Final weekend hundreds of the world’s most passionate and obsessive film followers descended upon Hollywood for the sixteenth annual TCM Traditional Movie Competition, which offered alternatives to see every little thing from “Gunfight on the OK Corral” and “We’re No Angels” projected in true VistaVision to nitrate prints of “Daisy Kenyon” and “Mildred Pierce” at The Egyptian Theatre, one in all solely 5 venues within the nation able to screening that format. There was additionally a restoration of a silent basic with dwell accompaniment (“Beau Geste“), a BFI restoration of Ernst Lubitsch’s timeless — and well timed — comedy “To Be or To not Be,” and a a tribute to groundbreaking director Michael Schultz, amongst many different pleasant packages.
It’s arduous to select a favourite occasion from such a stacked weekend, however for sheer moviegoing pleasure it was robust to beat the thirty fifth anniversary screening of “Distress,” which screened within the legendary TCL Chinese language Theatre to a packed crowd. The film itself — a diabolically humorous and terrifying two-hander through which obsessive fan Kathy Bates holds author James Caan hostage after he suffers a debilitating accident — performs higher than ever, and after the viewers was achieved laughing and screaming for 107 minutes straight they had been handled to an much more particular deal with than seeing “Distress” on an enormous display: Listening to Bates and director Rob Reiner talk about the film dwell with TCM host Dave Karger.
Reiner started the night by saying how blissful he was to see that the film nonetheless performed to a crowd. “I used to be stunned by what number of laughs are in there,” he mentioned, including that he was additionally stunned to see how effectively Caan and Bates got here throughout on display collectively given their totally different working strategies. “They arrive at performing in very other ways. Kathy is a superb stage actress and Jimmy didn’t need any rehearsal, he simply needed to be instinctive. So we discovered a solution to rehearse greater than Jimmy needed and fewer than Kathy needed, however it works.”
Other than not getting as a lot rehearsal as she would have appreciated, Bates had solely nice issues to say about her expertise on “Distress” — although she did admit being disenchanted that Reiner toned down the gore within the novel, chopping a scene through which her character ran somebody over with a lawnmower and downgrading Caan’s foot amputation to a mere hobbling. “I used to be crushed that you just took that out,” Bates mentioned to Reiner, who defended himself by saying that he felt Caan’s character shouldn’t must lose one thing after he had realized one thing. “I didn’t agree with that in any respect,” Bates mentioned.
Whereas Reiner mentioned he knew Bates was his Annie Wilkes after just some minutes of her audition, casting Caan’s position was far tougher. Actors who turned the position down included William Damage, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Harrison Ford, Dustin Hoffman, Kevin Kline, Michael Douglas, Robert Redford, and Gene Hackman. At one level Warren Beatty was connected and made what Reiner says was a key contribution to the script rewrites.
“He mentioned, ‘This isn’t a horror film. This isn’t a thriller,’” Reiner mentioned. “‘This can be a jail film. This man is in jail and he must be as good as you in making an attempt to determine learn how to get out of jail.’” Reiner says he and producer Andrew Scheinman, who had been rewriting the script after William Goldman left the venture, spent months tightening the story and “plugging up the holes” with Beatty’s directive in thoughts. “We had a script that I assumed was air-tight. After which Beatty mentioned, ‘I don’t know if I wish to do it.’”
Reiner additionally provided the half to Richard Dreyfuss, who had turned down Reiner’s earlier movie and regretted it. “I had provided him the lead half in ‘When Harry Met Sally…,’ and he mentioned, ‘You’ve acquired an awesome director however not an awesome script,’” Reiner mentioned. “I assumed, ‘Jesus, it’s Nora Ephron, one of many nice writers!’” After “Harry” got here out and have become an enormous hit, Dreyfuss advised Reiner he could be on board with something Reiner needed to do subsequent. “He mentioned, ‘No matter it’s, I’ll do it.’ After which he turned us down!”
Caan turned out to be the right individual for the position, each as a result of the variations between his and Bates’ approaches created automated pressure and since his athleticism made him really feel so trapped within the mattress the place he spent most of film. “He was the best bodily athlete,” Reiner mentioned. “He was in rodeo — the one Jewish cowboy I ever met. I assumed it was excellent that he could be so constrained. I’d come to set day by day and simply say to him, ‘Pay attention, Jimmy, on this scene…you’re in mattress.’”
Bates mentioned that Caan’s physicality made their climactic battle scene extraordinarily convincing. “I feel he performed each sport recognized to man,” she mentioned. “He was constructed like a brick shithouse.” Bates credited stunt coordinator David Ellis, who would go on to direct two “Remaining Vacation spot” films and “Snakes on a Airplane,” with choreographing the battle to look as violent as attainable. “We labored out the entire strikes and every little thing, and when it got here time to shoot it we put a chunk within the flooring so my head wouldn’t get harm too dangerous. However he actually needed to slam my head into the ground, and it was upsetting to be on the opposite facet of that. Thank God I’ve by no means been in a relationship like that — I assume there’s nonetheless time.”
That acquired fun from the TCM crowd, as did one in all Bates’ different observations. “I had an interview lately the place somebody requested, ‘What character are you most like,’ and I mentioned Annie Wilkes,” she mentioned. “I get manic and I can get down, and typically I might get obsessed about somebody actually gifted.” Reiner nodded in settlement, saying of the psychotic Annie, “Everyone lets off steam each infrequently.”
Bates admitted that when she noticed “Distress” for the primary time she had no thought what she and Reiner and Caan had pulled off. “I assumed it was the top of my profession,” she mentioned. “I used to be horrified.” When Bates was finally nominated for an Oscar for her efficiency, Reiner advised her she might marketing campaign if she needed to, however there was little probability of her successful as a result of the Academy didn’t respect horror films. She advised Reiner she might nonetheless keep in mind his response when she received the Academy Award. “You simply stood up and went, ‘Yeeeaaaaaah!’”