00:00Who rang that bell?
00:06Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most scandalous, interesting
00:10and downright weird things that happened on the sets of classics.
00:13For this list, we'll only be looking at movies made before 1970.
00:17We were supposed to try to keep it quiet, which was ridiculous.
00:22Once it broke and broke wild, there was no stopping it.
00:2710.
00:28The Subtext – Ben-Hur
00:41Tensions and budgets were running over on the set of this Best Picture winner.
00:44Injuries were piling up, and the script was still being revised.
00:47Famed writer Gore Vidal did a rewrite on the script at one point during the shoot.
00:51Noticing a lack of tension in certain scenes between Ben-Hur and his old friend Masala,
00:54Vidal came up with a solution.
01:12He revised the dialogue to suggest a homoerotic subtext between the two that might give a
01:16more dramatic motivation for their rivalry.
01:19This was known only to director William Wyler and actor Stephen Boyd.
01:22However, it was kept from star Charlton Heston because he might have objected.
01:419.
01:42Sinatra vs. Brando – Guys and Dolls
01:44Frank Sinatra set his sights on the part of Skye Masterson in the big-screen adaptation
01:48of a Broadway hit, but that part went to Marlon Brando.
01:52Sinatra was instead cast as Nathan Detroit.
02:01The crooner couldn't stand Brando's approach to acting, and the feeling appeared to be
02:05mutual.
02:06During a scene where Sinatra was supposed to eat a piece of cheesecake, Brando kept
02:09intentionally flubbing his lines.
02:10This made it so Sinatra had to eat more and more cheesecake until his co-star got it right.
02:25Sinatra allegedly also was concerned about attention his wife Ava Gardner was paying
02:29Brando.
02:30One biographer alleges that the famously mob-connected Sinatra had Brando kidnapped, roughed up,
02:35and threatened in order to get him to behave on set.
02:508.
02:53Wells vs. Hearst – Citizen Kane
02:55Forreston Wells' first and most famous film is the tragic tale of a newspaper tycoon whose
03:00heart and soul withers away with the more wealth he amasses.
03:03The star and director denied claims that Kane was based on newspaper magnate William
03:07Randolph Hearst.
03:08He didn't fool anyone, including Hearst himself.
03:19Hearst retaliated, blocking any advertisement or mention of the film in any of his newspapers
03:24across the country.
03:25He enlisted journalists and gossip columnists to slander Wells.
03:28His biggest blow, though, was threatening to mobilize American anti-Semitism and xenophobia
03:33against the studios who dared show the movie in their theaters.
03:56Although it was released in theaters and even won an Oscar, it made little money.
04:01Its reputation as a masterpiece came much later.
04:127.
04:15Dodging the Censors – Psycho
04:21The infamous shower scene where a nude woman is besieged by a knife-wielding figure employs
04:26over 50 cuts to fool the audience into imagining most of the nudity and violence.
04:30But unsurprisingly, Alfred Hitchcock was constantly running into trouble with the censors.
04:42When they ordered him to edit the scene for nudity, he came up with a great gambit.
04:46He merely waited a few days and sent it back unchanged.
04:49Censors who had sworn they saw nudity before were now satisfied, but those who hadn't
04:54initially seen nudity suddenly did.
04:56Hitchcock won out, the movie was approved, and the scene remained relatively unchanged.
05:116.
05:12Suffering for Their Art – Singin' in the Rain
05:14Making musical comedy is no joke.
05:17Debbie Reynolds famously said that the two hardest things she ever did were childbirth
05:21and making Singin' in the Rain.
05:35The musical numbers in the film were shot in long takes, leaving no room for error.
05:40Donald O'Connor completed his famous solo number, Make Em Laugh, with a fever, and was
05:44on bed rest for days afterward.
05:59Co-star and director Gene Kelly was not impressed with Debbie Reynolds' dancing, and put her
06:03through her paces.
06:05He wasn't nice about it, either.
06:07One day, she was so distraught she hid under a piano to cry.
06:10She was found by the legendary song-and-dance man Fred Astaire himself, who gave her some
06:14advice that encouraged her to keep going.
06:345.
06:36Filming with Real Birds – The Birds
06:38Alfred Hitchcock was one of the most famous directors in the world.
06:41When he plucked Tippi Hedren out of obscurity, he had plans to mold her into the next Grace
06:45Kelly.
06:46But according to Hedren, his mentorship was more like ownership.
07:07While shooting The Birds, she suffered real cuts and injuries from shattered glass during
07:11the phone booth scene.
07:12But the real problem was the final scene in the attic of a house, where Hedren's character
07:16is nearly pecked to death.
07:27Hedren didn't know until the last minute that real birds were going to be thrown at her.
07:31Many of her cuts were real.
07:33Afterward, the two reunited for 1964's Marnie, where the director's obsession with her made
07:38the set intolerable.
07:424.
07:52The Flood Sequence – Noah's Ark
07:54Long before he made Casablanca and Mildred Pierce, director Michael Curtiz was shooting
07:58an epic based on the story of Noah's Ark.
08:00During the Flood Sequence, he unleashed thousands of gallons of water on extras who weren't
08:04properly trained for stunt work.
08:18Though impressive to watch, the scene led to several injuries.
08:22Lead actress Dolores Costello gave a visceral impression of her experience on set.
08:27Apparently, Curtiz deliberately ignored established safety precautions to get a more realistic
08:40panic.
08:41The result was dozens of injuries, which allegedly required dozens of ambulances be called to
08:46the set.
08:47Some have even claimed that at least one extra was killed.
09:053.
09:06The Feud – Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?
09:09Bette Davis and Joan Crawford only made one movie together.
09:21Whatever Happened to Baby Jane thrilled and fascinated audiences with its tragic, horrific
09:25look at madness and faded glamour.
09:27But the story of how it was made is just as thrilling.
09:30The lead actress' on-set antics have since become legend.
09:44Davis reportedly had a Coke machine brought to set just to spite Crawford, whose husband
09:49was the company president of Pepsi.
09:51Crawford is alleged to have strapped weights to herself for a scene where Davis had to
09:54drag her body.
09:55This hostility carried on to the set of what would have been their second film before Crawford
09:59was fired.
10:00You know it's messy when Ryan Murphy makes a whole miniseries about it.
10:042.
10:05On-Set Love Affair – Cleopatra
10:14Elizabeth Taylor stars as the Egyptian queen in this epic that almost bankrupted an entire
10:32studio.
10:33The production was beset by rewrites, a production shutdown, ballooning costs, and a change in
10:39director.
10:40After it was made, director Joseph L. Mankiewicz was dismissed by the studio, only to be called
10:44back to try to make hours of footage into a coherent film.
10:47But the big story was Taylor and co-star Richard Burton's extramarital affair.
11:09Playing Marc Antony to her Cleopatra, Burton and Taylor's chemistry turned out to be
11:12very real.
11:13During a love scene, Mankiewicz had to yell cut several times to get them to stop kissing.
11:18The affair brought even more heat and publicity to the already troubled shoot.
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11:491.
11:51Injuries and Near-Death Experiences – The Wizard of Oz
11:54It's become a family favorite, but all that joy and magic on screen came at a great cost.
12:00Before Jack Haley was cast, Buddy Epson was originally to play the Tin Man.
12:04However, the aluminum dust they covered him with sent him to the hospital from a deadly
12:07toxic reaction.
12:16Epson lived, but was replaced by Haley.
12:18Margaret Hamilton suffered severe burns when a stunt involving a cloud of smoke and fire
12:22went very wrong.
12:39Also that snow that Judy Garland and company are covered with in the poppy fields?
12:42That was asbestos.
12:43The challenging production of The Wizard of Oz is a testament to the blood, sweat, and
12:47tears that went into making classic Hollywood movie magic, for better or worse.
12:59Had you already heard any of these behind-the-scenes stories?
13:02Tell us in the comments.
13:09Do you agree with our picks?
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