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- Movie Night at the Playboy Mansion - The House of Rothschild
Movie Night at the Playboy Mansion - The House of Rothschild
| February 19, 2010 Tomorrow night: The three Barrymores—John, Ethel and Lionel—in the **** historical drama “RASPUTIN AND THE EMPRESS.” On Sunday: Benicio del Toro and Anthony Hopkins in “THE WOLFMAN.” Next Friday: Paul Newman, with Piper Laurie, George C. Scott and Jackie Gleason, in the ***** drama “THE HUSTLER.” And on Saturday—a week from tomorrow—John Garfield and Lilli Palmer in the ***** “BODY AND SOUL.” Tonight: George Arliss, Loretta Young, Boris Karloff and Robert Young in the **** biography “THE HOUSE OF ROTHSCHILD.” After “DISRAELI” (1929), his first talking picture, which we screened here in November, George Arliss made nine more features for Warner Bros. His contract expired in the spring of 1933, at the same time that a row between the head of production, Darryl F. Zanuck, and the Burbank lots chief executive, Jack Warner, led to Zanuck’s resignation. Zanuck then formed his own company, called 20th Century Pictures, with Joseph Schenck (whose brother, Nicholas Schenck, headed up Loew’s, Inc., that owned MGM). Two years later, 20th would merge with and take over the larger and venerable old film studio founded by, and named for, William Fox, creating 20th Century Fox. But before that merger, Zanuck’s 20th Century Pictures produced 18 memorable movies. Tonight’s film was that company’s most lavish and commercially successful production, concluding with a then-rare, novel and expensive Technicolor sequence. More importantly, “THE HOUSE OF ROTHSCHILD” was also one of the first movies to deal with the sensitive and volatile issue of anti-Semitism. The first star that Zanuck was able to sign for his new company was George Arliss. The story of the Rothschild family, Jewish financiers whose influence spread across the whole of Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries, had long fascinated Arliss. In 1931, to pacify Arliss, Warner Bros. bought a literary property on the Rothschilds with the alleged intention of turning it into a film. In reality, the studio had no intention of making such a movie. At Warner Bros, or almost anywhere else in Hollywood, a project of this nature was greeted with the same level of enthusiasm that Mel Gibson met when he was trying to produce “THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST.” First of all, there was the problem of portraying bankers as sympathetic protagonists in the depth of the Great Depression, a time when those banks that had not declared bankruptcy were viewed with considerable distrust and disdain. In addition, the Rothschild story involved anti-Semitism. The Jews who ran Hollywood were too busy reinventing themselves and becoming an acceptable part of a Christian country to be interested in addressing the sensitive issue of anti-Semitism, particularly at a time when each day brought increasingly alarming news about events in Germany with the arrival of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party. Darryl Zanuck was one of the few studio bosses who wasn’t Jewish, however. People thought he was. Even Joe Schenck thought so, but he wasn’t. And he wasn’t afraid of controversy. He got his film ideas from the sensational news stories of the day. In addition, Arliss let Zanuck know, in his best, lofty way, that he was beholden to the actor for following the filmmaker to 20th Century Pictures. What Arliss wanted in return was a screen version of the Rothschild story. In June 1933, Zanuck bought the rights to the unpublished play, “ROTHSCHILD,” written by George Hembert Westley. Then he took 14 pages of notes, given to him by Arliss, and dictated a story outline for a pair of writers to work on. In September, Zanuck assigned Nunnally Johnson to the project. As soon as Johnson saw the potential connection between this film and the new anti-Semitism raging in Germany, he knew he had “An electric subject!” as he put it. Johnson was a new screenwriter. His subsequent credits would include “THE GRAPES OF WRATH” (1940), “ROXIE HART” (1942), “THE GUNFIGHTER” (1950), “THE DESERT FOX” (1951), “THE MAN IN THE GRAY FLANNEL SUIT” (1956) and “THE THREE FACES OF EVE” (1957). His career paralleled Zanuck’s, in that he co-founded International Pictures, Inc. in 1943, a little company that would soon grow to a size where it could acquire Universal Pictures, just as Zanuck acquired Fox. Zanuck discussed the Rothschild project with Johnson. “Mr. Arliss wants to play more than one part,” Zanuck said. “He sees himself as old Meyer Rothschild, whose five sons become the bankers of Europe. He also sees himself as the most famous of those sons, Lionel Nathan Rothschild, who establishes himself in London and becomes close to Disraeli, the British Prime Minister, who was also a Jew. He’d like to play Disraeli again too, but I think we can talk him out of that.” John Blystone (who made films with Buster Keaton and Laurel and Hardy) was the first choice to direct, but he was replaced by the usually pedestrian Alfred Werker (“A-HAUNTING WE WILL GO” and “THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES”). Sidney Lanfield (“WAKE UP AND LIVE” and “THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES”) took over direction for a week when Werker became ill. None of which really mattered. As usual, Arliss ran his own show. Nunnally Johnson found Arliss to be “a gentle, nice man, but very imposing. I mean, it was like the King of England was working with you.” Cast as the young lovers were the unrelated Loretta and Robert Young. George Arliss’ wife, Florence Arliss, was in the picture too, as usual. Boris Karloff played the heavy. After making “FRANKENSTEIN” (1931), “THE OLD DARK HOUSE” and “THE MUMMY” (1932) for Universal, he was unable to negotiate a satisfactory new contract, so he returned to England, his homeland, for the first time in a quarter of a century, where he made “THE GHOUL” (1933). When Karloff resumed his career in Hollywood as a free agent, this was the first role he accepted. With “ROTHSCHILD,” and then “THE GREAT ROTHSCHILD,” as working titles, the production began shooting on December 13, 1933 and wrapped on February 2, 1934. “THE HOUSE OF ROTHSCHILD” was screened for the trades in Hollywood on February 22 and premiered at the Astor Theatre in New York on March 14th. It was released domestically through United Artists on April 7, 1934. The film prompted rave reviews. The New York Times declared, “Mr. Arliss outshines any previous performance he has contributed to the screen.” The critic for the Motion Picture Herald noted that “’The House of Rothschild’ received the most enthusiastic ovation this writer has heard in a theatre.” The film was a box office blockbuster. With a moderate production cost of $530,000 (“GRAND HOTEL” cost $692,000 and “KING KONG” $672,000), “ROTHSCHILD” racked up a colossal worldwide gross of $2,430,000. This made it the most successful of 20th Century Pictures’ 18 releases. The net profit amounted to $1,414,000, for a 267% return on investment. “THE HOUSE OF ROTHSCHILD” earned an Oscar nomination for Best Picture, but lost to Capra’s classic “IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT,” that swept the Academy Awards that year. Both Film Daily and “The National Board of Review” named “ROTHSCHILD” the second best film of the year. We have a newly restored 35mm print from the UCLA archives. So now—from 1934—George Arliss in “THE HOUSE OF ROTHSCHILD.” |
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Jul 29, 2010
