Word: ava
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...film closes. These are simply kowtows to the New Republic set; if the producer had real guts he could have cast Sydney Poitier in Kirk Douglas' role. But then Producer Edward Lewis would have been troubled by the script's implication that Douglas will some day sleep with Ava Gardner, who plays Lancaster's former mistress. Miscegenation might have confused the good guys and the bad guys, particularly for southern audiences. Anything that controversial would have detracted from the film's propaganda force...
With no femme fatale like Garbo, no woman with the animal splendors of the young Ava Gardner, Hollywood has completely lost its come-hither look, falling behind the competition from Europe, where Sophia Loren still unquestionably rules the pantheon. Around her, Bardot and Lollobrigida are fading. But Romy Schneider, Simone Signoret, Claudia Cardinale and Elke Sommer can each outsex all that the American industry has to offer. Hollywood is so barren of sex, in fact, that only last week Universal Pictures had to hold a beauty contest in New York's Americana Hotel in order to find three girls...
...Wherever Ava goes, however, sparklers burn in many hands. The Mexican press last week printed the fanciful rumor that she was going to marry the assistant director, Emilio Fernandez, known as El Indio. Some seven years ago the Indian was one of the top directors in Mexico; but he shot a producer and was ostracized. "Emilio's only weakness," says Director John Huston, "is his tendency to shoot people he doesn't like...
Novelist-Screenwriter Peter Viertel, who was once Ava's constant companion in Paris and Mexico during the filming of The Sun Also Rises some years ago, is also in Puerto Vallarta, since he is now the husband of Deborah Kerr, who is playing a Nantucket spinster in the film. Viertel is understandably wary of Ava, but he is also a little skittish with Director John Huston. He worked on the screenplay of Huston's African Queen and followed up with a novel called White Hunter, Black Heart, which was a thinly disguised, malicious portrait of Huston...
Huston is full of praise for his stars. "Ava," he says, "can belt it out as well as belt it down." He knows that by bringing them all together in such a remote tropic, he has in effect manufactured a human grenade. "I plunked these people down together, and they have to live their parts 24 hours a day," he smiles. So far he is managing them well. The film is five days ahead of schedule. Last week he gave derringers to Richard, Elizabeth, Ava, Deborah, Sue and Producer Ray Stark. Each pistol contained five bullets in its chambers...