From dangerous production conditions to scandalous star affairs, Hollywood's golden age had its share of drama behind the camera. Join us as we explore the most fascinating stories from legendary films, including shocking revelations from beloved classics, fierce rivalries between icons, and dangerous stunts gone wrong.
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00:00Who rang that bell?
00:06Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most scandalous, interesting
00:10and downright weird things that happened on the sets of classics.
00:13For this list, we'll only be looking at movies made before 1970.
00:17We were supposed to try to keep it quiet, which was ridiculous.
00:22Once it broke and broke wild, there was no stopping it.
00:2710.
00:28The Subtext – Ben-Hur
00:41Tensions and budgets were running over on the set of this Best Picture winner.
00:44Injuries were piling up, and the script was still being revised.
00:47Famed writer Gore Vidal did a rewrite on the script at one point during the shoot.
00:51Noticing a lack of tension in certain scenes between Ben-Hur and his old friend Masala,
00:54Vidal came up with a solution.
01:12He revised the dialogue to suggest a homoerotic subtext between the two that might give a
01:16more dramatic motivation for their rivalry.
01:19This was known only to director William Wyler and actor Stephen Boyd.
01:22However, it was kept from star Charlton Heston because he might have objected.
01:419.
01:42Sinatra vs. Brando – Guys and Dolls
01:44Frank Sinatra set his sights on the part of Skye Masterson in the big-screen adaptation
01:48of a Broadway hit, but that part went to Marlon Brando.
01:52Sinatra was instead cast as Nathan Detroit.
02:01The crooner couldn't stand Brando's approach to acting, and the feeling appeared to be
02:05mutual.
02:06During a scene where Sinatra was supposed to eat a piece of cheesecake, Brando kept
02:09intentionally flubbing his lines.
02:10This made it so Sinatra had to eat more and more cheesecake until his co-star got it right.
02:25Sinatra allegedly also was concerned about attention his wife Ava Gardner was paying
02:29Brando.
02:30One biographer alleges that the famously mob-connected Sinatra had Brando kidnapped, roughed up,
02:35and threatened in order to get him to behave on set.
02:508.
02:53Wells vs. Hearst – Citizen Kane
02:55Forreston Wells' first and most famous film is the tragic tale of a newspaper tycoon whose
03:00heart and soul withers away with the more wealth he amasses.
03:03The star and director denied claims that Kane was based on newspaper magnate William
03:07Randolph Hearst.
03:08He didn't fool anyone, including Hearst himself.
03:19Hearst retaliated, blocking any advertisement or mention of the film in any of his newspapers
03:24across the country.
03:25He enlisted journalists and gossip columnists to slander Wells.
03:28His biggest blow, though, was threatening to mobilize American anti-Semitism and xenophobia
03:33against the studios who dared show the movie in their theaters.
03:56Although it was released in theaters and even won an Oscar, it made little money.
04:01Its reputation as a masterpiece came much later.
04:127.
04:15Dodging the Censors – Psycho
04:21The infamous shower scene where a nude woman is besieged by a knife-wielding figure employs
04:26over 50 cuts to fool the audience into imagining most of the nudity and violence.
04:30But unsurprisingly, Alfred Hitchcock was constantly running into trouble with the censors.
04:42When they ordered him to edit the scene for nudity, he came up with a great gambit.
04:46He merely waited a few days and sent it back unchanged.
04:49Censors who had sworn they saw nudity before were now satisfied, but those who hadn't
04:54initially seen nudity suddenly did.
04:56Hitchcock won out, the movie was approved, and the scene remained relatively unchanged.
05:116.
05:12Suffering for Their Art – Singin' in the Rain
05:14Making musical comedy is no joke.
05:17Debbie Reynolds famously said that the two hardest things she ever did were childbirth
05:21and making Singin' in the Rain.
05:35The musical numbers in the film were shot in long takes, leaving no room for error.
05:40Donald O'Connor completed his famous solo number, Make Em Laugh, with a fever, and was
05:44on bed rest for days afterward.
05:59Co-star and director Gene Kelly was not impressed with Debbie Reynolds' dancing, and put her
06:03through her paces.
06:05He wasn't nice about it, either.
06:07One day, she was so distraught she hid under a piano to cry.
06:10She was found by the legendary song-and-dance man Fred Astaire himself, who gave her some
06:14advice that encouraged her to keep going.
06:345.
06:36Filming with Real Birds – The Birds
06:38Alfred Hitchcock was one of the most famous directors in the world.
06:41When he plucked Tippi Hedren out of obscurity, he had plans to mold her into the next Grace
06:45Kelly.
06:46But according to Hedren, his mentorship was more like ownership.
07:07While shooting The Birds, she suffered real cuts and injuries from shattered glass during
07:11the phone booth scene.
07:12But the real problem was the final scene in the attic of a house, where Hedren's character
07:16is nearly pecked to death.
07:27Hedren didn't know until the last minute that real birds were going to be thrown at her.
07:31Many of her cuts were real.
07:33Afterward, the two reunited for 1964's Marnie, where the director's obsession with her made
07:38the set intolerable.
07:424.
07:52The Flood Sequence – Noah's Ark
07:54Long before he made Casablanca and Mildred Pierce, director Michael Curtiz was shooting
07:58an epic based on the story of Noah's Ark.
08:00During the Flood Sequence, he unleashed thousands of gallons of water on extras who weren't
08:04properly trained for stunt work.
08:18Though impressive to watch, the scene led to several injuries.
08:22Lead actress Dolores Costello gave a visceral impression of her experience on set.
08:27Apparently, Curtiz deliberately ignored established safety precautions to get a more realistic
08:40panic.
08:41The result was dozens of injuries, which allegedly required dozens of ambulances be called to
08:46the set.
08:47Some have even claimed that at least one extra was killed.
09:053.
09:06The Feud – Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?
09:09Bette Davis and Joan Crawford only made one movie together.
09:21Whatever Happened to Baby Jane thrilled and fascinated audiences with its tragic, horrific
09:25look at madness and faded glamour.
09:27But the story of how it was made is just as thrilling.
09:30The lead actress' on-set antics have since become legend.
09:44Davis reportedly had a Coke machine brought to set just to spite Crawford, whose husband
09:49was the company president of Pepsi.
09:51Crawford is alleged to have strapped weights to herself for a scene where Davis had to
09:54drag her body.
09:55This hostility carried on to the set of what would have been their second film before Crawford
09:59was fired.
10:00You know it's messy when Ryan Murphy makes a whole miniseries about it.
10:042.
10:05On-Set Love Affair – Cleopatra
10:14Elizabeth Taylor stars as the Egyptian queen in this epic that almost bankrupted an entire
10:32studio.
10:33The production was beset by rewrites, a production shutdown, ballooning costs, and a change in
10:39director.
10:40After it was made, director Joseph L. Mankiewicz was dismissed by the studio, only to be called
10:44back to try to make hours of footage into a coherent film.
10:47But the big story was Taylor and co-star Richard Burton's extramarital affair.
11:09Playing Marc Antony to her Cleopatra, Burton and Taylor's chemistry turned out to be
11:12very real.
11:13During a love scene, Mankiewicz had to yell cut several times to get them to stop kissing.
11:18The affair brought even more heat and publicity to the already troubled shoot.
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11:491.
11:51Injuries and Near-Death Experiences – The Wizard of Oz
11:54It's become a family favorite, but all that joy and magic on screen came at a great cost.
12:00Before Jack Haley was cast, Buddy Epson was originally to play the Tin Man.
12:04However, the aluminum dust they covered him with sent him to the hospital from a deadly
12:07toxic reaction.
12:16Epson lived, but was replaced by Haley.
12:18Margaret Hamilton suffered severe burns when a stunt involving a cloud of smoke and fire
12:22went very wrong.
12:39Also that snow that Judy Garland and company are covered with in the poppy fields?
12:42That was asbestos.
12:43The challenging production of The Wizard of Oz is a testament to the blood, sweat, and
12:47tears that went into making classic Hollywood movie magic, for better or worse.
12:59Had you already heard any of these behind-the-scenes stories?
13:02Tell us in the comments.
13:09Do you agree with our picks?
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