American Cinematographer - June 1991 - 41

Dali's plans

path that he wished the giant scissors to follow. The
drop was then pre-cut so that as the actor maneuvered
the (non-functional) scissors along the predetermined
path, their effect could be simulated by pulling the
curtain away from below. As specified in Dali's

the statue
scenes.

sketches and notes, metronomes embellished with
cutout eyes (a 20 year old image borrowed from Man
Ray) were set in the motion "precisely synchronized
in opposing directions" on tables with human legs. His
plan to have a "cockroach with an eye glued onto its
back moving across the blank cards" was politely re¬
jected as was his suggestion that "the eye could re¬
appear and serve as a dissolve into the wheel in the
chimney scene."
Rhonda Fleming, who played the "kissing
bug," recalls that Dali spent two hours with a large pair
of scissors cutting a $400 Dior negligee to shreds to
make her costume. The artist had unfortunately made
the mistake of taking at face value the scripts assertion
that Miss Fleming's character had "hardly anything
on," prompting a quick recreation from the Story De¬
partment: "I showed the Dali sketch for the kissing bug
dream sequence to the Hays office this morning and
they are unanimous in saying as I thought, that the girl
must be more covered. There must be more rags

around her midriff, considerably more rags to cover
the inside of the left thigh, and so on, and that the
material must come higher so as to cover the breasts

properly."
On September 8, Charles Regan, doubling for
Gregory Peck, was filmed making several runs down
a 35 foot slope. This would later be optically combined
with Dali's painting so that he would appear to be
running down the side of a large pyramid. In addition,
the fall from the roof was set up and shot with a
stuntman against black velvet drapes. This too would

be later combined with Dali's artwork.

By September 14, portions of the dream se¬
quence had been found unsatisfactory and were being
shot again. On September 15, Johnston reported the
results of the reshoot to Selznick: "Due to the negli¬
gence of the camera crew shooting the Statue shot in
the 'Dream Sequence' yesterday, this shot will have to
be retaken. This was attributable either to the shutter
of the camera being closed or not working. I am hav¬

ing a meeting with the crew to determine how a thing
like this could happen." The sequence was reshot a
second time

September 22.
By October 6, Selznick's hopes for an inex¬
pensive dream sequence were history. The Spellbound
rough assembly had been previewed in Pasadena on
September 27 and the subsequent cutting notes in¬
cluded the following directives from the producer: 1.
Reshoot the Gambling House Sequence from all
angles. 2. Redo the optical work on the Roof Shot. 3.
Redo the optical work on J.B.'s run down the slope. 4.
Cut the Ballroom Scene entirely. 5. Add new dialogue
to cover the jump to the Statue Scene.
Director/designer William Cameron Menzies
met with Selznick a few days later, prompting the fol¬

June 1991

on

lowing memo: "I have had

a very

exciting

conversa¬

tion with Bill Menzies about the dream sequence, and
am sure we can

get something wonderful out of it. Bill

doesn't want to be pressed for time, and I told him that
if we couldn't get it cleaned up during the coming
week this would be all right as long as we finished the
entire thing in the next couple of weeks."
Plans for a revised dream sequence set off a

flurry of activity. Editor Hal Kern was concerned that
the Dali paintings were "not photographic so far as
matching sequence is concerned. Therefore, we would
like to have permission to repaint or make changes to
give us a better consistency of dream quality." Selznick
passed the question on to Robert Dann in the legal
department: "How much privilege do we have to do
what we please with the Dali paintings? We're going
to absolutely require complete freedom to use these
paintings in any way we see fit, including repainting
them, for tonal values, adding to them or subtracting
from them, building sections of them based on the
paintings, et cetera." Dann's response came two days
later, on October 30: "Our contract with Dali does not
permit us to adapt or change his paintings. However,
I understand... that

of the completed changes
of the Dali quality, and that
retained after any contem¬
plated changes. I am trying to reach Dali's agent for
permission to do this."
By November 27, Menzies had laid out a
complete storyboard incorporating a new modification
to the sequence. The statue scene was completely gone,
none

would result in any loss
the Dali style would be

American

Cinematographer

39

for
American Cinematographer - June 1991

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