1
00:00:12,775 --> 00:00:15,469
THERE ARE THREE SIDES TO EVERY STORY:

2
00:00:15,469 --> 00:00:17,642
THERE ARE THREE SIDES TO EVERY STORY:
YOUR SIDE,

3
00:00:17,642 --> 00:00:20,200
THERE ARE THREE SIDES TO EVERY STORY:
YOUR SIDE, MY SIDE,

4
00:00:20,200 --> 00:00:22,243
THERE ARE THREE SIDES TO EVERY STORY:
YOUR SIDE, MY SIDE, AND THE TRUTH

5
00:00:22,250 --> 00:00:25,444
AND NO ONE IS LYING

6
00:00:25,444 --> 00:00:28,331
AND NO ONE IS LYING
MEMORIES SHARED SERVE EACH DIFFERENTLY

7
00:00:28,331 --> 00:00:36,109
AND NO ONE IS LYING
MEMORIES SHARED SERVE EACH DIFFERENTLY
                 <i>Robert Evans<i></i></i>

8
00:01:56,273 --> 00:02:00,175
<i>Dr. Kissinger is here and
there's no accident.</i>

9
00:02:01,680 --> 00:02:04,772
<i>There's more oil on Bob Evans...</i>

10
00:02:05,816 --> 00:02:10,982
<i>Take him home. Take him home!
Just get him the hell out of here!</i>

11
00:02:11,123 --> 00:02:14,818
<i>These past 10 years as chief of
production at Paramount Pictures...</i>

12
00:02:14,960 --> 00:02:20,262
<i>... I've been lucky, or fortunate enough to
be involved with such unique pictures...</i>

13
00:02:20,431 --> 00:02:26,859
<i>... as Rosemary's Baby, True Grit,
Love Story, The Godfather...</i>

14
00:02:32,944 --> 00:02:35,244
<i>How did you get discovered
for the movies?</i>

15
00:02:35,381 --> 00:02:38,281
<i>Well, I got discovered by jumping
into a swimming pool.</i>

16
00:02:38,415 --> 00:02:43,080
<i>But I was an actor for many years
as a kid before that.</i>

17
00:02:43,255 --> 00:02:47,714
<i>I was at the Beverly Hills Hotel pool.
I was a businessman at the time.</i>

18
00:02:47,860 --> 00:02:51,124
<i>- What was your business?
- I was partners in Evan Picone.</i>

19
00:02:51,263 --> 00:02:54,700
<i>We made women's pants.
In other words, I was in women's pants.</i>

20
00:02:54,832 --> 00:02:58,929
<i>We actually started the fad
of women wearing slacks.</i>

21
00:02:59,105 --> 00:03:00,969
<i>I'll never forget it, because...</i>

22
00:03:01,140 --> 00:03:03,335
It was the fall of 1956.

23
00:03:03,810 --> 00:03:07,745
I flew out to Los Angeles
to set up Evan Picone boutiques.

24
00:03:07,881 --> 00:03:09,972
One afternoon, I decided
to play hooky...

25
00:03:10,149 --> 00:03:13,812
...sit by the pool and get some
sun at the Beverly Hills Hotel.

26
00:03:14,452 --> 00:03:19,982
Suddenly a woman approached. "Excuse
me, young man, are you an actor?"

27
00:03:20,124 --> 00:03:23,289
Yeah, I was, a long time ago.

28
00:03:23,828 --> 00:03:25,456
It was Norma Shearer.

29
00:03:25,765 --> 00:03:28,790
Norma Shearer, at the time,
was one of the few remaining icons...

30
00:03:28,935 --> 00:03:30,162
...of Hollywood aristocracy.

31
00:03:30,336 --> 00:03:32,735
A petite blond in a striped, short robe.

32
00:03:33,872 --> 00:03:38,104
"Pardon me for being curious, young man,
but why are you always on the phone?"

33
00:03:38,244 --> 00:03:41,178
Gotta pay my bills.
"You're not a bookmaker, are you?"

34
00:03:41,313 --> 00:03:43,246
No, I'm not a bookmaker.

35
00:03:43,383 --> 00:03:46,509
Then she changed the
entire course of my life.

36
00:03:46,852 --> 00:03:50,755
"Would you like to play my deceased
husband, Irving Thalberg, in a film?"

37
00:03:50,891 --> 00:03:55,190
I looked at her. Looked at her again. I
didn't know what she was talking about.

38
00:03:55,360 --> 00:03:58,923
<i>"They're making a film at Universal
called Man of a Thousand Faces.</i>

39
00:03:59,066 --> 00:04:01,761
My friend Jimmy Cagney
is playing Lon Chaney.

40
00:04:01,902 --> 00:04:05,428
Irving discovered him and made
him the biggest star in silent film.

41
00:04:05,739 --> 00:04:09,836
He was only 20 at the time. He was
even too young to sign the checks.

42
00:04:10,010 --> 00:04:12,375
But not too young to run a studio."

43
00:04:12,846 --> 00:04:17,806
I'm thinking to myself, wow,
this can't be happening to me.

44
00:04:18,284 --> 00:04:20,549
Miss Shearer, it would be
an honor. Why not?

45
00:04:20,855 --> 00:04:24,017
Cagney is the one guy
I've always wanted to meet.

46
00:04:26,360 --> 00:04:30,761
Two hours later, I'm on a
sound stage at Universal.

47
00:04:31,095 --> 00:04:34,555
Here I am, like out of a dream,
I'm testing opposite Jimmy Cagney.

48
00:04:34,869 --> 00:04:36,803
Mind if I come in a minute?

49
00:04:37,972 --> 00:04:41,840
I know I don't look dressed for the barricades,
but I've come from a revolution.

50
00:04:41,976 --> 00:04:45,776
<i>The premiere of The Jazz Singer. Lon,
you should've seen that audience.</i>

51
00:04:45,913 --> 00:04:48,177
When Jolson's voice came
from the screen...

52
00:04:48,315 --> 00:04:51,376
...I could hear the bells tolling
for silent pictures.

53
00:04:52,218 --> 00:04:54,244
You haven't heard a word I said.

54
00:04:56,358 --> 00:04:59,224
- I'm sorry, Irving. What were you saying?
- Nothing much.

55
00:04:59,960 --> 00:05:02,223
Just trying to tell you
about a modern miracle.

56
00:05:02,396 --> 00:05:05,126
Pictures that not only move,
Lon, but they speak.

57
00:05:05,267 --> 00:05:07,096
Oh, yeah, sure. Talking pictures.

58
00:05:07,233 --> 00:05:10,464
It's the horse and the automobile
all over again. No use fighting it.

59
00:05:10,604 --> 00:05:14,267
When it was over, Cagney gave me a
quick look, "You did good, kid."

60
00:05:14,507 --> 00:05:18,309
Forty-eight hours later, I made every
newspaper around the country.

61
00:05:18,446 --> 00:05:23,041
"Big splash: New York businessman dives
into pool and comes out movie star."

62
00:05:23,218 --> 00:05:26,186
Was I lucky? I think so.

63
00:05:26,321 --> 00:05:30,553
If I had stayed just an actor, Norma
never would've given me a second look.

64
00:05:30,926 --> 00:05:35,192
What caught her eye was a young
go-getter, sure about himself. Persuasive.

65
00:05:36,097 --> 00:05:40,534
A subliminal reminder of the man who
was once her mentor and her husband.

66
00:05:40,837 --> 00:05:43,964
It's the old story, though.
Luck doesn't happen by mistake.

67
00:05:44,105 --> 00:05:47,438
Rather, luck is when opportunity
meets preparation.

68
00:05:52,413 --> 00:05:55,645
As soon as the picture wrapped,
I flew back to the Big Apple.

69
00:05:55,951 --> 00:05:57,918
Evan Picone was on fire...

70
00:05:58,119 --> 00:06:02,216
...the showroom packed with them leggy
ladies prancing in their patrician pants.

71
00:06:02,458 --> 00:06:07,952
It was turn-on plus. My brother Charles had
built the top fashion company of its time.

72
00:06:08,096 --> 00:06:10,223
Me? I was lucky to be part of it...

73
00:06:10,399 --> 00:06:13,367
...never having a second thought
about returning to La La Land.

74
00:06:13,500 --> 00:06:14,934
Why should I?

75
00:06:15,070 --> 00:06:18,562
In New York, I was a celebrity.
From debutante, to starlet, to model.

76
00:06:18,907 --> 00:06:25,073
There I was on their most-wanted list.
Was I enjoying it? You bet your ass I was.

77
00:06:26,115 --> 00:06:30,018
One night, my brother and I took
a few femme fatales to El Morocco.

78
00:06:30,151 --> 00:06:33,884
Me? I didn't feel like conversation,
so I hit the dance floor.

79
00:06:34,023 --> 00:06:38,084
Well, that night someone had eyes
for me, and it wasn't her.

80
00:06:38,262 --> 00:06:42,494
It was Darryl Zanuck, head
honcho of 20th Century Fox.

81
00:06:42,633 --> 00:06:46,399
He had no idea who I was.
But just looking at me, he thought:

82
00:06:46,537 --> 00:06:50,164
That kid's right to play the
matador opposite Ava Gardner.

83
00:06:50,306 --> 00:06:54,107
After years and years of knocking
on doors, being turned down...

84
00:06:54,243 --> 00:06:58,680
...here I am, discovered to star
in two pictures within six months.

85
00:06:59,215 --> 00:07:04,243
That's what you call incident, and that's
what's also known as sense of discovery.

86
00:07:04,421 --> 00:07:07,412
Thank God, I was the one discovered.

87
00:07:21,205 --> 00:07:24,969
I was sent down to Mexico
to study to be a bullfighter.

88
00:07:26,076 --> 00:07:30,069
Mind you, I have never once
seen a bull in my life.

89
00:07:31,482 --> 00:07:33,949
I worked my ass off for three months.

90
00:07:34,083 --> 00:07:38,385
Wearing a rubber girdle each day, so I'd
lose weight around my midsection.

91
00:07:38,521 --> 00:07:43,358
There was one big problem.
No one wanted me in the picture.

92
00:07:43,493 --> 00:07:47,020
Ernest Hemingway was furious they'd
pick a guy out of a nightclub...

93
00:07:47,163 --> 00:07:51,157
...to play Pedro Romero,
who in the true-life story was him.

94
00:07:51,336 --> 00:07:54,499
A telegram goes out to
Darryl Zanuck. It reads:

95
00:07:54,672 --> 00:08:00,303
<i>"With Robert Evans playing Pedro Romero,
The Sun Also Rises will be a disaster.</i>

96
00:08:00,512 --> 00:08:03,446
Signed, Ernest Hemingway,
Tyrone Power...

97
00:08:03,579 --> 00:08:05,571
...Ava Gardner, Eddie Albert."

98
00:08:05,716 --> 00:08:09,278
The only one who refused to sign it
was Errol Flynn. He laughed.

99
00:08:10,055 --> 00:08:14,048
I know I'm gonna get fired.
But that gave me the resolve.

100
00:08:14,192 --> 00:08:18,492
I said, fuck them. And, you know,
when I knew that telegram went out...

101
00:08:18,997 --> 00:08:22,124
...I became Pedro Romero in one week.

102
00:08:25,371 --> 00:08:29,068
Zanuck arrives in Morelia, Mexico,
and I'm summoned to the bullring...

103
00:08:29,206 --> 00:08:31,699
<i>...to do my quites and
veronicas in front of him.</i>

104
00:08:32,109 --> 00:08:38,414
I walk into the bullring, take off
my hat, throw it to him. For you.

105
00:08:39,049 --> 00:08:41,574
And then I start going through
my various things.

106
00:08:41,718 --> 00:08:44,689
I feel like an idiot.
I know I'm gonna get fired.

107
00:08:50,395 --> 00:08:55,059
Suddenly, Zanuck stands up, all
5'3" of him, picks up a bullhorn:

108
00:08:55,233 --> 00:09:00,670
"The kid stays in the picture. And
anybody who doesn't like it can quit."

109
00:09:01,106 --> 00:09:04,543
Puts the bullhorn down, and walks out.

110
00:09:11,718 --> 00:09:16,086
Also, it was then that I realized
that's what Evans wants to be.

111
00:09:16,222 --> 00:09:19,314
Not some actor shitting in his
pants, waiting to get a role.

112
00:09:19,458 --> 00:09:22,825
But the guy who can say,
"The kid stays in the picture."

113
00:09:23,128 --> 00:09:26,791
Bob Evans is a 28-year-old New Yorker
who is in the enviable position...

114
00:09:29,400 --> 00:09:31,529
...of pursuing two
careers on two coasts.

115
00:09:31,703 --> 00:09:34,866
Here in the East, Bob Evans
devotes his time and energy...

116
00:09:35,174 --> 00:09:38,541
...to being a vice president of the
Evan Picone sportswear firm.

117
00:09:38,677 --> 00:09:43,307
On the West Coast, Bob Evans devotes his
time and energy to being a movie star.

118
00:09:43,449 --> 00:09:46,680
And, at last reports,
he's doing pretty well at both.

119
00:09:46,819 --> 00:09:48,550
- Evening, Bob.
- Good evening, Ed.

120
00:09:48,689 --> 00:09:50,177
- How are you?
- Very fine.

121
00:09:50,322 --> 00:09:53,587
Now you're getting established
and recognized as a movie star...

122
00:09:53,759 --> 00:09:56,627
...how long do you think
you'll hold out as a bachelor?

123
00:09:56,762 --> 00:09:59,789
Just introduce me to the right girl, Ed,
and I can end my bachelorhood right here.

124
00:10:02,534 --> 00:10:05,868
With all the hullabaloo and excitement
about the new Valentino...

125
00:10:06,172 --> 00:10:10,872
...I wasn't getting the parts I wanted. There
were half a dozen parts offered to me.

126
00:10:11,178 --> 00:10:13,578
I was looking for bigger things.

127
00:10:14,181 --> 00:10:16,545
One day, my agent calls,
George Chasen.

128
00:10:16,682 --> 00:10:22,281
<i>"Bob, I'm calling with good news. Fox is
remaking Kiss of Death into a Western...</i>

129
00:10:22,455 --> 00:10:26,255
...and we've got you up for the Widmark
part. It made him a star overnight."

130
00:10:26,826 --> 00:10:28,794
Finally, I got my first title role.

131
00:10:29,129 --> 00:10:31,861
<i>- Wow!
- He's a kooky killer.</i>

132
00:10:32,166 --> 00:10:35,135
<i>The most diabolical horror
that ever roamed the earth.</i>

133
00:10:35,568 --> 00:10:38,163
The Fiend Who Walked the West.

134
00:10:38,304 --> 00:10:43,607
<i>He'll cut out your heart or break your
neck, and laugh while he's doing it.</i>

135
00:10:43,744 --> 00:10:46,541
My acting career was over and out.

136
00:10:48,281 --> 00:10:50,409
It was my last appearance
on the silver screen.

137
00:10:56,356 --> 00:10:58,882
At decade's end, I was sure of one thing.

138
00:11:00,260 --> 00:11:03,354
I was a half-assed actor, and I knew it.

139
00:11:03,562 --> 00:11:07,331
I knew I'd never become the next
Paul Newman...

140
00:11:07,468 --> 00:11:09,901
...maybe the next Troy Donahue.

141
00:11:10,338 --> 00:11:15,331
But do you know who I really wanted
to become? The next Darryl Zanuck.

142
00:11:16,477 --> 00:11:21,937
That was my goal for the '60s.
And I went for it all the way.

143
00:11:22,284 --> 00:11:24,513
Sounds easy, doesn't it?

144
00:11:24,686 --> 00:11:26,382
It ain't.

145
00:11:26,820 --> 00:11:30,848
Next to winning the Olympics, I don't
think there's a more difficult thing...

146
00:11:30,991 --> 00:11:34,655
...than a pretty-boy actor transforming
himself into producer...

147
00:11:34,829 --> 00:11:36,523
...especially in those days.

148
00:11:36,698 --> 00:11:40,862
I realized that I had to own something
that nobody else could get.

149
00:11:41,836 --> 00:11:45,898
<i>I met a guy named George Weiser
who worked for Publishers Weekly.</i>

150
00:11:46,207 --> 00:11:49,201
He moonlighted for me
for about $ 150 a week.

151
00:11:49,345 --> 00:11:53,474
<i>He comes to me and says, "I just finished
a book. It's called The Detective."</i>

152
00:11:53,647 --> 00:11:59,485
This is one hot book. I read it,
put $5000 down on it as an option...

153
00:11:59,654 --> 00:12:02,817
...and go see David Brown,
a pal from 20th Century Fox...

154
00:12:02,990 --> 00:12:07,518
...who's a top producer there. I say,
David, I think I have the next big book.

155
00:12:07,828 --> 00:12:14,326
He reads it. In 48 hours, he says, "Bob,
we're in business." David, not so quick.

156
00:12:14,804 --> 00:12:17,567
I wanna know what kind
of business we're in.

157
00:12:17,872 --> 00:12:21,569
Now, these are my conditions.
I want a full spread of offices.

158
00:12:21,709 --> 00:12:23,838
I want a three-picture deal.

159
00:12:24,013 --> 00:12:29,417
To make a very long story short,
I get everything I ask for.

160
00:12:29,851 --> 00:12:32,649
They would've bought me
out for half a million.

161
00:12:32,789 --> 00:12:36,847
But I wanted my foot in the door,
and I got it in the door, but good.

162
00:12:37,026 --> 00:12:41,622
I learned a lot from that. When you
own the property, you're king.

163
00:12:41,763 --> 00:12:44,733
Without it, you're a peon.

164
00:12:48,271 --> 00:12:52,332
If the euphemism, "You live by
the press, and die by the press"...

165
00:12:52,507 --> 00:12:55,068
...ever fit anyone, it fit me.

166
00:12:55,378 --> 00:12:59,041
Who would've thought a journalist would
change the entire course of my life...

167
00:12:59,381 --> 00:13:00,747
...and also my career?

168
00:13:00,882 --> 00:13:04,580
On reflection, I don't know if
I should love him or hate him.

169
00:13:04,722 --> 00:13:07,951
<i>Peter Bart, West Coast correspondent
for The New York Times...</i>

170
00:13:08,091 --> 00:13:11,719
...wanted to write a story about me
in the Arts and Leisure section.

171
00:13:11,895 --> 00:13:15,729
Is this a joke, Peter? Come on.
He said, "This is not a joke.

172
00:13:15,899 --> 00:13:19,596
What's interesting about you,
and why you're worth writing about...

173
00:13:19,735 --> 00:13:22,636
...is you're beating these
big shots at their own game.

174
00:13:22,872 --> 00:13:26,808
You know, you could become the guy
you played, the next Thalberg."

175
00:13:26,943 --> 00:13:31,107
That's just what I want the audience
to see, Mr. Chaney...

176
00:13:31,415 --> 00:13:35,045
...the soul of a man that
God made different.

177
00:13:35,952 --> 00:13:39,319
If I was smart, I should have
retired after Peter's article.

178
00:13:39,456 --> 00:13:42,654
Instead, Greg Bautzer, the power
broker of the town, calls.

179
00:13:42,926 --> 00:13:46,987
"Pack. You're going to New York."
I can't, Greg, I got plans.

180
00:13:47,130 --> 00:13:50,623
"Break them. Charlie Bluhdorn bought
Paramount and wants to meet you.

181
00:13:50,767 --> 00:13:53,825
<i>He read the article about you in
Sunday's New York Times.</i>

182
00:13:53,969 --> 00:13:55,665
He's a doer, Bob. Not a talker.

183
00:13:55,806 --> 00:14:00,369
Now pack your bags."
And pack them I did.

184
00:14:12,622 --> 00:14:16,854
Within five minutes after meeting Charlie
Bluhdorn, I know this is no kibitzer.

185
00:14:16,994 --> 00:14:20,793
Before I finished trying to answer one
question, he was asking me more.

186
00:14:20,931 --> 00:14:23,456
With him was a guy named Marty Davis.

187
00:14:23,601 --> 00:14:26,593
He was responsible for the
conglomerate Gulf and Western.

188
00:14:26,804 --> 00:14:29,431
Buying this aging mountain
they call Paramount.

189
00:14:29,773 --> 00:14:32,142
There were eight major studios
at the time.

190
00:14:33,945 --> 00:14:36,470
Paramount? It was ninth.

191
00:14:36,947 --> 00:14:41,884
Bluhdorn bought this giant at bargain
basement prices, the only way he knew how.

192
00:14:42,052 --> 00:14:46,013
Everybody thought he was nuts to get
in a business he knew nothing about...

193
00:14:46,158 --> 00:14:49,057
...much less a business
as crazy as show business.

194
00:14:49,393 --> 00:14:52,830
But, guys, I got a deal at 20th.
"Get out of it.

195
00:14:52,963 --> 00:14:56,663
You'll be running Paramount in
three months. Is that right, Marty?"

196
00:14:56,802 --> 00:14:58,632
Davis gives me a look.

197
00:14:58,803 --> 00:15:02,500
"If you're gonna run Paramount, you
better be tougher than you seem."

198
00:15:02,639 --> 00:15:06,737
Did I get the message? You bet.
Then Bluhdorn blasted my other ear:

199
00:15:06,879 --> 00:15:10,405
"Go by the seat of your pants.
Make pictures people wanna see.

200
00:15:10,582 --> 00:15:15,211
I wanna see tears, laughs. I want pretty
girls in the pictures, beautiful girls.

201
00:15:15,585 --> 00:15:17,886
Pictures people in Kansas City want to see.

202
00:15:18,023 --> 00:15:21,961
That's all, Evans.
What else do we have to go over?"

203
00:15:22,128 --> 00:15:25,927
<i>Being the head of production of
a studio such as Paramount...</i>

204
00:15:26,064 --> 00:15:29,933
<i>... and I'm sure you're aware of it,
involves a tremendous responsibility.</i>

205
00:15:30,068 --> 00:15:32,969
<i>You are dealing with millions of dollars.</i>

206
00:15:33,871 --> 00:15:38,434
<i>They had a lot of great names for me.
"Bluhdorn's Folly" by The New York Times.</i>

207
00:15:38,578 --> 00:15:42,171
<i>Another was "Bluhdorn's Blow Job" by
Hollywood Close-up. Good feeling, huh?</i>

208
00:15:43,183 --> 00:15:44,877
There was, to put it mildly...

209
00:15:46,552 --> 00:15:49,580
...a great deal of skepticism
from people in the industry.

210
00:15:49,722 --> 00:15:54,750
After all, where does an ex-actor, and a
bad one at that, come off running a studio?

211
00:15:54,894 --> 00:15:58,954
From the day I arrived, the rumor mill
had me packing my bags.

212
00:15:59,097 --> 00:16:02,659
<i>Time magazine ran a story
saying my firing was imminent.</i>

213
00:16:02,835 --> 00:16:07,170
Friends, columnists, agents, all let me know
I wouldn't be there for Christmas.

214
00:16:07,473 --> 00:16:13,277
<i>Then it happened. Front page of Variety:
"Evans tenure over by end of month."</i>

215
00:16:13,580 --> 00:16:17,948
I called Charles Bluhdorn, chairman of
Gulf and Western, who bought Paramount.

216
00:16:19,652 --> 00:16:25,248
He was in Spain. I got him out of a board
of directors' meeting in Madrid and said:

217
00:16:25,557 --> 00:16:31,258
<i>Charles, there's a story in Variety that
I'm gonna get fired. If it's true, tell me.</i>

218
00:16:31,564 --> 00:16:34,295
- Tell me if it's true.
- I'll pick up my laundry.

219
00:16:34,601 --> 00:16:37,503
I'm ready to go. He says,
"Let me tell you something.

220
00:16:37,638 --> 00:16:41,129
When you're getting fired, I'll let
you know. Stop reading gossip.

221
00:16:41,273 --> 00:16:45,540
As long as I own Paramount, you'll be
where you are. Relax and do your job."

222
00:16:45,712 --> 00:16:47,236
And he hung the phone up.

223
00:16:47,581 --> 00:16:50,743
My first move was to hire Peter Bart
as my right-hand man.

224
00:16:50,884 --> 00:16:55,685
He's not Hollywood. He doesn't read
synopses, he reads the entire text.

225
00:16:55,856 --> 00:16:59,917
He can read six books over a weekend.
I'm hard-pressed to finish one in six.

226
00:17:00,060 --> 00:17:04,520
But even more important, it was his
article that got me into this mess.

227
00:17:05,030 --> 00:17:08,057
The two of us caucused
in Palm Springs for a full week.

228
00:17:08,202 --> 00:17:13,640
Strategizing how an actor and a journalist
could turn a white elephant into a contender.

229
00:17:13,774 --> 00:17:19,144
Patience was not a quality Bluhdorn or
Davis had, and the clock was ticking.

230
00:17:19,847 --> 00:17:25,717
With the little experience we had,
we knew one thing: The property is the star.

231
00:17:25,852 --> 00:17:29,915
Let's go back to basics, Peter.
You can have stars up the ass...

232
00:17:30,058 --> 00:17:33,026
...but if it's not on the page,
it's not on the screen.

233
00:17:33,160 --> 00:17:36,595
It's no mistake Paramount's
been in ninth place for five years.

234
00:17:36,730 --> 00:17:40,064
It's time to pick up new dice.
Now let's try and do it.

235
00:17:48,175 --> 00:17:53,046
Between Peter and myself, we went
through dozens of scripts, maybe hundreds.

236
00:17:53,182 --> 00:17:58,174
Nothing clicked. It all felt tired.
There was nothing fresh about it.

237
00:17:58,319 --> 00:18:00,345
And we were looking
for the unexpected.

238
00:18:00,689 --> 00:18:05,217
Something that sounded new and
what we were gonna be about.

239
00:18:06,962 --> 00:18:09,624
Then one day, Bill Castle,
the veteran producer...

240
00:18:09,763 --> 00:18:14,723
...walked into my office with a manuscript
he had optioned, tucked under his arm.

241
00:18:14,904 --> 00:18:19,102
<i>It was Rosemary's Baby. And I loved it.</i>

242
00:18:19,741 --> 00:18:22,733
There was one problem:
Castle insisted on directing it.

243
00:18:22,912 --> 00:18:28,109
I only had one director in mind for it.
I saw brilliance in his little films.

244
00:18:28,248 --> 00:18:31,809
It was the little Polack himself,
Roman Polanski.

245
00:18:31,952 --> 00:18:37,118
Not a little Polack. The biggest Polack
and one of the biggest men I've ever met.

246
00:18:37,258 --> 00:18:43,197
<i>The films I saw were Knife in the Water,
Repulsion, Cul-de-sac, all offbeat thrillers.</i>

247
00:18:43,330 --> 00:18:48,098
Roman was a big cinema star over
in Europe, as well as director...

248
00:18:48,270 --> 00:18:52,832
...and he'd just finished his first
Hollywood film. Get this title:

249
00:18:52,975 --> 00:18:55,068
<i>The Fearless Vampire Killers...</i>

250
00:18:55,212 --> 00:18:58,739
<i>... or: Pardon Me, But Your
Teeth Are in My Neck.</i>

251
00:18:59,382 --> 00:19:03,875
Though no one wanted him in America,
he didn't care. He was a star in Europe.

252
00:19:04,020 --> 00:19:07,889
Where do I get him? How do
I get to him? He's an avid skier.

253
00:19:08,024 --> 00:19:13,462
<i>I lured him to America, thinking
he was gonna direct Downhill Racer.</i>

254
00:19:14,397 --> 00:19:17,764
Polanski walks in.
This is some character!

255
00:19:17,934 --> 00:19:21,425
Within five minutes, this Polack's
acting out crazy stories.

256
00:19:21,772 --> 00:19:25,434
They're somewhere between
Shakespeare and theater of the absurd.

257
00:19:25,742 --> 00:19:27,709
Maybe that's why we clicked so well.

258
00:19:27,843 --> 00:19:31,372
We both come out of the same
school of drama, the drama of life.

259
00:19:31,682 --> 00:19:36,482
I didn't wanna bullshit him.
Roman, will you read this?

260
00:19:36,818 --> 00:19:40,949
<i>I shoved the galleys of Rosemary's
Baby across the desk at him.</i>

261
00:19:41,390 --> 00:19:44,918
"Is this about skiing?"
Read it, Polack.

262
00:19:45,095 --> 00:19:49,931
If you don't like it, your next ski trip is on
me, anywhere you wanna go in the world.

263
00:19:50,068 --> 00:19:54,265
A gamble? Sure.
It paid off. Roman loved it.

264
00:19:54,404 --> 00:19:58,239
But then the fights began.
You know, fighting is healthy.

265
00:19:58,942 --> 00:20:02,708
If everyone has too much reverence for
each other, or the material...

266
00:20:02,845 --> 00:20:08,283
Check it out and think about it.
Invariably, it turns out underwhelming.

267
00:20:08,519 --> 00:20:12,784
By the end of the first week's shooting,
Roman was a week behind schedule.

268
00:20:12,957 --> 00:20:18,121
Everyone from Bluhdorn to Bill Castle
wanted me to throw him off the picture.

269
00:20:19,396 --> 00:20:24,733
Roman's dailies were weird. They
touched off an ominous sense of fright.

270
00:20:24,869 --> 00:20:27,861
One I'd never seen in film before.

271
00:20:28,973 --> 00:20:32,203
At the same time, Bill Castle
was pressing the right buttons...

272
00:20:32,341 --> 00:20:36,837
...getting the New York brass unnerved on
our Polish discovery, my Polish discovery.

273
00:20:37,013 --> 00:20:41,246
We're 10 days into shooting, and
Roman was five days behind schedule.

274
00:20:41,385 --> 00:20:46,118
"Fire the Polack," were the words
from New York. Fire him? Fuck you.

275
00:20:46,258 --> 00:20:49,191
He goes, I go.

276
00:20:49,527 --> 00:20:52,963
For a moment, I thought I'd have
to pay my own plane fare back.

277
00:20:53,096 --> 00:20:57,558
I grabbed Roman aside.
Listen to me carefully, Roman.

278
00:20:57,869 --> 00:21:01,772
My ass ain't on the line.
My ass is out the door, and so are you.

279
00:21:01,906 --> 00:21:05,306
Now pick up the fucking pace
or we'll both end up in Warsaw.

280
00:21:05,778 --> 00:21:09,178
Bluhdorn and company weren't the
only ones screaming about Roman.

281
00:21:09,348 --> 00:21:12,248
Another power entered the scene.

282
00:21:12,384 --> 00:21:15,841
My secretary comes in
with an urgent message:

283
00:21:15,987 --> 00:21:21,289
"Frank Sinatra's on the horn. He must
speak with you." I picked the phone up.

284
00:21:21,425 --> 00:21:25,988
"I'm pulling Mia from your picture, Evans,
if she ain't finished by November 14.

285
00:21:26,163 --> 00:21:29,498
She's starting in my picture
on the 17. Got it straight?"

286
00:21:29,803 --> 00:21:33,898
<i>His picture was The Detective, the
project that launched my producing career.</i>

287
00:21:34,039 --> 00:21:35,869
Now it was about to sink it.

288
00:21:36,041 --> 00:21:40,067
Frank, you don't understand. We're
not gonna be finished till mid-February.

289
00:21:40,211 --> 00:21:43,339
"Then she's quitting.
Don't fuck around with me.

290
00:21:44,049 --> 00:21:47,313
We go back too far. She's my old lady,
she'll do as I tell her."

291
00:21:47,451 --> 00:21:50,181
Before I could say anything,
he hangs the phone up.

292
00:21:50,323 --> 00:21:56,318
Well, Frank didn't bark, he bit.
Bit Mia pretty good.

293
00:21:56,461 --> 00:22:01,992
<i>"Stay in Rosemary's Baby, you go back
to Mia Farrow. Forget the name Sinatra!"</i>

294
00:22:02,167 --> 00:22:06,037
Suddenly this little girl hysterically
runs into my office.

295
00:22:06,172 --> 00:22:10,073
"I love him, Bob. I love him so.
I don't wanna lose Frank.

296
00:22:10,243 --> 00:22:12,871
I'm gonna have to leave the movie."

297
00:22:13,012 --> 00:22:17,006
Mia, if you walk out in the middle of
this film, you'll never work again.

298
00:22:17,183 --> 00:22:20,083
"I don't care, I don't care.
I just love Frank."

299
00:22:20,252 --> 00:22:25,623
Well, if ever my experience with dames
came in handy, I mean actress dames...

300
00:22:25,925 --> 00:22:27,916
...this was the moment.

301
00:22:28,060 --> 00:22:34,398
I knew what makes the head of an actress
tick, and I finally found its purpose.

302
00:22:34,568 --> 00:22:37,057
Come with me, Mia,
I wanna show you something.

303
00:22:37,204 --> 00:22:39,468
We walked into the executive
screening room...

304
00:22:39,607 --> 00:22:43,133
<i>...and I showed her a full hour of
Rosemary's Baby cut together.</i>

305
00:22:43,275 --> 00:22:46,337
Dr. Hill? Dr. Hill, there's a plot.

306
00:22:46,480 --> 00:22:51,279
I know that sounds crazy, and you're
thinking, "This poor girl has flipped."

307
00:22:51,453 --> 00:22:53,646
But I haven't flipped, Dr. Hill.

308
00:22:53,954 --> 00:22:56,445
I swear by all the saints, I haven't.

309
00:22:56,625 --> 00:23:02,185
Mia, you're brilliant. I never
thought you had it in you.

310
00:23:02,328 --> 00:23:04,092
It'll shock them all.

311
00:23:04,264 --> 00:23:08,599
I want you to know something. You're a
shoo-in to win the Academy Award.

312
00:23:08,902 --> 00:23:12,634
Suddenly her tears were gone.
Her face lights up.

313
00:23:12,940 --> 00:23:18,503
"Do you think so?" The one thing I'm not
is prone to exaggerate. You're a shoo-in.

314
00:23:18,646 --> 00:23:24,243
I mean a shoo-in, kid. "Sinatra who?"
Suddenly, a smile.

315
00:23:24,551 --> 00:23:29,454
She didn't walk off the film. But Frank
did serve her divorce papers on the set...

316
00:23:29,591 --> 00:23:32,114
...delivered by Mickey Rudin, his attorney.

317
00:23:32,293 --> 00:23:36,457
Wow, it's strange. Women recover real
quick. It may have taken her a full week.

318
00:23:37,297 --> 00:23:41,929
<i>Then the only thing she wanted was that
Rosemary's Baby out-gross The Detective.</i>

319
00:23:42,070 --> 00:23:44,470
You want to know about actresses?

320
00:23:44,638 --> 00:23:49,199
Mia's one satisfaction would be that the
pictures would open on the same day.

321
00:23:49,342 --> 00:23:51,313
And I arranged that.

322
00:23:51,479 --> 00:23:54,504
<i>The Detective opened to a
real good box office.</i>

323
00:23:54,650 --> 00:23:58,243
<i>But Rosemary's Baby was
the smash hit of the summer.</i>

324
00:23:58,419 --> 00:24:00,684
Overnight, Mia was a full-fledged star.

325
00:24:02,023 --> 00:24:04,081
She had one request I couldn't fill:

326
00:24:04,224 --> 00:24:07,957
<i>Take a double-page ad out in the
Daily Variety and Hollywood Reporter.</i>

327
00:24:08,096 --> 00:24:11,758
<i>On one side, in bold numbers,
the theater grosses of Rosemary's Baby.</i>

328
00:24:12,067 --> 00:24:15,559
<i>On the other, the theater
grosses of The Detective.</i>

329
00:24:17,004 --> 00:24:21,375
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.

330
00:24:36,525 --> 00:24:41,256
A decade before, Norma Shearer
took me for a short walk.

331
00:24:41,395 --> 00:24:45,732
Within 10 minutes of the Beverly Hills
Hotel, we entered a hidden oasis.

332
00:24:46,267 --> 00:24:49,395
It is a world away from Beverly Hills.

333
00:24:51,439 --> 00:24:55,308
It is protected by 100-foot-tall
eucalyptus trees.

334
00:24:55,643 --> 00:24:59,512
Greta Garbo used to hide away there
whenever she came into town.

335
00:25:00,583 --> 00:25:03,643
I'd never forgotten the day I was there.

336
00:25:03,786 --> 00:25:06,516
God, it must have been
100 times I thought:

337
00:25:06,689 --> 00:25:10,591
One day, I could own that house.
God, I'd love to live there.

338
00:25:13,261 --> 00:25:16,790
The grounds, the trees, the acreage,
the towering eucalyptus...

339
00:25:17,099 --> 00:25:22,366
...thousands of roses. Everything is
quiet and secret behind walls.

340
00:25:27,110 --> 00:25:32,605
Was it for sale? No. But in L.A.,
there's nothing that isn't.

341
00:25:33,382 --> 00:25:39,481
For 290,000 buckaroos, the place
of my dreams was now mine.

342
00:26:44,287 --> 00:26:48,554
In the mid-to-late '60s, movie
attendance was spiraling south.

343
00:26:48,726 --> 00:26:52,286
Outside of Paramount, a
cultural revolution was taking place.

344
00:26:53,531 --> 00:26:56,831
The brass at the studios didn't
know who to cater movies to.

345
00:26:57,135 --> 00:27:01,835
The old guard who wanted to see their
aging movie stars in lavish productions...

346
00:27:02,139 --> 00:27:05,440
...or the youth, who no one
seemed to understand.

347
00:27:05,943 --> 00:27:09,743
<i>In the same year alone,
Paramount released Medium Cool...</i>

348
00:27:09,913 --> 00:27:13,315
...a film catering to
the so-called youth market.

349
00:27:13,450 --> 00:27:18,354
<i>And Paint Your Wagon,
a film that catered to no one.</i>

350
00:27:24,295 --> 00:27:27,892
We were losing money every year
on big, extravagant productions.

351
00:27:28,201 --> 00:27:32,465
The board of directors were nervous.
We needed a picture to unite audiences.

352
00:27:32,639 --> 00:27:35,935
Like all good films, it needed
to start with a script.

353
00:27:37,410 --> 00:27:41,641
Well, we found it. Or should I say,
Miss MacGraw found it.

354
00:27:41,780 --> 00:27:46,183
A simple little film about
a boy and a girl falling in love.

355
00:27:46,785 --> 00:27:48,980
<i>It was Love Story.</i>

356
00:27:49,288 --> 00:27:55,625
<i>I set up a lunch date with Love Story's
mentor and star, Miss MacGraw.</i>

357
00:27:55,762 --> 00:28:00,323
Damn it, by the time dessert was served,
I would've made the phone book with her.

358
00:28:00,464 --> 00:28:06,461
Do you think she got to me? I can tell
you this, I sure in hell didn't get to her.

359
00:28:06,639 --> 00:28:09,903
She kept on digging into me.
Oh, and she was loving it.

360
00:28:10,209 --> 00:28:14,580
She keeps on interjecting, all during
the lunch, how much in love she was.

361
00:28:14,747 --> 00:28:19,980
Then she gives me her last zinger.
"Peter and I are getting married in the fall.

362
00:28:20,319 --> 00:28:24,280
We plan to spend October in Venice.
Ever been there?" Nope.

363
00:28:24,457 --> 00:28:28,416
"Then wait. Only go there
when you're madly in love."

364
00:28:28,694 --> 00:28:35,032
That was it for me. I grabbed her arm.
Never plan, kid. Planning's for the poor.

365
00:28:35,400 --> 00:28:39,395
If anything goes wrong between you and
Blondie between now and post time...

366
00:28:39,540 --> 00:28:42,804
...take my number.
I'm seven digits away.

367
00:28:43,674 --> 00:28:46,645
Hate to admit it, but she never called.

368
00:28:48,548 --> 00:28:53,540
<i>In the spring of 1969, holding Love
Story sure as hell wasn't holding aces.</i>

369
00:28:53,686 --> 00:28:56,679
I couldn't even find a
fucking director to do it.

370
00:28:56,855 --> 00:29:00,815
You know what my batting average was?
A thousand. Everyone turned it down.

371
00:29:00,994 --> 00:29:04,862
Suddenly, a minor miracle.
I get a director. Arthur Hiller.

372
00:29:05,031 --> 00:29:08,626
He's willing to direct my
angel with a very dirty face.

373
00:29:08,770 --> 00:29:12,795
Well, when you get a first bite,
there's no way you're gonna let it go.

374
00:29:14,374 --> 00:29:19,074
It was Wednesday night. Suddenly, Miss
Snotnose remembers my seven digits.

375
00:29:19,380 --> 00:29:23,975
This was one angry broad.
I say angry with a capital A.

376
00:29:24,284 --> 00:29:28,278
"The audacity you have, Mr. Evans, to
sign a director I've never heard of...

377
00:29:28,423 --> 00:29:32,687
...without consulting me. It's my property.
I'm doing the picture for slave wages.

378
00:29:32,859 --> 00:29:37,729
I'm living up to my option agreement.
Have you forgotten the word 'courtesy'?"

379
00:29:37,865 --> 00:29:40,595
I thought I was hyperventilating.

380
00:29:40,735 --> 00:29:47,037
Ali, why don't you come out to L.A.
Tomorrow? Take a look at Hiller's film.

381
00:29:47,408 --> 00:29:53,075
If you don't like it, we'll get someone
else. Trust me. I think you'll enjoy it.

382
00:30:00,021 --> 00:30:04,617
The next night at 5, I pick up Snotnose
MacGraw in the Beverly Hills Hotel.

383
00:30:04,759 --> 00:30:09,559
Did it bug me? You bet, needing
this starlet's nod of approval.

384
00:30:09,730 --> 00:30:14,065
I hoped she wouldn't like Hiller so I could
tell her she was a one-way ticket east.

385
00:30:14,402 --> 00:30:19,737
That her flick's over and out. Cancelled.
At least I'd get my nuts off.

386
00:30:20,907 --> 00:30:26,939
I'm saying to myself, Miss Charming
ain't gonna get to me tonight.

387
00:30:28,582 --> 00:30:31,881
I walked her through my front
doors, out and around my pool...

388
00:30:32,019 --> 00:30:37,457
...towards my projection room. What I was
thinking didn't work the way I thought.

389
00:30:37,592 --> 00:30:41,392
She looks up to me, with her
crooked tooth and all, and says:

390
00:30:41,563 --> 00:30:44,896
"I feel like I'm walking through
my own private park in Paris."

391
00:30:45,033 --> 00:30:47,899
Prepared for her bullshit,
it hardly made a ripple.

392
00:30:48,171 --> 00:30:54,109
Arthur Hiller's audition was ready to roll.
It never did. The screen never came down.

393
00:30:54,409 --> 00:31:00,006
Yeah, but Miss Flower Child Snotnose
soon got wet, very wet...

394
00:31:00,148 --> 00:31:05,882
...jumping into the egg-shaped pool totally
clothed, from her shoes to her headband.

395
00:31:06,019 --> 00:31:09,980
Me? I'm laughing on the inside,
but thinking, for a bohemian...

396
00:31:10,127 --> 00:31:13,754
...she sure as hell became
comfortable very quickly.

397
00:31:13,927 --> 00:31:18,923
Behind the so-called Beverly Hills gates,
with 2000 rose bushes...

398
00:31:19,103 --> 00:31:21,797
...surrounded by gardenias, daisies,
you name it.

399
00:31:21,936 --> 00:31:26,998
She called herself a flower child.
And now the flowers were hers.

400
00:31:30,614 --> 00:31:35,415
October 24th, 1969, a Friday morning.

401
00:31:35,584 --> 00:31:39,144
Miss Snotnose is on her way
to becoming Mrs. Evans.

402
00:31:39,455 --> 00:31:41,891
Both of us climb
into our Mercedes two-seater...

403
00:31:42,025 --> 00:31:44,822
...and head for the town hall in Riverside.

404
00:31:49,131 --> 00:31:53,500
Afterward, we uncorked one magnum
of Dom after the other.

405
00:31:53,637 --> 00:31:56,604
Where? On the courthouse lawn.

406
00:31:56,739 --> 00:31:58,934
And did we get loaded!

407
00:32:01,244 --> 00:32:04,771
We had a long two-day honeymoon
in Palm Springs.

408
00:32:04,915 --> 00:32:07,440
I held Ali tight in my arms.

409
00:32:07,616 --> 00:32:12,553
"I love you, Evans. I love you.
Forever, Evans. Forever."

410
00:32:12,789 --> 00:32:15,918
I whispered back, forever, darling.

411
00:32:16,725 --> 00:32:18,989
"And promise me, never leave me."

412
00:32:19,128 --> 00:32:24,089
I promise you, baby, I won't.
Not even for two weeks.

413
00:32:24,267 --> 00:32:27,827
Not for one, kid.
"I'm a hot lady, Evans."

414
00:32:27,971 --> 00:32:30,463
I hugged her, I kissed her.

415
00:32:30,608 --> 00:32:34,008
Never change, baby. Never change.

416
00:32:34,145 --> 00:32:37,740
"And never let anything get between us,
Evans. Promise?"

417
00:32:37,881 --> 00:32:39,816
Promise.

418
00:33:04,075 --> 00:33:06,270
I forgot my key.

419
00:33:08,012 --> 00:33:11,005
Jenny, I'm sorry.

420
00:33:11,916 --> 00:33:13,314
Don't.

421
00:33:14,253 --> 00:33:17,587
Love means never having
to say you're sorry.

422
00:33:24,861 --> 00:33:28,195
"Cut!" says Hiller.
"That's it. We've got it."

423
00:33:28,534 --> 00:33:31,901
You did a good job, Ali.
You had me in tears.

424
00:33:32,037 --> 00:33:35,938
She runs over to me,
smothers me with kisses.

425
00:33:36,074 --> 00:33:40,134
"Evans, did you really like it?
The tears, they were for you."

426
00:33:40,279 --> 00:33:44,113
My eyes start to swell.
I actually start crying.

427
00:33:44,249 --> 00:33:48,844
Crying about happiness, and feeling that
I'm the luckiest guy in the whole world.

428
00:33:49,020 --> 00:33:50,990
Camelot was ours.

429
00:33:51,158 --> 00:33:54,023
Well, at least I thought it was.

430
00:33:56,127 --> 00:34:01,726
"Evans, there's a big problem. The board
of directors, they want me out of Paramount.

431
00:34:01,867 --> 00:34:05,770
They can't afford it anymore.
It's turning a cash flow into a cash drought.

432
00:34:05,904 --> 00:34:09,270
They've had it. They want me out too,
out of show business.

433
00:34:09,575 --> 00:34:12,908
Get back to what I do best.
Making money, not movies."

434
00:34:13,045 --> 00:34:17,881
Charlie was not prone to making
practical jokes, and this was no joke.

435
00:34:18,015 --> 00:34:20,781
Fuck them, Charlie.
Stall them if you can.

436
00:34:20,919 --> 00:34:24,152
With your eyes closed, you can buy
another quarter. I know you can.

437
00:34:24,289 --> 00:34:27,054
Give us one more shot at the table.
You can do it.

438
00:34:27,225 --> 00:34:28,921
"The board's already decided.

439
00:34:29,063 --> 00:34:32,053
They called an emergency meeting
a week from tomorrow.

440
00:34:32,197 --> 00:34:34,929
The studio will be closed
by the end of next week."

441
00:34:35,069 --> 00:34:39,868
Damn it. This couldn't be happening to me.
And we were just on a roll.

442
00:34:40,106 --> 00:34:41,936
Then it hit me.

443
00:34:42,073 --> 00:34:44,598
Give me a half-hour, Charlie,
with the board.

444
00:34:44,743 --> 00:34:46,804
Just one half-hour, that's all I need.

445
00:34:46,947 --> 00:34:51,714
"Evans, the one person they don't
wanna see is you. Are you crazy, Evans?"

446
00:34:51,883 --> 00:34:54,112
Yeah. But crazy good, Charlie.

447
00:34:54,252 --> 00:34:57,187
<i>I've got one ace in my hand:
Love Story.</i>

448
00:34:57,324 --> 00:34:59,986
And I'm gonna build a hand around it.

449
00:35:00,426 --> 00:35:04,920
"All right, Evans. You got a half-hour.
That's all, just a half-hour.

450
00:35:05,063 --> 00:35:07,625
Be in New York next Monday
at the board meeting.

451
00:35:07,768 --> 00:35:10,396
And buy a one-way ticket,
and don't be late."

452
00:35:10,770 --> 00:35:13,204
Peter Bart asked Mike Nichols
for an afternoon...

453
00:35:13,372 --> 00:35:17,070
...to film a reel for his boss
to deliver to the board of directors...

454
00:35:17,243 --> 00:35:18,835
...of Gulf and Western.

455
00:35:19,946 --> 00:35:23,882
Mike directed me in, I'm sure,
the best performance of my life.

456
00:35:24,451 --> 00:35:28,650
Where were you, Mike, when I needed
you 10 years ago, when I was an actor?

457
00:35:31,026 --> 00:35:34,051
That Sunday at 6 p.m.,
I caught the redeye into New York.

458
00:35:34,227 --> 00:35:37,458
No luggage, but a can
of film under my arm.

459
00:35:37,765 --> 00:35:40,757
This was our one and only chance.

460
00:35:40,900 --> 00:35:46,305
If the film didn't play, the board would
shut down the studio, effective immediately.

461
00:35:47,074 --> 00:35:49,702
As I walked into the Gulf
and Western building...

462
00:35:49,842 --> 00:35:52,334
...Bluhdorn handed me
my walking papers.

463
00:35:52,881 --> 00:35:55,279
"Well, Evans, at least we tried."

464
00:35:55,447 --> 00:35:57,418
I pushed him away.

465
00:35:57,717 --> 00:36:00,743
Hold these for another 20 minutes,
will you, Charlie?

466
00:36:02,956 --> 00:36:06,915
I walked into the boardroom,
a 100-to-1 shot.

467
00:36:07,095 --> 00:36:11,155
Before me sat 16
of America's finest non-smilers.

468
00:36:11,299 --> 00:36:14,895
Gentlemen, I apologize
for not being better dressed.

469
00:36:15,070 --> 00:36:17,503
When you've got
a one-way ticket and no hotel...

470
00:36:17,806 --> 00:36:20,864
...it ain't that easy to keep
up with the style of the room.

471
00:36:21,008 --> 00:36:25,038
No laugh. Not a crack.
Not even a white of a tooth in sight.

472
00:36:26,815 --> 00:36:29,078
Quickly, I stepped out of the room...

473
00:36:29,217 --> 00:36:32,014
...and handed the projectionist
Paramount's future.

474
00:36:34,119 --> 00:36:37,320
Good afternoon.
My name is Robert Evans...

475
00:36:37,492 --> 00:36:41,019
...and I'm senior vice president
of Paramount Pictures.

476
00:36:41,162 --> 00:36:45,121
By the way,
this is not my office.

477
00:36:45,300 --> 00:36:47,461
We tried to shoot this scene
in my office.

478
00:36:47,803 --> 00:36:52,171
We brought the cameras up, but my
office is too small to get the cameras in.

479
00:36:52,341 --> 00:36:56,141
<i>I came down to the studio to borrow
a set from The Young Lawyers...</i>

480
00:36:56,278 --> 00:36:58,005
...and that's where we are now.

481
00:36:58,180 --> 00:37:02,445
As a matter of fact, I don't even
have offices at the studio anymore.

482
00:37:02,750 --> 00:37:07,348
Last year, we packed up our gear,
cut down our staff...

483
00:37:07,490 --> 00:37:12,018
...tightened our belts, moved into small
quarters at little offices in Beverly Hills.

484
00:37:12,160 --> 00:37:13,753
They're good enough for us.

485
00:37:13,994 --> 00:37:17,932
These past few years
have been rough for Hollywood.

486
00:37:18,067 --> 00:37:20,193
We've made a lot of mistakes.

487
00:37:20,802 --> 00:37:24,933
Some people have learned from them
and some people haven't. We have.

488
00:37:25,274 --> 00:37:28,139
Money we spend is not gonna
be through extravagances.

489
00:37:28,310 --> 00:37:30,039
It's gonna be on the screen.

490
00:37:30,179 --> 00:37:34,276
And speaking of the screen, I think
maybe that's the reason we're here today.

491
00:37:34,416 --> 00:37:39,946
I'd like to have the opportunity of showing
you some of our product for 1971.

492
00:37:41,556 --> 00:37:44,857
Right now, we're approaching Christmas.

493
00:37:45,027 --> 00:37:49,521
<i>And Paramount's Christmas gift
to the world is Love Story.</i>

494
00:37:49,865 --> 00:37:52,834
<i>I think Love Story is gonna start
a new trend in movies.</i>

495
00:37:53,236 --> 00:37:56,534
A trend towards the romantic,
towards love...

496
00:37:56,940 --> 00:37:58,566
...towards people.

497
00:37:59,110 --> 00:38:04,377
Towards telling a story about how
it feels, rather than where it's at.

498
00:38:05,281 --> 00:38:10,879
<i>I think Love Story is going to bring the
people back into the theater in droves.</i>

499
00:38:13,924 --> 00:38:15,551
I could go on for an hour...

500
00:38:15,891 --> 00:38:19,054
...and tell you about 20 or 30 projects
in various stages...

501
00:38:19,229 --> 00:38:21,822
...and bore you with it, so I won't.

502
00:38:21,998 --> 00:38:25,162
<i>But I wanna bring up one project.
And that's The Godfather.</i>

503
00:38:25,302 --> 00:38:30,171
I bring it up for several reasons.
One, that it's starting production next month.

504
00:38:30,307 --> 00:38:33,902
Two, that it's gonna be
our next Christmas' picture.

505
00:38:34,043 --> 00:38:39,482
<i>And three, to bring up the similarity
between The Godfather and Love Story...</i>

506
00:38:39,617 --> 00:38:43,551
...which are the two biggest books
of the last decade.

507
00:38:43,887 --> 00:38:45,446
Paramount owns them both.

508
00:38:45,589 --> 00:38:48,558
But Paramount has more than
just owning them both.

509
00:38:48,893 --> 00:38:52,020
We didn't sit back in our plush
chairs and write a check...

510
00:38:52,195 --> 00:38:56,930
...for a million dollars for the books,
which happens so often in our industry.

511
00:38:57,068 --> 00:38:58,934
We developed both of these books.

512
00:38:59,071 --> 00:39:03,029
<i>If it weren't for Paramount,
Love Story would never have been written...</i>

513
00:39:03,174 --> 00:39:05,971
<i>...The Godfather would
never have been written.</i>

514
00:39:06,110 --> 00:39:09,273
We were in there in the beginning,
spurring the writers on...

515
00:39:09,414 --> 00:39:13,405
...working closely with them to make
these books the bestsellers they are...

516
00:39:13,584 --> 00:39:16,074
...and the great movies
they're going to be.

517
00:39:16,219 --> 00:39:21,954
We at Paramount don't look at ourselves
as passive backers of film.

518
00:39:22,093 --> 00:39:25,221
We look at ourselves as
a creative force unto ourself.

519
00:39:25,395 --> 00:39:30,926
And that is why Paramount is going to be
paramount in the industry in the '70s.

520
00:39:31,069 --> 00:39:33,194
I promise you that.

521
00:39:34,539 --> 00:39:37,369
Ten minutes later, Bluhdorn walked in.

522
00:39:37,508 --> 00:39:43,640
"Well, I'm fired, huh?
You're a bigger fraud than I thought.

523
00:39:43,947 --> 00:39:48,248
You're some showman, Evans.
You really pulled the wool over their eyes."

524
00:39:48,420 --> 00:39:51,583
No kiss on the lips, but a Bluhdorn hug.

525
00:39:51,723 --> 00:39:56,387
And that's more than an engagement ring.
It was the gold band itself.

526
00:39:56,561 --> 00:40:00,657
Then in typical Bluhdorn fashion,
"Go back to work. We need pictures.

527
00:40:00,965 --> 00:40:03,593
And you need plenty of mazel."

528
00:40:13,545 --> 00:40:16,105
On December 16, 1970...

529
00:40:16,248 --> 00:40:20,582
<i>...Love Story had its world premiere
at the Loews State Theater in New York.</i>

530
00:40:21,187 --> 00:40:23,246
The lights went down.

531
00:40:23,487 --> 00:40:26,946
Francis Lai's haunting
piano strings started up.

532
00:40:27,093 --> 00:40:32,429
Ryan O'Neal, alone and bereft in a snowy
Central Park, said in a voiceover:

533
00:40:32,564 --> 00:40:36,226
<i>What can you say about
a 25-year-old girl who died?</i>

534
00:40:36,436 --> 00:40:40,600
<i>Love Story didn't open. It exploded.</i>

535
00:40:40,973 --> 00:40:44,773
All over the world, boys and girls would walk
out of that theater in love for the night.

536
00:40:45,109 --> 00:40:46,773
Why did it do such business?

537
00:40:47,081 --> 00:40:49,206
A guy would take
a different girl every night.

538
00:40:49,349 --> 00:40:53,377
<i>I think there were more pregnancies
over Love Story than any film ever made.</i>

539
00:40:55,988 --> 00:41:01,086
People went back to see it three, four,
five, six times. It was an aphrodisiac.

540
00:41:01,227 --> 00:41:05,789
It even got raves from the critics.
This, I couldn't believe.

541
00:41:06,299 --> 00:41:10,668
<i>Time magazine said it started a new
Hollywood, and Ali ended up on its cover.</i>

542
00:41:17,109 --> 00:41:20,012
Me? I felt like Casanova.

543
00:41:20,181 --> 00:41:23,149
The most extraordinary lady
in the world on my arm.

544
00:41:23,316 --> 00:41:26,183
And in her belly, a little Evans-to-be.

545
00:41:26,351 --> 00:41:28,582
Hey, Ali. What's new?

546
00:41:32,558 --> 00:41:34,685
You can say that on television now.

547
00:41:34,827 --> 00:41:37,820
- Go ahead.
- Okay. Well, I'm gonna have a baby.

548
00:41:38,632 --> 00:41:40,224
Isn't that great?

549
00:41:42,069 --> 00:41:44,434
That's beautiful. Are you excited?

550
00:41:44,571 --> 00:41:46,628
- Sure. It's fabulous.
- I know...

551
00:41:46,839 --> 00:41:49,707
<i>We'll talk about your
expecting today on Dinah's Place.</i>

552
00:41:50,343 --> 00:41:53,610
I'd have to say no two people
in the entire world...

553
00:41:53,748 --> 00:41:56,306
...were happier than Ali and myself.

554
00:41:56,449 --> 00:42:00,250
We had to pinch ourselves each day
to believe all this was happening to us.

555
00:42:00,387 --> 00:42:03,153
We had our Joshua,
we had ourselves.

556
00:42:03,323 --> 00:42:08,316
Ali and Jackie Kennedy were considered the
two most admired women in America.

557
00:42:08,495 --> 00:42:11,487
And me?
I'm sure the luckiest motherfucker.

558
00:42:22,309 --> 00:42:26,643
For the first time since I became head
of the studio, I finally had some job security.

559
00:42:26,781 --> 00:42:29,248
Now it's garbage.

560
00:42:29,549 --> 00:42:33,111
<i>We had put together a string of hits,
including Rosemary's Baby...</i>

561
00:42:33,253 --> 00:42:38,520
<i>...Harold and Maude, The Odd Couple,
True Grit and Love Story.</i>

562
00:42:38,659 --> 00:42:41,094
In 1970, we finally
reached the mountaintop.

563
00:42:43,163 --> 00:42:45,358
That air smelled
mighty good up there.

564
00:42:45,499 --> 00:42:48,697
Of all the major studios,
Paramount was now in first place.

565
00:42:48,837 --> 00:42:52,501
It's hard to believe that, just four
years earlier, we were in ninth.

566
00:42:52,673 --> 00:42:54,699
It was the beginning of the Golden Era.

567
00:42:57,812 --> 00:43:02,113
Over the next four years,
we would collect 144 Oscar nominations...

568
00:43:02,251 --> 00:43:07,813
...stay number one, and go through a streak
of hits that, to this day, is unprecedented.

569
00:43:14,395 --> 00:43:17,522
If I had to pick our crowning jewel...

570
00:43:17,700 --> 00:43:23,696
<i>...I'd say it was a 30-page treatment to
a novel called Mafia, written by Mario Puzo.</i>

571
00:43:23,839 --> 00:43:28,172
<i>In turning treatment into novel, Mario asked
if he could change the name to Godfather.</i>

572
00:43:28,308 --> 00:43:31,279
"Sure, why not?"
I never thought he would finish it anyway.

573
00:43:33,182 --> 00:43:36,344
Well, he finished it.
It became the biggest book of the decade.

574
00:43:36,486 --> 00:43:41,184
And there I was, holding the Hope diamond.
Euphoria? Wrong.

575
00:43:41,324 --> 00:43:45,816
Paramount didn't wanna make the film.
"Sicilian mobster films don't play."

576
00:43:45,961 --> 00:43:48,519
That's what these
distribution guys had to say.

577
00:43:48,696 --> 00:43:51,792
And when you bat zero,
don't make another sucker bet.

578
00:43:51,935 --> 00:43:55,232
I called up Peter Bart
at the studio late that night.

579
00:43:55,371 --> 00:43:59,774
What the fuck do we do?
Peter shook his head, laughed.

580
00:43:59,942 --> 00:44:02,342
"Evans, we got a problem."

581
00:44:02,478 --> 00:44:06,244
No, we don't.
We've gotta find a solution, Peter.

582
00:44:06,383 --> 00:44:09,579
It must have been after 2
in the morning, and we found it.

583
00:44:09,718 --> 00:44:13,814
Outside of red ink, every one of the
films shared another thing in common.

584
00:44:13,958 --> 00:44:18,257
They were written, directed
and produced and usually starred...

585
00:44:18,395 --> 00:44:21,362
...Jews, not Sicilians.

586
00:44:21,497 --> 00:44:24,524
There's a thin line, Peter,
between a Jew and a Sicilian.

587
00:44:24,668 --> 00:44:28,536
We're gonna make a picture that's
gonna be Sicilian to the core.

588
00:44:28,672 --> 00:44:30,970
You're gonna smell the spaghetti.

589
00:44:31,307 --> 00:44:32,934
There was one problem.

590
00:44:33,276 --> 00:44:36,608
It's hard to believe, but in 1969...

591
00:44:36,746 --> 00:44:42,012
...there wasn't a single Italian-American
director, that's with any credibility.

592
00:44:42,318 --> 00:44:44,946
Bart looks at me and he says,
"What about Coppola?"

593
00:44:45,254 --> 00:44:47,986
Are you nuts?
One thing for sure is, he is.

594
00:44:48,292 --> 00:44:52,227
Bart snaps right back at me,
"Brilliant, though."

595
00:44:52,360 --> 00:44:55,592
Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's your
esoteric bullshit coming out.

596
00:44:55,732 --> 00:44:58,725
Let's face it, Bart.
This genius has made three pictures:

597
00:44:58,870 --> 00:45:03,703
<i>You're a Big Boy Now, some artsy-fartsy
kind of picture, did no business.</i>

598
00:45:03,840 --> 00:45:08,505
<i>Finian's Rainbow, which was a top Broadway
musical. He made it into a disaster.</i>

599
00:45:08,647 --> 00:45:11,843
<i>And now he's got The Rain People out there,
which everyone's rained on.</i>

600
00:45:11,984 --> 00:45:14,507
There's gotta be someone else, come on.

601
00:45:14,652 --> 00:45:17,814
There wasn't.
But then there was another problem.

602
00:45:17,987 --> 00:45:20,047
Coppola didn't wanna do it.

603
00:45:20,491 --> 00:45:23,460
This guy couldn't get
a cartoon made in town.

604
00:45:23,593 --> 00:45:25,586
<i>Yet he didn't wanna make The Godfather.</i>

605
00:45:25,731 --> 00:45:28,962
I gotta give the guy credit.
His convictions were strong.

606
00:45:29,299 --> 00:45:32,964
He didn't want to immortalize the families
that blackened his Italian heritage.

607
00:45:33,272 --> 00:45:38,605
After three long days of discussion with
this guy, Peter's on the horn.

608
00:45:38,742 --> 00:45:41,611
"Coppola will make the picture.
On one condition.

609
00:45:41,746 --> 00:45:44,648
That it's not a film
about organized gangsters."

610
00:45:44,783 --> 00:45:48,650
It's not about organized gangsters?
It ain't a musical, Peter.

611
00:45:48,785 --> 00:45:50,721
I told you the guy's nuts.

612
00:45:50,855 --> 00:45:52,949
"He has an idea, Evans.
It's not bad.

613
00:45:53,291 --> 00:45:57,422
He wants to make it as a family chronicle,
a metaphor for capitalism in America."

614
00:45:57,561 --> 00:46:01,826
Fuck him and the horse he rode in on!
He is nuts. Now get him out of here.

615
00:46:01,966 --> 00:46:04,959
"Bob, I will if you want me to,
but take 10 steps first.

616
00:46:05,103 --> 00:46:07,400
Let's not forget, he's Italian."

617
00:46:07,539 --> 00:46:10,597
I had less than 48 hours
to make the decision.

618
00:46:10,740 --> 00:46:13,643
Sell it, or shake hands with the devil.

619
00:46:13,879 --> 00:46:17,713
<i>Coppola was announced
as The Godfather's maestro.</i>

620
00:46:19,718 --> 00:46:22,414
<i>The shooting of The Godfather
should take several months.</i>

621
00:46:22,655 --> 00:46:27,317
And the picture's scheduled for release
sometime around Christmas, 1971.

622
00:46:27,492 --> 00:46:32,724
So if in the next few months, you see some
old cars dashing around or about New York...

623
00:46:32,864 --> 00:46:35,765
...or see a gentleman taking
another gentleman somewhere...

624
00:46:35,901 --> 00:46:39,769
...at the point of a loaded gun,
don't raise a hue and cry...

625
00:46:39,905 --> 00:46:42,373
<i>...because it's only the filming
of The Godfather.</i>

626
00:46:42,507 --> 00:46:45,704
But then, New Yorkers don't raise
a hue and cry...

627
00:46:45,876 --> 00:46:48,504
...about that sort of thing anyway, do they?

628
00:46:48,682 --> 00:46:51,012
This is Gene Huebert,
Fifth Avenue and 31 st Street.

629
00:46:53,086 --> 00:46:56,076
<i>It was the unveiling
of Francis' cut of The Godfather.</i>

630
00:46:56,388 --> 00:47:00,825
In the theater sat Francis with his quadrille
of assistants, editors and ass-kissers.

631
00:47:00,960 --> 00:47:03,861
Plus the rest of his production
team were all there.

632
00:47:04,031 --> 00:47:08,866
The film was to open in four months.
Paramount's big Christmas gift to the world.

633
00:47:09,035 --> 00:47:12,027
The lights went down,
the picture started.

634
00:47:12,372 --> 00:47:16,831
Two hours and six minutes later,
the room began to fill with light.

635
00:47:17,676 --> 00:47:20,407
Francis, I want to speak with you. Alone.

636
00:47:20,547 --> 00:47:22,037
I was on fire.

637
00:47:22,383 --> 00:47:26,147
And the prince himself
took a half-hour to get to my office.

638
00:47:29,055 --> 00:47:31,024
Thanks for showing, Francis.

639
00:47:31,190 --> 00:47:34,455
"All my boys were telling
me how great the picture is.

640
00:47:34,595 --> 00:47:36,530
They tell me not to touch a frame."

641
00:47:36,664 --> 00:47:38,927
The picture stinks, Francis.
Got it?

642
00:47:39,065 --> 00:47:43,195
You shot a great film. Where the fuck is it?
In your kitchen with your spaghetti?

643
00:47:43,537 --> 00:47:46,903
It sure ain't on the screen.
Where's the family, the heart, the feeling?

644
00:47:47,073 --> 00:47:48,872
Is that left in the kitchen too?

645
00:47:49,008 --> 00:47:50,737
Did Coppola glare.

646
00:47:50,911 --> 00:47:55,712
Schmuck. Name me a studio head that tells
a director to make a picture longer.

647
00:47:55,849 --> 00:47:59,012
Only a nut like me would.
But you're gonna do it.

648
00:47:59,152 --> 00:48:03,180
You shot a saga, pal,
but you turned in a trailer.

649
00:48:03,491 --> 00:48:06,425
Now go back and give me a movie.

650
00:48:07,594 --> 00:48:09,994
The next morning
I told the New York honchos...

651
00:48:10,130 --> 00:48:12,725
...that the picture couldn't
be ready for Christmas.

652
00:48:12,900 --> 00:48:16,029
I didn't need a phone
to hear their screams.

653
00:48:16,204 --> 00:48:18,968
Coppola?
Of course he agreed with them.

654
00:48:19,107 --> 00:48:21,904
"You've got it for Christmas.
Don't worry. Evans is crazy.

655
00:48:22,041 --> 00:48:27,503
He wants to change everything.
Hear this: He wants me to make it longer."

656
00:48:27,981 --> 00:48:31,145
Then I get my orders, and unalterable.

657
00:48:31,453 --> 00:48:36,187
"Evans, the picture is to be ready
for Christmas, and that is it."

658
00:48:36,492 --> 00:48:38,186
Fine. I quit.

659
00:48:38,492 --> 00:48:41,518
A year before, they would've
booted me out on my ass.

660
00:48:41,662 --> 00:48:46,794
<i>Yeah, but Love Story saved Paramount.
And I was their fair-haired boy.</i>

661
00:48:46,935 --> 00:48:51,894
When you've only got one shot, either you
pull down that beautiful brass ring...

662
00:48:52,039 --> 00:48:57,241
...or you get them brass knuckles
in the balls. You got no second time around.

663
00:48:57,545 --> 00:49:00,514
To Francis
and the entire company's chagrin...

664
00:49:00,649 --> 00:49:04,209
...Bluhdorn backed me,
and backed me all the way.

665
00:49:04,686 --> 00:49:09,487
<i>Once again, the eastern seaboard is reminded
that winter is never over until Jack Frost...</i>

666
00:49:09,656 --> 00:49:13,820
<i>... gets a hotfoot that will send him
scurrying on his way. The winter-weary...</i>

667
00:49:13,962 --> 00:49:16,260
<i>It was the morning
of The Godfather premiere.</i>

668
00:49:16,598 --> 00:49:20,660
Outside, New York was suffering through
the worst March blizzard of the decade.

669
00:49:20,804 --> 00:49:24,239
I was parked at the Carlyle Hotel,
making last-minute preparations...

670
00:49:24,573 --> 00:49:26,837
...when Ali came in from the cold.

671
00:49:27,209 --> 00:49:29,801
Against her wishes,
I'd packed her off to Texas...

672
00:49:29,980 --> 00:49:32,243
<i>...to star with Steve McQueen
in The Getaway.</i>

673
00:49:32,548 --> 00:49:37,009
Two months had passed, and I hadn't
once bothered to visit her on location.

674
00:49:37,719 --> 00:49:39,710
Quickly, we embraced.

675
00:49:39,854 --> 00:49:44,258
Instead of kissing her, I whispered, wait here.
I'm expecting a call.

676
00:49:45,261 --> 00:49:48,627
Weeks ago, I had invited
Henry Kissinger to the premiere.

677
00:49:48,796 --> 00:49:50,525
My timing couldn't have been worse.

678
00:49:50,665 --> 00:49:54,762
The North Vietnamese offensive had just
begun and, naturally, he begged off.

679
00:49:54,969 --> 00:49:58,064
Hello, this is Robert Evans.
May I please speak to Dr. Kissinger?

680
00:49:58,206 --> 00:50:01,734
"No. Dr. Kissinger's with the president.
He'll have to call you back."

681
00:50:01,876 --> 00:50:04,937
Have him call me as soon as possible.
Please, it's urgent.

682
00:50:05,114 --> 00:50:08,014
Quicker than a junior agent
at the William Morris Agency...

683
00:50:08,149 --> 00:50:10,050
...within 10 minutes,
Kissinger's on the phone.

684
00:50:10,183 --> 00:50:13,849
<i>"Bob, Bob, what's the urgency?"
The Godfather.</i>

685
00:50:13,990 --> 00:50:15,582
"What?"

686
00:50:15,725 --> 00:50:20,160
Tonight's the premiere. Win or lose, it would
be worth it if I could walk in with you.

687
00:50:20,329 --> 00:50:24,596
"I have a 7:30 breakfast I can't get out of,
Bob. I'm leaving the country tomorrow."

688
00:50:24,735 --> 00:50:28,262
Henry, you didn't hear me.
I said I need you tonight.

689
00:50:28,572 --> 00:50:32,770
Only later did I learn that his leaving the
country was a secret mission to Moscow.

690
00:50:32,909 --> 00:50:35,743
And the breakfast was
with the Joint Chiefs of Staff...

691
00:50:35,880 --> 00:50:38,744
...to resolve the mining of Haiphong Harbor.

692
00:50:38,881 --> 00:50:42,614
I hung up, quickly called Bluhdorn.
Charlie, Kissinger's coming.

693
00:50:42,753 --> 00:50:46,152
"Kissinger? Kissinger?
Evans, I love you. I love you!"

694
00:50:46,322 --> 00:50:50,192
That was Charlie Bluhdorn.
Not easy. But not bad, either.

695
00:51:04,007 --> 00:51:05,407
The doors opened.

696
00:51:05,709 --> 00:51:09,373
Enough flashbulbs went off to light
up the entire state of New Jersey.

697
00:51:09,714 --> 00:51:12,409
On one arm, Ali MacGraw,
the ravishing Mrs. Evans.

698
00:51:12,718 --> 00:51:16,016
On the other, the most charismatic
statesman in the world.

699
00:51:16,153 --> 00:51:18,676
Is this really happening to me?

700
00:51:44,249 --> 00:51:46,443
It was a blast.

701
00:51:47,151 --> 00:51:50,678
I played master of ceremonies,
introducing anyone and everyone.

702
00:51:50,855 --> 00:51:52,823
The screaming, the fights, the threats...

703
00:51:52,992 --> 00:51:56,084
...that never let up since day one
of filming, were worth it.

704
00:51:56,395 --> 00:51:59,830
Even Coppola, whom I had hired
over Paramount's objections...

705
00:51:59,964 --> 00:52:04,163
...and then personally fired, four
different times, came over to hug me...

706
00:52:04,301 --> 00:52:07,930
...closing the book
on two years of terrible battles.

707
00:52:10,206 --> 00:52:13,905
Ali?
Well, she never looked more radiant.

708
00:52:14,081 --> 00:52:16,843
For the rest of the night,
we danced as one.

709
00:52:16,982 --> 00:52:21,476
Holding her tightly in my arms,
I felt I was the luckiest man in the world.

710
00:52:21,787 --> 00:52:24,755
Could be the highest moment of my life.

711
00:52:24,923 --> 00:52:26,915
Was I dreaming it?

712
00:52:27,993 --> 00:52:31,928
Any man who thinks he can
read the mind of a woman...

713
00:52:32,097 --> 00:52:34,066
...is a man who knows nothing.

714
00:52:37,102 --> 00:52:41,904
<i>A month later, I was in Paris working
on the translation of The Godfather...</i>

715
00:52:42,073 --> 00:52:45,909
...into French, Italian,
German and Spanish.

716
00:52:47,246 --> 00:52:51,443
<i>I called up Ali on the set of The Getaway,
but there was no answer in her room.</i>

717
00:52:51,784 --> 00:52:54,411
Jumping up in a cold sweat
from a bad dream...

718
00:52:54,753 --> 00:52:57,847
...I called El Paso again.
No Ali.

719
00:52:57,989 --> 00:53:01,083
Nah, I said to myself, it couldn't be.

720
00:53:02,394 --> 00:53:05,295
Later that afternoon, I connected.

721
00:53:05,431 --> 00:53:08,422
Where the hell have you been, baby?

722
00:53:08,735 --> 00:53:11,967
"I fell asleep in my dressing room."

723
00:53:12,371 --> 00:53:14,736
You're lying, Ali.

724
00:53:16,309 --> 00:53:18,776
You're with McQueen, aren't you?

725
00:53:19,913 --> 00:53:21,141
"That's right."

726
00:53:21,279 --> 00:53:25,376
Well, expect me in El Paso tomorrow.
"It's too late, Evans.

727
00:53:25,517 --> 00:53:28,851
You missed the plane a long time ago."

728
00:53:29,354 --> 00:53:31,950
I flew out that night to Texas.

729
00:53:32,126 --> 00:53:38,064
Joshua and his nanny were
at the airport to greet me, but no Ali.

730
00:53:38,966 --> 00:53:42,334
I checked into a hotel 20 miles out of town.

731
00:53:42,468 --> 00:53:46,268
Holding back my tears,
I played with my son for the next hours.

732
00:53:46,406 --> 00:53:48,395
Ali arrived at 9 that evening.

733
00:53:48,540 --> 00:53:53,570
The last thing she wanted was
to spend the night with me. But she did.

734
00:53:53,882 --> 00:53:56,940
The next evening,
she didn't return to my border hideout.

735
00:53:57,116 --> 00:54:01,485
I sped into town, ran up the stairs
to Ali's hotel and banged on the door.

736
00:54:01,821 --> 00:54:05,155
"I need time to think.
Please, let me finish the picture...

737
00:54:05,325 --> 00:54:07,418
...and get home, for Josh's sake."

738
00:54:08,828 --> 00:54:11,263
On the plane back to L.A.,
I checked my watch.

739
00:54:11,430 --> 00:54:14,333
How could I have been
so fucking dumb?

740
00:54:14,502 --> 00:54:18,062
It's an hour-and-40-minute flight.
I never once took it...

741
00:54:18,205 --> 00:54:21,606
...until infidelity got me off my ass.

742
00:54:27,081 --> 00:54:31,107
Ali and McQueen had been
having an affair for months.

743
00:54:31,351 --> 00:54:33,478
Was it her fault?

744
00:54:34,153 --> 00:54:35,986
It was mine.

745
00:54:36,125 --> 00:54:40,117
I ignored her one promise,
never to leave her.

746
00:54:40,594 --> 00:54:43,358
<i>Instead, I buried myself
into The Godfather.</i>

747
00:54:45,566 --> 00:54:47,625
Ali filed for divorce.

748
00:54:48,001 --> 00:54:50,335
A few months later,
she and McQueen got hitched.

749
00:54:52,040 --> 00:54:53,870
Joshua would live with them.

750
00:54:54,007 --> 00:54:57,602
He would only know me now
as a weekend father.

751
00:54:58,881 --> 00:55:00,575
Did it haunt me?

752
00:55:00,881 --> 00:55:05,977
Well, let's just say, when a woman
leaves you, it ain't easy. It never is.

753
00:55:06,118 --> 00:55:10,022
But when that woman leaves you
for the biggest movie star in the world...

754
00:55:10,190 --> 00:55:14,356
...well, let's just say
it makes you feel small.

755
00:55:19,233 --> 00:55:25,071
Finally, I turned all my attention back
to my other great love, the mountain.

756
00:55:26,341 --> 00:55:32,177
Maybe it was my mood, but the more
I thought about it, the angrier I became.

757
00:55:32,315 --> 00:55:36,374
For the last years, I had worked
night and day for Paramount.

758
00:55:37,017 --> 00:55:40,475
Bluhdorn's golden boy now
wanted some gold of his own.

759
00:55:40,622 --> 00:55:44,320
While I was living rich,
everyone around me was getting rich.

760
00:55:44,459 --> 00:55:48,487
He's right. You give them an inch,
and they step all over you.

761
00:55:48,997 --> 00:55:51,967
My contract's up, but I'd
been throwing sevens too long.

762
00:55:52,100 --> 00:55:55,502
And here I am.
I'm still behind the eight ball.

763
00:55:56,138 --> 00:55:59,903
I called on my consigliere
and closest friend, Sidney Korshak...

764
00:56:00,042 --> 00:56:02,534
...one of the most feared lawyers
in the country.

765
00:56:03,044 --> 00:56:07,504
"I'll take care of it and quick,"
said Korshak. "You're gonna get gross.

766
00:56:07,684 --> 00:56:10,674
I don't care if it's just
one percent on every film."

767
00:56:10,986 --> 00:56:14,944
Korshak may have been known as the myth,
but he was no myth to Charlie.

768
00:56:15,092 --> 00:56:18,252
His proposal was turned down
flatter than Twiggy's chest.

769
00:56:18,393 --> 00:56:21,192
Bluhdorn wasn't smart.
He was brilliant.

770
00:56:21,363 --> 00:56:26,198
He knew my weak link, ego,
and he sure pressed it...

771
00:56:26,334 --> 00:56:29,032
...knowing it far
overshadowed my greed.

772
00:56:29,171 --> 00:56:34,075
"Sidney, I want everybody to get rich,
but don't rape me. Don't rape me."

773
00:56:34,209 --> 00:56:37,941
The real love of Charlie's life was
not family, or sex, or even business.

774
00:56:38,081 --> 00:56:39,513
It was negotiating.

775
00:56:39,683 --> 00:56:43,083
Charlie would negotiate for anything,
from an airline to a potato.

776
00:56:43,253 --> 00:56:44,981
"I want Bob to make history.

777
00:56:45,120 --> 00:56:48,420
I'm gonna let him make a picture of his own
for five years, under his own banner...

778
00:56:48,591 --> 00:56:50,217
...and still run Paramount.

779
00:56:50,393 --> 00:56:53,361
The last person to have that was
Darryl Zanuck, 30 years ago.

780
00:56:53,495 --> 00:56:58,093
I want him to get rich.
I'm so proud of him, Sidney."

781
00:56:58,269 --> 00:56:59,667
Proud.

782
00:56:59,970 --> 00:57:02,303
I would stay on at Paramount
as head of the studio...

783
00:57:02,439 --> 00:57:06,101
...and I would get to produce a picture
a year for five years. But no raise.

784
00:57:21,324 --> 00:57:22,758
<i>- You produced Chinatown.
- Right.</i>

785
00:57:23,093 --> 00:57:26,552
<i>But when we talk about that movie,
we call it Roman Polanski's Chinatown.</i>

786
00:57:26,697 --> 00:57:31,134
That's a possessive credit from a Director's
Guild point of view, which is very unfair.

787
00:57:31,268 --> 00:57:34,499
<i>It is Roman Polanski's Chinatown.
It's also Bob Towne's Chinatown.</i>

788
00:57:34,637 --> 00:57:38,698
<i>But, more so, and I don't say this from an
egotistical way, it's Bob Evans' Chinatown.</i>

789
00:57:39,010 --> 00:57:43,574
I was on the picture for five years, four
years, and Roman was on it for nine months.

790
00:57:43,714 --> 00:57:46,809
<i>But it says,
"Roman Polanski's Chinatown."</i>

791
00:57:48,018 --> 00:57:53,082
My first independent production had its
origins over a steak dinner with Bob Towne.

792
00:57:53,257 --> 00:57:56,226
Towne unraveled
an original story he was writing.

793
00:57:56,360 --> 00:57:59,421
"It's about how Los Angeles
became a boomtown, Evans.

794
00:57:59,563 --> 00:58:02,623
Incest and water.
It's set in the '30s.

795
00:58:02,800 --> 00:58:07,328
Second-rate shamus gets eighty-sixed
by a mysterious socialite.

796
00:58:07,839 --> 00:58:09,567
I'm writing it for Nicholson."

797
00:58:10,107 --> 00:58:14,065
I had met Nicholson a few years back
and we'd become great pals.

798
00:58:14,246 --> 00:58:17,476
Sounds perfect for Irish.
What's it called?

799
00:58:17,648 --> 00:58:21,380
<i>"Chinatown."
Chinatown?</i>

800
00:58:21,520 --> 00:58:24,488
You mean it takes place in Chinatown?

801
00:58:24,654 --> 00:58:28,751
"No, no, no. Chinatown
is a state of mind."

802
00:58:29,060 --> 00:58:30,553
Oh, I got it.

803
00:58:32,397 --> 00:58:35,855
I had no idea what the
fuck he was talking about.

804
00:58:37,236 --> 00:58:41,262
Six months later, Towne delivered
his first draft of the script.

805
00:58:41,440 --> 00:58:45,673
Just like the title, it was pure Chinese.

806
00:58:46,277 --> 00:58:49,112
Was I alone in my confusion?

807
00:58:49,248 --> 00:58:53,775
Nobody, I mean nobody, understood it.

808
00:58:55,688 --> 00:59:00,147
One day, I was summoned
to a meeting with Charles Bluhdorn.

809
00:59:00,526 --> 00:59:05,122
"Evans, don't make
this your first picture.

810
00:59:05,297 --> 00:59:08,391
No one at the studio
understands a word of it.

811
00:59:08,533 --> 00:59:11,867
The only place it'll play
is in your projection room."

812
00:59:12,604 --> 00:59:16,133
I'm thinking, thinking, thinking...

813
00:59:16,541 --> 00:59:18,806
I knew I had Nicholson locked.

814
00:59:19,112 --> 00:59:23,446
And even though I didn't understand the
script, I knew Towne was a brilliant writer.

815
00:59:23,583 --> 00:59:28,713
<i>Sorry, Charlie, Chinatown is my next picture.
I'm gonna make it.</i>

816
00:59:35,728 --> 00:59:37,161
Well.

817
00:59:37,295 --> 00:59:41,732
<i>Tonight we are honoring for best motion
picture drama, Chinatown...</i>

818
00:59:41,868 --> 00:59:47,671
<i>...The Conversation, Earthquake,
The Godfather: Part II...</i>

819
00:59:47,808 --> 00:59:52,243
<i>...A Woman Under the Influence.
And the winner is...</i>

820
00:59:52,846 --> 00:59:54,836
And the winner is...

821
00:59:55,515 --> 00:59:57,381
<i>...Chinatown.</i>

822
01:00:00,721 --> 01:00:02,687
<i>Robert Evans of Paramount Pictures...</i>

823
01:00:02,822 --> 01:00:06,657
<i>... will accept
the Golden Globe Award for Chinatown.</i>

824
01:00:07,561 --> 01:00:08,721
<i>Chinatown.</i>

825
01:00:08,896 --> 01:00:12,161
It wins every award
you could ever think of.

826
01:00:12,299 --> 01:00:17,668
To this day, I believe it's considered the
quintessential private-eye film of its time.

827
01:00:17,805 --> 01:00:23,208
It's a hell of a way to meet Catherine
Deneuve, I'll tell you that. It certainly is.

828
01:00:23,343 --> 01:00:27,210
This is the second award,
and I'm only a small part of it...

829
01:00:27,347 --> 01:00:29,941
...that I've won in my life.

830
01:00:30,752 --> 01:00:34,209
The first one was for the Most
Promising Newcomer of the Year.

831
01:00:34,386 --> 01:00:38,723
It was the Photoplay Award, 1957.
And were they wrong.

832
01:00:39,992 --> 01:00:42,484
The attention the picture
got caused an uproar...

833
01:00:42,630 --> 01:00:45,654
...with every creative bit
of talent in the studio.

834
01:00:45,800 --> 01:00:50,498
"How can Evans run the studio, be involved
with our pictures and make his own?"

835
01:00:50,637 --> 01:00:52,538
They were all fucking jealous.

836
01:00:52,673 --> 01:00:57,508
If the picture had flopped, it wouldn't
have made a difference. Confrontation time.

837
01:00:57,644 --> 01:00:59,238
I was given two choices.

838
01:00:59,414 --> 01:01:03,247
To continue running the studio,
with a much-increased deal by the way...

839
01:01:03,385 --> 01:01:06,408
...or go out with my own
banner and make films.

840
01:01:06,587 --> 01:01:11,924
It was a tough choice, but I was just tired
of working 18 hours a day...

841
01:01:12,227 --> 01:01:17,289
...eight days a week,
to make everyone else rich but myself.

842
01:01:17,432 --> 01:01:23,736
With that in mind, I said,
goodbye, studio. Hello, producer.

843
01:01:23,904 --> 01:01:25,668
And went out on my own.

844
01:02:33,476 --> 01:02:36,410
It wasn't my scene.
I rarely ever drank.

845
01:02:37,547 --> 01:02:40,777
For two years, I had been suffering
from a severe pain...

846
01:02:40,918 --> 01:02:43,476
...the result of a sciatic
nerve problem.

847
01:02:43,653 --> 01:02:46,314
Lying beside me one night
was a Hollywood princess.

848
01:02:46,489 --> 01:02:50,620
"Is it me?" she asked.
"The pain can't be that bad."

849
01:02:50,760 --> 01:02:53,024
Wearing only a necklace,
she handed it to me.

850
01:02:53,328 --> 01:02:59,462
Unscrewing the top, she whispered,
"Take a sniff, a sniff of life."

851
01:03:01,003 --> 01:03:05,407
It was my first experience
into the world of white.

852
01:03:06,809 --> 01:03:10,007
The seducer had been seduced.

853
01:03:25,897 --> 01:03:30,024
I was working 18 hours a day, seven days
a week, with no plans to slow down.

854
01:03:30,533 --> 01:03:35,402
With six pictures in development and
two in production, I felt invincible.

855
01:03:35,539 --> 01:03:40,636
<i>The first flick to hit was Marathon Man,
and it went straight through the roof.</i>

856
01:03:40,810 --> 01:03:44,770
- I salute you. To your health.
- Hear, hear!

857
01:03:45,950 --> 01:03:52,481
<i>I followed it up with Black Sunday.
Then Urban Cowboy. Popeye was on its way.</i>

858
01:03:52,622 --> 01:03:55,091
At the age of 50, I was on my way...

859
01:03:55,394 --> 01:03:58,658
...to becoming the youngest recipient
of the Thalberg Award.

860
01:03:58,796 --> 01:04:02,698
Goodbye '70s, hello '80s.
Here I come.

861
01:04:02,866 --> 01:04:05,997
It's fair to say that you live
a lot of people's dream.

862
01:04:06,405 --> 01:04:12,537
You're seen in magazines, dating models and
movie stars. Is it as good as it looks?

863
01:04:12,710 --> 01:04:17,647
I most probably lead as much
of a Ionely life as any man you know.

864
01:04:17,782 --> 01:04:21,981
I have no free time for myself. I have no way
of knowing myself as a person.

865
01:04:22,119 --> 01:04:25,088
- I don't like myself as a person.
- Bob, I keep reading...

866
01:04:25,222 --> 01:04:28,522
...I keep seeing pictures of you
with gorgeous women.

867
01:04:28,693 --> 01:04:32,790
- Are they important in your life, women?
- Yes, women are very important in my life.

868
01:04:32,930 --> 01:04:34,489
How? How important?

869
01:04:35,766 --> 01:04:39,568
I haven't had the opportunity of really
taking advantage of life at all.

870
01:04:39,738 --> 01:04:41,969
You see pictures of me
with beautiful women.

871
01:04:42,240 --> 01:04:44,641
I don't go out
with many different women.

872
01:04:44,810 --> 01:04:48,177
My life is not to be envied.
I envy many other people, not myself.

873
01:04:48,513 --> 01:04:50,777
I can go a long time
without seeing anybody.

874
01:04:50,916 --> 01:04:53,644
- Don't you get terrible headaches?
- No, no.

875
01:04:54,152 --> 01:04:56,813
Are you an obsessive record keeper?

876
01:04:56,954 --> 01:04:59,789
It's said you have albums
and pictures and things...

877
01:04:59,925 --> 01:05:04,726
I'm not as... I wish I had...
Was more obsessive about that.

878
01:05:04,896 --> 01:05:06,489
- Is that Jack Nicholson?
- It is.

879
01:05:06,630 --> 01:05:08,997
If he knew that was being shown,
he'd kill me.

880
01:05:09,134 --> 01:05:11,501
It was taken in the privacy of a room.

881
01:05:11,637 --> 01:05:14,934
I have to inject here a moment
because Bobby Evans...

882
01:05:15,107 --> 01:05:17,870
- We dated and had a great time.
- I also dated him.

883
01:05:18,008 --> 01:05:22,036
- He asked me...
- Is there anyone here who didn't date him?

884
01:05:22,214 --> 01:05:25,673
- He was very busy in the '50s.
- And he was terrific, wasn't he?

885
01:05:27,185 --> 01:05:32,783
On May 2, 1980, I got a call from
an associate of mine in New York.

886
01:05:32,925 --> 01:05:38,157
A woman we knew was offering to sell us
pharmaceutical cocaine at bargain prices.

887
01:05:38,296 --> 01:05:40,289
Pharmaceutical cocaine was mythical...

888
01:05:40,599 --> 01:05:43,797
...manufactured by only
one company in America, Merck.

889
01:05:43,936 --> 01:05:45,906
So mythical was its allure...

890
01:05:46,038 --> 01:05:50,941
...that it became the DEA's most effective
bait to entrap schmuck buyers.

891
01:05:52,010 --> 01:05:55,140
Twenty-four hours later,
my associate was on the horn.

892
01:05:55,283 --> 01:05:58,272
"What do I tell her?
She's called twice."

893
01:05:58,583 --> 01:06:03,681
Me being the gambler, and maybe the fool,
said, hell, let's buy it.

894
01:06:03,823 --> 01:06:06,758
The deal was to go down on Friday.

895
01:06:06,894 --> 01:06:11,627
I waited by the phone all day.
No call.

896
01:06:12,900 --> 01:06:17,666
At 7:45 that evening, I was going
out the door, when my houseman hailed me.

897
01:06:17,804 --> 01:06:19,794
It was my associate.

898
01:06:19,940 --> 01:06:24,536
"Bob, Mike and I have been arrested.
We've been set up by the DEA."

899
01:06:24,678 --> 01:06:26,236
What are you talking about?

900
01:06:26,547 --> 01:06:30,278
"Don't worry. Nothing's gonna go wrong.
It'll all be taken care of.

901
01:06:30,616 --> 01:06:34,644
You have nothing to worry about.
Your name was not mentioned."

902
01:06:39,826 --> 01:06:42,919
It was the biggest mistake of my life.

903
01:06:43,063 --> 01:06:46,190
How could I have been so fucking dumb?

904
01:06:54,308 --> 01:06:59,269
Was Bluhdorn angry?
Foaming at the mouth.

905
01:07:00,783 --> 01:07:03,149
"I'll never forgive you, Evans."

906
01:07:05,285 --> 01:07:07,116
He never did.

907
01:07:07,254 --> 01:07:10,746
Gone now was the
sacred embrace of Bluhdorn...

908
01:07:11,092 --> 01:07:13,788
...never to return again.

909
01:07:15,163 --> 01:07:18,187
Paramount, the company
I saved from the graveyard...

910
01:07:18,332 --> 01:07:21,963
...gave a terse statement to the press
concerning my new infamy.

911
01:07:22,103 --> 01:07:26,596
"Evans is not an employee of Paramount
and has not been an employee for years.

912
01:07:26,741 --> 01:07:30,699
He is an independent contractor,
producing pictures for us."

913
01:07:30,845 --> 01:07:35,875
May 2, 1980.
What a difference a day makes.

914
01:07:38,352 --> 01:07:44,293
Judge Brodericks' dictate was to produce
a 30-second anti-drug spot.

915
01:07:45,059 --> 01:07:47,119
Well, I did a little more than that.

916
01:07:47,664 --> 01:07:52,258
<i>I produced a series of weeklong specials
for NBC entitled Get High on Yourself.</i>

917
01:07:52,866 --> 01:07:54,665
It was a happening.

918
01:07:54,837 --> 01:07:58,898
All my friends showed, and it became known
as "The Woodstock of the '80s."

919
01:08:26,869 --> 01:08:30,269
I've never been as high
on myself as I am now.

920
01:08:30,707 --> 01:08:33,106
It must have been
a month and a half ago.

921
01:08:33,243 --> 01:08:37,373
I had a hundred people here, and my kid
was here, and I ran the commercials.

922
01:08:37,713 --> 01:08:40,012
When it was over,
he came to me and said:

923
01:08:40,150 --> 01:08:43,016
"I'm so proud of you."
First time he ever said it.

924
01:08:43,153 --> 01:08:47,850
"I'm so proud of you, Daddy.
Can I sleep in your bed tonight?"

925
01:08:47,990 --> 01:08:51,221
And if I get nothing more
out of it... Nothing...

926
01:08:51,393 --> 01:08:55,832
I've been really paid my remuneration
for whatever I've done. That's worth years.

927
01:08:55,964 --> 01:09:01,267
<i>Bob, aside from Get High on Yourself,
what are your future projects?</i>

928
01:09:01,403 --> 01:09:06,205
<i>I have The Cotton Club which I'm supposed
to start in June. A project I love.</i>

929
01:09:06,376 --> 01:09:09,105
<i>Ain't as important as
Get High on Yourself, though.</i>

930
01:09:09,244 --> 01:09:11,736
<i>Being yourself</i>

931
01:09:26,730 --> 01:09:30,427
<i>Paramount had no interest
in my next picture, The Cotton Club.</i>

932
01:09:30,766 --> 01:09:36,033
So in May of '82, I flew to the Cannes Film
Festival to secure independent financing.

933
01:09:36,172 --> 01:09:41,074
Sylvester Stallone, then the biggest star
in the world, had agreed to play the lead.

934
01:09:41,212 --> 01:09:42,975
And I was there to announce it.

935
01:09:43,114 --> 01:09:48,813
I was supposed to meet 400 distributors
on a Monday morning at 9 a.m. For breakfast.

936
01:09:48,953 --> 01:09:54,755
I get a call at 2:00 that Monday morning,
from..."Hello, Bob, this is Sly."

937
01:09:54,924 --> 01:10:01,261
And I said, yeah, Sly. He said, "You know,
Bob, I don't think I wanna do the picture."

938
01:10:01,432 --> 01:10:05,028
So I said, I don't quite understand.
I mean, we have a contract.

939
01:10:05,170 --> 01:10:11,108
"You don't understand, Bob. I don't like
the script." I said, well, you worked on it.

940
01:10:11,243 --> 01:10:15,009
I said, what is it, Sly? He said,
"I'm not getting paid enough for it."

941
01:10:15,781 --> 01:10:21,377
To make a very long story short, and a very
long conversation, rather bitter, short...

942
01:10:21,519 --> 01:10:28,014
...he backed away. Now, here I have 400
of the top buyers in the world...

943
01:10:28,293 --> 01:10:30,954
...and I have no star,
and I have a half a script.

944
01:10:31,962 --> 01:10:35,796
I said, ladies and gentlemen,
I'm going to show you a poster.

945
01:10:35,967 --> 01:10:40,404
But I wanna tell you that the film
will not be any better than the poster.

946
01:10:40,538 --> 01:10:44,565
So if you don't like the poster,
please don't buy the film.

947
01:10:44,875 --> 01:10:51,214
And I unraveled a poster, which I had
worked on for eight months with two artists.

948
01:10:51,582 --> 01:10:54,847
And I said, this is the poster.

949
01:10:54,985 --> 01:11:00,946
And I passed it around, and they all
looked at it. And it says the whole story:

950
01:11:01,092 --> 01:11:03,617
"Its violence startled the world..."

951
01:11:03,929 --> 01:11:09,127
No, "Its violence startled the nation,
and its music startled the world."

952
01:11:09,267 --> 01:11:13,136
And they all looked at the poster,
and I said, that's the picture.

953
01:11:13,271 --> 01:11:18,265
So one fellow from Switzerland says,
"Who's gonna star in the film?"

954
01:11:18,409 --> 01:11:22,312
I said, sir, I won't let you
have the picture.

955
01:11:57,917 --> 01:12:03,321
On August 28, 1983,
principal photography commenced.

956
01:12:03,489 --> 01:12:08,153
Francis offered to direct the film.
How could I refuse?

957
01:12:08,295 --> 01:12:12,321
Francis directing it, Mario writing it,
me producing it.

958
01:12:12,532 --> 01:12:15,125
What a shot of touching magic.

959
01:12:15,267 --> 01:12:18,706
<i>Hey, we didn't do too bad on
The Godfather, did we?</i>

960
01:12:20,307 --> 01:12:22,537
Was I wrong!

961
01:12:22,709 --> 01:12:28,113
The production was a disaster.
Over-budget, over-schedule. And me?

962
01:12:28,247 --> 01:12:30,648
I was barred from the set
by the prince himself.

963
01:12:30,984 --> 01:12:33,579
<i>It was the hottest movie drama
in Los Angeles today...</i>

964
01:12:33,720 --> 01:12:36,517
<i>... and it took place
in a downtown federal courtroom.</i>

965
01:12:36,655 --> 01:12:42,424
<i>The legal battle was over who would control
production of the film The Cotton Club.</i>

966
01:12:42,561 --> 01:12:48,432
<i>The Cotton Club has been a subject
of intense interest and backstairs gossip.</i>

967
01:12:48,569 --> 01:12:53,370
<i>The Cotton Club, a production
of Robert Evans and Francis Ford Coppola...</i>

968
01:12:53,506 --> 01:12:55,305
<i>... is the subject of a vicious...</i>

969
01:12:55,443 --> 01:12:58,707
<i>You say Evans would second-guess you
if he was back in command?</i>

970
01:12:59,046 --> 01:13:03,108
<i>Evans, that's his middle name.
That's what he does, all these years.</i>

971
01:13:03,250 --> 01:13:06,686
<i>- Will the picture be a success?
- Francis' work on it is brilliant.</i>

972
01:13:06,987 --> 01:13:11,687
<i>I hope we'll be working together.
We've fought before, only it wasn't in court.</i>

973
01:13:11,992 --> 01:13:14,757
<i>I hope we have the same luck
as we had on The Godfather.</i>

974
01:13:15,063 --> 01:13:17,393
<i>Despite an expected
lengthy court battle...</i>

975
01:13:17,530 --> 01:13:20,558
<i>.... the film is expected
to open in theaters in December.</i>

976
01:13:21,370 --> 01:13:24,600
<i>The Cotton Club opened later that month.</i>

977
01:13:24,739 --> 01:13:29,369
While some of the critics praised the film,
others just didn't get it.

978
01:13:29,509 --> 01:13:35,244
Neither did the audiences.
The picture quickly faded away...

979
01:13:36,083 --> 01:13:41,111
...thus ending the first half of the '80s.
The good half.

980
01:13:42,023 --> 01:13:45,459
I had no idea what lay ahead.

981
01:13:48,763 --> 01:13:53,564
<i>Two days ago, a badly decomposed body was
found in this dry riverbed in Copco Canyon...</i>

982
01:13:53,734 --> 01:13:56,261
<i>... near Gorman,
in northern Los Angeles County.</i>

983
01:13:56,437 --> 01:13:59,702
<i>An autopsy indicated the victim died
of a single gunshot wound.</i>

984
01:14:00,009 --> 01:14:05,001
<i>In a remote area north of Los Angeles,
a beekeeper made a grisly discovery.</i>

985
01:14:05,147 --> 01:14:09,550
I crossed through a dry wash,
went around a bush, and around the bush...

986
01:14:09,718 --> 01:14:13,653
...and there was a hand sticking up,
and there was a body laying there.

987
01:14:13,821 --> 01:14:18,657
The body found in the Gorman area this
past Friday has positively been identified...

988
01:14:18,794 --> 01:14:21,353
...as Mr. Roy Radin.

989
01:14:30,639 --> 01:14:35,303
It was midnight when the phone rang.
A bit pissed, I picked up the phone. Yeah?

990
01:14:35,443 --> 01:14:37,673
It was my attorney, Robert Shapiro.

991
01:14:37,814 --> 01:14:40,077
"Roy Radin is dead."

992
01:14:40,216 --> 01:14:44,117
I laid there in shock, totally stunned.

993
01:14:46,120 --> 01:14:51,287
I met Roy Radin a few months earlier
through an acquaintance named Laney Jacobs.

994
01:14:51,461 --> 01:14:54,452
Radin and I met and discussed
forming a production company.

995
01:14:54,630 --> 01:14:58,191
<i>The Cotton Club might have been
one of the films under the banner.</i>

996
01:14:58,333 --> 01:15:02,236
We shook hands, but nothing
ever really came of it.

997
01:15:02,373 --> 01:15:04,306
What does that have to do with me?

998
01:15:04,473 --> 01:15:06,634
"Nothing and everything."

999
01:15:07,476 --> 01:15:11,810
Shapiro told me that the police would be
calling, and they'd wanna talk to me.

1000
01:15:12,147 --> 01:15:17,083
We sat down with them while I told them
everything I remembered about Roy Radin.

1001
01:15:17,219 --> 01:15:20,552
<i>Laney Jacobs introduced
Evans to Roy Radin.</i>

1002
01:15:20,689 --> 01:15:24,626
For the next six years, the name
Robert Evans was making headlines again.

1003
01:15:24,760 --> 01:15:30,427
No, I wasn't buying Warner Bros.
This time, I was buying infamy.

1004
01:15:30,567 --> 01:15:33,127
<i>The Cotton Club murder case...</i>

1005
01:15:37,908 --> 01:15:43,437
Doors closed on me quietly.
Calls made were not returned.

1006
01:15:43,849 --> 01:15:47,807
Though I was still ensconced
in the primo offices of Paramount...

1007
01:15:48,117 --> 01:15:50,587
...I may as well have been a shadow.

1008
01:15:57,393 --> 01:16:03,456
Finally, in the spring of '89, after six long
years of innuendos on my character...

1009
01:16:03,635 --> 01:16:05,899
...the Roy Radin case went to trial.

1010
01:16:09,272 --> 01:16:14,403
Laney Jacobs, the woman who introduced me
to Radin, was tried for his murder.

1011
01:16:15,345 --> 01:16:17,838
The prosecutor outlined
a case of money and drugs.

1012
01:16:18,182 --> 01:16:21,516
And this is gonna show,
that this woman here...

1013
01:16:21,653 --> 01:16:25,952
...Laney Greenberger, had two problems
with a man by the name of Roy Radin.

1014
01:16:26,389 --> 01:16:32,726
He told the jury that Laney had asked Radin
for a finder's fee for introducing him to me.

1015
01:16:32,863 --> 01:16:36,696
When Radin refused to pay it,
Laney became irate.

1016
01:16:36,867 --> 01:16:40,463
Two weeks before his murder, Laney,
who was a part-time coke dealer...

1017
01:16:40,605 --> 01:16:44,541
...suspected Radin of stealing a large
amount of cocaine from her.

1018
01:16:45,377 --> 01:16:47,435
At this point,
Laney decided to kill him.

1019
01:16:47,578 --> 01:16:51,743
After getting into her
chauffeur-driven limousine...

1020
01:16:51,883 --> 01:16:56,342
...with her, Mr. Radin was never
seen alive again.

1021
01:16:57,921 --> 01:17:02,860
Jacobs and her accomplices were convicted
for the murder of Roy Radin.

1022
01:17:03,895 --> 01:17:08,593
Me?
Well, I wasn't even a suspect.

1023
01:17:08,733 --> 01:17:13,965
I was a tangential character
in the proceedings, at best.

1024
01:17:14,905 --> 01:17:20,241
However, the name "Evans" gets ink.

1025
01:17:23,415 --> 01:17:27,715
If you live by the sword,
know damn well you could die by it.

1026
01:17:27,853 --> 01:17:34,384
For many a decade, the sword
treated me real well. Maybe too well.

1027
01:17:37,428 --> 01:17:40,762
<i>Popeye and Urban Cowboy
hit the screens in 1980.</i>

1028
01:17:40,899 --> 01:17:44,301
Now, seven years later,
the only product Evans was delivering...

1029
01:17:44,436 --> 01:17:47,530
...to the mountain of Paramount
was embarrassment.

1030
01:17:49,274 --> 01:17:52,244
Ending whatever I had left
of a legacy to be...

1031
01:17:52,411 --> 01:17:58,248
...I was paid a rare visit by Richard Zimbert,
the head honcho of business affairs.

1032
01:17:58,383 --> 01:18:02,253
He walked into my office,
not a happy camper.

1033
01:18:02,387 --> 01:18:08,452
"We go back too long, Evans, and this is not
me talking. It's orders. I can't help it.

1034
01:18:08,595 --> 01:18:14,829
Do you want the truth?" Our eyes met.
I knew what he was going to say.

1035
01:18:14,967 --> 01:18:18,563
No. But I gotta hear it, Dick. Shoot.

1036
01:18:18,738 --> 01:18:24,539
"Bob, there's not one person at Paramount
that wants to do business with you."

1037
01:18:24,676 --> 01:18:28,614
Dick, the only surprise is that
it's taken you this long to tell me.

1038
01:18:28,781 --> 01:18:33,775
I suppose when it's over, it's over.
It was hard for him to say the next words.

1039
01:18:33,952 --> 01:18:37,889
"Your office, Bobby. We need a date."

1040
01:18:38,023 --> 01:18:39,890
Is 90 days okay, Dick?

1041
01:18:40,027 --> 01:18:42,995
"Yeah, sure. If you want more, take more."

1042
01:18:43,297 --> 01:18:46,459
No, 90 days will be fine.

1043
01:18:47,066 --> 01:18:52,937
Once king of the mountain,
now I was not even allowed to climb it.

1044
01:19:10,589 --> 01:19:14,755
My 20-year home had been
pulled from under me.

1045
01:19:14,896 --> 01:19:20,528
From behind the gates of Paramount,
I was now behind the gates of Woodland.

1046
01:19:26,140 --> 01:19:32,475
For an entire decade, my kid stood watching
his father's life fall to shambles.

1047
01:19:33,880 --> 01:19:36,644
Once I was a king, his mother told him.

1048
01:19:42,823 --> 01:19:47,488
My character, persona and
professional abilities were now lost.

1049
01:19:47,662 --> 01:19:52,759
Each month, punches were hitting me harder
and harder from all directions.

1050
01:19:52,899 --> 01:19:57,768
The effects of public disgrace, the effects of
drugs and the effects of continued failure...

1051
01:19:57,905 --> 01:20:02,569
...never before experienced,
all but shriveled me into obscurity.

1052
01:20:04,578 --> 01:20:07,139
So deep was my depression...

1053
01:20:07,516 --> 01:20:11,178
...that I wanted to get into a car
and drive south one way.

1054
01:20:11,619 --> 01:20:15,715
Finally, I'd rid myself of the last
bastion of my dignity.

1055
01:20:15,857 --> 01:20:20,625
I sold my Woodland home
to a wealthy French industrialist.

1056
01:20:22,196 --> 01:20:26,099
The effect was that I all but
lost the will to function.

1057
01:20:27,202 --> 01:20:31,400
Nightmares were telling me
I would never leave there alive.

1058
01:20:34,209 --> 01:20:37,974
Then lightning struck, bad lightning.

1059
01:20:41,084 --> 01:20:43,644
I had nowhere to turn.

1060
01:20:45,053 --> 01:20:47,885
Fearing the worst, suicide...

1061
01:20:48,690 --> 01:20:51,091
...I looked for protection.

1062
01:20:51,227 --> 01:20:56,095
I committed myself to the Scripps
Memorial Hospital, a loony bin.

1063
01:20:57,433 --> 01:21:00,665
I was put behind bars and
stripped of all my belongings.

1064
01:21:00,803 --> 01:21:05,172
The claustrophobia alone shot my blood
pressure up over to the 200 mark.

1065
01:21:05,473 --> 01:21:10,137
Not wanting a DO A on their hands, the
nurses shoved sedatives down my throat...

1066
01:21:10,446 --> 01:21:15,782
...trying to calm me.
A horrible mistake, with no way out.

1067
01:21:16,052 --> 01:21:17,678
Is it safe?

1068
01:21:17,819 --> 01:21:22,520
I had to take control of the never-ending
bad dream that my life had become.

1069
01:21:22,725 --> 01:21:26,091
Never having been
psychiatrically orientated...

1070
01:21:26,228 --> 01:21:30,633
...I knew that action, not therapy,
was my only shot at survival.

1071
01:21:32,235 --> 01:21:36,468
Take your time.
Tell me.

1072
01:21:36,606 --> 01:21:42,167
That night, I snuck out of my room and
found my way to a phone booth in the ward.

1073
01:21:42,479 --> 01:21:46,007
I called my limo driver,
John Paul, collect.

1074
01:21:46,150 --> 01:21:50,745
John Paul, meet me tomorrow
at noon, on the dot, and wait.

1075
01:21:51,154 --> 01:21:56,787
It might be an hour, a day, a week. I don't
care. Keep your motor running, got it?

1076
01:21:59,028 --> 01:22:01,963
The next morning, when all
the attendants were busy...

1077
01:22:02,097 --> 01:22:06,900
...I made my dash, and I made the elevator
as it closed behind me.

1078
01:22:07,038 --> 01:22:10,563
I made it, I made it, I thought to myself.

1079
01:22:10,707 --> 01:22:15,077
When I hit the bottom floor, the door opened.
There were two goons waiting for me.

1080
01:22:18,816 --> 01:22:21,545
You're a very nosy fella, kitty-cat.

1081
01:22:21,719 --> 01:22:25,986
You know what happens to nosy fellas?
No? Wanna guess?

1082
01:22:26,123 --> 01:22:30,525
No? Okay.
They lose their noses.

1083
01:22:31,763 --> 01:22:34,595
I made my dash.

1084
01:22:35,099 --> 01:22:37,863
The two goons were right
behind me. 100 yards away...

1085
01:22:38,003 --> 01:22:41,062
...my car was waiting.
I had to make it before they got me.

1086
01:22:41,206 --> 01:22:46,073
I was older than the two of them put
together, but they lacked one thing: Heart.

1087
01:22:46,978 --> 01:22:50,778
I breathlessly made it into the car,
slammed the door...

1088
01:22:50,949 --> 01:22:54,042
...as I grabbed
for a tiny bottle of JandB.

1089
01:22:55,052 --> 01:22:57,577
Back to Woodland, I said to John Paul.

1090
01:23:02,294 --> 01:23:08,324
My limo was pulling into the gates
of my once-owned Woodland sanctuary.

1091
01:23:11,302 --> 01:23:16,798
What had been my Garden of Eden for close
to a quarter of a century was mine no more.

1092
01:23:16,942 --> 01:23:20,777
Even more painful was that I was
now a tenant in my own home...

1093
01:23:20,945 --> 01:23:25,850
...paying $25,000 a month
for the privilege of living there.

1094
01:23:25,984 --> 01:23:30,116
Could I afford it?
Not by a long shot.

1095
01:23:31,089 --> 01:23:36,755
I knew that getting my home, my roots
of 25 years, back was vital to my survival.

1096
01:23:36,895 --> 01:23:38,386
There was a big problem:

1097
01:23:38,698 --> 01:23:42,964
The new owner, a wealthy French
industrialist named Tony Murray...

1098
01:23:43,133 --> 01:23:46,696
...had no intention of selling it back.

1099
01:23:46,870 --> 01:23:50,070
Without asking,
Jack Nicholson did a Henry Kissinger.

1100
01:23:50,210 --> 01:23:54,646
He flew to Monte Carlo and begged
Tony to sell me back my home.

1101
01:23:54,812 --> 01:23:59,342
Tony was shocked Jack would fly halfway
around the world to plead on my behalf...

1102
01:23:59,652 --> 01:24:02,245
...for what he considered
just a piece of real estate.

1103
01:24:02,387 --> 01:24:04,912
Wherever Tony went,
he'd tell the story.

1104
01:24:05,056 --> 01:24:11,190
"Imagine Jack Nicholson on his knees to me.
These film people, they're all crazy."

1105
01:24:11,331 --> 01:24:16,665
The impact of Jack's plea, however,
caused Tony to waiver.

1106
01:24:16,834 --> 01:24:21,297
He got me back my home.
Thanks, pal.

1107
01:24:29,383 --> 01:24:34,046
A year passed. It was close
to midnight on a Tuesday evening.

1108
01:24:34,186 --> 01:24:37,314
The phone kept ringing.
It awakened me out of a deep sleep.

1109
01:24:37,455 --> 01:24:41,359
I looked at the clock. It was only 11:00.
Should I pick it up?

1110
01:24:41,695 --> 01:24:44,858
No. I know I didn't win the lottery.

1111
01:24:45,031 --> 01:24:48,433
Hey, maybe it's the broad
I slipped my number to last night.

1112
01:24:48,733 --> 01:24:52,830
Hey, it's not too late.
I'm up. I hope it's her.

1113
01:24:52,973 --> 01:24:56,841
Disguising my voice to protect me
from bad news or bad company...

1114
01:24:57,009 --> 01:24:59,774
...I Englished it.
Evan's residence.

1115
01:24:59,911 --> 01:25:05,249
Well, I was wrong again. It wasn't the broad,
but I sure won the fucking lottery.

1116
01:25:05,385 --> 01:25:10,982
It was Stanley Jaffe on the phone,
and he was just made head of Paramount.

1117
01:25:11,959 --> 01:25:17,122
<i>I'd given Stanley his first big gig
back in 1967 on Goodbye, Columbus.</i>

1118
01:25:17,263 --> 01:25:19,494
"Called to tell you one thing.

1119
01:25:19,799 --> 01:25:23,702
From this day on, the life
of Robert Evans is going to be a better one.

1120
01:25:23,837 --> 01:25:28,001
You're way overdue, kid.
Now sleep well."

1121
01:25:29,108 --> 01:25:35,344
Stanley Jaffe's loyalty to me was such
that it gave me back my dignity.

1122
01:25:35,482 --> 01:25:38,076
Back behind the gates
of Paramount I went.

1123
01:25:38,218 --> 01:25:42,052
And back to my old offices,
the best on the lot.

1124
01:25:42,222 --> 01:25:45,714
Do you believe in miracles?
Well, I do now.

1125
01:25:49,430 --> 01:25:52,331
I don't understand it,
this world of fickle flicks.

1126
01:25:52,467 --> 01:25:57,133
It's been 30 years now, and I'm still here,
still standing behind them gates.

1127
01:25:57,271 --> 01:26:01,297
Bet your house it ain't been dull.
I've either done it or gotten it.

1128
01:26:01,442 --> 01:26:04,878
You name them, I've met them.
Well, almost.

1129
01:26:05,011 --> 01:26:09,209
I've either worked, fought, hired,
fired, laughed, cried with them...

1130
01:26:09,351 --> 01:26:15,050
...been figuratively fucked by them, literally
fucked them. It's been one hell of a ride.

1131
01:26:16,424 --> 01:26:19,792
Where is everyone?
Dead? Most.

1132
01:26:19,929 --> 01:26:24,159
Wealthy? Some.
Destitute? Yeah, many.

1133
01:26:24,298 --> 01:26:28,066
Retired? I don't know.
I ain't seen them.

1134
01:26:28,204 --> 01:26:32,299
One thing I do know: I ain't dead,
I ain't wealthy, I ain't destitute...

1135
01:26:32,441 --> 01:26:35,533
...and I ain't retired.
Can't afford any of them.

1136
01:26:35,843 --> 01:26:39,008
Gotta keep standing, stay in the picture.

1137
01:26:40,282 --> 01:26:44,878
My life today?
More volatile than ever.

1138
01:26:45,053 --> 01:26:49,114
This last year alone, I've been shot down,
bloodied, trampled, accused...

1139
01:26:49,292 --> 01:26:52,386
...threatened, disgraced,
betrayed, scandalized, maligned.

1140
01:26:52,529 --> 01:26:55,963
Tough?
You bet your ass it is.

1141
01:26:56,132 --> 01:26:59,896
But I ain't complaining.
Nothing comes easy.

1142
01:27:01,271 --> 01:27:07,801
The last question:
Is it truly worth it?

1143
01:27:09,945 --> 01:27:14,006
Sure. Know why? I love what I do.
And very few people do.

1144
01:27:14,182 --> 01:27:17,244
And when you think of most
of the work you do in life...

1145
01:27:17,418 --> 01:27:20,219
...most of people's lives
are spent in their work...

1146
01:27:20,356 --> 01:27:25,123
...and very few people enjoy what they do,
and I love what I do. So, yeah, it's worth it.

1147
01:27:25,296 --> 01:27:26,955
Damn right it's worth it. 

1148
01:27:29,601 --> 01:27:33,153
IN 1991, ROBERT EVANS SIGNED A MULTI-YEAR DEAL

1149
01:27:33,153 --> 01:27:37,508
IN 1991, ROBERT EVANS SIGNED A MULTI-YEAR DEAL
TO PRODUCE FILMS EXCLUSIVELY FOR PARAM0UNT PICTURES

1150
01:27:37,508 --> 01:27:39,017
SINCE RETURNED, HE HAS PRODUCED FIVE FILMS:...

1151
01:27:39,017 --> 01:27:41,076
SINCE RETURNED, HE HAS PRODUCED FIVE FILMS:...
OVER $100 MILLION AT THE BOX OFFICE

1152
01:27:42,425 --> 01:27:51,213
IN 1998, BOB EVANS SUFFERED A SEVERED STROKE WHILE PITCHING A PROJECT TO WES CRAVEN IN HIS SCREENING ROOM. UPON COLAPSING TO THE FLOOR, LOOKED UP AND SAID: <i> I TOLD YOU WES, THERE'S NEVER A DULL MOMENT AROUND HERE<i></i></i>

1153
01:27:51,213 --> 01:27:59,191
HE HAS SINCE RECOVERED AND CONTINUES TO PROTUCE TO PARAMOUNT. HA HAS BEEN AT THE STUDIO FOR OVER 35 YEARS, MORE THAN ANY OTHER PRODUCER ONT THE LOT.

1
01:28:32,663 --> 01:28:39,118
Okay. 1996. Robert Evans
20 years from now.

2
01:28:40,844 --> 01:28:44,255
Are we rolling? We're rolling?
Well, why didn't you tell me?

3
01:28:44,395 --> 01:28:46,446
I don't know if we're rolling.

4
01:28:46,593 --> 01:28:49,532
- We're rolling.
- Thank you very much.

5
01:28:50,550 --> 01:28:54,560
My fellow Americans,
I'm coming to you tonight...

6
01:28:54,707 --> 01:28:58,050
...because I am contemplating
ending my life.

7
01:28:58,358 --> 01:29:02,786
After years as being head of Paramount
Studios and then an independent producer...

8
01:29:02,957 --> 01:29:09,205
...and suffering a terrible disaster
with my first independent venture...

9
01:29:12,898 --> 01:29:16,887
<i>... Marathon in Drag... Something. I can't
remember. It was 20 years ago.</i>

10
01:29:17,023 --> 01:29:19,823
I would like to ask you, anyone,
all over the country...

11
01:29:19,997 --> 01:29:23,203
If you have a script, and it's
a love story, I'll do it.

12
01:29:23,344 --> 01:29:26,723
I don't care if it's in drag
or a monkey fucking an elephant.

13
01:29:26,862 --> 01:29:30,850
If it's a good script, I'll do it.
And that's a promise. You send it to me.

14
01:29:30,987 --> 01:29:35,414
And I wanna say that I would talk more
to you, but I don't have the strength to talk.

15
01:29:35,587 --> 01:29:40,590
I'm in the hospital now. There's a Sony tape
recorder here, and this is the maternity ward.

16
01:29:40,928 --> 01:29:44,974
They tell me I just had a baby.
I never knew I had a vagina.

17
01:29:45,119 --> 01:29:48,360
It came as a shock to me...

18
01:29:48,501 --> 01:29:52,179
...but I just talked to my wife,
Sue Mengers, and she says, well...

19
01:29:52,321 --> 01:29:57,290
...didn't I know she had a cock all the time?
I never knew it. I give you my word.

20
01:29:57,428 --> 01:29:59,618
She came in yesterday
and showed it to me.

21
01:29:59,761 --> 01:30:02,631
It was a terrific cock.
One of the biggest I ever saw.

22
01:30:02,770 --> 01:30:07,669
Wait a minute. Is that phone for me?
Well, I'm recording. I can't talk.

23
01:30:07,807 --> 01:30:13,549
Yeah, who's this? I can't talk.
I'm on television. Wait, stop rolling.

24
01:30:13,690 --> 01:30:16,931
Yeah, what is it?
Who? Joyce Haber?

25
01:30:17,071 --> 01:30:21,568
I remember her. That was 20 years ago.
She died. I can't come to the funeral.

26
01:30:21,704 --> 01:30:25,012
Why am I going to her funeral?
I'm sorry. I'm too busy.

27
01:30:25,152 --> 01:30:29,337
Send her something.

28
01:30:29,650 --> 01:30:32,348
I don't know. Whatever she eats.
Candy, whatever.

29
01:30:32,694 --> 01:30:38,803
Oh, she's dead now. Well, if she's dead,
then what do you want me to see her for?

30
01:30:38,948 --> 01:30:42,084
Just get it done immediately.
I gotta go. Thanks.

31
01:30:42,229 --> 01:30:46,885
What? I'm sorry, I gotta talk...
My wife. Yes, Sue.

32
01:30:47,571 --> 01:30:51,892
My wife is Ms. Mengers, one of the top
agents in the town 20 years ago.

33
01:30:52,032 --> 01:30:58,490
Today, the business is terrible. She's in Las
Vegas. She's a croupier there at the Dunes.

34
01:30:58,627 --> 01:31:01,426
At night she doubles as a dune.
She's a dune.

35
01:31:01,602 --> 01:31:04,634
If you ever go see her, you'll say,
"There's Sue Mengers."

36
01:31:04,815 --> 01:31:10,660
She's a good dune, though.
The best dune I ever fucked. Wait a minute.

37
01:31:10,866 --> 01:31:15,327
I'm sorry, Sue. No, I can't. Because I have
to go back in my closet and clean it.

38
01:31:15,466 --> 01:31:18,496
I haven't cleaned it in a long time.
They put me in a closet.

39
01:31:18,678 --> 01:31:20,867
I don't know why.
They said I'd understand.

40
01:31:21,044 --> 01:31:23,477
But I'm coming out
of the closet very soon.

41
01:31:23,613 --> 01:31:26,852
Yeah, Sue. The delivery was fine.
Yeah, it hurt a little.

42
01:31:26,994 --> 01:31:31,722
Yeah, but it was wonderful.
They shaved me. Yeah.

43
01:31:31,864 --> 01:31:36,014
I don't know. I can't talk. No,
I have to get off. I gotta see dailies.

44
01:31:36,156 --> 01:31:41,760
I wanna see dailies of my delivery.
I wanna see myself giving birth.

45
01:31:41,940 --> 01:31:46,769
They got a big close-up of my cunt.
It's terrific. All right, I'll see you. Take care.

46
01:31:46,909 --> 01:31:53,296
By the way, I want to thank you very much
for listening. And I wanna say that I wish...

47
01:31:53,470 --> 01:31:56,408
...all of you a healthy life,
because my life is over.

48
01:31:56,548 --> 01:32:01,137
And I was just gonna ask one favor.
President Warren Beatty...

49
01:32:01,282 --> 01:32:06,213
...has asked me to ask your vote again,
and I ask you to do it, just for me.

50
01:32:06,351 --> 01:32:10,745
Because he has some terrible scandal on me.
And I'm afraid he's gonna tell it.

51
01:32:11,052 --> 01:32:14,833
And it's very embarrassing to me.
So please vote for Warren Beatty.

52
01:32:15,143 --> 01:32:20,713
And I wish you a good
evening, and...

1
01:32:22,993 --> 01:32:27,328
<i>The Los Angeles Times once said...</i>

2
01:32:27,328 --> 01:32:34,225
<i>... that never in the history of Hollywood has
such glamour and talent sat under one tree.</i>