Robert Aldrich

Robert Aldrich (1918-1983)

The Big Leaguer, Robert Aldrich by Brook Fisher, Eureka CA

Throughout film history, there has always been, and will always be a person who is seen as a master in film techniques. Someone who led the direction of film making during their time. Someone like D.W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, or Steven Speilberg. During the 1950's, 60's and 70's, there was such a filmmaker, yet that era in the film industry may not have completely recognized or acknowledged his talents while he was making his films. His name is Robert Aldrich. He was know as one of the most bankable directors in Hollywood, producing consistent money-makers. He was also often criticized for his harsh, unforgiving view of the world. Much more than an action director, Aldrich produced and assisted with the screenplays for many of his films. He has been the source of influence for many young directors, and he is known for inventing new genres of horror and violence. His movies were so fresh and creative for their time, and they still are to this day.

Aldrich was born to a prominent Republican family in Cranston, Rhode Island, on August 9, 1918. He attended the University of Virginia, playing football and studying for a possible career in banking or politics like his father and his uncle, John D. Rockefeller Jr.. After soon dropping out of college, Aldrich began his film career as a clerk at RKO in 1941. He quickly rose through the ranks to become an assistant director. He worked with Jean Renoir on THE SOUTHERNER (1945), and also on THE STORY OF G.I. JOE (1945). Under contract with Enterprise Studios from 1946 to 1948 he was a writer, studio manager, production manager, and assistant director.

Aldrich was an assistant director on such films as BODY AND SOUL (1947) directed by Robert Rossen, and FORCE OF EVIL (1948) directed by Abraham Polonsky. This was the time where he learned the film noir and mise-en-scene that was so characteristic of his style. He was also assistant director for the French director Max Ophuls on the American film CAUGHT (1949), and he worked for Fritz Lang on M (1951). Before he would make his own feature films, he would also work under Charlie Chaplin on the 1952 film LIMELIGHT. This was the time that prepared him for the future of his career and taught him the ways of the Hollywood studio system, which he would spend the rest of his life trying to overcome.

During the early 50's, while continuing to work on features for other directors, he also had the chance to direct on TV. For NBC, he directed seventeen episodes of a TV series called "The Doctor," and four episodes of "China Smith" (Sadoul 3). He also directed five episodes of "Four Star Playhouse." Two of the episodes were written by Blake Edwards, and one other starred a young Charles Bronson (DGA on-line). In 1953, Aldrich would direct his first feature film, BIG LEAGUER, but he first gained recognition in 1954 with APACHE, and then with VERA CRUZ.

In 1954, Associates and Aldrich was established as one of the first truly independent production companies in Hollywood (Desowitz 14). After that he would produce and direct most of his own films. First, WORLD FOR RANSOM (1954), and then THE BIG KNIFE (1955), where Aldrich would portray desperate actors under the tight oppression of the Hollywood Studios. The film imitated, in a demeaning way, the likes of Harry Cohn and Jack Warner, men with whom Aldrich did not see eye to eye. It was rumored that Aldrich threw the phone off of Jack Warner's desk, at Warner himself. Despite critical acclaim and the Silver Award of the Venice Festival for THE BIG KNIFE, his next film would go largely unnoticed at the time of its release.

KISS ME DEADLY (1955) was Aldrich's version of Mickey Spillane's mondo- pulp novel, with Ralph Meeker as Detective Mike Hammer. The film showed for about a month and didn't do great business, but it did not go totally unnoticed. This classic film noir was influence to the French New Wave, and would eventually become a film watched by film students and filmmakers alike as a source of inspiration. The movie is about Hammer and how he is trying to solve the murder of a women he was trying to help, but he gets wrapped up in a greater plot of intrigue involving "The Great Whatsit." "The Great Whatsit" is a small plain box containing an unknown, unearthly, humming power that is unleashed in the apocalyptic and controversial ending. This idea was used as "The Glowing Suitcase" in PULP FICTION by Quentin Tarantino, a self- proclaimed Aldrich fan. After Hammer's quest to remember the truth, a women that betrayed him opens "The Great Whatsit," unleashing the ungodly power, killing Hammer and his female assistant held captive in the house, in an explosion that suggests the destruction of the earth. In 1997, Alain Silver, author of What Ever Happened to Robert Aldrich?, and a young MGM editor found a print in the Directors Guild of America's vault donated by Aldrich. The new found print, covered in dust, contained a different ending with more than a minute of additional footage. This discovery put the false rumors to rest and created new interpretations of an ending that Aldrich always refused to explain. The new ending shows Hammer rescuing his assistant and making it outside of the house, which now seems to be the only thing destroyed. Like all of Aldrich's films, KISS ME DEADLY contains the brutish hero that will sacrifice his moral integrity to overcome oppression. In other words, people will do bad things for the good of their situation. In this case, Hammer, a sleazy detective, lies, fights, threats, and kills to find his way to the truth to help a woman while never being a perfect gentleman to the ladies in the first place. It was said that KISS ME DEADLY showed Aldrich at his best, early in his career. Martin Scorsese called this masterpiece of film noir "as ferocious a movie as has ever been made in America" (DGA on-line). Not only was the film influence to Tarantino, but also David Lynch (LOST HIGHWAY), and Curtis Hanson (LA CONFIDENTIAL). At the time, the style of violence, brutality, and grotesque chaos belonged to Aldrich, but now it is style that is used as a guide for others. This film, restored to a new print and including both endings, is available at Video Experience in Arcata. Even though KISS ME DEADLY did not do to great at the time, Aldrich would continue to have success. He would win the Italian Critics Award for ATTACK! (1956), and Best Director at the West Berlin Festival for AUTUMN LEAVES (1956), and his popularity would rise in the 60's. 1962 saw the release of WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? The movie starred big screen favorites Bette Davis and Joan Crawford in an unusual sisterly relationship. This "must see" film is a thriller that was in a genre of its own. That was until the release of HUSH....HUSH, SWEET CHARLOTTE (1965). This film was called to be an informal sequel to BABY JANE, but Joan Crawford dropped out at the last minute and was replaced by Olivia De Havilland along with Bette Davis and many other recognizable faces, including Agnes Moorehead who was nominated for an Oscar as Best Supporting Actress. Filmed entirely in the Louisiana Bayous, this film was classified as horror, thriller, murder, southern, insanity, con-trick, and features De Havilland as the sympathetic cousin that tries to drive Davis mad, so she can receive the family fortune. The huge success did not carry over to his next film, which would in retrospect become one of his best films, THE FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX (1966). A magnificent film that is literally about survival, as Jimmy Stewart and Richard Attenborough lead a group of male misfits stranded in the desert. Typical of Aldrich's films, PHOENIX contains an angry conflict between two people with opposing philosophies. The climatic image of the survivors pulling together, each overcoming a weakness, is the most hopeful and happy ending of any Aldrich film. This film was also recently restored to a new print and will prove to be a long standing classic like his next film, of which a decent film print cannot be found (Desowitz 15). THE DIRTY DOZEN (1967) broke box office records, and is still shown on TV at least once a month. This classic features Lee Marvin who leads those such as Charles Bronson, Jim Brown, Donald Sutherland, Tele Savalas, and others, including Ralph Meeker, in a battle against themselves, the US Army, and the Germans of W.W.II. As with all of Aldrich's films, convicts, mercenaries, lunatics, play the heroes who will pay the price of their lives or their dignity for their way of life of for a cause, which is always more important than attachment to a woman. The success would prompt Aldrich to build his own studios in Hollywood, which he was forced to sell in the early 70's, after films such as THE LEGEND OF LYLAH CLARE (1968), TOO LATE THE HERO (1970), and ULZANA'S RAID (1972). Even with the failure of his Studio, and his last few films, Aldrich did not lose a beat. His next film, THE LONGEST YARD (1974), was called one of Aldrich's foulest and funniest films, and stars Burt Reynolds and Eddie Albert along with a few other favorite faces. Like all of Aldrich's films, this movie contains the theme of characters striving to overcome institutional oppression, and enduring hardship for their cause. The movie pits former pro quarterback, Burt Reynolds, and his team of convicts against a sadistic squad of prison guards. A college football star, Aldrich obviously took pleasure in making the film, "I'm a football nut....I would have made the picture for nothing -- fortunately they didn't know that at Paramount," Aldrich said (DGA on-line). He would receive strong criticism for his next films, THE CHOIRBOYS (1977) and TWILIGHTS LAST GLEAMING (1977). Then in 1979 he made a movie that I see as a film that sums up all of his themes of moral integrity and social decay, but presented is a light-hearted fashion. The film was the comedy/western THE FRISCO KID, starring Gene Wilder as a Polish Rabbi that travels across America to San Francisco during the 1850's with the aid of a train and bank robber played by Harrison Ford (after STAR WARS and before RAIDERS). An unusual friendship develops under the unusual circumstances, and the film continues the theme of good people doing bad things to overcome their adversities. In this case the Rabbi will return money stolen from a bank that he unknowingly helped to rob, and he will take the life of an enemy to save the life of his best friend. Aldrich would continue to make his last film ....ALL THE MARBLES (1981), before his mysterious death in Los Angeles on December 5, 1983. It would go reported as a Kidney failure as the official cause of death, but do to the high profile of this Hollywood director, and to avoid bad publicity, the true cause of death will remain forever unknown.
In Conclusion, Robert Aldrich has created powerful, persuasive films. He was one of the most forceful American directors to emerge from the 1950's. He exposed the seamier side of the movie business, and his films are a catalog of mercenaries, renegades, and outlaws, scrambling to get out before the roof caves in. His contribution to film and his friends is immeasurable. Aldrich would keep his filmmaker friends close, Cinematographer Joseph F. Biroc, Editor Michael Luciano, Writer Lukas Heller, and Composer Frank DeVol would work together on a majority of Aldrich's Films. Many actors would owe their careers to Aldrich, and many filmmakers, such as George Lucas, would call Aldrich their teacher, mentor, father. He may not be seen by all as a "Hollywood Classic," but he definitely made classic "Hollywood" movies. Yearly film festivals in Europe honor the man and his films, and during February 1998, the Director's Guild of America paid tribute to Aldrich, who once served as President of the Guild. Once a greater number of people outside the industry realize that his movies can stand the test of time, he will be realized as "The Hollywood Classic." I choose this person as my topic for the obvious reasons due to the appeal of his movies to all audiences, and also for not so obvious reasons. Shortly after Aldrich's death, my mother would met Aldrich's oldest son, also a filmmaker, William Aldrich, and they would soon get married. I would grow up with the offices of Associates and Aldrich and the Aldrich Group in my home, privy to the goings on of a family of filmmakers and the legacy of their father (who always gave his children small parts in his films, and later in their lives, production jobs on his films), and the business he created. Aldrich's oldest daughter, Adell, would work on shows such as "Dynasty," and films such as WAYNE'S WORLD. His youngest son, Kelly, would become a Teamster, driving everything from Star Wagons to Camera Trucks. His grandchildren are gaffers, best boys, and make-up artists for the union. Aldrich's oldest son continues the tradition. Recently 20th Century Fox approached William for the production of two new films, a remake of PHOENIX and an adaptation of BABY JANE for their new studios FOX 2000. With new prints of some of Aldrich's films and the soon release of his continuing past works, the name of Robert Aldrich will reach the forefront of Hollywood history, and he will truly and forever be known as "The Hollywood Classic."

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