WEBVTT - Lights, Camera, Tax Break 0:00:15.410 --> 0:00:22.530 Pushkin. You might have noticed that things are a little 0:00:22.570 --> 0:00:26.610 different on Cautionary Tales this year. In twenty twenty four, 0:00:26.850 --> 0:00:31.010 we brought you a new episode every fortnight, but this 0:00:31.170 --> 0:00:35.610 year we are doubling our output. New stories of heart 0:00:35.650 --> 0:00:40.450 thumping peril, mind blowing mistakes and jaw dropping scandal will 0:00:40.490 --> 0:00:45.130 now be delivered straight to your ears every week. Here's 0:00:45.170 --> 0:00:53.290 on for you right now. This episode, which combines oscar 0:00:53.410 --> 0:00:57.530 ceremonies Starredust with the far less glamorous world of taxation, 0:00:58.090 --> 0:01:00.810 was recorded in front of a live audience at the 0:01:00.850 --> 0:01:28.370 Bristol Festival of Economics. Ernest borgnine was getting tired of 0:01:28.610 --> 0:01:33.730 playing heavies nearing forty, thickening around the middle, and thinning 0:01:33.770 --> 0:01:37.370 on top. The actor was running out of time to 0:01:37.410 --> 0:01:42.130 become a Hollywood leading man. Ernest had joined the US 0:01:42.290 --> 0:01:45.730 Navy right out of high school, but on leaving in 0:01:45.810 --> 0:01:49.330 nineteen forty five, had struggled to find work amidst the 0:01:49.410 --> 0:01:52.970 mass of men returning home from war. Hit pack a 0:01:53.050 --> 0:01:56.690 lunch and stand outside factories in his hometown just in 0:01:56.730 --> 0:02:00.650 case they were hiring. They weren't, but life on the 0:02:00.650 --> 0:02:05.210 production line didn't much appeal anyway. After navigating the high 0:02:05.330 --> 0:02:10.450 seas to Earnest, the factories of Connecticut looked like jailes. 0:02:12.090 --> 0:02:17.450 It was Ernest's mother, Italian born Anna Bornigno, who suggested 0:02:17.570 --> 0:02:22.170 he enter show business. It didn't seem an obvious career 0:02:22.290 --> 0:02:25.610 choice to Ernest. Why should he become an actor? Of 0:02:25.690 --> 0:02:26.410 all things? 0:02:27.490 --> 0:02:30.290 You always like to make a damn fool of yourself, 0:02:30.370 --> 0:02:33.730 making people laugh. Why don't you give it a try? 0:02:35.210 --> 0:02:40.730 So try he did. His veteran benefits financed some acting classes, 0:02:40.810 --> 0:02:45.850 but Ernest, burly and gap toothed, felt self conscious amongst 0:02:45.930 --> 0:02:49.770 his young and fresh faced classmates. He had never even 0:02:49.810 --> 0:02:52.610 read aloud before, and it showed. 0:02:52.770 --> 0:02:57.650 All the stars were shining like demons. 0:02:57.970 --> 0:03:03.050 No, mister borgnine, the word is diamonds. 0:03:02.890 --> 0:03:04.050 Said his acting teacher. 0:03:04.530 --> 0:03:05.330 Ah shit. 0:03:07.050 --> 0:03:11.650 The class erupted into life, but Ernest would need to 0:03:11.650 --> 0:03:16.450 get used to humiliations. Auditions for budding actors the brutal. 0:03:17.250 --> 0:03:20.610 It wasn't unusual for Ernest to wait two or three 0:03:20.810 --> 0:03:24.370 hours to read for a part, only to be dismissed 0:03:24.410 --> 0:03:28.690 a few lines in. At one casting, he hadn't even 0:03:28.850 --> 0:03:34.210 opened his mouth before the director bellowed. Next, when he 0:03:34.290 --> 0:03:38.450 finally began to land minor roles, His round face and 0:03:38.610 --> 0:03:43.570 stocky build saw him type cast as rowdies, hoodlums, and bullies. 0:03:44.450 --> 0:03:49.490 Playing a cowpoke or gangster. Ernest's brief appearances on film 0:03:49.490 --> 0:03:53.810 would invariably end with a being knocked flat by the 0:03:53.890 --> 0:03:58.970 movie's hero. In the nineteen fifty three blockbuster From Here 0:03:59.010 --> 0:04:04.970 to Eternity, Ernest played a sadistic military policeman, Fatso Judson. 0:04:05.490 --> 0:04:09.050 It was a solid supporting role with pages of diet 0:04:09.770 --> 0:04:14.570 and the chance to off Frank Sinatra's character, but Ernest 0:04:14.730 --> 0:04:19.130 still ended up dead himself, killed by the handsome leading 0:04:19.210 --> 0:04:24.650 man Montgomery Clift. Ernest had drawn heavily on his navy 0:04:24.730 --> 0:04:29.610 experience to bring the menacing Fatso Judson to life, so 0:04:29.730 --> 0:04:33.930 much so that James Jones, author of From Here to Eternity, 0:04:34.370 --> 0:04:37.170 stopped by the set to congratulate the actor. 0:04:37.690 --> 0:04:41.050 You're absolutely the son of a bitch, I wrote about 0:04:41.570 --> 0:04:42.170 keep it up. 0:04:43.450 --> 0:04:47.210 But the quality of Ernest's performance was painting him further 0:04:47.330 --> 0:04:52.490 into a corner. Hollywood's hottest new production company was seeking 0:04:52.490 --> 0:04:55.530 a lead to carry a new project. It was the 0:04:55.570 --> 0:05:01.010 story of a humble bronx bachelor searching for love. Ernest's 0:05:01.050 --> 0:05:01.770 name came up. 0:05:01.970 --> 0:05:05.690 Oh come on, he does nothing but kill people in pictures. 0:05:05.770 --> 0:05:07.490 This is about a lonely butcher. 0:05:07.850 --> 0:05:11.930 This guy can act, The producer was told, so Ernest's 0:05:11.970 --> 0:05:12.450 got the call. 0:05:12.850 --> 0:05:15.690 We've heard nice things about you, were considering you for 0:05:15.730 --> 0:05:16.170 the lead. 0:05:16.930 --> 0:05:20.450 The actor was flabbergasted. No one had ever given him 0:05:20.450 --> 0:05:25.010 a shot at stardom like this, but the producers sure 0:05:25.090 --> 0:05:26.090 he was right for the role. 0:05:26.650 --> 0:05:28.930 Of course, otherwise I wouldn't ask you. 0:05:29.970 --> 0:05:34.210 The film's writer and director flew out for a formal audition. 0:05:35.170 --> 0:05:40.210 Ernest was on location, playing yet another heavy This time 0:05:40.370 --> 0:05:44.250 the script had him being knocked unconscious by Spencer Tracy. 0:05:45.610 --> 0:05:48.850 Ernest came to the reading fresh from the set. His 0:05:49.090 --> 0:05:52.410 cowboy costume was dusty and his chin had a growth 0:05:52.410 --> 0:05:56.610 of stubble. His first words came out with a Western twang. 0:05:57.010 --> 0:06:00.250 What was he thinking? He was blowing his big chance? 0:06:01.570 --> 0:06:05.010 Kicking off his cowboy boots and throwing his ten gallon 0:06:05.090 --> 0:06:12.490 hat aside, Ernest began again. The scene had lovelorn butcher 0:06:13.050 --> 0:06:17.410 Marty Pilletti, carrying his mother's please did he go out 0:06:17.410 --> 0:06:21.490 on the town and meet a nice girl? The Pilletti 0:06:21.570 --> 0:06:25.730 family home wasn't so very different from the Bornino one, 0:06:25.970 --> 0:06:31.690 so Ernest played the role, imagining his mother, Anna was 0:06:31.730 --> 0:06:32.650 reading his cues. 0:06:34.210 --> 0:06:39.330 Marty put on the blue suit, ouo suit, gray suit. 0:06:39.450 --> 0:06:44.450 I'm just a fat little man, fat ugly man, ugly, 0:06:44.610 --> 0:06:47.090 I'm ugly, I'm ugly, I'm ugly. 0:06:47.250 --> 0:06:55.650 Mighty alone. Ernest looked up from the script across from him. 0:06:56.010 --> 0:07:02.970 The director and the writer were in tears. The part 0:07:03.130 --> 0:07:08.010 was his. Ernest Borgnine would play the eponymous lead in Marty, 0:07:08.690 --> 0:07:13.730 a film backed by HECT Lancaster, the production company founded 0:07:13.770 --> 0:07:17.450 by Burt Lancaster that was pumping out box office smashes. 0:07:18.530 --> 0:07:24.250 This was it. Once Marty hit cinema screens, Ernest Borgnine 0:07:24.450 --> 0:07:28.770 would be a star, no more bit parts for him. 0:07:28.850 --> 0:07:34.010 The only problem was the people making Marty didn't want 0:07:34.050 --> 0:07:38.290 it reaching cinema screens. They didn't even want to finish 0:07:38.410 --> 0:07:43.250 filming it. I'm Tim Harford and you're listening to cautionary 0:07:43.290 --> 0:08:10.610 Tales live from the Bristol Festival of Economics. In the 0:08:10.690 --> 0:08:15.770 nineteen forties and fifties, the super rich were the entertainers. 0:08:16.810 --> 0:08:19.370 The head of US Steel could expect to be paid 0:08:19.410 --> 0:08:23.410 three hundred thousand dollars a year, but Frank Sinatra grossed 0:08:23.450 --> 0:08:29.210 closer to four million but with great riches come great taxes. 0:08:30.010 --> 0:08:33.810 That about the time Ernest borgnine was mooching around factories 0:08:34.050 --> 0:08:38.610 desperate for work, any megastar's income over two hundred thousand 0:08:38.690 --> 0:08:43.530 dollars could be taxed at a whopping ninety four percent. 0:08:45.090 --> 0:08:49.410 Some in Hollywood didn't mind, of course. Patriotic bombshell Ann 0:08:49.610 --> 0:08:52.650 Sheridan was amongst the most sanguine. 0:08:52.890 --> 0:08:56.170 I regret that I only have one salary to give 0:08:56.210 --> 0:08:57.090 from my country. 0:08:57.890 --> 0:09:02.090 But others weren't quite so sure. B movie star and 0:09:03.010 --> 0:09:07.930 future president Ronald Reagan worked only part of the year, 0:09:08.450 --> 0:09:12.690 completing a couple of features, and then loafed until the 0:09:12.850 --> 0:09:14.730 end of the tax year rolled around. 0:09:15.410 --> 0:09:17.490 Why should I have done a third picture? Or even 0:09:17.530 --> 0:09:20.170 if it was gone with the wind, what good would 0:09:20.170 --> 0:09:20.770 it have done me? 0:09:21.850 --> 0:09:25.170 But plenty of other Hollywood stars churned out more than 0:09:25.210 --> 0:09:29.090 two films a year. So were they working for mere 0:09:29.290 --> 0:09:33.210 cents on the dollar? Of course not. They looked for 0:09:33.330 --> 0:09:40.130 tax loopholes. Investing in oil exploration was particularly popular. Financing 0:09:40.130 --> 0:09:44.650 a drilling operation attracted generous tax breaks and allowances. It 0:09:44.690 --> 0:09:47.930 became so prevalent that one insider joked. 0:09:48.210 --> 0:09:50.650 When you see a group of movie people talking on 0:09:50.690 --> 0:09:54.130 a set, you don't know whether they're discussing a film 0:09:54.570 --> 0:09:55.130 or an oil. 0:09:55.250 --> 0:10:00.410 Well, but stars didn't have to go wildcatting in the wilderness. 0:10:00.770 --> 0:10:05.290 They could exploit corporate tax breaks without venturing beyond Beverly Hills. 0:10:06.170 --> 0:10:10.090 If a Bing Crosby or Gary Cooper agreed to star 0:10:10.210 --> 0:10:12.770 in a movie, they'd set up a company to take 0:10:12.770 --> 0:10:16.730 the fee or sell that company's shares to the studio 0:10:16.810 --> 0:10:20.690 making the film. They could continue to take dividends from 0:10:20.730 --> 0:10:24.250 these firms at a much lower rate than income tax 0:10:24.410 --> 0:10:28.210 until the money ran out. Then the firm would simply 0:10:28.530 --> 0:10:35.410 disappear when the film Marty was entering production. Almost half 0:10:35.490 --> 0:10:40.890 of all Hollywood films were made using these collapsible corporations 0:10:41.090 --> 0:10:47.770 to dodge sky high taxes independent production companies. These vehicles 0:10:47.770 --> 0:10:52.610 for tax evasion did offer actors other benefits, though many 0:10:52.650 --> 0:10:56.650 had felt constrained by the studio system, where capricious movie 0:10:56.690 --> 0:11:00.970 moguls like Louis B. Mayer, Jack Warner or William Fox 0:11:01.290 --> 0:11:06.410 called all the shots. Stars wanted more of the profits, true, 0:11:06.890 --> 0:11:11.530 but some also yearned for more creative control over their careers. 0:11:12.890 --> 0:11:18.490 In this Bert Lancaster was a pioneer the charismatic and 0:11:18.690 --> 0:11:22.770 acrobatic star had initially run away to join the circus 0:11:22.850 --> 0:11:26.730 during the Great Depression, but his physicality soon found its 0:11:26.890 --> 0:11:31.490 true home on the silver screen. He was an adonis 0:11:31.890 --> 0:11:35.770 and audiences lapped him up, whether he played a prize 0:11:35.770 --> 0:11:40.050 fighter or a pirate. Bert's name on the cinema marquee 0:11:40.250 --> 0:11:44.570 was estimated to bring in an extra million dollars in 0:11:44.690 --> 0:11:50.330 ticket sales. An obsessive autodid act, Burt Lancaster wasn't just 0:11:50.370 --> 0:11:53.810 going to loafer around like Ronald Reagan. If he was 0:11:53.850 --> 0:11:55.970 going to be in hit movies, dammit, he was going 0:11:56.010 --> 0:11:59.250 to learn how they were made. Teaming up with his 0:11:59.410 --> 0:12:04.450 diminutive agent, Harold Hecht, Lancaster began to produce his own films. 0:12:05.130 --> 0:12:08.530 Doubling up as a hustling film exec and the swashbuckling 0:12:08.570 --> 0:12:15.490 leading man was exhausting but rewarding. His films made millions. 0:12:16.690 --> 0:12:20.450 These profits were a highlight that's an otherwise gloomy time 0:12:20.490 --> 0:12:25.770 for Hollywood. TV was taking off. Televisions were monochrome, the 0:12:25.850 --> 0:12:28.970 picture quality was poor and the scenery was wobbly, but 0:12:29.250 --> 0:12:32.850 many Americans would rather stay in to watch television rather 0:12:32.890 --> 0:12:36.850 than trapes out to a cinema. The movie makers fought 0:12:36.930 --> 0:12:42.610 back by releasing lavish, colorful epics with stories and characters 0:12:42.650 --> 0:12:45.370 far too big to ever fit on the small screen. 0:12:46.290 --> 0:12:53.210 Burt Lancaster's Pirate Pics and Western's fell firmly into this category. 0:12:53.330 --> 0:12:59.970 So when Heck Lancaster announced their next project, Marty, it 0:13:00.050 --> 0:13:04.490 was met with bafflement. Even the scriptwriter was mystified. 0:13:05.010 --> 0:13:08.570 I don't know why they put up the money. The 0:13:08.650 --> 0:13:12.810 venture had a hopelessly uncommercial smell. 0:13:14.010 --> 0:13:17.650 Marty had been a well received TV play, praised for 0:13:17.690 --> 0:13:22.210 its naturalistic dialogue and a strong main performance from Rod Steiger, 0:13:23.090 --> 0:13:26.930 but a sentimental script seemed far too experimental for a 0:13:26.970 --> 0:13:30.850 Hollywood hit, and it was too short to boot. Could 0:13:30.890 --> 0:13:36.970 the downbeat storyline be given a Hollywood polish, then, well no. 0:13:37.850 --> 0:13:41.290 Hecht Lancaster had given the TV shows writer and director 0:13:41.970 --> 0:13:46.850 total creative control, and they wanted Marty to remain true 0:13:46.930 --> 0:13:51.490 to its roots. Bert wouldn't feature on screen either, and 0:13:51.650 --> 0:13:54.850 nor would Steiger, who'd passed on the chance to reprise 0:13:54.930 --> 0:13:59.330 his role. And in the absence of star power, the 0:13:59.370 --> 0:14:04.850 dowdy central part had gone to Ernest borgnine a bit 0:14:05.050 --> 0:14:14.330 part Fatso what was Burn Lancaster doing? Thought Hollywood? Some observers, though, 0:14:14.970 --> 0:14:20.170 had their theories. Location shooting began in the Bronx. The 0:14:20.210 --> 0:14:23.890 director had never made a feature film before, and I 0:14:23.930 --> 0:14:27.810 didn't know you could record multiple takes of each scene. 0:14:28.330 --> 0:14:32.770 You only ever got one try on live TV. Once 0:14:32.810 --> 0:14:36.530 this and other details of film craft were explained to him, 0:14:37.210 --> 0:14:40.850 all went smoothly, and it had to, for the crew 0:14:40.930 --> 0:14:45.930 had been set an impossibly horrid schedule. Ernest delivered his 0:14:46.050 --> 0:14:50.450 dialogue against the rumble of l trains, the honking of taxes, 0:14:50.850 --> 0:14:54.010 and the babble of real Bronx natives going about their business. 0:14:55.010 --> 0:14:59.810 Some local tufts, though, took exception to this invasion of 0:14:59.970 --> 0:15:05.010 film folk in general, and to Ernest borg Nine in particular. 0:15:05.290 --> 0:15:07.170 Badia mol Inferno. 0:15:06.730 --> 0:15:11.370 De lu shouted, one it American youth, let's beat him up. 0:15:12.370 --> 0:15:16.210 The gang, it turns out, believed that Ernest really had 0:15:16.250 --> 0:15:20.930 it in for Frank Sinatra from here to Eternity. Ernest 0:15:21.090 --> 0:15:24.010 was happy to trade punches with the boys, but he 0:15:24.050 --> 0:15:28.610 thought it first explained that the animosity was merely play acting, 0:15:29.290 --> 0:15:32.370 and that he and Frank were in fact good friends, 0:15:32.610 --> 0:15:35.730 bonded by their shared Italian American heritage. 0:15:36.210 --> 0:15:39.730 Why didn't you tell us that? From then? 0:15:39.810 --> 0:15:45.010 On the man born ermez Bornino was lavished with gifts 0:15:45.050 --> 0:15:49.370 of pizza and gallons of red wine. His money was 0:15:49.410 --> 0:15:53.690 no good in any of the local trattoria. Ernest felt 0:15:53.730 --> 0:15:57.650 confident as he flew to Hollywood for the interior. Shots 0:15:58.450 --> 0:16:02.450 had all been meticulously worked out in New York. These 0:16:02.570 --> 0:16:05.930 TV guys certainly knew how to shoot on a small 0:16:06.010 --> 0:16:13.290 studio set. Only there weren't any sets. They hadn't been built. 0:16:14.050 --> 0:16:17.450 There was no need for them, for the film wasn't 0:16:17.490 --> 0:16:23.090 going to be completed. Turns out, said the crushed leading man. 0:16:23.850 --> 0:16:30.770 There was some financial shenanigans attached to the picture. 0:16:30.770 --> 0:16:54.650 Cautionary tales will be back in a moment. Those who 0:16:54.770 --> 0:16:59.250 thought it odd that Bird Lancaster was making a stylus 0:16:59.650 --> 0:17:03.490 low key black and white melodrama seemed to have been 0:17:03.530 --> 0:17:09.450 proved right. Bird Lancaster wasn't going to make Marty, at 0:17:09.530 --> 0:17:11.370 least not all of it. 0:17:12.210 --> 0:17:15.930 Hecked Lancaster wanted to lose money because they were making 0:17:15.970 --> 0:17:18.450 so much money from their other pictures. 0:17:18.250 --> 0:17:20.610 Said a disappointed Ernest Borgnine. 0:17:21.010 --> 0:17:23.450 They wanted to shoot half of it and then put 0:17:23.490 --> 0:17:26.690 it on the shelf and take a tax loss. That way, 0:17:26.730 --> 0:17:30.010 The producers could pay themselves a salary and yet not 0:17:30.170 --> 0:17:31.730 have to show a corporate profit. 0:17:32.850 --> 0:17:37.450 Tax structures of the type that encourage filmmakers not to 0:17:37.530 --> 0:17:44.290 make films create what economists call an excess burden. When 0:17:44.290 --> 0:17:47.930 people distort their behavior to avoid a tax. In this way, 0:17:48.530 --> 0:17:52.690 nobody wins. The tax avoider is worse off because the 0:17:52.730 --> 0:17:57.050 avoidance is costly. The tax authorities are worse off because 0:17:57.290 --> 0:18:02.250 the tax isn't paid. Badly designed taxes can make life 0:18:02.530 --> 0:18:13.970 uglier and gloomier too. In the late sixteen nineties, England's 0:18:13.970 --> 0:18:19.730 finances were in disarray. The Kingdom's sterling silver coinage had 0:18:19.730 --> 0:18:24.490 been fatally compromised, with people clipping bits of old coins 0:18:24.530 --> 0:18:29.050 to keep the valuable slivers of silver. Newer coins with 0:18:29.250 --> 0:18:34.210 engravings and milled edges to defeat the clippers instead attracted 0:18:34.290 --> 0:18:39.410 forgers on top of denuded coins and fake coins. The 0:18:39.530 --> 0:18:43.810 rising value of silver meant there was a healthy export 0:18:43.890 --> 0:18:48.890 trade in small change. A silver sixpence was worth far 0:18:48.970 --> 0:18:52.330 more melted down in Paris than it was as a 0:18:52.370 --> 0:18:58.370 coin in London. To shore up the royal finances, King 0:18:58.490 --> 0:19:03.610 William the Third sought to introduce fair and progressive taxes 0:19:04.010 --> 0:19:10.570 to raise revenue. He alighted on a window tax. Those 0:19:10.730 --> 0:19:15.130 with grand houses boasting many windows paid the highest rate 0:19:15.290 --> 0:19:20.130 per glazed opening, while more modest buildings paid less duty 0:19:20.170 --> 0:19:24.290 for each window. It was an easy levee to administer 0:19:24.450 --> 0:19:29.410 two a tax inspector could simply count each window from 0:19:29.490 --> 0:19:36.010 the street. Over time, the tax rates rose and then rocketed, 0:19:37.330 --> 0:19:41.810 so property owners bricked up existing windows and planned new 0:19:41.810 --> 0:19:49.890 buildings to reduce their taxable apertures. The poorest, unsurprisingly suffered. 0:19:49.930 --> 0:19:55.930 Most unscrupulous landlords blocked off windows, leaving tenants in dark, 0:19:56.490 --> 0:20:02.890 unventilated rooms. The window tax finally died one one hundred 0:20:02.930 --> 0:20:08.170 and fifty years after its introduction, and only once campaigners 0:20:08.170 --> 0:20:11.650 had convinced the tra of the obvious that a lack 0:20:11.690 --> 0:20:15.530 of light and fresh air was taking an appalling toll 0:20:15.610 --> 0:20:21.890 on people's health. It was a classic excess burden. When 0:20:21.890 --> 0:20:24.970 a tax system consigns people to a wretched life in 0:20:25.050 --> 0:20:29.930 a dark, airless dwellings and doesn't even raise revenue, then 0:20:29.970 --> 0:20:34.010 that tax system has gone wrong. And it went wrong 0:20:34.090 --> 0:20:38.370 when singers like Bing Crosby turned down paying gigs to 0:20:38.410 --> 0:20:43.810 become oil prospectors, When Ronald Reagan loafed for most of 0:20:43.850 --> 0:20:49.170 the financial year, and of course, when gap toothed and hefty, 0:20:49.610 --> 0:20:54.410 Ernest borgnine was denied his shot as a starring role. 0:20:56.890 --> 0:21:02.370 But lucky for Ernest, the Internal Revenue Service, to its credit, 0:21:03.090 --> 0:21:07.650 knew something was up too. In nineteen fifty four, it 0:21:07.810 --> 0:21:11.650 introduced a new code cracking down on many of the 0:21:11.650 --> 0:21:17.610 most egregious abuses by the Hollywood elite. So could Heck 0:21:17.770 --> 0:21:23.610 Lancaster just shelve Marty halfway through and draw their producer 0:21:23.730 --> 0:21:27.690 salaries and write the rest of the budget off. The 0:21:27.810 --> 0:21:29.850 answer pleased Ernest. 0:21:30.290 --> 0:21:34.050 The taxman said no, they had to finish the picture, 0:21:34.410 --> 0:21:37.170 show it once and then take a loss. 0:21:37.890 --> 0:21:42.970 So the interior sets were built and cameras rolled once 0:21:43.010 --> 0:21:44.410 again on Marty. 0:21:45.010 --> 0:21:47.370 I'm not sure that was good news. 0:21:47.490 --> 0:21:49.970 Said Ernest of his partial reprieve. 0:21:50.570 --> 0:21:52.530 But it was better news. 0:21:53.650 --> 0:21:57.450 Bert Lancaster hadn't been around much for the making of Marty. 0:21:57.970 --> 0:22:01.850 He'd been directing himself in the adventure flick The Kentuckian. 0:22:02.930 --> 0:22:07.090 He'd left Marty to his business partner Harold Hecht, who 0:22:07.170 --> 0:22:10.170 in turn had surrendered most of the creative control to 0:22:10.250 --> 0:22:13.610 the writer and director. If you're not planning to finish 0:22:13.610 --> 0:22:18.610 a film, why sweat over it. Bert did turn up 0:22:18.770 --> 0:22:23.730 for Marty's first screening, though Ernest brought along his wife 0:22:23.970 --> 0:22:27.530 and mother in law, after all, it might be their 0:22:27.770 --> 0:22:34.370 only chance to see him carry a motion picture. Nineteen 0:22:34.410 --> 0:22:39.650 minutes later, as the end credits rolled, Ernest watched Burt 0:22:39.770 --> 0:22:45.370 Lancaster beckon to Harold Hecht more than a head shorter 0:22:45.490 --> 0:22:48.650 than the star. He trotted after Bert into a corner, 0:22:49.130 --> 0:22:53.090 whereupon Bert grasped his co producer by the lapels and 0:22:53.210 --> 0:22:54.370 hoisted him into the air. 0:22:54.850 --> 0:22:57.570 This is the movie you weren't going to finish. Why 0:22:57.650 --> 0:22:59.170 the hell didn't you shoot more? 0:23:00.050 --> 0:23:03.890 Bert clearly loved Marty, and from that moment on became 0:23:04.170 --> 0:23:08.610 very invested in it. The distributors suggested releasing Marty as 0:23:08.650 --> 0:23:13.170 a bee movie shortish or derv served up in cinemas 0:23:13.170 --> 0:23:19.730 before a more commercial main offering, but Lancaster had other plans. 0:23:19.770 --> 0:23:24.770 Marty was going to be an a movie, albeit with 0:23:24.850 --> 0:23:29.890 a limited release. They'd screen it at a single New 0:23:29.970 --> 0:23:35.530 York cinema. From that tiny bass, word of mouth would 0:23:35.610 --> 0:23:40.090 sell their film. Special screenings were arranged for an invited 0:23:40.130 --> 0:23:45.050 audience of barbers, manicurists, and shoeshines, ordinary workers who might 0:23:45.130 --> 0:23:48.890 identify with the characters on the screen and recommend Marty 0:23:48.970 --> 0:23:52.370 to their clients. The New York Yankees were treated to 0:23:52.410 --> 0:23:56.810 a viewing anything to create bars, and it worked to 0:23:56.850 --> 0:24:01.370 an extent. Audiences lined up around the block night after night, 0:24:01.690 --> 0:24:07.130 week after week to see Marty, but still only at 0:24:07.170 --> 0:24:13.530 a single cinema seating fewer than six hundred patrons. Eventually, 0:24:13.810 --> 0:24:16.290 someone had the bright idea to enter Marty for the 0:24:16.290 --> 0:24:19.890 main prize at the Can Film Festival, the Palm Door. 0:24:20.650 --> 0:24:25.610 It wasn't so unlike the neorealist European films that usually 0:24:25.650 --> 0:24:29.130 picked up gongs at Cannes, and any praise from the 0:24:29.210 --> 0:24:34.770 judges could be flammed up in press releases as international acclaim. 0:24:35.610 --> 0:24:40.490 Hollywood films rarely triumphed at the Festival International du Film, 0:24:41.210 --> 0:24:46.970 so expectations were low. Betsy Blair, who played Marty's demure 0:24:47.050 --> 0:24:50.210 love interest, was coincidentally going to be in Can with 0:24:50.290 --> 0:24:53.690 her husband Gene Kelly, but no one else from the 0:24:53.770 --> 0:24:56.770 cast or crew bothered to book a ticket. It was 0:24:56.810 --> 0:25:01.290 a scrabble then when Marty swept the board and their 0:25:01.290 --> 0:25:06.010 presence was required urgently at the award ceremony, Marty had 0:25:06.050 --> 0:25:10.410 cost just a few hundred thousand dollars to make a 0:25:10.450 --> 0:25:14.730 minuscule budget, made worse by Burt Lancaster's habit of dipping 0:25:14.770 --> 0:25:17.530 into it to pay bills for the other films he 0:25:17.610 --> 0:25:22.210 had in production. But after the Palm Door the cash 0:25:22.330 --> 0:25:27.090 began to flow. Hecht Lancaster spent one hundred and fifty 0:25:27.330 --> 0:25:32.250 thousand dollars on ads alone, thirty times the five thousand 0:25:32.330 --> 0:25:37.250 dollars that paid their leading man, and as Oscar season approached, 0:25:37.610 --> 0:25:40.930 Hecht Lancaster sent a print of the film to the 0:25:40.930 --> 0:25:45.330 homes of the voting Academy members, along with a projectionist 0:25:46.250 --> 0:25:51.450 and food at the British Bafters, the New York Film 0:25:51.490 --> 0:25:55.970 Critics Circle the Writers Guild. Marty was picking up awards, 0:25:57.090 --> 0:26:03.770 but an Academy award would seal Marty's success. At a 0:26:03.810 --> 0:26:08.450 rehearsal for the Oscar ceremony, Ernest Borgnein decided the wisest 0:26:08.490 --> 0:26:12.970 course of action would be to enjoy his Best Actor 0:26:13.330 --> 0:26:17.490 nomination as much as possible. He was up against friends 0:26:17.530 --> 0:26:22.130 and former co stars Frank Sinatra and Spencer Tracy. James 0:26:22.170 --> 0:26:25.130 Cagney was in the running, and so too was James Dean, 0:26:25.490 --> 0:26:29.210 who died the previous year. In a car wreck. Ernest 0:26:29.370 --> 0:26:34.610 was resigned he didn't stand a chance, but Oscar host 0:26:34.850 --> 0:26:37.210 Jerry Lewis was more encouraging. 0:26:37.250 --> 0:26:39.090 You're gonna when, you're gonna win. 0:26:39.730 --> 0:26:42.250 Ernest thought the comedian was just being polite. 0:26:42.410 --> 0:26:44.450 You want to bet I'll win, I'll bet you a 0:26:44.530 --> 0:26:45.810 buck ninety eight. You're gonna win. 0:26:47.330 --> 0:26:51.410 Back home, Ernest counted out one hundred and ninety eight 0:26:51.490 --> 0:26:54.930 pennies just in case and took a nap. 0:26:56.290 --> 0:26:58.090 How can you fall asleep? 0:26:58.730 --> 0:27:01.770 The shrieks of Ernest's wife, Rhoda awakened him. 0:27:02.250 --> 0:27:05.770 How can you sleep when you're up for an Academy award. 0:27:06.890 --> 0:27:13.450 Ernest looked up sleepily his apoplectic partner, Well, I'm not 0:27:13.730 --> 0:27:40.730 gonna win. Cautionary tales will return after the break. The 0:27:40.770 --> 0:27:43.770 borg Nines drove to the Oscars in their new Cadillac, 0:27:44.170 --> 0:27:47.930 new to them at any rate. It was secondhand. Ernest 0:27:48.010 --> 0:27:51.130 fidgeted in his coat tails. It was the last formal 0:27:51.170 --> 0:27:53.330 suit at the rental store, and the coat was too 0:27:53.370 --> 0:27:57.770 small and a little threadbare. The get up was constrictive 0:27:57.970 --> 0:28:03.090 and hot, and sweat beaded on Ernest's expanse of forehead 0:28:04.090 --> 0:28:08.450 as the couple awkwardly settled in their places. Bert Lancaster 0:28:09.130 --> 0:28:14.610 seats away, smiled over and exchanged pleasantries. Ernest thought the 0:28:14.770 --> 0:28:18.170 greeting was warm enough, but something in it suggested that 0:28:18.330 --> 0:28:22.890 Bert was numb, too sure of a win either. Hecht 0:28:22.970 --> 0:28:27.050 Lancaster was setting up a lavish post awards party, but 0:28:27.170 --> 0:28:30.970 Harold Hecht was already fretting about the expensive food, dead waste. 0:28:30.970 --> 0:28:34.690 If Marty flopped, he'd have roast beef to feed his 0:28:34.770 --> 0:28:39.250 family for years. The thought prompted him to start knocking 0:28:39.370 --> 0:28:40.490 back the drinks. 0:28:41.210 --> 0:28:46.410 And now Best Cinematography in black and white. 0:28:48.250 --> 0:28:52.170 The Oscar for Best Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy. 0:28:51.770 --> 0:28:58.450 Picture, Best Song, Oscar Goes Too. 0:29:03.290 --> 0:29:07.250 Oscar. Ceremonies can be interminably long. 0:29:08.330 --> 0:29:12.730 Next, Best Live Action Short Subject, Too Real. 0:29:17.250 --> 0:29:25.610 Thenominations for Best Art, Direction and Color. They called your Name. 0:29:26.610 --> 0:29:30.530 Rhoda borgnine was punching her husband in the side. 0:29:30.370 --> 0:29:31.450 Get her Bernie. 0:29:32.410 --> 0:29:35.730 Ernest's attention had drifted during the ceremony. 0:29:36.490 --> 0:29:37.610 They called your name. 0:29:37.930 --> 0:29:43.730 You won. On stage, Jerry Lewis folded with laughter as 0:29:43.930 --> 0:29:49.690 Ernest pressed one dollar ninety eight into his hand. Afterwards, 0:29:50.210 --> 0:29:53.090 Ernest couldn't recall what he said as he clutched the 0:29:53.130 --> 0:29:57.650 Oscar statue to his chest. The speech was short. He 0:29:57.770 --> 0:30:02.250 thanked Rhoda and his dad, but spoke most movingly about 0:30:02.250 --> 0:30:06.610 his mother. Anna borg Nine, the one who'd inspired him 0:30:06.650 --> 0:30:09.970 to act in the first place, had sick and died 0:30:10.290 --> 0:30:12.610 before Ernest's star had risen. 0:30:13.530 --> 0:30:17.250 She barely got to see any of it. It wasn't fair, 0:30:17.330 --> 0:30:20.610 but fair, just this and on life's menu. 0:30:22.530 --> 0:30:26.570 The cast and crew of Marty cut a swathe up 0:30:26.610 --> 0:30:30.370 and down the carpet at those twenty eighth Academy Awards 0:30:31.130 --> 0:30:37.850 Best Screenplay, Best Director, Best Picture. Variety said the former 0:30:38.010 --> 0:30:42.770 circus acrobat Burt Lancaster nearly did a full flip each 0:30:42.850 --> 0:30:47.890 time a Marty winner was announced, and Harold Hecht wouldn't 0:30:47.930 --> 0:30:50.210 have to eat all that roast beef after all. The 0:30:50.330 --> 0:30:53.410 after party was a raging success. If there'd been an 0:30:53.490 --> 0:30:57.370 Oscar for Best Bash, said the trade papers, it would 0:30:57.370 --> 0:31:02.290 have won hands down. Not only could Ernest act, they reported, 0:31:03.170 --> 0:31:08.330 he could dance a mean rumber two. Marty, the film 0:31:08.410 --> 0:31:13.410 it's makers supposedly saw only as a tax loss, turned 0:31:13.570 --> 0:31:17.610 an outrageous profit. It didn't gross as much as a 0:31:17.730 --> 0:31:22.930 Bert Lancaster westerm, but given its minuscule budget, its returns 0:31:22.930 --> 0:31:27.850 on investment were remarkable. Its clutch of Oscars was estimated 0:31:27.890 --> 0:31:31.890 to have added many zeros to its box office receipts. 0:31:33.530 --> 0:31:40.130 Hollywood watched on drooling as Marty filled cinema seats everywhere. 0:31:41.210 --> 0:31:47.250 Perhaps they didn't need expensive herds of cavalry horses, armaders 0:31:47.250 --> 0:31:51.290 of pirate ships, or armies of extras to compete with TV. 0:31:52.170 --> 0:31:54.850