WEBVTT - Stalky 0:00:02.520 --> 0:00:05.880 Here's what sometimes happens in Hollywood. It's a cautionary tale 0:00:05.920 --> 0:00:08.119 that we've all heard in a million books and movies 0:00:08.119 --> 0:00:11.920 and pop songs. A young, sometimes talented actor filmmaker goes 0:00:11.960 --> 0:00:15.000 out to LA to pursue their dream, gets seduced by 0:00:15.040 --> 0:00:17.760 the flash and glamour of the industry before they've done 0:00:17.760 --> 0:00:20.280 the hard work of mastering their craft. And what does 0:00:20.320 --> 0:00:23.200 it always lead to? They get chewed up and spit out. 0:00:24.440 --> 0:00:28.680 There's a reason the cliche exists. Roll Doll is twenty six. 0:00:29.080 --> 0:00:31.920 He has one published story to his name, one he's 0:00:31.920 --> 0:00:34.479 never read a screenplay before, let alone written one. But 0:00:34.560 --> 0:00:37.360 the most successful producer in Hollywood history, more than him 0:00:37.360 --> 0:00:39.519 in a sec has just flown Doll all the way 0:00:39.520 --> 0:00:41.680 from DC to Beverly Hills, where he throws a lavish 0:00:41.760 --> 0:00:45.000 welcome party in Doll's honor. The guest list is like 0:00:45.040 --> 0:00:48.760 the front row at the Oscars. Giant movie stars, beautiful actresses, 0:00:48.960 --> 0:00:52.480 all looking ridiculous because they're dressed up as tiny green creatures. 0:00:53.040 --> 0:00:55.960 Why you ask, because those are the main characters in 0:00:56.040 --> 0:01:01.320 dull short story, The Gremlins. Imagine the head trip for 0:01:01.400 --> 0:01:04.320 Dahl seeing all this, just strolling through the party, champagne 0:01:04.360 --> 0:01:06.920 in hand, looking at his boyhood heroes and his greatest 0:01:06.920 --> 0:01:10.400 fantasies in these ridiculous costumes based on creatures he thought 0:01:10.480 --> 0:01:12.880 up sitting in his underpants in his tiny walk up 0:01:12.920 --> 0:01:16.280 apartment in DC. He doesn't know whether to laugh hysterically 0:01:16.480 --> 0:01:21.240 or cry at the absurd sight. A powerful producer throws 0:01:21.240 --> 0:01:24.720 his beefy arm around Doll's shoulders. The producer ushers Doll 0:01:24.840 --> 0:01:26.959 through the party and guides him over to a little 0:01:27.000 --> 0:01:29.880 man who's currently delighting a whole circle of giggling women 0:01:29.920 --> 0:01:33.080 by the bar. The producer wants to introduce Dall. The 0:01:33.120 --> 0:01:35.720 little man turns around, sees that the producer is giving 0:01:35.800 --> 0:01:38.560 him the eye, looks Doll up and down, then winks 0:01:38.560 --> 0:01:41.800 at him, followed by an exaggerated theatrical bow, as if 0:01:41.880 --> 0:01:45.440 welcoming the young writer into a secret society like everybody else. 0:01:45.640 --> 0:01:47.559 The little man is dressed up as a green monster, 0:01:48.000 --> 0:01:51.720 but despite the costume, Doll recognizes him. Of course he does. 0:01:51.960 --> 0:01:55.000 He's the most beloved man in the country. What the 0:01:55.040 --> 0:01:59.160 hell is happening? When we talk in future episodes about Dolls, 0:01:59.160 --> 0:02:02.680 sometimes bomatic Ego try to remember that he's twenty six 0:02:02.720 --> 0:02:05.560 years old with zero produced credits to his name. When 0:02:05.560 --> 0:02:08.520 a starry Hollywood party is thrown in his honor and 0:02:08.600 --> 0:02:12.200 Charlie Chaplin bows at his feet, what chance did the 0:02:12.200 --> 0:02:17.840 poor guy have? As we discussed in previous episodes, Dahl 0:02:17.919 --> 0:02:20.639 packed a lot into his twenties and thirties. He was 0:02:20.680 --> 0:02:24.120 starting to figure out where his passions lie. He suspected 0:02:24.160 --> 0:02:26.480 they were somewhere in the dark, twisty short stories he 0:02:26.520 --> 0:02:29.840 was writing, which leads to the next completely crazy and 0:02:29.919 --> 0:02:33.560 intoxicating chapter that he wills into the story of his life. 0:02:33.800 --> 0:02:43.639 Welcome to Hollywood for my hard podcast, Imagine entertainment and Parallax. 0:02:44.000 --> 0:02:47.200 I'm married, Tracer, and this is the secret world of 0:02:47.880 --> 0:02:54.840 Roald Dahl. Episode three. Imagine for a second that you're 0:02:54.840 --> 0:02:57.880 a young, ambitious short story writer being praised for the 0:02:57.880 --> 0:03:01.240 originality of your voice and your clever to steddings. And 0:03:01.360 --> 0:03:04.040 imagine that you've just spent years as a spy learning 0:03:04.040 --> 0:03:06.639 how to seduce and manipulate and lie your way into 0:03:06.639 --> 0:03:09.480 the highest echelons of power. If you were such a person, 0:03:09.919 --> 0:03:12.320 where would you go when the war ends? Of course, 0:03:12.360 --> 0:03:14.360 you would pack up and take your talents to the movies. 0:03:14.720 --> 0:03:21.120 The dream is intoxicating, especially back in that era. Oh y, look, 0:03:21.919 --> 0:03:26.680 Hollywood's out there. Like countless writers before him, Doll is 0:03:26.720 --> 0:03:30.240 blinded by the promise of celebrity, money and mingling with 0:03:30.280 --> 0:03:33.440 the tan and beautiful, and honestly, after years in spycraft, 0:03:33.480 --> 0:03:35.280 where he lived in a world of smoke and mirrors, 0:03:35.600 --> 0:03:38.520 transitioning to another world of illusions does make some sense. 0:03:39.000 --> 0:03:42.200 Succeeding in Hollywood and succeeding in espionage require many of 0:03:42.240 --> 0:03:46.560 the same skills, like manipulation and seduction for starters. Plus, 0:03:46.560 --> 0:03:49.000 after all, the daily adrenaline he's become used to from 0:03:49.040 --> 0:03:52.120 flying aerial missions then spying on the rich and powerful. 0:03:52.240 --> 0:03:54.080 I think it would have been too difficult for Dol 0:03:54.240 --> 0:03:57.080 to transition directly to the sedentary life of a novelist, 0:03:57.240 --> 0:04:00.720 which is what he really wanted to be. Screenwriting is different, beast. 0:04:01.160 --> 0:04:04.120 It's an adrenaline roller coaster. I've been doing it since 0:04:04.200 --> 0:04:07.240 right out of school. There are crazy high highs and 0:04:07.440 --> 0:04:11.040 awful lo those and every day is different. So Doll 0:04:11.160 --> 0:04:13.920 tries on yet another mask as he attempts to figure 0:04:13.960 --> 0:04:16.240 out who he is now. He'll see if this one 0:04:16.240 --> 0:04:20.400 fits better than businessman, fighter, power or spy. This one 0:04:21.000 --> 0:04:27.159 is Hollywood power Player. The short story directly responsible for 0:04:27.200 --> 0:04:29.479 bringing Dall to La is the one about the Gremlins, 0:04:29.800 --> 0:04:33.920 those menacing little green creatures destroying RAF planes, The one 0:04:33.960 --> 0:04:36.480 Eleanor Roosevelt likes so much she invited Doll to the 0:04:36.480 --> 0:04:40.000 White House. The hero of Doll's story, Gus, is an 0:04:40.120 --> 0:04:43.520 RAF pilot who's playing crashes because of a Gremlin. He 0:04:43.640 --> 0:04:46.279 learns that the little creatures are avenging the destruction of 0:04:46.360 --> 0:04:49.040 forests where they live to make way for British airfields. 0:04:49.960 --> 0:04:53.280 Gus heroically convinces the gremlins to redirect their energy into 0:04:53.279 --> 0:04:56.720 helping the war effort instead of sabotaging it. The Gremlins 0:04:56.760 --> 0:04:59.520 become allies of the Brits, using their expertise to repair 0:04:59.600 --> 0:05:03.159 planes and even make them faster. Dall thought of the 0:05:03.200 --> 0:05:07.119 story as just a silly fairy tale about quote little 0:05:07.120 --> 0:05:09.760 creatures with horns and long tails who walk about on 0:05:09.800 --> 0:05:12.800 the wings of your aircraft urinating in your fuse box, 0:05:13.320 --> 0:05:15.760 So all this hoopla around the story is kind of 0:05:15.760 --> 0:05:19.080 hard for him to believe. At the time Dahl writes 0:05:19.120 --> 0:05:21.599 the story, all the big Hollywood movie studios are on 0:05:21.600 --> 0:05:24.920 the lookout for patriotic films. Unlike the First World War, 0:05:25.080 --> 0:05:27.200 when the industry was still in its infancy and there 0:05:27.240 --> 0:05:30.320 was more ambiguity about the conflict, this war offers the 0:05:30.320 --> 0:05:35.000 opportunity for big, noisy, nationalistic movies to feed an existentially 0:05:35.080 --> 0:05:38.320 terrified audience. This war is tailor made for the movies. 0:05:38.720 --> 0:05:42.120 It's an easy to digest good versus evil storyline, those 0:05:42.120 --> 0:05:45.200 who love freedom versus fascists trying to conquer the world. 0:05:46.240 --> 0:05:48.280 Here's Charlie Chaplin in The Great Dictator. 0:05:48.680 --> 0:05:52.080 The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and 0:05:52.120 --> 0:05:54.599 the power they took from the people will return to 0:05:54.640 --> 0:05:57.839 the people. And so long as men die, liberty will 0:05:57.880 --> 0:05:58.800 never perish. 0:06:00.000 --> 0:06:01.880 All working as a spy for the Regulars when he 0:06:01.920 --> 0:06:05.200 writes The Gremlins, his employment requires him to run any 0:06:05.200 --> 0:06:07.440 story he wants to publish by the British government first, 0:06:07.800 --> 0:06:10.120 so they can pass judgment and be sure no national 0:06:10.120 --> 0:06:13.640 secrets are being spilled. The government reader assigned to Doll's 0:06:13.640 --> 0:06:16.440 story happens to be a very well connected businessman with 0:06:16.520 --> 0:06:21.440 a passion for film, Sidney Bernstein. Bernstein is a devout 0:06:21.480 --> 0:06:24.920 anti fascist desperately trying to help Jewish actors and filmmakers 0:06:25.040 --> 0:06:27.720 get the hell out of Germany right now. He's also 0:06:27.760 --> 0:06:33.720 a producing partner of Alfred Hitchcock. When Bernstein reads The 0:06:33.760 --> 0:06:36.960 Gremlins ahead of its publication, he instantly sees the potential. 0:06:37.279 --> 0:06:39.720 It's a little diamond of a story instead of just 0:06:39.800 --> 0:06:43.440 straight propaganda, which can be heavy handed and boring. Doll 0:06:43.520 --> 0:06:46.279 story is full of clever, inventive details, but is still 0:06:46.279 --> 0:06:50.440 an inspiring tale of US and British cooperation to defeat fascism. 0:06:51.480 --> 0:06:54.320 Bernstein has just come off a consulting gig on Missus Miniver, 0:06:54.520 --> 0:06:57.680 William Wiler's Best Picture winner, about how an unassuming British 0:06:57.680 --> 0:07:00.279 housewife is affected by the war of the. 0:07:00.279 --> 0:07:02.839 People, of all the people, and it must be fought 0:07:03.000 --> 0:07:06.000 in the home and in the heart of every man, 0:07:06.040 --> 0:07:08.000 woman and child who loves freedom. 0:07:08.160 --> 0:07:10.880 Missus Miniver is also the highest Christman film of nineteen 0:07:10.920 --> 0:07:14.200 forty two. With its huge success, Bernstein can kind of 0:07:14.240 --> 0:07:16.480 write his own ticket and get any material he wants 0:07:16.480 --> 0:07:19.320 into the hands of practically anybody he wants. He could 0:07:19.320 --> 0:07:21.960 have decided to give Doll's story in Hitchcock and potentially 0:07:22.040 --> 0:07:25.560 saved all decades of pushing a boulder up a hill. Instead, 0:07:26.000 --> 0:07:28.800 he goes in a different direction, he decides the perfect 0:07:28.840 --> 0:07:32.160 fit for Doll's Gremlins. Is a charismatic producer in his 0:07:32.240 --> 0:07:34.760 early forties who happens to be on a hot streak. 0:07:35.520 --> 0:07:38.800 His name is Walt Dissey. 0:07:40.000 --> 0:07:43.239 Animal anatomy is a thing that is not taught properly 0:07:43.320 --> 0:07:44.160 in the art school. 0:07:44.720 --> 0:07:47.640 So I started the special course in animal anatomy. 0:07:48.280 --> 0:07:51.920 Yeah, that's Walt Disney with weirdly specific insight into the 0:07:51.960 --> 0:07:56.400 kind of small details that differentiate his technique. Disney is 0:07:56.440 --> 0:07:59.200 only a handful of years removed from his giant, industry 0:07:59.280 --> 0:08:02.160 changing success with snow White. In just the past couple 0:08:02.160 --> 0:08:06.840 of years, he's made Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo, and Bambi. I'm 0:08:06.840 --> 0:08:08.760 gonna make you stop and think about that for a second. 0:08:08.920 --> 0:08:11.880 When people debate the best run by an American filmmaker ever, 0:08:12.120 --> 0:08:15.440 some argue for Hitchcock's six year period of nine absolute 0:08:15.480 --> 0:08:18.960 bangers ending with Psycho, or Billy Wilder's decade long run 0:08:19.000 --> 0:08:22.000 of eight classics starting with Cells at Boulevard and ending 0:08:22.040 --> 0:08:25.400 with the Apartment. Personally, I advocate for Rob Reiner in 0:08:25.400 --> 0:08:27.840 the late eighties, who had a string of five perfect 0:08:27.840 --> 0:08:30.600 movies and six years with When Harry met Sally's Smack 0:08:30.640 --> 0:08:34.679 in the middle. Disney produces rather than directs, but he's 0:08:34.720 --> 0:08:36.959 the creative force behind his films, so you've got to 0:08:37.000 --> 0:08:40.480 put his miraculous period just before meeting Dol up there 0:08:40.480 --> 0:08:45.320 with anyone. Like seemingly everyone who meets young Doll, Disney 0:08:45.400 --> 0:08:48.480 takes right to him. He loves the Gremlin story, which 0:08:48.480 --> 0:08:52.640 somehow blends fantasy and horror with patriotism and heroics without 0:08:52.640 --> 0:08:56.040 feeling it all manipulative. Disney see's serious promise in the 0:08:56.080 --> 0:08:58.680 Young Writer, just like Ces Forster had, so he takes 0:08:58.720 --> 0:09:01.120 Doll under his wing to show him how movies are made, 0:09:01.240 --> 0:09:05.280 which is pretty nuts. Doll is twenty six. He's trying 0:09:05.280 --> 0:09:07.520 to make a career out of writing, and specifically, at 0:09:07.520 --> 0:09:10.800 this moment, screenwriting. When a typical young writer goes to 0:09:10.840 --> 0:09:14.360 Hollywood and gets really lucky, maybe a junior development exac 0:09:14.440 --> 0:09:16.760 at a mid sized production company lets him be an intern, 0:09:16.960 --> 0:09:20.120 offering pointers while making him carry his golf clubs at Hillcrest. 0:09:20.520 --> 0:09:22.400 But if you've learned anything about Roll Dall by this 0:09:22.440 --> 0:09:25.760 point in our season, it's that normal rules just don't apply. 0:09:26.480 --> 0:09:29.760 Dall's introduction to Hollywood is getting mentored by the most 0:09:29.800 --> 0:09:32.920 creative and arguably the most successful producer the town has 0:09:32.920 --> 0:09:35.840 ever known. Right at the moment of his peak creativity, 0:09:36.480 --> 0:09:39.560 Disney puts the Gremlin story right into development, and rather 0:09:39.600 --> 0:09:42.720 than hire a professional screenwriter to come adapt it an adult, 0:09:43.080 --> 0:09:46.320 he decides he wants to keep Doll's unique voice. Here's 0:09:46.400 --> 0:09:49.040 Doll talking about it on Desert Island discs. 0:09:48.880 --> 0:09:51.600 That went out to Hollywood at his expense with raf 0:09:51.600 --> 0:09:55.840 permission on the stain of the car provided by Walt. 0:09:56.240 --> 0:09:59.120 This silly young man in the RIF uniform staying in 0:09:59.120 --> 0:10:00.720 the suite in the bevel Hill's Hotel. 0:10:01.360 --> 0:10:03.640 It's the same swanky hotel that's about to be a 0:10:03.640 --> 0:10:07.320 favorite of Mariel Monroe, Howard Hughes, and Frank Sinatra. And 0:10:07.360 --> 0:10:10.360 it's Disney who throws Doll that welcome party where everyone 0:10:10.520 --> 0:10:12.880 dresses as a gremlin. From the top of this episode. 0:10:13.200 --> 0:10:16.080 According to writer Matthew Denison, a Disney illustrator who meets 0:10:16.120 --> 0:10:18.360 Doll at the time, all the girls in Hollywood went 0:10:18.440 --> 0:10:21.600 crazy for Doll, and he basically starts dating all of 0:10:21.640 --> 0:10:24.640 them and flirting with alist actresses like Ginger Rogers and 0:10:24.679 --> 0:10:27.720 Marlene Dietrich. Heard here in Angel in Paris. 0:10:28.320 --> 0:10:30.679 Well, we must see that you have a very amusing time, 0:10:31.200 --> 0:10:33.400 So down, please have you been in Paris before? 0:10:34.080 --> 0:10:37.440 Those are Doll's evenings. During the days, he and Disney 0:10:37.440 --> 0:10:41.240 spend long hours in story conference, working with illustrators and directors. 0:10:41.760 --> 0:10:44.320 Disney is crazy about Doll, though he has a lot 0:10:44.360 --> 0:10:47.600 of trouble pronouncing his first name, so instead, in very 0:10:47.600 --> 0:10:54.200 Disney fashion, he calls this tall protege Stocky. As Walt 0:10:54.240 --> 0:10:57.880 and Stocky continue to break story for the Gremlins, Disney 0:10:57.880 --> 0:11:01.320 does what he's learned to do best, active the publicity machine. 0:11:01.559 --> 0:11:04.440 He puts the little Green creatures into advertisements and even 0:11:04.480 --> 0:11:07.920 creates a comic strip around them. Disney is basically willing 0:11:07.960 --> 0:11:11.120 the film into the public consciousness well before the screenplay 0:11:11.160 --> 0:11:14.120 is finished, where Craft Services has laid out a single cracker. 0:11:15.320 --> 0:11:18.360 At first glance, Dall and Disney seem to be total opposites. 0:11:18.840 --> 0:11:21.599 Dall's work, even at the beginning, is dark and subversive, 0:11:21.800 --> 0:11:26.400 often satirical. Disney's is bright and idealistic. Doll's stories have 0:11:26.440 --> 0:11:29.679 a creepy edge and explore greed and cruelty and the grotesque, 0:11:29.960 --> 0:11:33.720 leaving the reader with moral ambiguity. Disney makes movies with 0:11:33.800 --> 0:11:37.720 clear moral lessons and usually happy endings, aiming to inspire joy. 0:11:38.080 --> 0:11:40.719 It's the difference between the dark, all skater kid in 0:11:40.800 --> 0:11:42.880 high school who listens to a lot of Billie Eilish 0:11:42.880 --> 0:11:46.040 and Old Cure albums and the upbeat, preppy cheerleader who 0:11:46.040 --> 0:11:49.440 loves Ariana Grande. As for their take on childhood, which 0:11:49.480 --> 0:11:51.760 is a key subject for both men, Dall sees it 0:11:51.920 --> 0:11:56.280 as an existential battle against cruel adults. For Disney, it's idyllic, 0:11:56.640 --> 0:12:01.080 filled with wonder and innocence, sir, and the two men 0:12:01.120 --> 0:12:03.600 do share a bunch of things in common. For starters, 0:12:03.640 --> 0:12:07.360 both create trippy, fantastical worlds, and both champion the underdog, 0:12:07.440 --> 0:12:12.280 big time Doll's Matilda, Charlie and James overcome huge challenges. 0:12:12.679 --> 0:12:16.200 So do Disney Cinderella, snow White and Dumbo. All of 0:12:16.240 --> 0:12:19.160 them rise above adversity, screaming at the world that I 0:12:19.280 --> 0:12:20.360 better not overlook them. 0:12:21.200 --> 0:12:26.439 Like Disney's Pinocchio, I'm am real, I'm a real boy 0:12:27.120 --> 0:12:30.640 here life, you are a real boy. 0:12:31.360 --> 0:12:33.840 The biggest difference between dal and Disney, and what's going 0:12:33.880 --> 0:12:36.840 to lead to their undoing, is they're very different approaches 0:12:37.000 --> 0:12:41.240 to work. Dall is a writer's writer in the mode 0:12:41.240 --> 0:12:44.200 of great novelists. He likes to work alone, doing battle 0:12:44.240 --> 0:12:48.320 with the page, fulfilling his very personal vision. Disney is 0:12:48.320 --> 0:12:52.800 the ultimate collaborator. He works with teams of writers, directors, animators, 0:12:52.800 --> 0:12:55.720 and musicians to bring ideas to life in a communal environment. 0:12:56.280 --> 0:12:58.480 So it's not a surprise that dal and Disney begin 0:12:58.600 --> 0:13:02.560 butting heads. Dall is just not capable of letting go 0:13:02.600 --> 0:13:04.760 of his vision at this point in his life. He 0:13:04.800 --> 0:13:09.480 doesn't understand or doesn't care, that filmmaking is collaborative. The 0:13:09.520 --> 0:13:11.839 screenplay is just a blueprint for a structure that will 0:13:11.880 --> 0:13:14.640 be built by lots and lots of people. For his 0:13:14.800 --> 0:13:17.160 entire career, Dall will have a hard time with anyone 0:13:17.200 --> 0:13:20.560 who dares to edit or change his vision. His ego 0:13:20.720 --> 0:13:23.199 just always gets in the way, and right now, because 0:13:23.200 --> 0:13:25.640 of his success with the Gremlin short story, he is 0:13:25.920 --> 0:13:29.720 quote more arrogant than ever, according to his buddy Antoinette Marsh, 0:13:30.080 --> 0:13:32.400 So of course he believes there's no need to change 0:13:32.440 --> 0:13:35.360 anything he doesn't want to, even if Walt Disney, the 0:13:35.440 --> 0:13:41.600 King himself, is the one asking. Eventually, inevitably, Disney decides 0:13:41.640 --> 0:13:45.400 the collaboration or black thereof just isn't working, and there 0:13:45.400 --> 0:13:48.400 are about a million other stories he could be working on. So, 0:13:48.480 --> 0:13:51.240 after all the time, money, and advanced publicity he's poured 0:13:51.280 --> 0:13:56.600 into this thing, Disney pulls the plug. Doll is furious 0:13:56.640 --> 0:14:00.040 at first, then maybe a little embarrassed. He quickly he 0:14:00.080 --> 0:14:02.920 tries to find another producer. But the war has wound down. 0:14:03.559 --> 0:14:06.520 Audience's tastes of bevan to change. Troops are coming home 0:14:06.760 --> 0:14:10.760 completely traumatized. Two world changing nuclear bombs have been set 0:14:10.800 --> 0:14:14.079 off Audiences they don't want a story like The Gremlins anymore, 0:14:14.280 --> 0:14:18.120 a story that highlights cooperation and camaraderie. People start demanding 0:14:18.120 --> 0:14:23.520 more challenging, more morally ambiguous movies like film noir. Dahl 0:14:23.640 --> 0:14:27.240 is incredibly disappointed, but self aware enough to realize he's 0:14:27.240 --> 0:14:30.040 just gotten a crash course in Hollywood's inner workings from 0:14:30.040 --> 0:14:33.800 one of its all time master craftsmen. He's determined not 0:14:33.920 --> 0:14:36.320 to let that go to waste. He decides to keep 0:14:36.320 --> 0:14:44.520 at it. Dahl's decision to keep fighting that uphill battle 0:14:44.560 --> 0:14:47.200 of a Hollywood career could have been game over. There 0:14:47.200 --> 0:14:49.480 are so many stories of gifted writers coming out to 0:14:49.640 --> 0:14:53.200 La and falling on their faces. William Faulkner comes to mind, 0:14:53.440 --> 0:14:57.760 Aldois Huxley, Truman, Capodi. Maybe the most interesting and most 0:14:57.760 --> 0:15:02.160 tragic is f Scott Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald had every reason to 0:15:02.160 --> 0:15:04.280 think he'd be a success in the movies. He was 0:15:04.280 --> 0:15:07.040 maybe the most gifted novelist in an era that included 0:15:07.040 --> 0:15:09.080 a hell of a lot of gifted novelists, and he 0:15:09.160 --> 0:15:11.560 loved film. He didn't just come to Hollywood for the 0:15:11.560 --> 0:15:14.440 paycheck like so many others. Part of what makes Fitzgerald's 0:15:14.440 --> 0:15:16.800 attempts at screenwriting so sad is that he seemed to 0:15:16.800 --> 0:15:18.840 put as much effort into it as he put into 0:15:18.840 --> 0:15:21.480 Tender as the Night or The Great Gatsby. One of 0:15:21.520 --> 0:15:23.680 the reasons we only have four and a half novels 0:15:23.720 --> 0:15:27.360 by Fitzgerald, each a masterpiece is because he spent some 0:15:27.400 --> 0:15:30.720 of his prime years trying to break into movies. He 0:15:30.800 --> 0:15:33.560 blamed his failure on the studio system, which is always 0:15:33.720 --> 0:15:37.720 totally demeaned writers. Here's Robertson Eiro as a studio head 0:15:37.920 --> 0:15:41.560 and Jack Nicholson as a union organizer from Fitzgerald's unfinished 0:15:41.600 --> 0:15:42.920 novel The Last Tycoon. 0:15:43.240 --> 0:15:47.160 I'll tell you three things. All riders are children. Fifty 0:15:47.200 --> 0:15:49.800 percent of drunks, and up till very recently, writers in 0:15:49.840 --> 0:15:50.920 Hollywood were gag men. 0:15:51.040 --> 0:15:52.960 Most of them still are a gagman, but we call 0:15:53.040 --> 0:15:54.040 them writers. 0:15:54.400 --> 0:15:55.720 Uh huh. 0:15:56.240 --> 0:15:59.320 But there's still the farmers in this business. 0:16:00.320 --> 0:16:03.400 They grow the grain, but they're not in at the feast. 0:16:03.880 --> 0:16:07.240 Fitzgerald's pal, Billy Wilder, compares him to a great sculptor 0:16:07.360 --> 0:16:10.960 who's hired to do a plumbing job. Fitzgerald simply didn't 0:16:10.960 --> 0:16:12.920 know how to connect the pipes so the water could flow. 0:16:13.600 --> 0:16:16.640 In his entire Hollywood career, Fitzgerald only got a single 0:16:16.680 --> 0:16:19.760 screenwriting credit, and even on that one, he was totally 0:16:19.760 --> 0:16:23.600 rewritten by the producer Lake Dahl with his gremlins. Many 0:16:23.640 --> 0:16:27.400 of Fitzgerald's projects were scrapped or he got fired off them. 0:16:27.720 --> 0:16:31.200 By the time Hollywood kicked him out, Fitzgerald was broke alone, 0:16:31.400 --> 0:16:34.480 his body ravaged by alcohol, and years of his talent 0:16:34.720 --> 0:16:40.120 completely wasted. That's the potential future that awaits Doll. Whenever 0:16:40.160 --> 0:16:43.040 there's a forking path and the universe splits in two directions, 0:16:43.320 --> 0:16:46.320 the path Doll goes down as always, always the more 0:16:46.320 --> 0:16:50.880 interesting one. I want to jump forward to several years 0:16:50.920 --> 0:16:54.880 after the Disney debacle, Dall is still trying without success 0:16:55.040 --> 0:16:57.480 to get a movie made. His agent brings him an 0:16:57.520 --> 0:17:00.560 offer from United Artists to write a screenplay called wait 0:17:00.600 --> 0:17:03.880 for It, Oh Death, Where is thy Sting? A Lingling? 0:17:04.800 --> 0:17:06.960 The reason Doll is interested in it, aside from the 0:17:07.000 --> 0:17:09.159 hefty check, is that it's based on a story by 0:17:09.160 --> 0:17:13.200 a very talented, very eccentric, young director, Robert Alman. Here's 0:17:13.240 --> 0:17:15.320 Alman on The Dick Cavit Show from nineteen seventy one 0:17:15.480 --> 0:17:17.200 on starting new projects. 0:17:16.960 --> 0:17:19.040 No matter how easy it seems, is always impossible, and 0:17:19.040 --> 0:17:20.840 there's a thousand things to get in the way, and 0:17:21.440 --> 0:17:23.919 then you go into making the picture, and then finishing 0:17:23.960 --> 0:17:25.960 the thing, and then going through this business of getting 0:17:25.960 --> 0:17:30.080 it opening and seeing properly, and luckily the cycle. About 0:17:30.119 --> 0:17:32.840 the time you really get bored and tired with one thing, 0:17:33.040 --> 0:17:35.240 the next one comes up and you get a kind 0:17:35.240 --> 0:17:36.960 of a whole new shot of enthusiasm. 0:17:37.520 --> 0:17:40.320 Alman will bring that enthusiasm to some of the defining 0:17:40.320 --> 0:17:44.000 films of the nineteen seventies that he directs, like Mash mckayban, 0:17:44.040 --> 0:17:49.479 Missus Miller, and Nashville. The idea for single Lingling centers 0:17:49.520 --> 0:17:51.440 on a raid by World War One fighter pilots on 0:17:51.480 --> 0:17:54.520 the German Swiss border. Doll, of course, has first hand 0:17:54.520 --> 0:17:56.560 experience as a pilot in a world war, and he 0:17:56.600 --> 0:17:59.800 sees promising Alman seems like a fet he takes the gig. 0:18:01.000 --> 0:18:03.840 United Artists loves the script all rights, but they do 0:18:03.880 --> 0:18:07.320 not want Altman to direct it. Almond's too stubborn to 0:18:07.440 --> 0:18:10.440 avant garde for the studio system, which he freely admits 0:18:10.600 --> 0:18:12.080 here on the Charlie Rose Show. 0:18:12.320 --> 0:18:16.360 I think that had I had to always make successful films, 0:18:17.119 --> 0:18:18.000 I would have failed. 0:18:18.320 --> 0:18:20.480 But Almond is so angry at getting booted that he 0:18:20.520 --> 0:18:24.040 tries to get the entire project scrapped, which really angers Dahl, 0:18:24.280 --> 0:18:27.120 who's desperately trying to get his first movie made. Dall 0:18:27.240 --> 0:18:30.119 hires a famous pit bull of a Hollywood agent, Swifty Lazaar, 0:18:30.280 --> 0:18:33.680 to fight for him, and eventually all Men gives him. 0:18:33.800 --> 0:18:35.800 A new director is brought on, and filming in the 0:18:35.800 --> 0:18:38.960 movie actually begins with Gregory Peck, the legendary Starve to 0:18:39.000 --> 0:18:42.080 Kill a Mockingbird and Roman Holiday in the lead. Dahl 0:18:42.119 --> 0:18:45.040 seems to have finally done it after several failed attempts. 0:18:45.160 --> 0:18:47.440 He's finally going to have one of his screenplays produced. 0:18:47.680 --> 0:18:52.520 The Curse of f Scott Fitzgerald be damned. But then 0:18:52.720 --> 0:18:55.119 during the shoot, the head of United Artists watches the 0:18:55.119 --> 0:18:58.280 footage and doesn't like what he's seeing. He pulls the 0:18:58.320 --> 0:19:00.920 plug in the middle of production, just shuts the whole 0:19:00.960 --> 0:19:04.160 thing down. According to Doll, two million dollars had already 0:19:04.200 --> 0:19:07.159 been spent, Just like with the Gremlins, Doll's left with 0:19:07.240 --> 0:19:10.000 yet another abandoned project and more of his heart fought 0:19:10.040 --> 0:19:13.120 writing that will never see the light of day. It's 0:19:13.200 --> 0:19:16.520 devastating for Doll. He was so close he could taste it. 0:19:16.880 --> 0:19:20.119 Cameras were rolling, a movie star was saying his words, 0:19:20.640 --> 0:19:25.080 and then nothing. He's ready to give up, to abandon 0:19:25.160 --> 0:19:30.160 this insane business that just keeps delivering heartbreak. But after 0:19:30.200 --> 0:19:32.960 some sleepless nights with that awful three am wake up 0:19:33.000 --> 0:19:35.680 where you feel trapped wondering if you're wasting your life 0:19:35.720 --> 0:19:38.359 on something that will never ever happen, Doll does an 0:19:38.359 --> 0:19:41.919 amazing thing. He walks it off. He puts the rejection 0:19:42.000 --> 0:19:44.639 behind him, chalking it up to an industry that is 0:19:44.760 --> 0:19:47.960 very much not a meritocracy, and decides to keep trying. 0:19:48.520 --> 0:19:51.400 Producers and agents, after all, keep telling him how talented 0:19:51.440 --> 0:19:53.920 he is and cs Forrester asked him if he knew 0:19:53.960 --> 0:19:56.720 he was a writer, he'll crack the code eventually, he 0:19:56.800 --> 0:19:59.520 has to, too many people are telling him he will. 0:20:00.920 --> 0:20:03.920 Dall becomes the living embodiment of my favorite quote about 0:20:03.920 --> 0:20:06.719 the industry from our greatest film critic Paulin and Kale. 0:20:06.760 --> 0:20:10.200 Hollywood is the only place where you can die of encouragement. 0:20:12.000 --> 0:20:14.600 So he soldiers on. He doesn't know it yet, but 0:20:14.640 --> 0:20:17.840 his script for that abandoned film will eventually do more 0:20:17.880 --> 0:20:20.600 for his career and for his finances than any other 0:20:20.600 --> 0:20:27.640 script he'll ever write. We'll come back to that. Over 0:20:27.720 --> 0:20:29.800 the next few years, Doll has a number of other 0:20:29.840 --> 0:20:33.080 projects fall apart. Revered director Howard Hawks wants to work 0:20:33.119 --> 0:20:36.040 with him, but it comes to nothing. Dall supposedly wins 0:20:36.040 --> 0:20:39.000 an incredible assignment to adapt the classic dystopian novel A 0:20:39.040 --> 0:20:42.280 Brave New World, but again it doesn't work out. He 0:20:42.320 --> 0:20:46.560 also apparently tries his hand at adapting Moby Dick No Dice. Then, 0:20:46.720 --> 0:20:49.240 in the late fifties, Dall finally hooks up with the 0:20:49.240 --> 0:20:52.600 person who feels like the platonic ideal of a collaborator 0:20:52.600 --> 0:20:55.800 for him, very much as long lost spiritual brother and 0:20:55.920 --> 0:21:01.280 sometimes that's all it takes. Hitchcock started making movies in 0:21:01.320 --> 0:21:05.040 America in nineteen forty. Fifteen years later, near the beginning 0:21:05.080 --> 0:21:07.919 of that wild six year run of Classics, he somehow 0:21:07.960 --> 0:21:11.000 finds the time to host, produce, and occasionally direct an 0:21:11.000 --> 0:21:15.720 anthology TV series on CBS. The show, Alfred Hitchcock Presents 0:21:16.160 --> 0:21:18.840 is made up of thrillers, mysteries, and creepy stories of 0:21:18.880 --> 0:21:23.000 all kinds. Here's the man himself. Do you Believe in? 0:21:23.160 --> 0:21:26.680 Ghost of I Knew? 0:21:28.040 --> 0:21:31.440 The show is hugely successful and becoming a major influence 0:21:31.440 --> 0:21:34.920 on series like The Twilight Zone and Black Mirror. Now. 0:21:35.040 --> 0:21:37.840 While most of Hitch's films are written by great playwrights 0:21:37.920 --> 0:21:41.680 like Thornton Wilder or novelists like John Steinbeck, or established 0:21:41.680 --> 0:21:44.520 Hollywood heavy rats like Ben Hecht, John Michael Hayes and 0:21:44.600 --> 0:21:48.120 Ernest Lehman, hitch needs way more writers and way more 0:21:48.119 --> 0:21:53.000 material for a weekly show. Skimming through Collier's Magazine one 0:21:53.040 --> 0:21:55.560 week on the lookout for new blood, hitch comes upon 0:21:55.560 --> 0:21:58.000 a story called The Smoker, by a writer with a 0:21:58.080 --> 0:22:01.840 very unique name, dlor Is, about a man who gambles 0:22:01.840 --> 0:22:05.360 with strangers the stakes of the bet they're pinky fingers. 0:22:06.080 --> 0:22:08.240 If they lose, they have the chop theirs off and 0:22:08.320 --> 0:22:11.800 hands it over Dolls sadistic hero a mass is a 0:22:11.840 --> 0:22:17.760