MELBOURNE AND THE MOVIES (2) - An extract - Ross Campbell recalls visits by Josef Von Sternberg and Warren Beatty

Editor's Note. This is the second post devoted to Ross Campbell's recently released memoir. For more details and information regarding purchase of the book CLICK HERE 

In 1967, following a screening of The Saga of Anatahan (1953), I found myself standing in the Palais downstairs foyer alongside Josef Von Sternberg (above). I didn’t utter a word. Thinking about the extraordinary films he made with Marlene Dietrich, the few I had seen, I simply basked in the glow of proximity. Later that same day, The Scarlet Empress (1934), his long unseen masterpiece, was shown in a dazzling 16mm print at the Classic Elsternwick. A one-off screening at that location chosen for its 16mm carbon arc illumination. I thought of the film as a baroque concerto for Dietrich and orchestra, so powerful was the interplay between music and images. It had bewildered audiences in 1934 - comic nightmare or claustrophobic tragedy? At the Classic it held the audience spellbound. 

Here was a director like few others, an inheritor of Erich von Stroheim’s celebration of excess sustained by the potential for greatness amid the intrinsic extravagance of Hollywood. A living link with the glorious past. And I had stood beside him only hours previously.

In 1975 multi-award-winning writer-producer-director Warren Beatty was in Melbourne to introduce Hal Ashby’s comedy-drama, Shampoo. Beatty co-starred with Julie Christie, Goldie Hawn, Lee Grant and Carrie Fisher. Beatty co-wrote and produced the film. 

Striding onto the Palais stage, looking into the vast, warmly lit auditorium, packed all the way back to the projection room, Beatty exclaimed, ‘What a beautiful theatre!’

The audience loved him. Charismatic in the spotlight, he spoke fondly about his 1967 film, Bonnie and Clyde (above). Directed by Arthur Penn, it starred Faye Dunaway, Gene Hackman, Estelle Parsons and Michael J Pollard. Beatty was active in all aspects of its production. Especially sound. As a teenager he was greatly influenced by George Stevens’ film, Shane (1953). This immediately caught my attention. I too had seen Shane at a Camden Saturday matinée and loved the film. 

For a young Beatty, the sound of gunshots in that film, the manner in which they exploded vividly on the soundtrack, was particularly impressive. He never forgot it. He wanted that quality in Bonnie and Clyde and worked with sound mixer Dan Wollin to achieve it. They previewed the film in an out-of-town cinema in Los Angeles. To Beatty’s astonishment the all-important explosions of gunfire were strangely lacklustre, reaching below the peak level achieved in the re-recording studio. Was someone fading sound during the shootouts? Totally perplexed, Beatty went up to the projection room. The elderly projectionist was surprised to see the star in his doorway. 

‘How’s it running?’ asked Beatty. ‘Quite well,’ replied the projectionist. ‘But I’ve had to ride the volume all the time. This is the most difficult film I’ve run since Shane!’

The explosive soundtrack for Shane