I distinctly recall on some daytime talk show back in the early 1990s Joan Rivers (perhaps a daytime show she was hosting, not sure, though) telling the audience that the Swimmer was a bad movie. She wasn't being funny; she even seemed angry about her involvement with the film.
I wonder why she felt that way.
Probably because , Sydney Pollack took over directing after Lancaster and Frank Perry fought over their differing views of where the film needed to go. Rivers was upset that Pollack let Lancaster trim her lines to make her character seem more needy, and he more sympathetic.
Maybe Rivers didn't like being upstaged by the star of the film? Or she's just doing what she does, bitches and moans about everything and everyone?
Man without relatives is man without troubles. Charlie Chan
Joan Rivers does have an ego, and she can be very vindictive (she bad mouthed Johnny Carson until his death and she showed some serious hate towards that poker player on Celebrity Apprentice), so I think you are right in that she was probably just bitching and moaning like she always does. Sometimes when a movie is being made, people who are working on it think it stinks. For example, I read somewhere that the technicians who worked on the Godfather thought the movie was a bomb. Another example: I also knew a guy who worked on Dirty Dancing. He said he couldn't stop laughing during the making of that now beloved movie. He even said all the crew thought Patrick Swayze wasn't doing a good acting job. Go figure.
She is a woman who carries a grudge. If Burt Lancaster changed her lines and made her experience unpleasant, it was probably for a very good reason. He was a legendary actor and producer who created United Artists, and she was basically just starting out. As much as I think she can be amusing at times, she must know her acting work since then isn't worth discussing.
I think the world of Burt Lancaster, but he didn't create United Artists; that was Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, and D.W. Griffith, when Lancaster was but a small child.
shareI stand corrected. After doing some research I found out his production company was called Hecht-Hill-Lancaster. I believe they produced Marty, Sweet Smell of Success, Birdman of Alcatraz, Cat Ballou, and a bunch of other titles. My personal favorite of his is from that time period is Apache. Quite a lot of Burt Lancaster films; however, they also produced movies that didn't star Burt Lancaster.
Although he was in his latter years when he made it, I liked Atlantic City the best.
shareJoan Rivers said in the making of documentary on the new blu-ray that she loves the film, and watches it everytime it's on TV.
However, she didn't like that Burt Lancaster took control over the scene they shared, and started directing it himself after he was dissatisfied with what Frank Perry shot.
Another example: I also knew a guy who worked on Dirty Dancing. He said he couldn't stop laughing during the making of that now beloved movie.
I couldn't help but be amused by that comment. At first I was tempted to post a reply saying something like: Okay ... and how exactly was the guy wrong?
But I don't like to come off like a glib smart-aleck. Personally I didn't find Dirty Dancing to be anything special. I don't care how many other people like it. But we all have our opinions. I do like the Godfather. I think otherwise your post is spot on. Sometimes people involved in producing a movie can't tell how it will be precisely because they're too close to it.
Yeah, I'm with you. I was following along with the examples until that one. Dirty Dancing is a bad and even a ridiculous movie that surprised me at the time by becoming so popular. To me, it's actually an answer to the question "what were they thinking?" when a movie really does bomb and everyone says with hindsight that it was an obvious turkey. Dirty Dancing looks like an obvious dud but became a sensational hit. Same with Flashdance. So anyone making any cheesy movie can always have hope.
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She didn't bad mouth Carson, that I recall. She retold the story about what happened a few times, but always to present her side and just cold facts about the situation. If someone regards facts as vindictiveness, well....
She never bad mouthed Carson, though, and always spoke highly of him, his talent, etc. But the situation between them that caused Carson never to speak to her again hurt her deeply, and it was important for her to get her side of the story out there.
She was wrong not to recognize that going to her own show in direct competition with Carson wouldn't have consequences, and that he would take it personally, being basically responsible for her having a career in the first place. But he was wrong not to be honest with her that she there was no chance in hell that she would be given the host position, when he left. He strung her along, didn't tell her, led her to believe she had a chance, but she found out from other sources that Carson was pushing someone else. He had betrayed her.