Photoplay (Jul-Dec 1957)

TELL US, MR. LANCASTER Continued jrom 'page 30 can appeal to all peoples. Not all the time, though. STUDENT: Mr. Lancaster, as a producer, would you tell me this: When you choose a picture, do you choose one that is popular with the American public even though you personally feel that story is not too good? MR. LANCASTER: Not always. Well, no, we would never choose a picture if we felt the story is not too good; that is, if it doesn’t have the basic ingredients of what would represent drama and entertainment to people. STUDENT: Mr. Lancaster, do you feel that movies such as “The Man with the Golden Arm” gives Europeans the wrong impression of America? MR. LANCASTER: I don’t think any picture gives European people a wrong impression of America if it is well made and made with honesty and integrity as to the subject matter. STUDENT: Well, do you think such movies encourage juvenile delinquency here in the United States? MR. LANCASTER: I think juvenile delinquency is not encouraged by movies, specifically. I think juvenile delinquency is encouraged by unfortunate economic conditions and conditions in homes where children don’t have a proper upbringing because, very often, of those conditions. STUDENT: Sir, we know now there are a lot of foreign actors and actresses over the United States. Do you think the American public seems to like these people much better than their own people, those they see all the time? MR. LANCASTER: No. This brings up the question of what makes really a star performer. American people and, of course, European people and people all over the world, for that matter, like the performer who has that unique personality and quality which appeals to them personally. It has nothing to do with the fact that they are, shall we say, of foreign extraction, I don’t think. STUDENT: Do you feel foreign films are going to make any great inroads into the habits of the American movie-going public? MR. LANCASTER: I think time has proven at least that foreign films as such do appeal only to a limited group of Americans. Again, it goes back to the original question that was asked earlier. One of the reasons is that American people as such are more comfortable with a subject matter that pertains to things that they particularly understand. Foreign people talk with accents that are very hard to understand. Very often, they have a very grim and brutal kind of realism which a great many American people do not like to see, since they do not have any identification with the problems. These are some of the reasons foreign films are not especially successful in a broad sense in the American cinematic world. STUDENT: I am interested in knowing why you think western films should be done necessarily with fun and action. MR. LANCASTER: It isn’t that they necessarily should; and a peculiar thing happens in movies. You see, there have been pictures like “High Noon,” for instance, which have been highly successful. On the other hand, there have been pictures like the one I made with Gary Cooper called “Veracruz,” which by critical standards does not measure up to a “High Noon,” but which is a much more satisfying picture from the point of view of entertainment. There is also another problem: When you make a film of a special nature that will appeal to limited groups of people, you have to face the fact that these films are not in the broad sense of the word, popular. Therefore, when you do them, you must be careful that you do them for a certain price, because you have a limited income on such films, and the first cardinal rule of making pictures or writing a play or any form of entertainment is to make something that is financially successful. If they are not successful, you don’t continue in business, and you have no opportunity to present the ideas that you think are unique or even artistic. STUDENT: How does Hollywood face competition between TV and movies? MR. LANCASTER: What Hollywood has attempted to do about it is this: Actually, it is my personal opinion that the advent of TV, as far as Hollywood is concerned, has been a very, very healthy thing. There was a time, about ten short years ago, when almost anything that came out of Hollywood could be assured of reasonable financial success. Naturally, this sort of lulled people into a sense of false security, and there was not a great deal of attempt on the part of the studios to try to do anything worthwhile and different and challenging. Now that great inroads have been made in the whole financial structure of Hollywood, they have realized they have to do better things, things that are more exciting, more challenging so that people will leave their television receivers and come out to look at them. STUDENT: Sir, I have read you do not attend many Hollywood social functions. Don’t you like the type of people at these functions? MR. LANCASTER: Oh, yes. It has nothing to do with the functions. It is just that I have a group of friends that I would prefer to be with. For example, my wife and I like to play bridge. I have never been particularly comfortable or at ease in large social functions, cocktail parties, and so forth. STUDENT: Would you ever encourage your own children to go into acting if they wanted to? MR. LANCASTER: I would certainly do it. I feel a child should have an opportunity to do anything he has an inclination toward. STUDENT: Do yours watch you when you are performing in movies? MR. LANCASTER: Yes, and they’re among my toughest critics. They have traveled with me all over the world while I was making movies. They have lived in the Fiji Islands for four months and attended school there, they attended school in Mexico City, they have lived in France for the summer and they have lived in Italy for six months when I was there making a picture. But now they have reached the age where it is very difficult for them to go with me because they go to school. They have certain ties there, so I try to arrange my program so if I am shooting on location, it occurs in the summertime so I can take them with me. STUDENT: Mr. Lancaster, you mentioned a few minutes ago about the entertainment of movies, and that is why people go to movies, to be entertained. But it seems to me a juvenile delinquency film or a film on corruption in life, the baseness in life, would be rather not too entertaining. MR. LANCASTER: Let me make clear what I mean by entertaining. Every movie that is made has a point of view, whether it is a good one, a bad one, a useful one or what. By entertainment, I mean that regardless of what the subject matter may be, it should have an entertainment quality to it. That does not mean that the subject should not be treated with great seriousness, and great depth and great definition. STUDENT: I was wondering if the type of film such as “On the Waterfront,” where you can come out fighting mad and want to clean up the waterfront, has the purpose of reforming. Or “Baby Doll.” MR. LANCASTER: Well, about “Baby Doll,” I would quarrel with you. But certainly on “On the Waterfront” I agree with you. STUDENT: Most of your films are hard-bitten, often violent, dramas. Do you object to your children seeing them? MR. LANCASTER: Here is what I try to do. I let my children see the films that I am in. Some of them — for instance, “Come Back Little Sheba,” which I think is a worthwhile picture in addition to being an entertaining one — are difficult for their immature minds to understand completely. But rather than have them not see it, if they ask to see it, I let them, but I make sure to see it with them so I can try to answer all the questions they might raise. Therefore. I hope I can give them some sense of Watch TRUE STORY on your NBC affiliated television station on Saturdays. See your local paper for time and station. Exciting stories of actual events and people straight from the files of TRUE STORT Magazine -narrated by Kathi Norris. Is a heart attack the end of married love? Read “His Life In My Hands” in TRUE STORY Magazine, now at newsstands. Kathi Norris 94