast Tab Hunter and Jayne Mansfield for Rebel Without a Cause but were forced to settle with James Dean and Natalie Wood.
Pablo Picasso appears in a crowd scene in Jean Cocteau's The Testament of Orpheus [1962].
In preparation for his role as Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull [1980], Robert DeNiro gained 55 pounds (from 160 to 215).
John Huston on Ronald Reagan: "God, he's a bore. And a bad actor. Besides, he has a low order of intelligence. With a certain cunning. And not animal cunning. Human cunning. Animal cunning is too fine an expression for him. He's inflated, he's egotistical. He's one of those people who thinks he is right. And he's not right. He's not right about anything."
"It's a 50-year-old father with three 47-year-old sons. You know why they all get along so good? They're all the same age." --Sam (Jackie Gayle) explaining the success of "Bonanza" in Tin Men [1987]
Look for former Olympic champion Jim Thorpe in a bit role as a prisoner in White Heat [1949], starring James Cagney and Virginia Mayo.
W.C. Fields used the name "Mahatma Kane Jeeves" for his story credit in The Bank Dick [1940].
Roger Corman's The Little Shop of Horrors was made in just two days.
"Agents tell you 'Love Boat' will be excellent exposure; it will lead to something. It leads to nothing: it doesn't do you one damn bit of good." --Don Ameche
Peter Bonerz, the actor who portrayed Jerry Robinson on "The Bob Newhart Show", directed Police Academy 6: City Under Siege, as well as nine episodes of "ALF".
