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How the West Was Won (1962)
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By the late 1950's, Cinerama was a household word. The popular three panel filming process had been selling out theaters with travelogue features for the past decade. Audiences eagerly awaited studios to film features with major stars using this format.
MGM decided to film two features using Cinerama. How the West Was Won and The Wonderful World of the Brothers' Grimm were both filmed and released to critical acclaim and success. But, by far, West was the boldest and more epic of the productions.
The film featured five episodes of interlocking stories primarily following the Prescott family moving out west like so many families did in 19th century America. The movie chronicles their journey between the years 1838 and 1889. While the first two episodes up until the intermission mainly showcases the life of Lily Prescott (Debbie Reynolds), the last three episodes follows Zeb Rawlings (George Peppard), Lily's nephew, from his enlistment in the Civil War to becoming a United States Marshall.
The star-studded film featured a who's who of talent, no matter how small the part. While some stars, like Reynolds, was in most of the film, other stars highly boasted, like John Wayne, were only in one or two scenes. Spencer Tracy was the film's narrator which was originally to be done by Bing Crosby. Tracy was unavailable filming Judgment at Nuremburg. Tracy was originally chosen to play General Grant in the Civil War episode. Harry Morgan was brought in to play Grant and Crosby was set to go but was denied at the last minute since he was not a contract player with MGM. By this time, Nuremberg was complete and Tracy recorded the dialog.
West was greatly advertised and shown throughout the world. Ironically, it was released in Europe and Japan before America, even though the subject was about America. It played in many cities for years, some over one hundred weeks. By the end of the 1960's, it had been shown over six thousand times in theaters around the globe. It was the best grossing film of 1962, winning three Academy awards and nominated for eight.
One of the drawbacks of Cinerama was the unavoidable lines seen between the frames on screen. These were especially noticeable on outdoor shots. Director Henry Hathaway solved this problem somewhat by using trees, buildings or whatever he could find to cover these lines. It resulted in a job for the set crews to find the perfect spots and angles for this trick to work.
Even though audiences were thrilled at the film, the actors were less than excited about the process. The Cinerama camera was three standard cameras combined into one, with globes covering the lenses. A single 27mm lens was used that was non-interchangeable, which meant no zoom in shots and wider exposure, especially to background. Cast and crew had to be alerted constantly when filming was to begin so as not to get into the shot. When it could not be avoided due to necessity of the scene, crew members had to hide behind rocks, trees or any other obstruction to get the shot correct.
Because of the angle of the lenses and camera, actors could not look directly at their fellow actors when in a scene with them if they were in different panels. The panels were labeled 'A' or 'Able', 'B' or 'Baker' and 'C' or 'Charlie'. When scenes called for the actors to be close, such as in the love scenes between James Stewart and Carroll Baker in the first episode The Rivers, both actors would cram into one panel so that the dialog and acting looked more real. But if one actor was in panel Able while another was in panel Baker, the actors had to look over the other actor's shoulder and not at them so it would look authentic on film. This was a confusing tactic that the actors hated. If one actor was in one shot and the other even further off, single actor shots were needed, as in the conversation between Robert Preston and Debbie Reynolds at the morning campground scene in The Plains episode. The camera had to get within eighteen inches of the actors face to get the correct close angle needed, even though on film it appeared as if the camera was still far off. Agnes Moorehead said the camera looked like a giant fly and Thelma Ritter said it was like acting into a clock.
The Cinerama cameras were by no means easy to maneuver. Each one weighed about eight hundred pounds and it made shooting very difficult. New problems resulted with the filming that was not evident when filming the travelogues. That mainly used a single camera propped on an airplane, roller coaster, bobsled or other device and no actors were directed. Since human beings were involved, more direction was needed and therefore more headaches. The Cheyenne Indian attack in The Plains episode took over six weeks to film, a sequence only lasting four minutes on screen. John Ford, who directed the Civil War episode, hated the camera. He got furious when during a shot in front of the Rawlings cabin, he could not put a microphone where he wanted because it was in the shot. He could not understand how it could be in the shot. Finally, the mic was placed under the porch.
The camera also reacted different as far as technical aspects were concerned. A single reel of 35mm stock film would take about eleven minutes to use. The Cinerama film only took seven minutes to use up. It was also twice as wide and was far more expensive. Many films at this time were still being shot in black and white so color added more expense. The director and actors had to be careful not to use too much film up and to keep takes to a minimum.
Three directors were used for this film; three episodes filmed by Henry Hathaway and the other two by John Ford and George Marshall. Each one was a veteran in their craft and had worked with the other actors before. This saved time and money, but it did not keep the movie from going long and over budget. Each episode was roughly between thirty and forty-five minutes long. The timing had to be correct. The Cinerama projectors could not hold more than 84 minutes of film. It took the entire fifteen minutes of intermission for the projector operators to get the machines in sync and the sound mix correct. Also, the opening of the film, intermission title and closing of the film were each exactly 24 seconds long, because it took 24 seconds for the curtains to close the over one hundred feet in length the screen was in the Cinerama theaters. In the beginning of the second act, Raymond Massey, who plays Abraham Lincoln for the final time of many throughout his career, stands at the window for exactly 24 seconds before he walks to his desk. (Massey's resemblance to the famous president gave him film and radio parts for years. Fun fact: Massey was Canadian!)
Veteran composer Alfred Newman's score was nominated for an Academy Award and is #25 on AFI's list of best film scores of all time. Ken Darby assisted and the two collaborated to produce a movie with great sweeping sound as well as charming background source music, mostly of folk tunes from the era. Debbie Reynolds also puts on a show doing several numbers. Other Newman scores include Gunga Din, The Prisoner of Zenda, All About Eve, and The Greatest Story Ever Told. He also adapted several of Rodgers and Hammerstein's musicals into film scores. After Newman's death in 1970, Darby donated Newman's life's work to the University of Southern California where students can still listen to and learn from this composer's pieces. Darby passed away in 1992.
Several memorable scenes were due to the nature of them. The Cinerama format was not more noticed than in the buffalo stampede in The Railroad episode, the train robbery in The Outlaws and the Cheyenne Indian attack. The camera would show point of view angles from the front of the train, the horse of an Indian warrior and under the buffaloes hooves in the ground. You can notice the camera's pictures seem to curve as things and people pass before it. This was intentional to give it a more panoramic feel. The ratio of a normal 35mm film was around 1.85:1 while Cinerama was around 2.89:1. While other widescreen formats claim to be larger, they are more two-dimensional as opposed to the three-dimensional appearance of Cinerama.
The stampede scene was not only dangerous but almost did not happen. When the buffaloes were released, instead of heading where they were to go, they went in the opposite direction over a hill. Fearing all was lost, the crew began to pack up. After hearing an approaching roar, they realized the buffalo had come around in a circle. The buffalo went around three different times before stopping, giving the camera operators ample footage to use. These buffalo were the grandparents of the buffalo used in the buffalo hunt scene in Dances With Wolves. Surprisingly, no animals were hurt or killed while filming.
The railroad shootout almost lost a stunt man his life. Bob Morgan was a double of one of the gunmen. When the timber moved on the flat car, Morgan was accidentally knocked off the car and under the wheels. He lost a leg, some of his face and a lot of blood. Emergency transfusions from the actors and crew saved his life until he could get to a hospital. With plastic and medical surgery, he was back on the job within a year and a half.
Some actors were cut while others were uncredited. Hope Lange was to play George Peppard's love interest. But when the scene where she leaves him while pregnant was read, the people at Cinerama did not agree. They claimed that over forty percent of Cinerama's audience were children and would not understand. This sequence, plus a later one where his son meets him after so many years was scrapped. Notable actors uncredited were Lee Van Cleef as a bandit in The Rivers, Ken Curtis in The Civil War as a soldier in the tent hospital and Harry Dean Stanton as an outlaw in The Outlaws. Eli Wallach's performance as Charlie Gant in The Outlaws impressed Sergio Leone so much he hired Wallach to play Tuco in The Good, The Bad and the Ugly some years later, a role most remember him for.
This film was Cinerama's last hoorah. With the actors disapproval and the expense, the process was slowly abandoned. UltraPanavision 70 and SuperPanavision 70 replaced Cinerama. A year later, UltraPanavision 70 was used in its first feature, It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. This film was labeled as a Cinerama picture, even though it used a single lens. Critic Leonard Maltin saw this picture as a child and said later he felt unimpressed and cheated (he referred to the process, not the film itself). Other films would also claim the Cinerama name, including Grand Prix, The Greatest Story Ever Told and 2001: A Space Odyssey. Those who have seen both Cinerama and IMAX (including my father) stated IMAX is great in its own right and entertaining, but nothing is like the Cinerama experience!
Good news for those who enjoyed the films but hated the unavoidable lines between the cameras on a Cinerama screen. A new process using computer technology has almost completely wiped away the lines from the shots and a current edition of How the West Was Won is now available on DVD and Blu-Ray. The Blu-Ray version is presented in SmileBox format, intimidating the curvature of the screen. These versions can be found at www.amazon.com.
See also these external links:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_the_West_Was_Won
See also my article on Cinerama: How the revolutionary filming process changed everything
www.examiner.com/x-24897-West-Palm-Beach-Epic-Movie-Examiner
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