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Robert Aldrich
Robert Burgess Aldrich (August 9, 1918 – December 5, 1983) was an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. An iconoclastic and maverick auteur working in many genres during the Golden Age of Hollywood, he directed mainly films noir, war movies, westerns and dark melodramas with Gothic overtones. His most notable credits include Vera Cruz (1954), Kiss Me Deadly (1955), The Big Knife (1955), Autumn Leaves (1956), Attack (1956), What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964), The Flight of the Phoenix (1965), The Dirty Dozen (1967), and The Longest Yard (1974).
Aldrich's directorial style combined "macho mise-en-scene and resonant reworkings of classic action genres," and were known for pushing the boundaries of violence in mainstream cinema, and for their psychologically-complex interpretations of genre film tropes. The British Film Institute wrote that Aldrich's films "subversive sensibility in thrall to the complexities of human behaviour." Several of his films later proved influential to members of the French New Wave.Aside from his directorial work, Aldrich was also noted for his advocacy as a member of the Directors Guild of America, serving as its President for two terms, and becoming the namesake for its Robert B. Aldrich Achievement Award.

Early life
Family
Robert Burgess Aldrich was born in Cranston, Rhode Island, into a family of wealth and social prominence – "The Aldriches of Rhode Island". His father, Edward Burgess Aldrich (1871–1957) was the publisher of The Times of Pawtucket and an influential operative in state Republican politics. His mother, Lora Elsie (née Lawson) of New Hampshire (1874–1931), died when Aldrich was 13 and was remembered with fondness by her son. Ruth Aldrich Kaufinger (1912–1987) was his elder sister and only sibling.Among his notable ancestors were the American Revolutionary War general Nathanael Greene and the theologian Roger Williams, founder of Rhode Island Colony.His grandfather, Nelson Wilmarth Aldrich, was a self-made millionaire and art investor. A Republican member of the U.S. Senate for thirty years (1881–1911), he was dubbed "General Manager of the Nation" by the press for his dominant role in framing federal monetary policy.A number of Aldrich's paternal uncles had impressive careers, among them a successful investment banker, an architect and Harvard instructor, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, and a chairman of the Chase Manhattan Bank who also served as U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain.  An aunt, Abigail Greene "Abby" Aldrich married John D. Rockefeller Jr., scion of the Standard Oil fortune, and was a leading figure in the establishment of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Nelson Rockefeller, a four-term governor of New York State and U.S. vice-president under Gerald Ford, and Rockefeller's four brothers were the director's first cousins.

Education
As the only male heir to the Lawson-Aldrich family line, Aldrich was under considerable pressure to compete successfully with his numerous cousins in a family of high achievers.Following family tradition and expectations, Aldrich was educated at Moses Brown School in Providence from 1933 to 1937. There he served as captain of the track and football teams and was elected president of his senior class.
Failing to matriculate to Yale due to mediocre grades, Aldrich attended the University of Virginia from 1937 to 1941, majoring in economics. He continued to excel in sports and played a leading role in campus clubs and fraternities.During the Great Depression, the adolescent Aldrich began to question the justice of his family's "politics and power" which clashed with his growing sympathies with left-wing social and political movements of the 1930s. Aldrich's disaffection from the Aldrich-Rockefeller right-wing social and political orientation contributed to a growing tension between father and son.Having satisfactorily demonstrated his aptitude for a career in finance, Aldrich defied his father by dropping out of college in his senior year without taking a degree.Aldrich approached his uncle Winthrop W. Aldrich, who got his 23-year-old nephew a job at RKO Studios as a production clerk at $25 a week. For this act of defiance, Aldrich was promptly disinherited. Aldrich reciprocated by expunging public records of his connection with the Aldrich-Rockefeller clan, while stoically accepting the breach. He rarely mentioned or invoked his family thereafter. It has been said that "No American film director was born as wealthy as Aldrich — and then so thoroughly cut off from family money."

RKO Pictures: 1941–1943
At the age of 23, Aldrich began work at RKO Pictures as a production clerk, an entry-level position, after declining an offer through his Rockefeller connections to enter the studio as an associate producer.He married his first wife, Harriet Foster, a childhood sweetheart, shortly before he departed for Hollywood in May 1941.Though the smallest of Hollywood's top studios, RKO could boast an impressive roster of directors (George Cukor, John Ford and Howard Hawks) as well as movie stars (Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn and the Marx Brothers). The 23-year-old Aldrich assumed his duties shortly after Orson Welles, at 26, signed a six-movie contract with RKO after the release of the widely acclaimed Citizen Kane (1941).When the United States entered the Second World War in December 1941, Aldrich was inducted into the Air Force Motion Picture Unit, but was quickly discharged when an old football injury disqualified him for military service. The film studios' manpower shortage allowed Aldrich to win assignments as third- or second-tier director's assistant to learn the basics of filmmaking.

Second assistant director
In just two years he participated on two dozen movies with well-known directors. He was second assistant director on Joan of Paris (1942, directed by Robert Stevenson), The Falcon Takes Over (1942, directed by Irving Reis), The Big Street (1942), directed by Reis, Bombardier (1943, directed by Richard Wallace), Behind the Rising Sun (1943, directed by Edward Dmytryk),  A Lady Takes a Chance (1943, directed by William A. Seiter), The Adventures of a Rookie (1943, directed by Leslie Goodwins), Gangway for Tomorrow (1943, directed by John H. Auer), and Rookies in Burma (1943, directed by Goodwins).

First assistant director
Towards the end of the war, Aldrich had risen to first assistant director making comedy shorts with director Leslie Goodwins.
In 1944, Aldrich departed RKO to begin free-lancing on feature films at other major studios, including Columbia, United Artists, and Paramount.

Assistant director: 1944–1952
Aldrich was fortunate to serve as an assistant director to many notable and talented Hollywood filmmakers. During these assignments, which spanned nine years, Aldrich gained both practical and aesthetic fundamentals of filmmaking: "set location and atmosphere" (Jean Renoir, The Southerner, 1945), the "techniques of pre-planning a shot" (Lewis Milestone's The Strange Love of Martha Ivers, 1946), "action scenes" (William A. Wellman's The Story of G.I. Joe, 1946), the "importance of communication with actors" (Joseph Losey's The Prowler, 1951), and "establishing visual empathy between camera and audience" (Charlie Chaplin's Limelight, 1952).He also worked on Pardon My Past (1945, directed by Leslie Fenton) and The Private Affairs of Bel Ami (1947, directed by Albert Lewin).
Aldrich approached these projects and directors with a fine discrimination, enabling him to learn from both their strengths and weaknesses.During these years Aldrich forged lasting professional relationships with talented artists who would serve him throughout his filmmaking career, namely, cinematographer Joseph Biroc, film editor Michael Luciano, music director Frank De Vol, art director William Glasgow and screenwriter Lukas Heller. A troupe of loyal, mostly male, players were enlisted for his film leads and supporting roles: Burt Lancaster, Jack Palance, Lee Marvin, Eddie Albert, Richard Jaeckel, Wesley Addy, Ernest Borgnine and Charles Bronson.

The Enterprise Studios: 1946–1948
Aldrich's association with The Enterprise Studios marks the most formative period of his apprenticeship. The production company offered a unique venue of independent filmmakers welcoming socially conscious themes critical of authoritarian aspects of American society.While at Enterprise, Aldrich established both a professional and a personal affiliation with screenwriter and director Abraham Polonsky, a major figure in the Popular Front movement of the 1930s. Their respective films addressed the issue of an individual's often desperate struggle to resist destruction by an oppressive society.Enterprise's Body and Soul (1947), written by Polonsky, directed by Robert Rossen, and starring John Garfield, made a deep and lasting impression on the 29-year-old assistant director from both structural and thematic standpoints. Garfield plays a corrupt prizefighter who seeks to redeem himself by defying mobsters who insist he throw a fight or forfeit his life. While the protagonist's personal failings contribute to his own oppression, the film censures capitalism as an unredeemable system. Aldrich would revisit Body and Soul throughout his career when seeking guidance on how to convey the progressive ideals of the 1930s while working in the reactionary political atmosphere of the Cold War era.

In 1948 Aldrich joined Polonsky and Garfield on the early noir film Force of Evil. The story concerns a Wall Street attorney turned mob lawyer (Garfield) who informs on his employers when they murder his brother. Force of Evil's cinematically excessive visuals and striking sound would later appear in Aldrich's films Kiss Me Deadly and Twilight's Last Gleaming.A number of Aldrich's associates at Enterprise came under scrutiny by the HUAC in the late 1940s after Enterprise had closed its doors. Among them were Rossen, Polonsky, Garfield, directors John Berry, and Joseph Losey, producer Carl Foreman, and screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, some of whom suffered blacklisting and imprisonment. Aldrich was never targeted by the authorities, despite his collaborations with these artists. This was largely due to his post-1930s entry into the film industry when recruitment by Communist and leftist organizations was declining. Nonetheless, Aldrich remained a champion for the victims of the Red Scare.At Enterprise, Aldrich also worked as an assistant director on Arch of Triumph (1948) and No Minor Vices (1948) for Lewis Milestone, So This Is New York (1948) for director Richard Fleischer and producer Stanley Kramer, and Caught (1949) for Max Ophüls.
During his apprenticeship Aldrich developed a keen appreciation for the nexus between autonomous control over every element of picture production and achievement of his creative vision. He would forever strive for full control over his films.

Freelance assistant director: 1948–1952
After the demise of The Enterprise Studios, Aldrich continued to be in much demand as an assistant director. He worked again for Lewis Milestone on The Red Pony (1949) at Republic and did Red Light (1949) for Roy Del Ruth, A Kiss for Corliss (1949) for Richard Wallace,  The White Tower (1950) for Ted Tetzlaff, M (1951) and The Prowler (1951) for Joseph Losey, and New Mexico (1951) for Reis.
Aldrich was assistant to producer Harold Hecht on Ten Tall Men (1951), a French Foreign Legion action film starring Burt Lancaster. He worked as production manager on When I Grow Up (1951) for Sam Spiegel and as production manager on The Steel Trap (1952) for Andrew L. Stone.
Hecht had enjoyed working with Aldrich on Ten Tall Men and used him on The First Time (1952), the feature directorial debut of Frank Tashlin.
Aldrich's most notable credit to date came on Limelight (1952), for which he was assistant director to Charlie Chaplin. He was assistant on Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd (1952).

Television: 1952–1954
By 1952, the 34-year old assistant director, fully prepared to make his directorial debut, had no offers materializing in Hollywood. Eager to perform at a journeyman level, he moved to New York City to join its television startups.
The infant industries' golden age of live broadcasts was in a primitive stage of organization, and producers were pleased to enlist talent from the Hollywood film industry. More than merely a career move, television offered Aldrich an opportunity to apply the cinematic skills and concepts he had garnered during his eclectic education in movie-making to an entirely new medium."All they were paying directors was scale", recalled Aldrich of this time. "Who the hell wanted to go live in New York and work for scale? Only guys that had never directed or couldn't get a shot... Walter Blake... convinced these people who were doing the Camay soap shows that I was a genius waiting behind a rock out here. I had been assistant director on a Chaplin picture, so he told them that I had directed Chaplin. Nobody directs Chaplin except Chaplin, but these guys didn't know the difference. So I went back to New York and did, I don't know, thirty or forty shows."Procter & Gamble hired Aldrich in 1952 to direct episodes of the anthology series The Doctor (later retitled The Guest in syndication), an early soap opera starring Warner Anderson. Shooting schedules were notoriously tight. Despite this, Aldrich routinely dedicated half or more of the allotted time to rehearsals, an immensely reassuring practice for the players that contributed to the efficient execution of the final live shoot.Following The Doctor, Aldrich resettled in Hollywood to complete twenty episodes of television's China Smith starring Dan Duryea, filmed on an even tighter timetable.
He also filled in as director on TV's Four Star Playhouse and the Schlitz Playhouse of Stars ("The Pussyfootin' Rocks").Aldrich described the early TV industry as a "director's crash course" where, unlike feature film production, the overall quality of the series outweighed the success or failure of an individual episode.  In his two-year stint in television, Aldrich was free to experiment with technique and narrative schemes that would appear later in his film treatments. As such, he used cinematic framing and composition to reveal character motivation and close ups serving to highlight dialog, all of which endowed his episodes with a polished Hollywood studio-like appearance. Aldrich avoided disparaging television as an art form, only regretting its "rushed schedules and lack of preparation time."

Feature film director
Early feature films
In December 1951 Irving Allen announced he had formed Warwick Productions with Albert Broccoli. He intended to make The Gamma People with Robert Aldrich. In August 1952 Allen announced that Aldrich would make his feature debut as director with The Gamma People, to be shot in Europe in the winter from Aldrich's own script. Dick Powell was slated to star. However, the film would not be made for several years, with Aldrich's involvement limited to working on the story.
Aldrich broke into feature films as a director when Herbert Baker, who had worked with Aldrich on So This is New York, recommended the director to MGM, which was looking for someone with a background in sports for a low-budget baseball film, Big Leaguer (1953).The film was not particularly successful, so Aldrich returned to television, doing episodes of Four Star Playhouse, several of which were written by Blake Edwards. He directed "The Witness", which starred Dick Powell, Strother Martin, and Charles Bronson, and "The Bad Streak" with Charles Boyer.Aldrich remained ambitious to work in features and raised money for a low-budget action film using many of the same sets and cast members of China Smith, including star Dan Duryea, called World for Ransom (1954). It was made for Plaza Productions and financed by Allied Artists; Aldrich produced and directed. The cinematographer was Joseph F. Biroc, who would shoot many of Aldrich's later features.

Burt Lancaster: Apache and Vera Cruz
World for Ransom was seen by Harold Hecht and Burt Lancaster, who hired Aldrich to direct his first color film, Apache (1954), a western starring Lancaster as an Apache fighter. It was made for Hecht-Lancaster Productions and released through United Artists. This film was a big hit, earning $6 million.Hecht and Lancaster used Aldrich again on Vera Cruz (1954), a western starring Gary Cooper and Lancaster.  It was even more successful at the box office than Apache, making $9 million, and firmly established Aldrich as a director.

Turning producer: Kiss Me Deadly, The Big Knife and Attack
The success of these movies enabled Aldrich to set up his own company, The Associates and Aldrich, and sign a deal with United Artists. Its first movie was to be The Way We Are by Jack Jevne, about a woman who has an affair with a younger man. It was not immediately made.
Instead Aldrich produced and directed Kiss Me Deadly (1955), a film noir adapted by A. I. Bezzerides from a novel by Mickey Spillane starring Ralph Meeker as Mike Hammer.  It was made for Parklane Productions, the independent company of Victor Saville, who owned the rights, and released through United Artists.Aldrich and his company then made The Big Knife (1955), based on a play by Clifford Odets. Aldrich directed and produced this film about a movie star played by Jack Palance.
The Associates and Aldrich Company made a second film, also based on a play and released through United Artists, Attack (1956), starring Palance and Lee Marvin.None of the three films was particularly successful at the box office, although they received some excellent reviews. In particular, Kiss Me Deadly became a major cult favorite in France. "I worked almost for nothing, economically, on those movies", he said. "They got caught up in the system and were not profitable pictures." Aldrich said his experiences made him "more cynical in terms of what preference to give survival and what preference to give material that might make a fine film which nobody or very few would go to see. That was the break. I realized that if you're careful in choosing projects and setting costs your taste and knowledge will, out of every six or seven pictures, produce one that makes a good deal of profitable return for everybody."The Associates announced numerous projects around this time, including Tryanny, Kinderspiel, Potluck for Pomeroy, Candidate for President (by Don Weis) and Machine for Chuparosa.The Associates and Aldrich Company expanded to offer financing and distribution for other films. The only one that resulted was The Ride Back (1957) for UA. They wanted to make The Build Up Boys with Dana Andrews but the film did not eventuate.

Columbia: Autumn Leaves and The Garment Jungle
In between making Big Knife and Attack, Aldrich directed the Joan Crawford melodrama Autumn Leaves (1956) (originally The Way We Are), which was a minor hit.Aldrich worked on the original story for the thriller The Gamma People (1956), made for Columbia and Warwick Productions in England.
In July 1956 Robert Aldrich signed a two-picture deal with Columbia to make films through his own company. The first was to be The Garment Jungle (1957). The second was to be Until Proven Guilty. He also acquired the John O'Hara story Now We Know.Aldrich started directing Garment but was fired towards the end of filming and replaced by Vincent Sherman.In March 1957 Aldrich sued Columbia for reneging on a promise to make a film of the play Storm in the Sun, which he wanted to do with Crawford. The case was settled the following month.Aldrich announced a range of projects – Kinderspiel, Pommeroy, The Snipe Hunt, Until Proven Guilty, Now We Know – but he found it difficult to get financing.The Associates and Aldrich had the rights to the script for 3:10 to Yuma but ended up selling the project outright to Columbia.

Europe
Aldrich was unable to get a job until he had an offer from Hammer Films and Seven Arts to write and direct Ten Seconds to Hell (1959), starring Palance and Jeff Chandler, in Germany. While there, he was head of the jury at the 9th Berlin International Film Festival.Aldrich stayed in Europe to make The Angry Hills (1959), based on the novel by Leon Uris and starring Robert Mitchum, for MGM in Greece for producer Raymond Stross. Aldrich had the film rewritten by Bezzerides, but then his cut of the film was re-edited by Stross. It was an unhappy experience for Aldrich and the film lost money.Adlrich was going to make Taras Bulba in Yugoslavia with Anthony Quinn and a budget of $3 million, but the film did not proceed. Neither did another proposed subject, The Catalyst, based on a play by Ronald Duncan about male bisexuality. Aldrich would attempt to make Taras Bulba several times but ended up having to sell his script to Harold Hecht, who produced a film without Aldrich in 1962. Other projects he developed around this time include Angry Odyssey, The Left Bank, and Too Late the Hero.Aldrich returned to Hollywood to direct episodes of Hotel de Paree ("Sundance Returns"), and Adventures in Paradise.
He directed a western, The Last Sunset (1961), starring Kirk Douglas and Rock Hudson, made for Douglas's company at Universal.
Aldrich tried to make Cross of Iron with John Mills but could not get financing.Aldrich then went back to Italy, where he directed the Biblical spectacular Sodom and Gomorrah (1962)  for Joseph E. Levine. Aldrich disparaged the final film, which ended up costing $6 million.

Warner Bros: What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? and 4 For Texas
Aldrich rejuvenated his career by optioning the novel What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) for the Associates and Aldrich Company. He signed Bette Davis and Joan Crawford as stars, got Lukas Heller to write the script, and raised financing through Warner Bros. The film was a massive hit at the box office and earned five Academy Award nominations (including a win for black-and-white costume design), restoring Aldrich's commercial and critical reputation. It also revived the popularity of Davis and Crawford as box office draws and led to a subgenre of horror movies starring elder actresses nicknamed "Psycho-biddy". It also started a run of films (continued in Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte and others) with a gothic, camp sensibility that became an immediate hit with queer audiences.Still at Warners, Aldrich wrote, produced and directed a comic western with Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, 4 for Texas (1963). Made for Sam Productions, it had Charles Bronson, Victor Buono, Ursula Andress and Anita Ekberg in supporting roles. The film was reasonably popular at the box office, but Aldrich disliked working with Sinatra and the resulting film.

20th Century Fox: Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte and Flight of the Phoenix
Emboldened by his recent commercial successes, Aldrich announced a $14 million production program of eight films, including Cross of Iron, Whatever Happened to Cousin Charlotte, The Tsar's Bride, Brouhaha, The Legend of Lylah Clare, Paper Eagle, Genghis Khan's Bicycle, and There Really Was a Gold Mine a sequel to Vera Cruz. He had prepared scripts on  Now We Know, Vengeance Is Mine, Potluck for Pomeroy and Too Late the Hero. Other projects were The Strong Are Lonely, Pursuit of Happiness and the TV series The Man.He started with a follow up to Baby Jane, Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964), made for the Associates and Aldrich at 20th Century Fox. Bette Davis starred as a Southern woman who lives in a mansion and thinks she is going insane. Davis was to be reunited with Joan Crawford, but Crawford left the film and was replaced by Olivia de Havilland. The movie was popular, though not as successful as Baby Jane.
Aldrich stayed at Fox for his next film, the all-male action story The Flight of the Phoenix (1965), with James Stewart, Richard Attenborough and Peter Finch. The film was a commercial disappointment but eventually proved profitable.

MGM: The Dirty Dozen and The Legend of Lylah Clare
Aldrich had his biggest hit to date with The Dirty Dozen (1967), produced by Kenneth Hyman's Seven Arts Productions and released through MGM. Starring Lee Marvin, Charles Bronson, Ernest Borgnine and John Cassavetes, the film was a massive success at the box office.Aldrich stayed at MGM for The Legend of Lylah Clare (1968) starring Finch and Kim Novak, made for Aldrich's own company. It was a critical and commercial disappointment.

Aldrich Studios
Aldrich sold his profit participation in Dirty Dozen to MGM for $1,350,000 and used the money to achieve a long-time dream – to buy his own studios, which he called the Aldrich Studios. He picked a facility at 201 North Occidental Boulevard, which had been in existence as a film studio since 1913, making Mary Pickford movies, and had recently been the basis of Sutherland Productions. Aldrich had made The Big Knife there."My dream has always been to own my own studio", he said. "With the possible exception of the old Enterprise Studio back in '45 I've never seen a studio run the way it should. That's because everybody at Enterprise felt they could make a contribution
and that's the feeling I hope we can have here."The studios were opened in August 1968. Along with Goldwyn, The Associates and Aldrich was the only major independent company with a studio in Hollywood. For the next few years he would make his movies there.

ABC Pictures
Aldrich's success with The Dirty Dozen led to the newly formed ABC Pictures offer the Associates and Aldrich Company a four-film contract. Aldrich announced they would be The Killing of Sister George, The Greatest Mother of Them All, Whatever Happened to Aunt Alice and Too Late the Hero.Aldrich's first film for ABC was The Killing of Sister George (1968), adapted from by Lukas Heller from the play by Frank Marcus. It starred Beryl Reid and Susannah York and was notable for its frank depiction of a lesbian relationship. The movie was popular but because of its high cost lost money.Aldrich produced but did not direct What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice? (1969), a psycho-biddy thriller in the vein of Baby Jane directed by Lee H. Katzin and starring Geraldine Page and Ruth Gordon. It also lost money. (Aldrich  announced he would make a third "Whatever Happened to" film, Whatever Happened to Dear Elva? based on the novel Goodbye, Dear Elva by Elizabeth Fenwick. However no film was made.)
Aldrich made a 20-minute demo film, "The Greatest Mother of Them All" (1969), in an attempt to raise money for a feature-length version, but was unable to attract interest from ABC. Peter Finch starred.ABC wanted Aldrich to make a war film in the vein of The Dirty Dozen so he produced and directed Too Late the Hero (1970), a "patrol" film, which he had been developing since 1959. Despite starring Michael Caine and Cliff Robertson and location work in the Philippines, the film made an overall loss of $6,765,000, making it one of the biggest money losers in the history of ABC Films.Aldrich's next film for ABC was The Grissom Gang (1971), an adaptation of No Orchids for Miss Blandish set in the 1930s, with Scott Wilson and Kim Darby. It was another flop, losing ABC $3,670,000.Films Aldrich announced but did not make around this time included Rebellion, a western about Victoriano Huerta with Ernest Borgnine and George Kennedy;, The Movement, about student protest;. He also developed scripts for books which were turned into films by others: Coffee, Tea or Me? and Monte Walsh.By now Aldrich's relationship with ABC had become fraught and devolved into lawsuits, in part caused by ABC refusing to finance other Aldrich projects. Aldrich parted company with ABC and in January 1972 put his studios up for sale.In a 1972 interview Aldrich said that:

Lasting power is the most important power. Especially in this business, staying at the plate or staying at the table, staying in the game, is the essential. You can't allow yourself to get passed over or pushed aside. Very, very talented people got pushed aside and remained unused... If you must make a choice between luck and talent, you have to opt for luck. It's nice to have some of both, or a lot of both; but if you can't, luck is the answer. Nowhere else more so than in this business. The right place, the right time, the right script, all the right auspices—they made the difference to directors, writers, actors.

Ulzana's Raid and Emperor of the North Pole
Aldrich returned to westerns with Ulzana's Raid (1972), made at Universal for the Associates and Aldrich with producer Carter De Haven. It reteamed Aldrich with Lancaster for the first time since Vera Cruz. The film was a commercial disappointment but has subsequently come to be regarded as one of his finest films.Aldrich followed it with Emperor of the North Pole (1973), a story of railway hobos in the 1930s starring Lee Marvin and Ernest Borgnine. Produced by Hyman at 20th Century Fox, it was another box office failure, though it too has seen its reputation soar in recent years (Leonard Maltin gave it 3 1/2 stars, calling it "unusual, exciting" and a "unique entertainment").

Two with Burt Reynolds: The Longest Yard and Hustle
Aldrich's commercial fortunes were revived with a prison comedy starring Burt Reynolds,The Longest Yard (1974). Made for producer Albert S. Ruddy at Paramount, it was Aldrich's biggest hit since The Dirty Dozen.Aldrich and Reynolds promptly reteamed on Hustle (1975), made for their own production company RoBurt and released through Paramount. A tough police drama co-starring Catherine Deneuve, it was another box office success. However, tension between Aldrich and Reynolds during filming meant they made no more movies together. In 1975 Aldrich was elected president of the Directors Guild of America and served two two-year terms.

Lorimar: Twilight's Last Gleaming and The Choirboys
Aldrich signed a two-picture deal with Lorimar Productions, a TV company which wanted to move into features.
The first was Twilight's Last Gleaming (1977), an action thriller starring Lancaster. The second was a comedy, The Choirboys (1977), based on the best selling novel by Joseph Wambaugh, which Wambaugh disliked so much he sued to get his name taken off the film.

Final films: The Frisco Kid and All the Marbles
Aldrich's last movies were comedies: The Frisco Kid (1979), set in the West with Gene Wilder and Harrison Ford, and ...All the Marbles (1981), set in the world of female wrestling with Peter Falk. Neither was particularly popular.
When the latter film came out, Aldrich said, "I'm 63 and I've had hits every ten years and I just hope I can function long enough to have one in the 90s."

Personal life
From his marriage to Harriet Foster (1941–1965), Aldrich had four children, all of whom work in the film business—Adell, William, Alida and Kelly. In 1966, after divorcing Foster, he married fashion model Sibylle Siegfried.

Death and legacy
Aldrich died of kidney failure on December 5, 1983, in a Los Angeles hospital. He is buried in Lot 5153 of the Whispering Trees Section of Forest Lawn Cemetery in Hollywood Hills.Film critic John Patterson summarized his career in 2012: "He was a punchy, caustic, macho and pessimistic director, who depicted corruption and evil unflinchingly, and pushed limits on violence throughout his career. His aggressive and pugnacious film-making style, often crass and crude, but never less than utterly vital and alive, warrants — and will richly reward — your immediate attention."In 2012, John Patterson of The Guardian commented that Aldrich is "a wonderful director nearly 30 years dead now, whose body of work is in danger of slipping over the horizon." Japanese film director Kiyoshi Kurosawa noted Aldrich's influence on him.In the FX miniseries Feud: Bette and Joan, Aldrich is portrayed by English actor Alfred Molina. The series follows the productions of Baby Jane and Sweet Charlotte.

Filmography
Films
Other film work
The Southerner (1945) (assistant director)
The Story of G.I. Joe (1945) (assistant director)
Force of Evil (1948) (assistant director)
Caught (1949) (uncredited director of reshoots)
When I Grow Up (1950) (assistant director)
Limelight (1952) (assistant director)
The Gamma People (1956) (story)
The Garment Jungle (1957) (uncredited original director)
What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice? (1969) (producer)

Television
Unmade projects
Rebellion (late 1960s) — a western
The Crowded Bed (early 1970s)
The Greatest Mother of 'em All (1969) — the full-length feature was never shot
Rage of Honor (1970s) — western set in 1929 about an aging cowboy
Coffee, Tea or Me?  (early 1970s) — comedy about virginal air stewardess

Footnotes
Sources
Arnold, Edward T. and Miller, Eugene, L. 1986. The Films and Career of Robert Aldrich. University of Tennessee Press. Knoxville, Tennessee. ISBN 0-87049-504-6
Sarris, Andrew 1981. What Ever Happened to Bobby Aldrich? CineFiles. University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive. Retrieved 18 October, 2018.
Sauvage, Pierre. 1976. Aldrich Interview in Edward Arnold's and Eugene Miller's Robert Aldrich: Interviews, 2004. University of Mississippi Press. ISBN 1-57806-602-6
Silver, Alain and Ursini, James. 1995. What Ever Happened to Robert Aldrich?: His Life and His Films Limelight Editions. ISBN 0-87910-185-7
Walsh, David. 2018. 100 years since the birth of American filmmaker Robert Aldrich: Including an interview with film historian Tony Williams Retrieved 10 October 2018.
Williams, Tony. 2003. Body and Soul: the cinematic vision of Robert Aldrich. The Scarecrow Press, Inc. Lanham, Maryland. ISBN 978-0-8108-4993-8

Further reading
Robert Aldrich biography and credits at the BFI's Screenonline Entry written by Robert Shail.
"Aldrich & Associates special section". Screening the Past (10). 2000. A special issue of a film journal that emerged from a symposium devoted to Aldrich & Associates on August 2, 1998, in Melbourne.
Silver, Alain (May 2002). "Robert Aldrich". Senses of Cinema (20). Silver's contribution to the journal's "Great Directors" series.

External links

Robert Aldrich at IMDb
Robert Aldrich at the TCM Movie Database 
Robert Aldrich at AllMovie
Robert Aldrich at Find a Grave
Literature on Robert Aldrich
Passage 2:
Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte
Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte is a 1964 American psychological thriller film directed and produced by Robert Aldrich, and starring Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland, Joseph Cotten, Agnes Moorehead and Mary Astor in her final film role. It follows a middle-aged Southern woman, suspected in the unsolved murder of her lover from decades before, who is plagued by bizarre occurrences after summoning her cousin to help challenge the local government's impending demolition of her home. The screenplay was adapted by Henry Farrell and Lukas Heller, from Farrell's unpublished short story "What Ever Happened to Cousin Charlotte?"
Following his previous success adapting Farrell's novel What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, Aldrich originally cast the film to reunite Davis with Joan Crawford, despite their notorious turbulence on set. Principal photography began with Davis in the title role and Crawford as Miriam, but shooting was postponed while Crawford dropped out and the role was recast with de Havilland. The film was a critical success, earning seven Academy Award nominations.

Plot
In 1927, young Southern belle Charlotte Hollis and her married lover John Mayhew plan to elope during a party at the Hollis family's antebellum mansion in Ascension Parish, Louisiana. Charlotte's father, Sam, confronts John over the affair and intimidates him with the news that John's wife Jewel visited the day before and revealed the affair. John pretends to Charlotte he can no longer love her and that they must part. Shortly after, John is ambushed and decapitated in the summerhouse by an assailant with a cleaver. Charlotte returns to the house in a bloodstained dress, which all of the guests witness.
Thirty-seven years later, Charlotte, a spinster, having inherited the estate after her father died, is tended to by her loyal housekeeper, Velma. In the intervening years, John's death has remained an unsolved murder, though it is commonly held that Charlotte was responsible. Despite notice from the Louisiana Highway Commission that she has been evicted from the property to make way for the impending construction of a new interstate, Charlotte is defiant, and threatens the demolition crew with a rifle. Seeking help in her fight against the Highway Commission, Charlotte summons Miriam, a poor cousin who lived with the family as a girl, but has since moved to New York City. Miriam returns and soon renews her relationship with Drew Bayliss, a local doctor who jilted her. Charlotte's sanity soon deteriorates following Miriam's arrival, her nights haunted by a mysterious harpsichord playing the song John wrote for her and by the appearance of his disembodied hand and head. Suspecting that Miriam and Drew are after Charlotte's money, Velma seeks help from Mr. Willis, an insurance investigator from England who is still fascinated by the case and who has visited Mayhew's ailing widow, Jewel; she gave him an envelope only to be opened after her death.
Miriam fires Velma, who later returns to discover Charlotte has been drugged. Velma plans to expose Miriam's exploitation of Charlotte, but Miriam hits Velma with a chair and she falls down the stairs to her death. Drew covers up the murder by declaring it an accident. One night, a drugged Charlotte runs downstairs in the grip of a hallucination, believing that John has returned to her. After Miriam tricks the intoxicated Charlotte into shooting Drew with a gun loaded with blanks, the two dispose of his body in a swamp. Charlotte returns to the house and witnesses the revived Drew walking downstairs after he returned, reducing her to insanity. Believing she has shattered Charlotte's mental state, Miriam celebrates with Drew in the garden, where they discuss the plan to have Charlotte committed to a psychiatric hospital and usurp her fortune. Charlotte overhears the entire conversation from the balcony, except for Miriam's admission that she had witnessed Jewel kill John, and has been using the knowledge to blackmail Jewel throughout the years. Charlotte kills Miriam and Drew, by pushing a large stone urn off the  balcony.
The next day, the authorities escort Charlotte from home, as a crowd gathers around to observe the spectacle. Charlotte receives an envelope from Mr Willis, which he received from Jewel (who died of a stroke after hearing of the incident which occurred on the previous night), ostensibly confessing to the murder of her husband John.  As the authorities leave with Charlotte, she looks back at the house.

Cast
Production
Development and casting
Following the unexpected box office success of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), Aldrich wanted to make a film with similar themes for Joan Crawford and Bette Davis. Their feud was infamous and legendary, and they were not initially eager to repeat themselves. 
Writer Henry Farrell, on whose novel the film had been based, had written an unpublished short story called "What Ever Happened to Cousin Charlotte?" that Aldrich envisioned as a suitable follow-up. It told a similar story of a woman who manipulates a relative for personal gain, but for this film, Aldrich's idea was that the two actresses would switch the roles from the previous one, with Crawford playing the devious cousin trying to manipulate the innocent Davis into giving up her estate. Aldrich's frequent collaborator, Lukas Heller, wrote a draft of the screenplay, but was replaced by Farrell in late 1963.Three other cast members from What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? were cast in Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte: Wesley Addy, Dave Willock and Victor Buono.

The cast included Mary Astor, a friend of Davis' since their days at Warner Bros. Astor retired from acting and died in 1987. She said: My agent called: 'There's this cameo in a movie with Bette Davis. It's a hell of a part; it could put you right up there again.' I read the script. The opening shot described a severed head rolling down the stairs, and each page contained more blood and gore and hysterics and cracked mirrors and everybody being awful to everybody else. I skipped to my few pages–a little old lady sitting on her veranda waiting to die. There was a small kicker to it inasmuch as it was she who was the murderess in her youth and had started all the trouble. And then in the story, she died. Good! Now, I'd really be dead! And it was with Bette–which seemed sentimentally fitting.

Filming
Principal photography of the film began in mid-1964, with the on-location shooting commencing in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. However, the shoot was temporarily suspended on several occasions early on. Initially, it was halted after a third-party lawsuit was brought against Davis by Paramount Pictures over a commitment to complete additional filming on Where Love Has Gone (1964). When this was resolved, filming recommenced.
The production was postponed again to allow Crawford to recover after she was admitted into the hospital due to an upper respiratory ailment, though Aldrich hired a private investigator to track her and determine whether or not she was actually ill. By August 4, 1964, the production had been suspended indefinitely, and the studio's insurance company insisted that Crawford be replaced, or else the film would have to be cancelled entirely.Aldrich sought several actresses to replace Crawford, including Loretta Young, and Vivien Leigh, but they were each either unable or unwilling to take the role. Aldrich ultimately sought Olivia de Havilland for the part, and flew to her home in Switzerland to attempt to convince her to take the role. de Havilland agreed and she subsequently flew to Los Angeles to begin filming. In later interviews, de Havilland expressed displeasure with the film: "I wasn't thrilled with the script, and I definitely didn't like my part. I was reverse-typecast, being asked to be an unsympathetic villain. It wasn't what people expected of me. It wasn't really what I wanted to do. Bette wanted it so much, so I did it. I can't say I regretted it, because working with her was special, but I can't say it was a picture I am proud to put on my resume. Given the choice, I wouldn't have deprived Joan Crawford of the honor." According to Crawford, she only learned of her firing from a news radio broadcast. However, despite  being replaced (and because a planned reshoot with de Havilland in Louisiana was cancelled), brief footage of Crawford made it into the film, when she is seen sitting in the taxi in the wide shot for Miriam's arrival at the house (Crawford can be seen peering out of the window wearing dark sunglasses/clothing).
Scenes outside the Hollis mansion were shot on location at Houmas House plantation in Louisiana. Scenes of the interior were shot on a soundstage in Hollywood.

Musical score
The title song by Frank de Vol became a hit for Patti Page, who recorded a version which reached no. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Release
Box office
According to Fox records, the film needed to earn $3,900,000 in rentals to break even and made $4,950,000, meaning it made a profit of $1,050,000. In France, the film sold 79,168 tickets.

Critical reception
Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte was another hit for Aldrich, opening to positive reviews. A pan, however, came from The New York Times. Bosley Crowther observed, "So calculated and coldly carpentered is the tale of murder, mayhem and deceit that Mr. Aldrich stages in this mansion that it soon appears grossly contrived, purposely sadistic and brutally sickening. So, instead of coming out funny, as did Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, it comes out grisly, pretentious, disgusting and profoundly annoying."Variety's reviewer wrote: "Davis' portrayal is reminiscent of Jane in its emotional overtones, in her style of characterization of the near-crazed former Southern belle, aided by haggard makeup and outlandish attire. It is an outgoing performance, and she plays it to the limit. De Havilland, on the other hand, is far more restrained but nonetheless effective dramatically in her offbeat role." Judith Crist wrote about the film, "The guignol is about as grand as it gets." Kenneth Tynan asserted that "(Davis) has done nothing better since The Little Foxes." A later review for Time Out (London) observed: "Over the top, of course, and not a lot to it, but it's efficiently directed, beautifully shot, and contains enough scary sequences amid the brooding, tense atmosphere. Splendid performances from Davis and Moorehead, too."On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 82% of 28 reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.3/10.

Accolades
Moorehead won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress. The film also received seven nominations (two more than Baby Jane: one less in the acting category, namely for Davis) for the 37th Academy Awards, breaking the record as the most for a horror film up to that time.

Home media
The film was first released on DVD on August 9, 2005. It was re-released on April 8, 2008, as part of The Bette Davis Centenary Celebration Collection 5-DVD box-set. On October 17, 2016, It was released onto high-definition Blu-ray in the US by Twilight Time as a 3,000-print limited edition. Another Blu-ray edition was released in the UK by Eureka Entertainment as a part of their "Masters of Cinema" collection on January 21, 2019.

See also
List of American films of 1964
Psycho-biddy
Passage 3:
A Kiss for Corliss
A Kiss for Corliss (retitled Almost a Bride before its release) is a 1949 American comedy film directed by Richard Wallace, written by Howard Dimsdale, and starring David Niven and Shirley Temple. The film, which was the last for both Wallace and Temple, was released on November 25, 1949, by United Artists. It is a sequel to the 1945 film Kiss and Tell, also directed by Wallace and starring Temple.

Plot
Playboy Kenneth Marquis is divorcing his third wife, who is represented by her attorney, Harry Archer. Corliss, Archer's teenaged daughter, is smitten with the charismatic Marquis and his free-wheeling lifestyle. Marquis sends a box of candy to Corliss, infuriating Archer, who interprets the gift as a jab at his settlement demand. Archer also prohibits Corliss' boyfriend Dexter from dating her after he sees Dexter at the Penguin Club, a restaurant that doubles as a gambling joint. Corliss manipulates Dexter into taking her to the club, but just after they arrive, the club is raided by police. Corliss and Dexter hide in the basement, but are temporarily trapped, causing Corliss to arrive home late, so she feigns amnesia to her parents to cover the truth. To refresh Corliss' memory, Archer reads her diary, which contains her imaginary romantic trysts with Marquis. The contents of the diary, along with Marquis' gift of candy, cause Corliss' parents to assume the worst.
Corliss' friend Raymond Pringle, who publishes a neighborhood paper, shows Marquis some of the diary entries, threatening to publish them unless Marquis buys advertising. Marquis visits the Archers and says that every word in the diary is true, that he is in love with Corliss, and that he wants to make her his fourth wife. When Archer explodes in anger, Corliss admits that the diary is not true and was written to make Dexter jealous. Marquis insists that the diary is true, though Corliss reveals why she was out late. Dexter arrives and eventually agrees with Corliss' version of events, but the Archers remain unconvinced. Marquis announces his engagement to Corliss in the newspaper to sue the Archers for breach of promise when the engagement is cancelled. The Archers delay rescinding the engagement to avoid the appearance of an immediate breach.
Marquis has gifts for Corliss delivered, and Archer is hounded by the media. Corliss continues to insist that the diary is false to her parents' continuing disbelief. Glimpse, a national magazine, runs photos of Marquis and Corliss. Archer's brother Uncle George, a Navy chaplain, visits and offers to perform the wedding. At the wedding rehearsal, held in the Archers' home, Dexter tells Mr. Archer that he has a witness who can attest to Corliss and his version of the events from the night when she was out late. Marquis' lie is revealed and the men escort him outside, where an offscreen fight ensues, and Archer and Dexter both return bloodied. Archer had overcome Marquis in the fight, but Dexter had accidentally hit  Archer. Marquis passes by an open window, his eye blackened, and mocks Archer and Dexter as he departs.

Cast
Shirley Temple as Corliss Archer
David Niven as Kenneth Marquis
Tom Tully as Harry P. Archer
Virginia Welles as Mildred Pringle
Darryl Hickman as Dexter Franklin
Gloria Holden as Mrs. Janet Archer
Robert Ellis as Raymond Pringle
Kathryn Card as Louise
Richard Gaines as Taylor
Roy Roberts as Uncle George
Passage 4:
The Ambulance
The Ambulance is a 1990 American comedy thriller film written and directed by Larry Cohen. It stars Eric Roberts, Megan Gallagher, James Earl Jones, Janine Turner, Red Buttons, and Eric Braeden as the Doctor. Kevin Hagen plays a cop.  In his first film role, Stan Lee of Marvel Comics has a small role as himself.

Plot
Aspiring comic book artist Josh Baker meets a young woman named Cheryl on the streets of New York City, who proceeds to collapse and is rushed to a hospital by an ambulance.  When Josh arrives at the hospital, he is shocked to find that there is no record of Cheryl ever being admitted and he soon learns another startling discovery, Cheryl's roommate also vanished after being picked up by the same ambulance.
Convinced that there is some sort of conspiracy going on, Josh proceeds to investigate the disappearances, despite the overt disdain and discouragement from Lt. Spencer.

Cast
Eric Roberts as Josh Baker
James Earl Jones as Lieutenant Frank Spencer
Megan Gallagher as Officer Sandra Malloy
Red Buttons as Elias Zacharai
Janine Turner as Cheryl Turner
Eric Braeden as The Doctor
Richard Bright as Detective Jerry McClosky
James Dixon as Detective John "Jughead" Ryan
Jill Gatsby as Jerilyn O'Brien
Martin Barter as Street Gang Leader
Laurene Landon as Patty
Nick Chinlund as Hugo (as Nicholas Chinlund)
Beatrice Winde as Head Nurse
Kevin Hagen as Cop At Stables
Matt Norklun as Ambulance Driver
Rudy Jones as Ambulance Driver
Stan Lee as Marvel Comics Editor
Deborah Hedwall as Nurse Barbera Feinstein
Susan Blommaert as Hospital Receptionist
Jordan Derwin as Hospital Official
Alexandra Jones as The Waitress
Michael O'Hare as Hal

Production
Cohen later said he was inspired by "the concept of taking something that is thought of as being benign or benevolent... or anything else that has a safe and wholesome image, and turning it into an object of terror." He had done this for It's Alive (babies) and The Stuff (junk food) and wanted to do it with ambulances. "When you hear or see an ambulance on the street, it’s usually considered to be something that is going to rescue you and take care of you, a vehicle of mercy," said Cohen. "In this story, it’s actually a vehicle of murder. The whole idea of an ambulance that suddenly arrives from nowhere, picks people up, and takes them away to some dark place where they are never seen or heard of again was completely original and creepy."Cohen says at one stage the financiers wanted a "classier" title than The Ambulance so he retitled it In Thin Air. They changed their mind and the film went back to being called The Ambulance. In the May, 1990 edition of his column Stan's Soapbox, Stan Lee mentions playing himself in a scene in "an adventure mystery called Into Thin Air and refers to the name change in a later column.Cohen wanted to cast John Travolta or Jim Carrey in the lead but his producers refused.Donald Trump made a small cameo in a deleted scene.
Jamie Lee Curtis was originally considered to play Officer Sandra Malloy
The role of the villain was originally played by Wesley Addy. However Cohen was unhappy with his performance and recast the role with Eric Braeden. Braeden's casting came at the suggestion of Cohen's mother who was a fan of The Young and the Restless.

Home media
The film was released on Blu-ray on March 13, 2018 by Scream Factory.

See also
List of films featuring diabetes
Passage 5:
Vera Cruz (film)
Vera Cruz is a 1954 American Western film directed by Robert Aldrich and starring Gary Cooper and Burt Lancaster, featuring Denise Darcel, Sara Montiel, Cesar Romero, Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson and Jack Elam. Set during the Franco-Mexican War, the film centers on a group of American mercenaries tasked with transporting a large shipment of Imperial gold to the port of Veracruz, but begin to have second thoughts about their allegiances. It was produced by Hecht-Lancaster Productions and released by United Artists on 25 December 1954.
The picture's amoral characters and cynical attitude towards violence (including a scene where Lancaster's character threatens to murder child hostages) were considered shocking at the time and influenced future Westerns such as The Magnificent Seven (1960), The Professionals (1966), Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch (1969), and the Spaghetti Western films of Sergio Leone, which often featured supporting cast members from Vera Cruz in similar roles. Its influence on the latter led some critics to label it "the first Spaghetti Western."

Plot
During the Franco-Mexican War, ex-Confederate soldier Ben Trane travels to Mexico seeking a job as a mercenary. He falls in with Joe Erin, a younger gunslinger who heads a gang of cutthroats. They are recruited by Marquis Henri de Labordere for service with Emperor Maximilian. Maximilian offers them $25,000 to escort the Countess Duvarre to the city of Veracruz. Trane gets the emperor to double the offer.
During a river crossing, Trane notices that the stagecoach in which the countess is traveling is extremely heavy. Erin and Trane later discover that hidden inside are six cases of gold coins. The countess informs them that it is worth $3 million which is intended to pay for reinforcements from Europe. They form an uneasy alliance to steal and split the gold. Unbeknownst to them, the marquis is listening from the shadows.
The Juaristas, led by General Ramírez, attack the column several times. Pickpocket and Juarista undercover agent Nina joins the convoy. When Trane, Erin and their men are surrounded by the Juaristas, Trane persuades Ramirez to join forces and agree to pay them $100,000. The marquis succeeds in getting the gold to Veracruz. In the Juarista attack, the French are defeated, but most of Erin's men are killed. Erin attempts to steal the gold for himself by getting the countess to reveal the location of the ship she had hired to transport it. He even kills one of his own men. However, Trane arrives in time to confront him. They face off in a showdown that ends in Erin's death. Trane and Nina leave, while women search the dead for their loved ones.

Cast
Production
Burt Lancaster and Harold Hecht had just signed a contract with United Artists to make two films, starting with Apache, also directed by Robert Aldrich. Just before filming on that movie began in October 1953, Lancaster announced their second film would be Vera Cruz with himself and Gary Cooper, based on a story by Borden Chase.In December 1953, after Apache finished filming, Lancaster announced Aldrich would direct Vera Cruz.United Artists were so happy with Apache they changed the two-picture deal with Hecht and Lancaster into a two-year deal covering seven films.

Casting
Before taking the role of Ben Trane, Gary Cooper was advised by Clark Gable not to work with Burt Lancaster, fearing the younger actor would upstage him.Mari Blanchard was meant to play the female lead and Hecht signed to borrow her from Universal. However, there was a clause forbidding her to appear on television which Hecht disagreed with. Instead they cast Denise Darcel. Mamie Van Doren claimed in her autobiography Playing the Field that Lancaster interviewed her for the role of the Countess, but she lost the part after refusing to sleep with him.Charles Bronson was billed under his real name, 'Charles Buchinsky', in the film. This would mark the last time he would be credited that way, before he adopted his more well-known stage name.

Shooting
Filming started in February 1954. Vera Cruz was the first American film production to be shot entirely in Mexico. Though set in the city of Veracruz, the majority of the film was actually shot in and around Cuernavaca. Exterior shots were filmed at Chapultepec Castle in Mexico City, the ruins of Teotihuacan, and the climax was shot at Molino de Flores Nezahualcóyotl National Park in Texcoco de Mora. The interiors were filmed at Estudios Churubusco.Vera Cruz was also the first production to use the SuperScope widescreen process, which was designed to achieve anamorphic prints from standard flat 35mm negatives. Shot at a conventional 1.37:1 aspect ratio, the film was cropped to 2:1 in post-production, given a CinemaScope-compatible (2x) squeeze, and blown up to normal frame height. 
Aldrich and Lancaster got along well on Apache but as to Vera Cruz, the director said "we probably had a less amicable relationship than we anticipated. This was because Burt, until he directed The Kentuckian, thought he was going to be a director and when you're directing your first great big picture you don't welcome somebody else on hand with directorial notions. There were a few differences of opinion about concepts and about action." Lancaster recalled that Cooper demanded rewrites to his character to make him less morally-gray and more conventionally heroic.
According to Eli Wallach, the Mexican authorities were appalled at the unflattering depiction of their country, so any subsequent Hollywood productions (including The Magnificent Seven) were thoroughly overseen by state censors.

Reception
The film earned an estimated $5 million at the North American box office during its first run and $9 million overall.In 1963, Aldrich announced he was working on a sequel There Really Was a Gold Mine but it was never made.

Legacy
Critic and historian Dave Kehr would later cite Vera Cruz as one of the most influential films of the 1950s, inspiring later Westerns by such directors as Sam Peckinpah and especially Sergio Leone. Kehr also praised Cooper and Lancaster's performances in the film, writing that "the generational transition from an aging star to his up-and-coming replacement has seldom been handled with better humor or more biting wit."

Home media
Vera Cruz was released to DVD by MGM Home Video on March 20, 2001, and to Blu-Ray on June 7, 2011. Kino Lorber re-released the film on Blu-ray on October 12, 2021.

See also
You Can't Win 'Em All, a 1970 film with a similar plot set in the Greco-Turkish War.
Passage 6:
Ten Tall Men
Ten Tall Men is a 1951 American adventure film starring Burt Lancaster about the French Foreign Legion during the Rif War in Morocco. Though co-written and directed by Willis Goldbeck, Goldbeck walked off the film due to disputes with Lancaster (whose own company, Norma Productions, produced the film) with the movie being completed by Robert Parrish.  Credited as an associate producer, Robert Aldrich was a production manager on the film where he met Lancaster, which led him to direct Vera Cruz for him. Robert Clary made his debut in the film as an Arab batman. Portions of the film were filmed in Palm Springs, California. The story was released as a Fawcett Movie Comic #16 in April 1951.

Plot
After capturing an important Rif prisoner in an undercover operation, Sergeant Mike Kincaid (Lancaster) is imprisoned himself for striking a lieutenant (Stephen Bekassy) who beats a French woman (Mari Blanchard) with his riding crop for preferring Kincaid to him. Kincaid has a longstanding rivalry with the lieutenant, but the lieutenant is now in command of the company holding the city of Tarfa while the regiment is away. As the ranking officer, the lieutenant uses Kincaid's striking of him to get his revenge.
Kincaid is imprisoned alongside seven military prisoners and the captured Rif who has refused to talk, with the lieutenant refusing food and water to both Kincaid and the Rif.  When his two comrades-in-arms who accompanied him on the mission, Corporals Luis Delgado (Gilbert Roland) and Pierre Molier (Kieron Moore), sneak food and water to Kincaid, he shares them with the Rif.  To repay Kincaid's kindness and assuage his own guilt for telling the lieutenant about Kincaid's assignation with the Frenchwoman, the tells of an impending attack on Tarfa while the garrison is weak. The Rif believes Kincaid will escape to save himself, but he instead warns the lieutenant.
The experienced Kincaid tells the lieutenant that their only chance is to release him to lead a series of guerrilla hit-and-run attacks to delay the enemy for five days until the regiment returns.  The lieutenant agrees, but only if Kincaid will testify that the idea was his. Kincaid agrees to his terms. The only men available for the mission are the seven prisoners, who receive full pardons for their crimes.  His two corporals join them, raising their number to ten.
When scouting an enemy camp, the Legionnaires discover two rival tribes have joined forces, making them strong enough to take the city. Using his expertise in disguise and language, Kincaid finds out that the Rif leader, Khalid Hussein (Gerald Mohr), is marrying Mahla (Jody Lawrance) in order to cement an alliance with the other tribe. Kincaid kidnaps her to force the enemy to chase him for the five days.
Mahla begins to fall in love with her handsome captor, as Hussein pursues the Legionnaires across the desert. In the midst of the dangers, the patrol finds a destroyed Legion truck containing a safe that one of the men opens, revealing a large Legion payroll. When Jardine (John Dehner) tries to get away with the payroll, he is shot, but that tells the Rifs where they are.
Kincaid is eventually captured and Mahla freed. She demands that Kincaid be released unharmed, or she will not marry Hussein. Hussein reluctantly does so. Kincaid and his men infiltrate the wedding ceremony, and fighting breaks out. Mahla's tribe switches sides, and Hussein is killed.

Cast
Production
The film was the first of a two-picture deal Columbia Pictures signed with Norma Productions, the company of Burt Lancaster and Harold Hecht. (The second was to be Small Wonder, a film in which Lancaster would not appear.)It was originally a Western story by James Warner Bellah and Willis Goldbeck which concerned conflict between the US cavalry and Apaches. Producer Harold Hecht and star Burt Lancaster then decided that "John Ford and other Hollywood operators have so effectively decimated the Apache population" that they hired writer A.I. Bezzerides to reimagine the story with a Foreign Legion setting which wound up involving the Rif War (1911-1927). Roland Kibbee and Frank Davis were hired to rewrite the script to make it more comedic.The film was shot in February 1950 at the Columbia Ranch in the San Fernando Valley and on location in Yuma, Arizona.

Notes
External links
Ten Tall Men at the American Film Institute Catalog
Ten Tall Men at IMDb
Ten Tall Men at the TCM Movie Database
Passage 7:
Enteng the Dragon
Enteng the Dragon is a 1988 Philippine comedy film directed by Romy Villaflor and written by Tony S. Mortel. It is a parody of the film Enter the Dragon.

Plot
The story revolves around \ Enteng (Dolphy) a vendor of a mobile food house in China Town. Enteng is known for his humor, and a journalist and star reporter named Rowena (Dang Cecilio) was interested to cover his story after her Editor-in-Chief saw him as worthy of human interest. Kuto (Vandolph), a young boy that he found sleeping in his food wagon, led him to the shrine of the monks, that sealed his destiny as a vigilante and hero.

Cast
Dolphy as Enteng
Vandolph as Kuto
Dang Cecilio as Rowena
Eddie Garcia as the Evil Leader
Monica Herrera as Christina
Monsour del Rosario
Rommel Valdez
Tsing Tong Tsai
Panchito
Babalu
Don Pepot
Che-Che Sta. Ana
Roy Aoyama
Ros Olgado
Ernie Ortega
Estrella Querubin

Production
The film was produced by the RVQ Productions, a production owned by Dolphy himself.

Release
The film was released on July 14, 1988.

Accolades
Passage 8:
O Cangaceiro
O Cangaceiro (lit. "The Cangaceiro"; also known as The Bandit and The Bandits) is a 1953 Brazilian adventure western film directed by Lima Barreto. After some reluctance by its studio Vera Cruz, Barreto shot it in 1952. After its release it was national and international success, and won several awards, including the Adventure Film Award at the 1953 Cannes Film Festival. It was poorly received in retrospect despite being praised by the time of its release and started a subgenre in Brazilian cinema.

Cast
Alberto Ruschel as Teodoro
Marisa Prado as Olívia
Milton Ribeiro as Galdino
Vanja Orico as Maria Clódia
Adoniran Barbosa as Mané Mole

Production
In 1950, Lima Barreto joined the film studio Companhia Cinematográfica Vera Cruz invited by its then president Alberto Cavalcanti. After releasing two documentaries successfully for the studio, Painel and Santuário, Barreto get the chance to direct a feature film. With the idea to shoot a film about Lampião since the early 1940s, he only commenced to shoot it in 1952 after some reluctance by Franco Zampari, Vera Cruz's founder. Although he went to Bahia and did some research there, it was shot in Vargem Grande do Sul, São Paulo, with a production that lasted nine months due to internal conflicts.

Reception
O Cangaceiro was released on January 20, 1953, and was  a public success; it grossed ₢$30 million (about US$1.5 million) in the 24 Brazilian theaters in which it spent six weeks. After its national success, it was distributed to over 80 countries, becoming one of the most internationally successful Brazilian films—a feat uncommon in that time. It led it to be considered Vera Cruz's "high point" and its "most important production" by Georges Sadoul, author of Dictionary of Films, and by O Estado de S. Paulo's Luiz Zanin, respectively.After winning several Brazilian awards, the film was entered into the 1953 Cannes Film Festival, where it was "much liked for its original and truly national flavour." O Cangaceiro won the Best Adventure Film Award, making it the first Brazilian film to win a prize at Cannes, and received a special mention to Gabriel Migliori's musical composition. At the Edinburgh International Film Festival it was awarded the Best Film.It received mixed commentaries since its release. It was once voted the best Brazilian film in 1968 by National Film Institute's magazine Revista Film Cultura. Sadoul declared, "Lima Barreto well conveys a sense of poetry of the open desert space of the Sertão and makes this story lively and suspenseful". After praising its cast performances and its "thrilling" musical score, Bosley Crowther of The New York Times said, "This [O] Cangaceiro is a picture that will cause the Western fans to rub their eyes." However, Cinema Novo representants—mainly Glauber Rocha—would criticize it for borrowing too much the style of American films. Critics also went on to comment on its "sociological inaccuracies."

Legacy
It is the first film to mix cangaço with Western, starting a genre called "Nordestern" —an amalgam of the words "Nordeste" (Northeast) and "Western". It would be followed by successful films such as Carlos Coimbra's A Morte Comanda o Cangaço (1960), Lampião, o Rei do Cangaço (1964) and Corisco, o Diabo Louro (1969), and Aurélio Teixeira's Os Três Cabras de Lampião. It also established cangaço as a subgenre in Brazilian cinema; subsequently, cangaço would be featured as a theme from comedy—such as Os Três Cangaceiro and O Lamparina—to pornochanchada films—As Cangaceiras Eróticas and A Ilha das Cangaceiras Virgens. Also, Ruschel and Ribeiro would reprise the role of "good cangaceiro" and "bad cangaceiro" in other films.

Answer the question based on the given passages. Only give me the answer and do not output any other words.

Question: Who starred in her final film role in the 1964 film directed by the man who also did Vera Cruz and Kiss Me Deadly?



Answer: Mary Astor