Close Encounters of the Celebrity Kind...
Otto the Terrible Is Tamed in a New Biography By Film Historian Foster Hirsch
Expanded Edition of 11-2-07 Chicago Tribune Interview
by Richard Knight, Jr.
Film historian, professor, author, lecturer: Foster Hirsch (conducting a Q&A after screening of Imitation of Life in 2005) and the
cover of his latest fascinating book, an in-depth look at the life and films of Otto Preminger
Film historian and professor Foster Hirsch has written books about Woody Allen, Laurence Olivier, Elizabeth Taylor, and many others.  
Now his new in-depth biography of
Otto Preminger: The Man Who Would Be King,” reveals a more humane side behind the
famously difficult façade cultivated by the film director (nicknamed “Otto the Terrible”) of such classics as
Laura, Exodus, Anatomy of a
Murder
, Carmen Jones, and the rarely seen Porgy & Bess.  

Hirsch will be in Chicago to preside over a retrospective of 11 of Preminger’s films at the Music Box dedicated to the Viennese
director's work beginning November 3rd and running Saturdays and Sundays through December 2nd.  Hirsch will sign copies of his
new book (available at the theatre) and lead a panel discussion about the director along with film critics Jonathan Rosenbaum and
Michael Wilmington at 7pm on November 13th in between screenings of Preminger’s 1952 noir classic
Angel Face.  Highlights from our
conversation:

Rkj:  For the uninitiated, can you explain the title of your book?

FOSTER HIRSCH (FH):  “The Man Who Would Be King” describes, let’s put it this way, his autocratic style.  Preminger was a boss
when there were bosses and he had certain tyrannical tendencies.  He was the man in charge and he was a king in his own domain
because he broke away from the studio system and became an independent filmmaker.

Rkj:  Did he really tell a group of kids on the set of
Exodus, “Cry you little monsters?”

FH:  I wasn’t there but from my research he certainly could have done that.

Rkj:  Preminger played the acidic Nazi prisoner camp commandant in
Stalag 17 and a decade later the villainous Mr. Freeze on TV’s
“Batman.”  Were these examples of typecasting?

FH:  He played on this persona that he created and as one of my interviewees said, “You don’t create too far from your own nature”
and he used that image of the tyrant to bully and browbeat people but it ultimately hurt him.

Rkj:  How so?

FH:  I think he was a great filmmaker but people are interested in the temper tantrums.  That tyrant persona, I think, ultimately
destroyed him, hurt his reputation and has undermined his legacy.  But it was there – he did yell and scream.  I witnessed it myself.  
It was scary; it was unnerving.  I thought, “Is this an act?  Real people don’t act this way.”  It was a way to control people around
him.  The man had enormous power and presence but he also had enormous charm and was a devoted husband and father and was
very generous to many people over the years and off the set everybody said he was wonderful company.  But in the end the persona
bit him.  It ate him up

Rkj:  
Laura, the memorable murder mystery that introduced the classic standard from 1944 was his breakthrough film.

FH:  This was his big chance and he knew it.  He had a feeling for the subject – rich people in Manhattan who were spoiled rotten and
perverse.  Otto, being rich himself all his life, understood those people and he made what is called a “salon noir.”  People love that
film but I’m wondering if they get it – those characters are all very perverse (laughs)!  It’s really about a gay upper crust Manhattan.

Rkj:  And Dana Andrews is in love with a dead woman!

FH (laughs):  Yes, he’s in love with a dead woman!  He becomes absolutely enamored of a dead woman.  When she returns in the
flesh I think he’s a little bit intimidated because it’s easier to be in love with a dead woman and that character has his problems, too.

Rkj:  During the 1950s Preminger was at his creative peak.  He pushed conservative standards with his then racy films like
The Moon
Is Blue
, Carmen Jones and Anatomy of a Murder.

FH:  
Carmen Jones especially.  It’s a film about black sexuality that pulls no punches.  That took a lot of courage in 1954.  He
presents Dorothy Dandridge as an object of desire.  I don’t think a black woman had ever been presented that way on the screen
before and the scenes between Dandridge and Harry Belafonte still pack a sexual wallop 50 some odd years later.  He released
several films without the production code seal of approval which took a lot of guts in the 1950s.  He went against the censors.  He
said, “You can’t censor my work.”  Censorship was not American, he felt and he saw what happened when censorship ran amok in his
native country of Vienna when the Nazis took over.  Ironically, by the time of
Anatomy of a Murder in 1959 which is about a supposed
rape, the film did get the production code seal of approval because of what he had done earlier in the decade.  He made it possible
to deal with adult subject matter on screen.

Rkj:  He was also the first to show a gay bar in a mainstream feature in 1962’s
Advise & Consent.

FH:  That was a first in American films.  A first – it had never been done before.  So he broke that taboo, as well.  He also broke the
blacklist when he hired Dalton Trumbo.  He said, “I’m not to have him write under an assumed name.  I’m going to give him screen
credit and if people are offended by that then they don’t have to buy tickets for the film.”  After he did that – not before – Kirk
Douglas gave Dalton Trumbo screen credit for
Spartacus.  But it was Otto who broke the blacklist.

Rkj:  Why did he do that?

FH:  It was another kind of censorship that he wasn’t going to knuckle under to.

Rkj:  Your book details how he learned that by example when his father refused to renounce his Jewish faith in order to obtain a
high ranking government post.

FH:  He refused to renounce his Judaism and he got the job anyway.  So when Otto saw his father behave that way he behave
exactly the same way when he fought the censors.  It was the same point of view.

Rkj:  Let’s talk about the unseen masterpiece, the other 1959 film,
Porgy & Bess.

FH:  We had hoped it would be shown in Chicago but for budgetary reasons it wasn’t possible.

Rkj:  But you did get to show it recently in New York, correct?

FG:  I showed it at the Ziegfeld in New York.  Audiences loved it and there was big applause at the end of the film and I’m hoping
from that reaction – because people from Sam Goldwyn and the Gershwin estates were there that night and they saw the audience
reaction – that maybe, maybe, maybe the film can be put out on DVD and hopefully released in theatres before that.  It is virtually
an unseen film in the last 50 years.

Rkj:  That’s a combination of the Gershwin estate not liking it and Goldwyn the producer losing the rights to it?

FH:  Yes, it had nothing to do with Preminger.  He was proud of his work.  He wanted it to be seen.  Mrs. Preminger wants it to be
seen.  It’s the Gershwin’s and the Goldwyn’s that have held it up.  The other problem is that there’s really only ONE viewable print in
the country and it isn’t held by Sam Goldwyn.  They have a negative but it’s not in such good condition; it needs to be restored.

Rkj:  What about the actors in the film?  You mention in your book that Sidney Poitier is sorry to this day that he made the film.

FH:  Because he feels that a black playing a crippled black man who sings, “I got plenty o’nuttin’ and nuttin’s plenty for me” is not
an empowering image.  It does not present an image of black people that Poitier and many of the other actors felt was
empowering.  I can understand that – I wouldn’t begin to tell black people who to respond to that film.  I feel the great score and
the dignity with which the characters are treated by Otto Preminger – a lifelong member of the NAACAP – as far from a racist as you
can find among the white Hollywood power structure enobles the black characters.  But it’s not for me to say.  People will respond to
the film as they will.  It isn’t everybody’s film but let people decide for themselves.

Rkj:  Preminger’s last few films really showed a drop off in quality.

FH:  When you watch the last films you feel that he is a great director who has lost his way.  
Skidoo from 1968 is a mess but it is a
fascinating mess.  I’m not going to tell people when I introduce it at the Music Box, “It’s a lost or misunderstood masterpiece.  It
isn't.  Now
Porgy & Bess – that is.”  Skidoo is a train wreck.  Groucho Marx as God, Jackie Gleason, Cesar Romero, Mickey Rooney,
Peter Lawford, Frankie Avalon, come on (laughs) – nobody else made a movie like that, ever.  I think it says more about the late
60s counterculture than any other film of the time even though Preminger was the least qualified to make a film about hippies.

Rkj:  Why isn’t Preminger’s career as well regarded as other directors of his time?

FH:  I think people often reviewed the personality and not the movie.  His temper tantrums got far too much publicity.  The films are
not hot blooded the way the man was.  They’re very cool and that coolness is not to everybody’s taste.  Otto is not a universal
flavor.  I would say that
Anatomy of a Murder, Porgy & Bess, Advise & Consent, and Exodus are among the great American movies and
are underrated still to this moment.

Rkj:  Aside from your prolific writing and academic career, you’ve conducted dozens and dozens of Q&A screenings with classic film
stars.  Do any of these stand out in your memory?

FH:  Oh yes, I have a favorite and a least favorite.  The best single interview I ever had was with an actress named Jane Russell –
do you remember her?

Rkj:  Yes I do –
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, The Outlaw and as the spokeswoman for the 12-hour bra.

FH (laughs):  Yes!  She’s still with us; she’s still singing and performing and giving interviews.  She listened to every word I said and
really talked to me.  She didn’t give automatic answers.  We talked to each other.  It was fresh and spontaneous.  Van Johnson was
absolutely terrific in the same way and both are hearing impaired, how ironic is that?

Rkj:  And the least favorite?

FH:  A person so absolutely mean that I shudder at the mere mention of her name.  The most monstrous human being I’ve ever
met.

Rkj:  And the name of this Gorgon?

FH:  I’ll be happy to tell anyone in person who comes to the Music Box (laughs).

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Otto Preminger: The Man Who Be King Retrospective
Music Box Theatre
3733 N. Southport
Chicago

“Fallen Angel” will play at 11:30am, Saturday-Sunday, November 3-4
“Laura” will play Friday-Sunday, November 9-11 at 2pm on 11/10 and 11/11 (time on 11/9 TBD)
“Bonjour Tristesse” will play at 11:30 am, Saturday-Sunday, November 10-11
“Anatomy of a Murder” will play at 1:30 pm, Sunday, November 11
“Skidoo” will play at 7pm, Monday, November 12
“Angel Face” will play at 5pm and 8pm, Tuesday, November 13, panel discussion at 7pm
“Bunny Lake Is Missing” will play at 7:20pm, Wednesday, November 14
“Advise & Consent” will play at 7:20pm, Thursday, November 15
“Whirlpool,” will play at 11:30am, Saturday-Sunday, November 17-18
“River of No Return” will play at 11:30 am, Saturday-Sunday, November 24-25
“Where the Sidewalk Ends” will play at 11:30 am, Saturday-Sunday, December 1-2
Call 773-871-6604.  
www.musicboxtheatre.com