Production
The pairing of Robert Cummings (on loan from RKO Pictures) and top-draw Olivia de Havilland appeared to be a good studio decision, but the production soon ran into problems. Feeling that being cast in a lightweight role was limiting her future in Hollywood features, de Havilland also began to have medical problems that compounded her anxiety. To complicate filming, Cummings often was unavailable, as he was simultaneously at work on Between Us Girls at Universal Studios, forcing de Havilland to deliver lines to a stand-in. Aged actor Charles Coburn also frequently forgot his lines, leading to many retakes which sapped her energy further.
As the production struggled on, tensions came to a head as de Havilland fought openly with Warner Bros. Tired and suffering from low blood pressure, the formerly steady and hard-working actress began reporting late for work, leaving the set abruptly and going home when her frustrations became too much. She would eventually sue the studio in a landmark case, known as the "de Havilland decision", that set a seven-year limit on studio-player contracts. The film was completed, 10 days behind schedule, and due to the legal squabbling, was eventually released a year after the production wrapped.
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Famous quotes containing the word production:
“The myth of unlimited production brings war in its train as inevitably as clouds announce a storm.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)
“It is part of the educator’s responsibility to see equally to two things: First, that the problem grows out of the conditions of the experience being had in the present, and that it is within the range of the capacity of students; and, secondly, that it is such that it arouses in the learner an active quest for information and for production of new ideas. The new facts and new ideas thus obtained become the ground for further experiences in which new problems are presented.”
—John Dewey (1859–1952)
“... this dream that men shall cease to waste strength in competition and shall come to pool their powers of production is coming to pass all over the earth.”
—Jane Addams (1860–1935)