Bill Powell's Fishing Expedition
It’s August of 1936, and we’re on location with director Jack Conway and star William Powell as they prepare to shoot Bill’s comedic fishing foray for that MGM howl-fest, Libelled Lady, also featuring Jean Harlow, Myrna Loy, and Spencer Tracy. A lot of crew guys are getting soaked, as you can see, and judging by the duration of that very funny sequence in the finished movie, they must have spent several days, if not the week, treading water to get the whole thing down on finished film. Trouper Bill’s taking it all with a good-natured smile, but wouldn’t he have been surprised to learn that we’d still be watching, and enjoying, Libelled Lady some seventy years later. Anyone know just where this outdoor stuff was shot?
Were studio players contractually obliged to shoot those marching-arm-in-arm-toward-the-camera publicity shots or something?
ReplyDeleteThey did do those a lot, didn't they? The latest example I've seen was one for "The Towering Inferno", with the cast marching in lock-step toward the camera. Hard to imagine anyone doing them today ...
ReplyDeleteThanks for the article of William Powell, much appreciated. But can I have some more?
ReplyDeleteThe imdb is REAL helpful. It gives the filming location as "California, USA."
ReplyDeleteOne '30s movie even features the cast marching-toward-camera under the opening credits (and it's a delightful movie): "Merrily We Live."
Sonora, California was used as a shooting location per AFI film guide.
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