Word: selznicks
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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When film production lags, most cine-moguls chew their fingernails. But while Producer David O. Selznick is killing time, he makes a tidy profit with a sideline which Hollywood calls flesh-peddling. Unlike an actors' agent, whose commission is fixed at 10%, Selznick gets fat loan-out fees for the stars who are under contract to him as a producer. Because he is Hollywood's shrewdest publicizer of talent, his stars are in great demand. His profit is the fees, minus the salaries he would be paying the players anyhow...
Last week Producer Selznick announced the closing of his biggest loan-out deal-probably the biggest of its kind in movie history. For a price that ran "well into seven figures" ($1,500,000 was a likely guess), seven Selznick stars will go to Warner Bros, for a total of eleven or twelve pictures: Jennifer Jones (whom D.O.S. is expected to marry this year), Gregory Peck, Joseph Gotten, Louis Jourdan, Shirley Temple, Rory Calhoun and Betsy Drake...
Just to make sure of his point, Selznick decided to close his opus on a more tangible note than timelessness and ends with a hurricane scene that completely breaks the mood of the picture, literally winding it up on the rocks. An additional battery of loudspeakers is spotted around the theater; during the storm scene, they are filled with sounds of wind and surf. The trade calls this device Multi-Sound and it is when the wind is screaming the loudest, and everyone is wondering what has become of the fresh air, that Jenny appears for the last time...
Eagle Lion's new vigor also springs from a deal with David O. Selznick to distribute nine of his "classics" (e.g., Rebecca and Intermezzo), three of his current films and possibly two new ones
...Hotel was kept ringing by cinema celebrities eager to entertain him. The evening he arrived, he dined with Ingrid Bergman (he expects to sign her up for his next picture). The next night there was a small, stylish dinner given by Writer-Director Billy Wilder. One morning David O. Selznick called...