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(Five years later, Trumbo wrote the script of the Elizabeth Taylor/Richard Burton movie "The Sandpiper." Hedda Hopper, a year away from her death, attended. In the end, Kirk was not crucified, as Spartacus was.His film was a huge hit, and it broke the back finally, of the blacklist. Arguments over certain scenes, clashes between director and producer, stress, stress, stress.
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There were re-takes, revisions, a brilliant 78-page manifesto/critique from Kubrick on why the film was great, and where it was failing. After a long silence in a crowded room, somebody pipes up, "The music will help." Kirk Douglas has to hear the four most terrible words a producer can hear, in the wake of a first screening. (The wise Anne had said to Kirk shortly before his decision, "Doesn't everybody already know he's writing it?")Īfter that, things still don't improve stress-wise. Yet in the end, Kirk decided that once the film was in the can, he was going to tell Universal that "Sam Jackson" was Dalton Trumbo, and that Trumbo alone would receive screen credit as the sole writer. Though the witchunts were over, some of the witchy hunters-Winchell, Hedda Hopper, etc.-still had the power to destroy a film, even a project as major as this one. (After Kirk persuaded her, Simmons said, "I have a feeling you know a lot about getting women to take their bras off.") Always, there were wild budget problems and above all, the specter of what would happen to "Spartacus" if it became common knowledge that Dalton Trumbo was working on it. Jean Simmons would not take her bra off in a crucial scene in a lake.
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What juicy fun is found in Kirk's memories of trying to pin down his cast, the various adventures and trials each put him through. Kirk, of course, was Spartacus, the rebellious slave/gladiator who actually made Rome tremble for a year or two. The movie would star Laurence Olivier, Charles Laughton, Peter Ustinov, Tony Curtis and the ravishing Jean Simmons. He concludes her contributions to this project with " Anne was 'Spartacus.") (Anne, by the way, is a constant source of Kirk's inspiration, a calming influence, a strong woman with the patience of Penelope, loving but not naïve. Douglas includes everything we'd want to know, including the fact that he really needed "Spartacus" to be a hit, because he'd just found out-through the wise investigating of his wife, Anne Buydens-that his longtime manager and friend had swindled him big-time. Anthony Mann accepted the job, his work was deemed not up to snuff and he was ousted in favor of Kubrick, whose "confidence bordered on arrogance" admits Kirk. For one thing, Kubrick was not the film's first director. Making movies can be profitable, but mostly not much fun. But "I Am Sparactus" covers every aspect of the epic from its gestation to premiere. THIS WOULD have been enough, the tale of Trumbo.