Finally word came down that our long-awaited audience would come to pass today. So we were notified and given leave to prepare ourselves. That is, we were each expected to see to our ablutions. And more than just our dusty feet.
The guards who were to accompany us were not exempted. (If anything they needed it the more, or so was the considered judgement of our own Mei).
I volunteered first, then held Elijah’s staff as he saw to himself.
Not long after we had finished we were ushered up to the penthouse and seated in a reception area. And again waited.
Soon the double doors swung open and in walked the Supreme Commander and at his elbow, our Tomas.
Our transition was only to a more lofty prison. Upon arrival our guards hustled one and all up to the floor beneath the penthouse. Promises were made of an audience above, immediately upon the return of the Supreme Commander.
The demeanor of our captors has improved towards us. They are cowed by these surroundings and no doubt in awe that their very presence here is in large part due to us.
We were allowed to converse and even given freedom to move about. The view was negligible though, given the darkness of the hour, but come morning it was unobstructed in every direction.
Far away in the dock area I saw what could only be the Captain’s beloved ‘rust bucket.’
When still in his apprentice days at the PGA/DGA in the late sixties, Howard Kazanjian worked on three productions for William Conrad. Most remember Conrad for his distinctive voice and for his turn as the corpulent investigator in the TV series Cannon which aired between 1971 and 1976 and the much later Jake and the Fat Man. That voice got him his start in the entertainment business for a multitude of roles in radio and as a heavy in films.
Howard remembers him for his rather unique directorial style. He caught him at WB directing a TV show some time before these other productions. The scene was on a set with the light from an arc streaming through a window. He set things in play by calling – “Okay, action.” After one or two takes watching the staging, then he turned his back to the actors and just listened to the dialogue. If he liked what he heard he said, “Cut! Print!” If not he would call for the crew and actors to reset for another take. Howard chalks this quirk up to Conrad’s formative years in radio.
[Aside – I queried Howard for more about this process – Howard – “Directors always rehearse with a walk-through so the DP knows where the characters are.Then the actors leave the set while the DP lights with stand-ins.When lit, the Director might rehearse the actors one or two times depending on the budget, the shooting schedule, etc.Then he shoots.Often with Conrad the first take was a print. If there was coverage no rehearsal was needed along with minor adjustments with the camera and lighting. No rehearsal unless the Director wants some change.Shoot.Maybe print, or a second take or even a third”].
His first working experience with Conrad, the producer, was on the film An American Dream. A hot property at the time, it was based on the recent novel by Norman Mailer, and setup with a very decent budget of a million dollars. In some markets it was released as “See You in Hell Darling,” a very apt title if you’ve seen it. The story centers around a controversial TV talk show host [Stephen Rojack, played by Stuart Whitman] and his toxic marriage to a spoiled, one might say insane, wealthy heir and socialite [Deborah Kelly Rojack, played by Eleanor Parker]. The way she sadistically goads him, the audience ends up with little sympathy for her nor any wonder that he lets her fall to her death from her thirtieth floor penthouse.
Howard worked closely with the AD and the DP. The director Bob Gist was difficult, personality wise rather gruff, and had a little bit of ego. (Gist debuted as an actor in the film Miracle on 34th St (1947), and may have gotten this project due to his part as one of the soldiers in the film based on Mailer’s The Naked and the Dead (1958). He made the change to the director’s chair under the tutelage of Blake Edwards, when he was running the TV series Peter Gunn)). The AD in question was Sherry Shourds, whom Howard thought a very likable guy. He later inherited a ranch, left the business and lived happily ever after.
The DP was Sam Levitt. Howard calls him a good cameraman, having been in film since the 30’s as an operator, and since 1952 as a DP (i.e. Major Dundee, Cape Fear and Exodus). He had just recently added work in TV (Batman and Journey to the Bottom of the Sea). He was one of those “coat, hat and tie guys” then prevalent in that generation working at the studios.
After viewing the film, two of the exteriors stood out in my mind, so I asked Howard for more information about them. The first was the skyscraper from which the wife fell, and the subsequent multi-car pileup. [Howard – “The high-rise building was in downtown Los Angeles once owned by Occidental Oil, now ATT. We shot exteriors only. Interiors were sets at WB. While we were shooting the “accident” a fire broke out on the (approximately) 20th floor. We pulled our equipment back while the fire department handled the situation. Fortunately sprinklers put out most of the fire. The broken window from the fire and heat didn’t hit us as it crashed to the street.” And about the staged pileup itself. “No storyboards. Just staged by the director and stunt driver, and extras filled in by me.”].
Another building in LA was utilized for the rooftop safe place called “the Treehouse” by Rojack’s girl friend from the past (Cherry, played by Janet Leigh she sings the Oscar nominated song “A Time for Love” linked above). There was one 360 degree shot from the top of a building, that revealed it was nestled in the middle of the LA freeway system. [Howard – That building was in downtown LA close to the convention center surrounded by freeways. Anytime a film crew shoots on a roof, expect the owner or landlord to complain about damage. We had to replace the roof for him]. I was able to find this location on Google maps – I started with the LA Convention Center and looked for the nearby freeways, which turned out to be the conjunction of the Santa Monica and the Harbor Freeways. From the street level view, the building situated on Wright Street is still recognizable as that which was filmed to represent Cherry’s apartment.
There were two other Bill Conrad productions on which Howard Kazanjian apprenticed. I will cover them in future posts.
[Aside – when watching the film, I thought the maid “Ruta” played by Susan Denberg looked familiar. IMDB gave me the reason, she was in a famous Star Trek episode “Mudd’s Women,” (season 1, episode 6). And there is another Star Trek connection to the film, series regular George (Sulu) Takei plays an assistant DA].
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