Classic Hollywood Movies: Top 10 Wildest Behind-the-Scenes Stories

“Ben-Hur” (1959)

Tensions and budgets were running over on the set of this Best Picture winner. Injuries were piling up, and the script was still being revised. Famed writer Gore Vidal[a] did a rewrite on the script at one point during the shoot. Noticing a lack of tension in certain scenes between Ben-Hur and his old friend, Messala, Vidal came up with a solution. He revised the dialogue to suggest a homoerotic subtext between the two that might give a more dramatic motivation for their rivalry. This was known only to director William Wyler and actor Stephen Boyd. However, it was kept from star Charlton Heston because he might have objected.

“Guys and Dolls” (1955)

Frank Sinatra set his sights on the part of Sky Masterson in the big screen adaptation of a Broadway hit, but that part went to Marlon Brando. Sinatra was instead cast as Nathan Detroit. The crooner couldn’t stand Brando’s approach to acting, and the feeling appeared to be mutual. During a scene where Sinatra was supposed to eat a piece of cheesecake, Brando kept intentionally flubbing his lines. This made it so Sinatra had to eat more and more cheesecake until his co-star got it right. Sinatra allegedly also was concerned about attention his wife Ava Gardner was paying Brando. One biographer alleges that the famously mob-connected Sinatra had Brando kidnapped, roughed up, and threatened in order to get him to behave on set.

“Citizen Kane” (1941)

Orson Welles’ first and most famous film is the tragic tale of a newspaper tycoon whose heart and soul withers away with the more wealth he amasses. The star and director denied claims that Kane was based on newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst. He didn’t fool anyone, including Hearst himself. Hearst retaliated, blocking any advertisement or mention of the film in any of his newspapers across the country. He enlisted journalists and gossip columnists to slander Welles. His biggest blow, though, was threatening to mobilize American anti-semitism and xenophobia against the studios who dared show the movie in their theaters. Although it was released in theaters and even won an Oscar, it made little money. Its reputation as a masterpiece came much later.

“Psycho” (1960)

The infamous shower scene, where a nude woman is besieged by a knife-wielding figure, employs over 50 cuts to fool the audience into imagining most of the nudity and violence. But unsurprisingly, Alfred Hitchcock was constantly running into trouble with the censors. When they ordered him to edit the scene for nudity, he came up with a great gambit. He merely waited a few days and sent it back unchanged. Censors who had sworn they saw nudity before were now satisfied, but those who hadn’t initially seen nudity suddenly did. Hitchcock won out. The movie was approved, and the scene remained relatively unchanged.

“Singin’ in the Rain” (1952)

Making musical comedy is no joke. Debbie Reynolds famously said that the two hardest things she ever did were childbirth and making “Singin’ in the Rain.” The musical numbers in the film were shot in long takes, leaving no room for error. Donald O’Connor completed his famous solo number, “Make ‘Em Laugh,” with a fever and was on bedrest for days afterward. Co-star and director, Gene Kelly, was not impressed with Debbie Reynolds’ dancing and put her through her paces. He wasn’t nice about it either. One day, she was so distraught she hid under a piano to cry. She was found by the legendary song and dance man Fred Astaire himself, who gave her some advice that encouraged her to keep going.

“The Birds” (1963)

Alfred Hitchcock was one of the most famous directors in the world. When he plucked Tippi Hedren out of obscurity, he had plans to mold her into the next Grace Kelly. But according to Hedren, his mentorship was more like ownership. While shooting “The Birds,” she suffered real cuts and injuries from shattered glass during the phone booth scene. But the real problem was the final scene in the attic of a house, where Hedren’s character is nearly pecked to death. Hedren didn’t know until the last minute that real birds were going to be thrown at her. Many of her cuts were real. Afterward, the two reunited for 1964’s “Marnie,” where the director’s obsession with her made the set intolerable.

“Noah’s Ark” (1928)

Long before he made “Casablanca” and “Mildred Pierce,” director Michael Curtiz[b] was shooting an epic based on the story of Noah’s Ark. During the flood sequence, he unleashed thousands of gallons of water on extras who weren’t properly trained for stunt work. Though impressive to watch, the scene led to several injuries. Lead actress Dolores Costello gave a visceral impression of her experience on set. Apparently, Curtiz deliberately ignored established safety precautions to get a more realistic panic. The result was dozens of injuries, which allegedly required dozens of ambulances be called to the set. Some have even claimed that at least one extra was killed.

“What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?” (1962)

Bette Davis and Joan Crawford only made one movie together. “What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?” thrilled and fascinated audiences with its tragic, horrific look at madness and faded glamor. But the story of how it was made is just as thrilling. The lead actresses’ on-set antics have since become legend. Davis reportedly had a Coke machine brought to set just to spite Crawford, whose husband was the company president of Pepsi. Crawford is alleged to have strapped weights to herself for a scene where Davis had to drag her body. This hostility carried onto the set of what would have been their second film before Crawford was fired. You know it’s messy when Ryan Murphy makes a whole miniseries about it.

“Cleopatra” (1963)

Elizabeth Taylor stars as the Egyptian queen in this epic that almost bankrupted an entire studio. The production was beset by rewrites, a production shutdown, ballooning costs, and a change in director. After it was made, director Joseph L. Mankiewicz was dismissed by the studio, only to be called back to try to make hours of footage into a coherent film. But the big story was Taylor and co-star Richard Burton’s extramarital affair. Playing Mark Antony to her Cleopatra, Burton and Taylor’s chemistry turned out to be very real. During a love scene, Mankiewicz had to yell “cut” several times to get them to stop kissing. The affair brought even more heat and publicity to the already troubled shoot.

“The Wizard of Oz” (1939)

It’s become a family favorite, but all that joy and magic on screen came at a great cost. Before Jack Haley was cast, Buddy Ebsen was originally to play the Tin Man. However, the aluminum dust they covered him with sent him to the hospital from a deadly toxic reaction. Ebsen lived, but was replaced by Haley. Margaret Hamilton suffered severe burns when a stunt involving a cloud of smoke and fire went very wrong. Also, that snow that Judy Garland and company are covered with in the poppy fields? That was asbestos. The challenging production of “The Wizard of Oz” is a testament to the blood, sweat, and tears that went into making classic Hollywood movie magic, for better or worse.

Had you already heard any of these behind-the-scenes stories? Tell us in the comments.

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