Robert Wise (Sept. 10, 1914-Sept. 14, 2005), Director, Tribute to a Bad Man. Photo uncredited and undated, c. 1960s-1970s. A journeyman director of films in many genres. Received Oscars for West Side Story (1961) and The Sound of Music (1964). Notable credits include: Citizen Kane (1941) (editor), The Curse of the Cat People (1944), Blood on the Moon (1948), The Set-Up (1949), The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), Executive Suite (1954), I Want to Live (1958), The Sand Pebbles (1966).
“While waiting for Tracy I had to use my covered set, a Quonset hut that had the bunk house for the ranch. We had quite a number of bunkhouse scenes with the cowboys which was supposed to be a cover set in case of bad weather. I ran out of scenes I could shoot outside with Irene and Bob and the others. I had to go into the Quonset hut set just to keep shooting.
“The first thing that happened when he (Tracy) finally arrived [Friday/Saturday, June 10/11, 1955] — I walked over to his room at his motel. I went over to see him. He took me in the bathroom and I knew what it was about. He had a little growth on his cheek. He felt it might be malignant. That is why he felt he had to get it taken care of right away. So it had been removed and he showed a little scar to me and with almost tears in his eyes, he said, ‘Do you think this will be all right? Do you think it will be ok?’ He was such a hypochondriac. And I tried to reassure him as best as I could. I think he got a clean bill of health from the doctor.
“My memory is we did not even shoot at all the next day [Saturday, June 11, 1955]. We just had him come up to the location which was another 1,000 feet or so [from the motel].
“He was not happy about it (the location). When we first started talking about this movie, he said, ‘Let’s find a location that’s different — with green meadows and mountains. So I did. I found it up about 9,000 feet in the San Juan Mountains. We put this marvelous set up there. A real A production, absolutely.
[Tracy left Montrose on Saturday afternoon, June 11, 1955, and did not return until Sunday, June 18, 1955, after seeing his doctor.]
“The next morning (Monday, June 20, 1955) — I recall he had been through wardrobe in L. A. — he came to the set and walked and walked around and got acclimated a little bit. According to the production sheet, he really only worked an hour or two that day. He always from the beginning was complaining about the altitude. He said, ‘I hope I can get through it.’
“The second day was a late call. I tried to give him every break I could. He came up and we did a few scenes, some with Bob. He was not very nice to Bob at all. He was just rather gruff with him. And, as a matter of fact, he was not very nice to Irene (Papas) either. And he had been rather involved with her casting. We got the scenes, but he was complaining about the altitude.
“The third day, all the time complaining about the altitude, Tracy said, ‘I hope to finish and get through the film.’ Taking deep breaths and not being nice to Bob. A ‘I want to get away from the boy’ sort of feeling. I guess Spencer was just unhappy about being up there…we got a Jeep to get up there. It took about 45 minutes from Montrose.
“We had a bit of business early that morning when Tracy had to bend over and pick up a horse’s hoof. He did it and came up gasping for breath and said, ‘Bob (Wise), I am never going to do it. I am never going to finish this film. With this altitude I just don’t think I am going to get through it, I tell you.’
“I had been told by Benny Thaw, the man in charge of talent at MGM, who told my agent there had not been a picture that Tracy had not come and said two weeks before the start, ‘You have got to get me out of this. I can’t do it.’ Every picture. But they always managed to mollify him and talk it out. This man who looked like the Rock of Gibraltar on the screen…Brilliant actor.
“Griffin, my assistant director, and I looked at each other and said, maybe he cannot do it. We closed everything down and traipsed down the hill with the cast and got into our cars. And we all went to our own rooms. I called the studio and I got Sam Zimbalist. I said, ‘Sam, we might as well face it. We are not going to get this picture done with Spencer. He is complaining about the altitude and shortness of breath. I just don’t feel that we are going to get through; we are just going to go on and on. So, he said, ‘Hang in there. I will call you back in a little bit. I waited an hour or two. Zimbalist called back. He said, ‘OK, he is out of the picture. I will try and get you (Clark) Gable.’ So I went over to see Spence in his room and to break the news to him. Howard Strickland, an old buddy of Spence, happened to be there. When I told Spence it was OK, he did not have to do the movie, he was out of it. You would have thought his world had come to an end; his career was finished; he was done. They (MGM) had never pulled him off before. I think what he thought was we would close the company and go down and find another location at 3,000 feet or whatever. In the meantime, there was another picture he wanted to do, The Mountain. Abroad. He would be able to do that and then come back and pick ours up. So they absolutely surprised the hell out of him. He was absolutely beside himself. His career was over. He would never act again.
“As angry as I was, I almost started to feel sorry for him. It was just a dreadful, emotional thing. I guess he left the next day. I don’t think I ever saw him again.
“I went back to my place and hung in there. In the mean time, I have a whole company sitting up there on the mountain that can’t work. Costs are going on. It was a terrible situation. So Sam called back and said, we can’t get Gable. He called back in a day or two and said we got Jimmy Cagney, but he can’t do it for a couple of months because he has to finish another picture. All we could do was pack the whole company and everyone up. We left some props. And we waited for Jimmy.
“I got a call one day. A terrible thing has happened. Francis was taking flying lessons and he crashed on a take off.
“We went back up (to Montrose). I timed it so it was a few weeks before Cagney was coming up. We recast the role with Don Dubbins.”
Source: Robert Wise, interview, Aug. 11, 1992.
