Article - They pulled the plug

Recently the papers were full of stories concerning the demise of the film Eucalyptus. Theories abounded: was it the script? Was it Rusty? Was it some ancient aboriginal curse? Any film getting made is a miracle – and even the fact that a film has been greenlighted and has started shooting is no guarantee it will make it to release. Stephen Vagg looks at some famous cinematic chokes

Arrive Alive

This action-comedy script by Mitch Glazer and legendary Saturday Night Live writer Michael O’Donoghue had been kicking around Hollywood for a number of years. Producer Art Linson finally got the film greenlighted at Paramount in the late 1980s with Willem Defoe (coming off Platoon) to star and Jeremiah Chechik (coming off National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation) to direct. As the rushes came in, Linson and the studio began to realise that Defoe was miscast and the film unfunny. They pulled the plug during shooting.

Bezhin Meadow

The first sound film from Sergei Eisenstein, which the great director made during the mid 1930s in Russia after his trip to America and the debacle of Que Viva Mexico (also uncompleted). Eisenstein worked on the film for two years before the government stepped in and stopped filming just as it was nearing completion. The plot was about a young boy helping his village defeat a group of saboteurs out to destroy the harvest of the collective farm. The sole surviving print of the film was destroyed (allegedly by a bombing raid during the war; others thought the government had done it). A half hour version exists today, a reconstruction of the film made with some surviving footage, titles and slides.

Bogart Slept Here

By the mid 1970s it was hard to find a more potent, commercial filmmaking team than Neil Simon and Mike Nichols. Simon had an idea for a film about an actor (loosely based on Dustin Hoffman) whose marriage falters when he reaches stardom. They cast Robert de Niro and started filming. It soon became apparent that de Niro (who’d just done Taxi Driver) wasn’t getting the laughs expected from a Neil Simon script and the studio agreed to pull the plug. Perhaps not coincidentally, Mike Nichols did not direct a feature film for a number of years. Simon reworked his script into a happier story, a kind of prequel which ends when Bogart Slept Here began: The Goodbye Girl was a big success that won Richard Dreyfuss a best actor Oscar.

The Day the Clown Cried

In 1972 Jerry Lewis starred in this independently-financed film as a German clown who does some entertaining at the concentration camps – all this years before Life is Beautiful. The film ran out of money towards the end and there has been some disputes over rights. Lewis didn’t make another film for a number of years.

The Deep

Charles Williams’ novel ‘Dead Calm’ was filmed by Orson Welles during the late 60s, starring Welles, Jeanne Moreau and Laurence Harvey. An attempt by Welles to make a more commercially appealing type of film, it was never completed due to problems involving weather, finance and actor availability. The rights to the novel were obtained by Australia’s Kennedy Miller who reduced the story’s original five characters to three and released their own version in 1989 – launching Nickers into Tom Cruise’s bed and on to international fame.

Don Quixote

Orson Welles started filming his version of the famous novel in the 1955. He’d managed to shoot Othello successfully on an on-again-off-again fashion over the years, so why not try it again? His luck didn’t hold for this one and the film remains uncompleted (Welles joked towards the end of his life that he would eventually call the film When Are You Going to Finish ‘Don Quixote’?) Some existing footage was cobbled together after Welles’ death and released in 1992.

The Dreamers

Made on and off during the early 1980s, this unfinished Orson Welles film was based on two Isak Dinesen stories starring Oja Kodar, Welles’ companion in later years. Around 25 minutes of film were apparently shot, excluding retakes. Again, lack of finance prevented completion before Welles’ death in 1985.

Game of Death

Bruce Lee had just made it big on an international scale with Enter the Dragon so Golden Harvest prepared a similar big-budget karate epic with foreign names. One of them was going to be Australia’s George Lazenby; he was set to have dinner with Lee one night when Lee died. Lee’s fans knew he had already shot some great fight scenes for a new film called Game of Death. Enterprising filmmakers tried to cash in with a number of films hinting at some connection with this footage: Goodbye Bruce Lee His Last Game of Death, The New Game of Death, The True Game of Death, Enter the Game of Death (this all was part of the creepy “Brucesploitation” genre of kung fu films in the 70s with Bruce Lee look-alikes). Golden Harvest used original real footage and shot some new one stuff using stand ins and clips from old Bruce Lee films; Game of Death was released in 1978.

Gone in 60 Seconds 2

The original Gone in 60 Seconds was directed by HB “Toby” Halicki, the “car crash king”, who went on to make The Junkman and Deadline Auto Theft. While making this sequel in 1989 he was killed when a pole fell of him during filming. Footage from the film is available on special edition DVDs.

I, Claudius

Robert Graves’ novel brought life in Ancient Rome to life as few others have, and during the 1930s a dream team assembled to turn it into a film: Alexander Korda as producer, Josef Von Sternberg director, with Charles Laughton to star as Claudius and Merle Oberon as Messalina. Filming proceeded at a slow pace, and when Oberon was hospitalised followed a near fatal car crash Korda pulled the plug. Exiting footage was featured in the 1965 documentary, The Epic That Never Was.

It’s All True

During the early 1940s Orson Welles was sent to South America to make a documentary as part of Roosevelt’s “Good Neighbour” policy during World War Two. During filming there was a change in administration of his studio RKO; advance word on The Magnificent Ambersons was not good and Welles became on the nose. He was called back to the USA and the film was not completed. A version was cut together and released in the early 1990s.

Man’s Fate

Adaptation of Andre Malraux’s book set in 1920’’s China was all set for big budget treatment in 1969, starring David Niven and to be directed by Fred Zinneman. MGM then had a change of ownership and the new president James Aubrey pulled the plug on the film only days before filming, claiming they couldn’t afford it. Lawsuits resulted and the film remains unmade.

The Man Who Killed Don Quixote

The curse of ‘Don Quixote’ strikes again! Terry Gilliam had a go at his version of the story in the 1990s. His mega-tight budget and schedule were unable to stand up to unfriendly weather and the strain of having his Don Quixote (Jean Rochefort) suffer a heart attack. It did result in the tremendous documentary Lost in La Mancha.

The Other Side of the Wind

Orson Welles’ other great unfinished film was shot during the 1970s, starring John Huston as a film director trying to get finance for a film. Peter Bogdanovich was involved behind and in front of the cameras. Financial problems again intervened and the film was not finished. Footage available to the general public shows Welles was just as innovative and experimental as ever.

Queen Kelly

During the late 1920s, film star Gloria Swanson had moved into independent production and teamed with the legendary director Eric Von Stroheim to make this epic (originally intended to run five hours). Swanson’s lover Joe Kennedy (father of John F. Kennedy) helped provide money. Von Stroheim’s filming techniques saw the film fall behind schedule and with sound coming in it seemed the film would lack a market. Swanson fired Von Stroheim and shut down production. A replacement was bought in but eventually filming was called off altogether. A version was cobbled together released with production stills and photographs. Footage was used in Sunset Boulevard, which starred Swanson and Von Stroheim.

Sheepmates

An outback story from a novel by William Hatfield which started filming in 1934 under director F W Thring. Some scenes were shot on location but the film was never completed.

Something’s Gotta Give

During the early 1960s Marilyn Monroe agreed to star in what seemed to be a sure-fire commercial success: a remake of the romantic comedy My Favourite Wife, co-starring Dean Martin and directed by George Cukor. Marilyn was late on set a couple of times; the studio, 20th Century Fox, were having a horrible time with costs on Cleopatra and decided they weren’t going to take it – they sacked her. She was later rehired by Marilyn died soon after. The film was later remade with Doris Day as Move Over, Darling and was a big success. An excellent documentary exists of the making of the film, Marilyn Monroe: The Final Days, including culled-together footage of her final film – Marilyn gives an excellent performance (playing an intelligent person, which is kind of weird), and takes a nude swim.