Supposedly Mr. Preminger was a very difficult and unpleasant man. Is this true? If so, any ideas why?
The experimental freeze ray that he tried to use to save his wife’s life was tampered with, and ended up killing her. His subsequent emotional coldness was a response of mixed vengeful rage and bitter guilt.
ETA: Are you going to be doing Eli Wallach next?
LOL! No, I actually am serious with this question as I was with the one about George Sanders, but I can spot a 1966 “Batman” Fan and so obviously, can you. That said, Preminger was alleged to be a vitriolic jerk, and I often wonder why adults who behave that way do so, especially if they don’t have to be.
This prima-donna type is associated with showbiz. I sometimes wonder if movies had never been invented and people like Otto Preminger ended being, say, dry-goods clerks instead, how would they have developed?
The entertainment industry is, and has been, cutthroat, dog-eat-dog, every man for himself. It takes an ego the size of a small South American country just to survive. (Obviously, there are exceptions.) Such egos bristle against other big egos and require subservient toadspittle lackeydom from lesser egos. There have been threads here at the beloved SDMB devoted just to “what a jerk” celebrities are, and that’s the reason.
What is the evidence that he was a vitriolic jerk?
I met Preminger, would have been Dec 1968 or Jan 1969-ish. The University of Chicago’s Doc Films was showing a series of his movies and invited him to speak; this would have been around the time that SKIDOO was released, so perhaps part of the reason he came was to promote the film on a college campus. He was very charming and pleasant; he took several of us (who ran the film organization) to dinner at the Pump Room – fancy, expensive hotel restaurant – where we sat at Table #1 (at the time, always reserved for celebrities.) One of the memorable things about that meal was watching the way that other patrons eyed with askance the young students sitting at that table with him.
Anyhow, never saw any indication of jerkiness.
I have heard of his reputation as being a tyrant on the set. His IMDB page gives this example:
He also seemed to have a reputation for shouting at actors, but claimed it was only if the actors forgot their lines or showed up on set late. However justified, it probably didn’t win him any friends.
Alan Napier (aka “Alfred the Faithful Butler”) tells the story of how he had worked with Preminger years earlier on a set, and an actress was having difficulty with her lines. Preminger starts shouting at her “CONCENTRATE! WHY DON’T YOU CONCENTRATE!?” thus causing the actress to break down in tears. Years later on “Batman” when Preminger was playing Mr. Freeze (the best Mr. Freeze, in my opinion–Wild), Preminger himself was having difficulty remembering his own lines. Although he refrained himself, Napier wanted to say to him “Concentrate Otto! Why don’t you concentrate?” Alan Napier referred to him as “that beastly Otto Preminger.”
I remember seeing him on a rerun of some old tv show. He was wearing a royal blue nehru suit and a big gold chain. It was so ridiculous I couldn’t stop laughing.
According to Preminger’s Wikipedia entry, Adam West also found him distasteful while working with him on the “Batman” set.
I think anyone who has to ask where the evidence is that Otto Preminger was a jerk really doesn’t know about Preminger and is just making a knee-jerk response to the claim regardless of whom the target of it is.
Michael “Alfred the Faithful Butler” Caine tells the story of how Preminger told him to bust through the door and start in on the rape scene; Caine does so, and then some, and then some, aware that Preminger must by now have what he needs, but since he’s not shouting CUT Caine grits his teeth and keeps going at the actress, and…
…yeah, the cameras aren’t rolling; Preminger just wanted to pull a little prank.
If being difficult and unpleasant resulted in “Laura” and “Anatomy of a Murder,” I for one am very glad he was difficult and unpleasant!
That must have been quite an experience!
To his credit, Preminger always opposed censorship - even at times when it was unpopular to do so. When the MPAA required all movies to meet its production code, Preminger simply refused and released The Moon Is Blue and The Man with the Golden Arm without the MPAA’s seal of approval. He defied the McCarthy blacklist by not only hiring Dalton Trumbo for Exodus but also putting his name in the credits.