American Cinematographer - August 1987 - 41

The front office

was

horrified when

the

budget sailed past the first million and headed for the
second. They began to exert the kind of pressure they
had promised Cruze at the outset they wouldn't. Dissat¬
isfied with conditions anyway, Cruze traveled from Cat¬
alina to Hollywood and threatened to quit. Schulberg
prevailed upon him to finish the picture, and Cruze re¬
luctantly agreed. It would be a decision he would bit¬
terly regret.
Cruze was basically a morose charac¬
ter, and show business raised his spirits by providing
entertainment on and off the set. He was one of Holly¬
wood's most dedicated hosts, keeping open house on
Sundays for anyone - anyone at all. He had once wan¬
dered the West as a hobo, and he never forgot his hard
times. In the hall of his home at Flintridge was a pot full
of money, for old friends who needed a handout. He
was greatly loved, and he commanded immense loy¬
alty - under normal circumstances. But as the schedule
dragged on and on, some of the old seamen cracked
under the strain. They began to desert. Mostly East
Coast sailors, they disliked the Pacific for its unpredict¬
able changes; none of them had expected such condi¬
tions on a movie. To replace them, Cruze drafted in his
loyal cowboys from The Covered Wagon; they quickly
learned how to man the ship from the hard core of
Scandinavian seamen, and stayed at their posts.
"Every night, I used to say 'What am
I doing, sacrificing my life for a motion picture?" said
Miss Arzner. "The next morning, Cruze would rap on
my door and say, 'Dot, come to breakfast,' and out I'd
go, because I couldn't bear to be a quitter. I'm not sure I
believe in courage; I think people with any kind of cour¬
age can't bear to be quitters. They go through it and
they're scared stiff."
When the Constitution had at last
been filmed in all her scripted scenes, Cruze decided this
would be the last day of shooting - and the time had

dynamite her

masts. It would
remember for the rest of his life.
come to

be

a

day he would

According to Charles Barton, prop¬
the button to fire the charges was placed near
Cruze, under the control of the head of the special ef¬
fects department. Prop men climbed the yardarm and set
the charges.
"As soon as the men on the rigging
came down and cleared the area, the charge was to
go
off. Jim made a sudden move while the men were still up
there, and the special effects man thought it was the
signal. He hit the button. The mast blew off with all
these men still on it. I had got Duke Kahanamoku a job
and that film, and Duke and my brother - I don't know
how many people they saved by picking them up and
laying them on the floating spars."
erty man,

One

man

was

killed and

two

se¬

riously injured. James Cruze was taken to court on a
manslaughter charge, although the nature of the acci¬
dent

soon

became clear.

"I saw Cruze go grey on that pic¬
ture," said Dorothy Arzner. "He started with black hair
and he was almost white by the time he had done it."

August 1987

Above: Between
aboard ship.
Dorothy Arzner is in
the lower right

scenes

corner.

frame

Left: Actual

enlargement

of scene.

Ironically, some miniature ship ac¬
by Roy Pomeroy, ASC, and his technical
effects department. The model of the Constitution is
preserved at Paramount. In New York, Maestro Hugo
Riesenfeld composed a "musical setting" featuring a
rousing march which became a much-used staple of film
scoring for some 25 years.
tion

was

added

After all the bad luck,

a

stroke of

extraordinary good fortune enabled Paramount to steal
a march on its rivals and to present Old Ironsides with
added dimension. Previews had worried the front
office. In response to the public reaction - "too much

an

stuff,

little love stuff"

- they had added some
Lasky asked Glendon Allvine, of the
publicity department, to see what he could do to give
the film extra punch.
The real problem was that audiences
were staying home in vast numbers, seduced by the won¬

sea

love

too

scenes.

Now

der of radio. Allvine reacted

as

the studios would

react

25 years later, when television threatened their receipts;
he enlarged the screen. He recalled the existence of a

wide-angle projection lens which had been brought to
his attention by its inventor, Lorenzo del Riccio, who
thought it might be useful for outdoor presentations.
American

Cinematographer

39
American Cinematographer - August 1987

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