Victor Fleming: An American Movie Master (Screen Classics) (73 page)
Read Victor Fleming: An American Movie Master (Screen Classics) Online
Authors: Michael Sragow
As the war ground on, the constrictions it placed on home-front life strained Fleming’s appetites and patience, though the MGM commissary provided some goodies, like butter, sugar, bacon, and coffee. “I remember the bubble gum,” says Sally. “It was one of the things you couldn’t get during the war because of sugar rationing. He never said where it came from, but we always figured it came from the studio.”
Fleming’s wanderlust took the biggest hit. He couldn’t sail his boat, and the Moraga Spit and Polish Club wasn’t enough to satisfy his yen
for
travel. He yearned for the freedom of hopping in his car and going wherever his spirit would take him. In 1943, before he filmed
A Guy Named Joe,
Vic, Lu, Hawks, and Jim Jordan (radio’s Fibber McGee) got called into federal court to testify in a black-market tire case. Fleming said he thought four tires he’d bought from Hawks were used, before the Office of Price Administration seized them. He told the judge, “What I don’t know about this tire business is plenty.” (The case was thrown out because the prosecution’s case was flawed.)
Hal Rosson and Fleming focus on Jean Harlow as Mary Astor and Gable watch during the making of
Red Dust
(1932).
(above)
Helen Hayes prays for divine guidance in
The White Sister
(1933).
(below)
Fleming clowns for the chorus line of
Reckless
(1935).
(above)
Fleming; his new male star, Henry Fonda; and Janet Gaynor relax on the Fox set of
The Farmer Takes a Wife
(1935).
(below)
A member of the camera team checks the lighting as Fleming hovers over Vivien Leigh and Gable cools his heels in the background while they prepare to bring Scarlett and Rhett’s marriage to life in
Gone With the Wind
(1939).
(left)
“Gable’s back and Garson’s got him” went the tagline for
Adventure
(1946). Here Fleming’s got Garson in his lap while he gives direction to Gable.
(below)
Ingrid Bergman pays rapt attention to Fleming as Spencer Tracy, dressed as Dr. Jekyll, looks on during the first day of shooting
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
(1941).
Mervyn LeRoy, Judy Garland, and Fleming tower over the Munchkins in
The Wizard of Oz
(1939). Fleming, holding Toto, is looking directly at tiny Olga Nardone and Lollipop Guild member Jerry Maren. Mickey Carroll is the Munchkin next to Maren.
(above)
Gary Cooper makes courtly love to Mary Brian in
The Virginian
(1929).
(below)
Emil Jannings won half of his best actor Oscar for his role as the devoted family man who falls from bourgeois grace in
The Way of All Flesh
(1927).
(above)
Harlow at her comic peak, giving her dogs the run of the house in
Bombshell
(1933).
(below)
Vilma Banky snatches a door key from a fire in
The Awakening
(1928).
