Hello!

Friend and correspondent Craig Reardon points out a link that will be important to fans of writer-director Billy Wilder: it’s a 52-minute behind the scenes documentary on the making of Wilder and Diamond’s  The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes.

Much of it is in the German language, but smart YouTube users know how to turn on the site’s automatic translating subtitles, which are rough but helpful. The translated title is “Billy Wilder: Report on a Hollywood Director.”

Wilder talks at length in very clear German; on the set he speaks English. The BTS material is fascinating. One scene covered is the deleted ‘Upside Down Room’ mystery — we witness Wilder’s actors as they concentrate to figure out what the heck he wants.  ↖  There’s a lot of genuine, funny work interplay between Wilder, Robert Stephens, Colin Blakely, Tamara Toumanova, and Clive Revill. Plus some nice music on the set!

I.A.L. Diamond gets a lot of attention as well; it’s really fascinating. They work in Hollywood and in Berlin. Warm-ups and dance rehearsals pre-filming look great, as does the action on Wilder’s giant London street set designed by Alexander Trauner — rows of giant façades in a big field. Why this movie was cut, and why its long version was not preserved, is a major Hollywood crime.

From correspondent Michael McQuarrie and the Internet Archive come six minutes of House Un-American Activites Committee testimony from none other than Walt Disney. This happened on October 30, 1947.

Disney does not look happy to be in Washington, but neither does he put on a performance, or act conspiratorial. The newsreel cameraman skips some talk about the studio but captures Disney’s explanations about pressure from labor organizers, or racketeers, or as Disney says, communists. He complains that he was smeared in various periodicals, for not ‘cooperating’ with the Reds.

Disney was a ‘friendly witness,’ treated with deference and courtesy and not pressured or harassed. This  Encyclopedia.com page carries a full transcript of Disney’s testimony. Disney does name two names of people he believes to be communists. His strongest statement is to contrast communists and fascists with what he calls ‘100 percent Americans.’

Thanks to Michael Draine for important corrections, and a link to a ‘real’ full transcript of Disney’s testimony.

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson