The Films of Robert Wise

226 Pages·2007·0.675 MB·English

by  Richard C. Keenan

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FILM • PEFORMING ARTS K the films of robert wise
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From his early days as a film editor at RKO studios, where he helped Orson E
Welles shape Citizen Kane, to his success as a director and producer of musical N the curse of the cat people
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blockbusters of the 1960s, Robert Wise (1914–2005) had a long and illustrious
N
film career. Unlike such contemporaries as Alfred Hitchcock, John Ford, or Howard the body snatcher
Hawks, however, Wise’s films lack any discernible characteristics to signify his work.
There are few striking camera angles or visual flourishes that might distract from the
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primary obligation to present the story. And like Hawks, Wise never specialized in one
h the house on telegraph hill
or two genres but brought his directing skills to all manner of films. His work as a director
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resists auteur categorization, a chief reason some critics have been unduly negative in
born to kill the set-up
their consideration of his work.
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i
In The Films of Robert Wise, Richard C. Keenan examines the nearly forty features that l
m the day the earth stood still
represent the director’s career, from The Curse of the Cat People(1944) to A Storm in
Summer(2001), the only television production Wise ever directed. Keenan argues that
if there were a flaw in Robert Wise as a director, it was that he lacked the ego and tem- s the andromeda strain

perament of the artist, which was not necessarily a flaw at all. Indeed, Wise was a con-
o
scientious craftsman who primarily saw his work not as a vehicle for his own ideas and
f somebody up there likes me
visual style but as an opportunity to present narrative that—quite simply—engages,

informs, and entertains. It was this perspective that helped produce a number of mem- r
orable films, including the gritty noir Born to Kill, the one-two punch of The Set-Upand o run silent, run deep
Somebody Up There Likes Me, the sci-fi prophecy The Day the Earth Stood Still, and b
the gripping indictment of capital punishment I Want to Live!Wise also won a pair of
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Oscars for two of the most memorable—not to mention successful—musicals of all west side story
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time: West Side Storyand The Sound of Music.
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i want to live!
Drawing on more than thirty hours of interviews with Wise, as well as additional interviews w
with a number of his collaborators, Keenan offers a welcome reassessment of the
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director’s work. In his analysis of each film, Keenan reveals Wise as craftsman andartist.
s the haunting
In doing so, The Films of Robert Wisefinally gives this underappreciated director the
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recognition he deserves.
executive suite
RICHARD C. KEENANis chair of the Department of English and Modern Languages
the sand pebbles
at the University of Maryland, Eastern Shore.
the sound of music
For orders and information please contact the publisher Cover photo courtesy of the author
Cover design by Jen Huppert Design
SCARECROW PRESS, INC.
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ISBN-13: 978-0-8108-5885-5
The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. ISBN-10: 0-8108-5885-1
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The Films of
Robert Wise
Richard C. Keenan
THE SCARECROW PRESS, INC.
Lanham,Maryland • Toronto • Plymouth,UK
2007
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SCARECROW PRESS,INC.
Published in the United States of America
by Scarecrow Press,Inc.
A wholly owned subsidiary of
The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group,Inc.
4501 Forbes Boulevard,Suite 200,Lanham,Maryland 20706
www.scarecrowpress.com
Estover Road
Plymouth PL6 7PY
United Kingdom
Copyright © 2007 by Richard C.Keenan
All rights reserved.No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system,or transmitted in any form or by any
means,electronic,mechanical,photocopying,recording,or otherwise,
without the prior permission of the publisher.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Keenan,Richard C.,1939–
The films of Robert Wise / Richard C.Keenan.
p.cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13:978-0-8108-5885-5 (pbk.:alk.paper)
ISBN-10:0-8108-5885-1 (pbk.:alk.paper)
1. Wise,Robert,1914– —Criticism and interpretation. I.Title.
PN1998.3.W569K44 2007
791.4302'33092—dc22 2007008888
(cid:2)™
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper
for Printed Library Materials,ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
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To
Marion,
Liz, and Drew.
Thanks for the patience, love, and support.
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To appreciate Robert Wise, it is necessary to return to the high-
lights of his best thirty years in the business: the decades of the
’40s, ’50s, and ’60s. Seeing once again films such as The Set-Up
(1949),The Day the Earth Stood Still(1951),Executive Suite(1954),
Run Silent,Run Deep(1958),I Want to Live(1958),Odds against To-
morrow (1959), West Side Story (1961), The Haunting (1963), and
The Andromeda Strain(1971) makes it quite clear that Robert Wise
is indisputably a major director in the history of American film.
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Contents
Preface vii
Acknowledgments ix
1 The Early Years at RKO 1
2 The Years with Val Lewton 10
3 More B Movies 30
4 Moving Up: From B to A 38
5 Wise at His Best: The Set-Up 42
6 The Years at Warner Bros. and Fox 57
7 Science Fiction and the Cold War: The Day the Earth Stood Still 69
8 1952–1958: Documentary Style—And Everything Else . . . 75
9 “Produced”by Robert Wise 98
10 From Stage to Film: Preeminent Translator of Musicals 112
11 The 1970s 139
12 Searching for New Beginnings 158
Appendix:An Interview with Robert Wise 167
Bibliography 173
Filmography 175
Index 201
About the Author 209
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Preface
I
n the early 1930s, the young Alfred Hitchcock made a brief and abortive
attempt at directing musical comedy. It simply wasn’t for him. So Hitchcock
returned to suspense, created The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) and The
Thirty-Nine Steps (1935), and thereafter steadily built a richly deserved inter-
national reputation as the undisputed master of suspense. Like Hitchcock, the
most notable directors in the history of motion pictures seem to have made
similar discoveries about themselves and developed a personal style, a “signa-
ture,”as critic Andrew Sarris once termed it, making it possible for both crit-
ics and the public to clearly identify particular directors with the type of film
they do best. Directors like Orson Welles, John Ford, and Alfred Hitchcock
have such a distinctive style, and have had a host of imitators over the years.
Robert Wise resists such categorization,and that is a large part of the rea-
son some critics, although duly acknowledging the high quality of his more
impressive work, continue to deny him admission to the pantheon of Holly-
wood’s greater directors. Andrew Sarris, for example, praises Wise’s “consci-
entious craftsmanship,”but laments what he terms the “strained seriousness”of
his films of the ’50s and ’60s. Pauline Kael, pleased that Wise’s work is “un-
pretentious,”laments that it contains too much of the technician, that “noth-
ing has really been left to chance.” There is undeniably that element in Wise
that prevents his leaving anything to chance, the virtue of the conscientious
craftsman who sees his work not primarily as a vehicle for his own ideas, but
as an experience that also serves—as he perceives them—the expectations of
his audience. Robert Wise lacks the ego and temperament of the artist—but
his painstaking craftsmanship has created such truly great films as the film noir
classic The Set-Up (1949) and West Side Story (1961), which Bosley Crowther
of the New York Times described as “nothing short of a cinema masterpiece.”
vii
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viii Preface
In a critique of The Sand Pebbles,Arthur Knight, the film critic for the
highly respected but now defunct Saturday Review, offers what is perhaps the
most succinct summary of Robert Wise and the question of personal signature:
Robert Wise seems able to do almost anything,from the uncompromising
Realism of I Want to Live!to the operatic West Side Story,from the superbly
manipulated shudders of The Haunting to the many splendors of The Sound
of Music. But whatever the genre, Wise manages to give it the style most
suited to the material, in contrast to most directors, who would rather
stamp their pictures with the style most suited to themselves.
The feature films that Wise completed since becoming a director in 1944
represent a cross section of American film genre. In his work, Wise maintains
an unshakable fidelity to the narrative;there are few striking camera angles and
few visual flourishes that might distract from what the director considers the
primary obligation and responsibility—to present the story to the audience.
Robert Wise’s role as an artist of the cinema is invariably subsumed by his role
as the craftsman who uses talent and experience to present a story to his audi-
ence that engages, informs, and entertains. The integrity and quality behind
the craftsmanship of a Robert Wise film is not always readily apparent in a dis-
tinctive or obvious fashion related to or identified by a “signature.”Often it lies
beneath the surface, and fully rewards closer examination.
In undertaking that examination, I have written what is more accurately
termed an essay, a subjective examination of the value and merit of Wise’s ac-
complishments as a director and producer. This essay is not a synthesis of the
views and ideas of other critics,although it draws minimally on what I consider
the most relevant ideas and perceptions of Wise’s work presented by critics and
reviewers over the years.His long career notwithstanding,there is relatively little
written about Robert Wise, beyond reviews and very brief articles. Interviews
that I and others conducted over the years do not advance incrementally our un-
derstanding of his work. He tended to say very much the same things about his
earlier films,partially through a kind of modesty,and partially because there was
a part of him that remained,essentially,the journeyman director and producer.
I was fortunate to have the opportunity to conduct a series of interviews
with Mr. Wise in the late 1970s, and to spend several weeks with him on the
set of Star Trek:The Motion Picture.I did a second extensive interview with him
in August 1981.Being on the Star Trek set gave me the opportunity to observe
firsthand his style of directing and his general approach to all aspects of creat-
ing a motion picture. I also had the opportunity to interview a number of his
associates in the industry,both past and present.Robert Wise and I continued
to correspond for a number of years thereafter,and he responded patiently and
helpfully to any questions I asked him, providing a great deal of valuable in-
formation unavailable elsewhere.