Movie Trivia

[tv star collector]

Designer Carlo Rimbaldi made several E.T.s for different activities in the 1982
film "E.T.--The Extra-Terrestrial." Depending on the scene, E.T. moved through the use of radio-controlled devices, hand puppets, or midgets in E.T.
suits. To achieve the desired alien effect for his voice, 18 different animals
were recorded and the sounds synthesized. The animals included raccoons,
cats, and horses. When E.T. learned to speak English, distorted human voices
were used. Actress Debra Winger read much of his dialogue.

Before Christopher Reeve got the film role of "Superman," the role had been
turned down by Robert Redford and Paul Newman. Newman also turned down
the part of Lex Luthor. Carrie Fisher was suggested for the role of Lois Lane.

The embodiment of Frankenstein's monster in the 1931 screen classic was the
work of Jack Pierce. He painstakingly built up actor Boris Karloff's forehead to
make it look as though Frankenstein had simply sawed off the top of the
creature's head in order to insert the brain; then Pierce increased the monster's bulk with padding and his height with the thick-soled, weighted
boots that also caused his stiff, forward-leaning walk. The transformation of
man into monster for "Frankenstein" took four hours, plus another four hours
to remove the makeup.

One of "Frankenstein"'s most infamous scenes, in which the monster throws a
little girl into the stream, expecting her to float like a flower, was cut after
the premiere. The child drowns instead of floating, and the scene so upset
the premiere audience that it was removed--with the approval of director
James Whale, who wasn't satisfied with the scene anyway.

Long shots of the ape in "King Kong" (1933) were miniatures, but it was
necessary to create a lifesize bust of Kong's head and hand. It took 40
bearskins to cover the bust. King Kong's roar was created by taking a tape
of a lion's roar, running it backwards, and re-recording it. The high spots and
the loud peaks were spliced together, and re-recorded to producer the roar.

"Psycho" (1960) was based on the real-life exploits of Ed Gein, whose
Wisconsin farmhouse revealed the poorly preserved corpse of Gein's mother
as well as evidence of over a dozen murders. (His exploits were also the
basis for "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.") By the way, neither Janet Leigh
nor Anthony Perkins actually appear in the famous shower scene. A double
was used for both actors.

"The Wizard of Oz" (1939) took more than a decade to go into the black for
MGM. It was expensive to make and there was not a sufficiently large
audience for what was then regarded as a children's film.

One of the leading performers in "Gone with the Wind" (1939) was excluded
from the Atlanta premiere. Black actress Hattie McDaniel was present for the
festivities but was not allowed into the whites-only theater.

"Casablanca" (1942) began filming without a completed script. Consequently
Ingrid Bergman never knew which of the main characters, Laszlo (Paul
Henreid) or Rick (Humphrey Bogart), she would end up with until the final
scene was shot.

The leading role of Sam Spade in "The Maltese Falcon" (1941) went to
Humphrey Bogart only after it had been turned down by George Raft. The
part of the fat man, Kasper Gutman, was Sydney Greenstreet's first job in
movies.

"The African Queen" (1951) was originally planned as a vehicle for Elsa
Lanchester and her husband, Charles Laughton. Then Bette Davis had hopes
of doing it with James Mason. But producer Sam Spiegel thought Humphrey
Bogart and Katherine Hepburn, who had never worked together, would make
an exciting team. He was right.

Sylvester Stallone (after watching a boxing match between Muhammad Ali
and Chuck Wepner on TV) got the idea for "Rocky" (1976) and wrote the
script in three days. He was offered $75,000 for it but turned it down. He
wouldn't sell unless he could star in the film. They wanted it so badly that
they agreed.

(Source: TV & MOVIE FACTS by Walter J. Podrazik (1985))