May 6 2008

Here are two more stories about the movies that I'm told are true.

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During the 1980s, actor/writer Peter Ustinov was narrating a documentary about the Vatican in Rome.  Accompanied by a camera man, Ustinov walked through the buildings and courtyards while he commented on the various art works he found along the way.  What Ustinov didn't know was that another movie team was filming on the grounds that day and they were shooting a scene about a heretic being burned during the Inquisition.  Ustinov stepped into a courtyard to find himself suddenly looking at a mob of medieval peasants carrying torches who were gathered around a man tied to a stake.  Speechless for a second, Ustinov recovered beautifully and said, "I'm terribly sorry.  Have I come at a bad time?"

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When he was still a teenager, actor Warren Beatty went to see the Alan Ladd western Shane.  Beatty was impressed by the way the soundtrack for the film had been mixed to make the gunfire loud and startling for the audience.  Years later, when he produced Bonnie And Clyde, Beatty insisted on doing the sound mix himself and he painstakingly copied the approach used in Shane.

When a final print of the movie was ready, Beatty invited a number of his friends over to his house for a preview screening in his home theatre.  While watching the film with them, Beatty had the uncomfortable feeling that something was missing.  Finally, he realized that the gunfire wasn't jumping out at the viewer in the way he had mixed the soundtrack.  He went back to talk to his projectionist.

"Did you change the sound mix at all?" Beatty asked.

"Sure did," the projectionist said. "I remixed the whole thing."

Beatty was stunned.

"Why?" he managed to ask.

"I had to do it," the projectionist said. "That sound mix was the worst one I've heard since Shane."
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Do you enjoy these movie stories?  Do you have any of your own?  Let me know.

George

P.S. Please visit my online bookstore at:  http://stores.lulu.com/store.php?fAcctID=893655