“SPARTACUS” TRIVIA

“SPARTACUS” TRIVIA:  I Am Spartacus!  Making a Film, Breaking the Blacklist by Kirk Douglas

1. The screenwriter, Dalton Trumbo, was a member of the “Unfriendly Ten” which were nine screenwriters and one director (Edward Dmytryk) who were brought before the House Unamerican Activities Committee to testify about communists in the movie industry.  Congressman J. Parnell Thomas headed the witchhunting committee which included Richard Nixon.  Trumbo refused to answer the question:  “Are you a member of the Communist Party?” and was sent to prison.  Kirk Douglas was not enough of a star to be part of the Committee for the First Amendment which included Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Gene Kelly, Danny Kaye, and John Huston.  Stars that supported HUACs efforts included Gary Cooper, Robert Montgomery, George Murphy, and Adolphe Menjou (Douglas’ co-star in “Paths of Glory”).  In an act of karma, Thomas ended up in prison himself for padding his payroll.  He went to the same prison that two of the “Hollywood Ten” (Lester Cole and Ring Lardner, Jr.) were sentenced to.

2. Novelist Howard Fast wrote the source novel.  He was a communist and went to prison for contempt of Congress.  In prison, he began researching the life of Spartacus.  Upon release, he was under surveillance from J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI.  Hoover accumulated over one thousand pages in his file.  When the novel was finished, Hoover put pressure on publishers to not publish it.  Fast ended up self-publishing.  Later, Fast broke with the Communist Party after Khrushchev revealed Stalin’s crimes.  Douglas became interested in a film about Spartacus and optioned the book for just $100, but Fast insisted on writing the screenplay.  Douglas agreed, but was skeptical of Fast’s ability to write a competent screenplay.  Douglas was right.  Fast’s first draft was terrible and Douglas secretly brought in Trumbo who was writing under the name Sam Jackson.

3. The movie almost did not get made because there was already a movie about Spartacus in production.  It was to be based on the novel “The Gladiators” and was to star Yul Brynner.
  
4. Douglas approached Sir Lawrence Olivier while they were co-starring in “The Devil’s Disciple”.  Olivier was interested in directing.  In an awkward development, Olivier assumed he would be playing Spartacus.  When Olivier decided not to direct, Douglas reluctantly turned to Anthony Mann.  Douglas fired Mann (under pressure from Universal, but with Douglas’ agreement) because Mann was in over his head and had lost control of the cast, especially Peter Ustinov who was rewriting most of his lines.

5. The first choice for Varinia was Jeanne Moreau (Christine in “The Train”), but she turned it down.  Jean Simmons (a friend of Douglas) pushed hard for the role, but Douglas insisted that he wanted an actress that did not have an English or American accent.  He ended up settling on an unknown German beauty named Sabine Bethmann.
  
6. Douglas brought Stanley Kubrick in to replace Mann even though they had not enjoyed working together on “Paths of Glory”.  Kubrick convinced Douglas to dump Bethmann by proving to him that she was incapable of showing emotion.  (Her movie career collapsed after this.)  Simmons got her chance and it worked out even though the production was set back when she had a health crisis that lasted five weeks.

7. Kubrick was a prick to work with.  At one point, the horse-bound Douglas physically threatened him in order to get him to stop wearing the same clothes every day.  They had several major disagreements on the script.  For instance, Kubrick did not want to include the “I am Spartacus!” scene!  Douglas insisted on it, thank God.  Douglas was apoplectic when he learned that all his time on the crucifix ended up on the cutting room floor.  He was not going to be seen in that final scene.  Douglas won on that one also.  On the other hand, Douglas was concerned about having to say the line:  “I have never had a woman”.  He felt it would result in giggles from the audience.  It didn’t.

8. The biggest dispute was over the overarching theme of the movie.  Douglas and Trumbo wanted the “Large Spartacus” – the slave revolt was a major threat to the Roman Republic and after winning several spectacular victories, was overwhelmed by three Roman armies.  Kubrick and the studio wanted the “Small Spartacus” – Spartacus led a jail break that only had the goal of escaping from Italy, but was defeated by one Roman army.  After the first underwhelming rough cut, Trumbo wrote a brilliant critique which steered the film back towards the Large Spartacus.  However, Universal had the final cut and we ended up with Medium Spartacus.

9. Olivier agreed to play Crassus partly because the movie was to open with narration by Crassus.  This was latter cut.

10. Trumbo threatened to quit over rewrites.  He could not be on the set because not only was it a secret that he was writing the screenplay, but he literally could not come on the studio lot.  Douglas mollified him by promising him screen credit using his real name and 5% of the profits.  During a discussion about whether to credit Trumbo, Kubrick offered to take the credit!  I told you he was a prick.

11. The movie was supposed to cost $5 million, but ended up at around $12 million.  Part of the overrun was due to adding an expanded final battle scene.  Franco provided 8,000 Spanish soldiers (at $8/day), but insisted that none of them being shown dying on screen!

12. John  Gavin (Caesar) went to a Notre Dame at Michigan State football game and got the crowd to yell “I am Spartacus!” for his tape recorder and this is the sound that was used in the scene.

13. That’s Woody Strode, not a dummy, hanging upside down through numerous takes.

14. Douglas broke Charles McGraw’s (the trainer) jaw when filming the soup-drowning scene.  The cut that appears in the movie involves a stunt double.

15. The actor who gets his arm cut off in the final battle was an amputee with a prosthetic arm.  Douglas refused to do more than three takes.

16. Douglas had to talk the prudish Simmons into taking off her bra for the bathing scene.

17. Universal made 42 cuts to the movie before releasing it.  These included:  no severing pf an arm, we don’t see Gracchus’ suicide, no montage of other battles (not even the map and narration), and of course, no “snails and oysters” scene.  In general, the studio cuts reduced Spartacus’ historical significance because the powers did not want the rebellion to appear to have had a chance to succeed.  This might have inspired communists!

18. The “snails and oysters” scene was discovered years later, but the audio was so bad it had to be recreated.  Tony Curtis came in to do his lines again, but Olivier had passed away so Anthony Hopkins did his voice, extremely well.