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February 10, 2006
Bogdanovich Slays 'Targets' at Film Forum
Every few months or so, I find myself bumping into Peter Bogdanovich at some cinema or other around town. And last night at Film Forum, there he was again, introducing a screening of his 1968 film Targets as part of the theater's final night of its Boris Karloff series.
Of course, Bogdanovich does not really do "introductions," but something a little closer to the lecture species. If he is the right mood, these chats can be as good as filmgoing gets. And indeed, he was in fine form Thursday night--except for one minor problem.
"Hello," he said from a podium at the front of the theater. "You're going to see a lousy print." Evidently, the Paramount print that repertory programmer Bruce Goldstein summoned for the screening was in severe disrepair, and an inferior British print arrived in its place. "I discovered that this existed when the film came out in '68 in England. And someone said to me that the film ran less than 75 minutes. And I said, 'Wait a minute--is that a typo? Because the running time is 90 minutes.' No, it wasn't a typo. That was the English version--15 minutes shorter, and that's what you're going to see."
Bogdanovich spent 20 fairly brilliant minutes detailing how he segued from his mid-1960s film writing career into filmmaking. He dusted off the story of meeting Roger Corman, who mentored Bogdanovich on a couple of films in his quintessentially cheapskate way until giving the young writer a chance to direct in 1968. But it was not going to be that easy, Bogdanovich recalled. "Roger called me one day and asked me, 'How would you like to make your own film?'
"I said, 'Well, Roger, of course.'
"He said, 'Well here's the situation: Boris Karloff owes me two days. Now here's what I want you to do: Get Karloff, and shoot 20 minutes in two days. You can shoot 20 minutes in two days; I've shot whole movies in two days.'"
The catch was that Bogdanovich had to also cull 20 minutes of Karloff footage from Corman's film The Terror to compose the rest of the actor's performance. "It's possibly the worst movie ever made," Bogdanovich said. "Jack Nicholson is in it, and he's so bad in it I thought he was a lousy actor." The rest of the new film could be anything Bogdanovich wanted; Corman literally did not care who else was in it.
Bogdanovich brainstormed with then-wife Polly Platt and whipped up a script titled Before I Die, which would feature Karloff as a fading actor who gets killed off halfway through the film. Not totally pleased with his draft, Bogdanovich consulted one of his friends--a little more established filmmaker named Sam Fuller--for help on a rewrite.
"I said, 'Sammy, would you read this script?' " Bogdanovich told the crowd. "He read it, and he said--"
Bogdanovich paused, slumped a little and adopted the gruff, booming bark that was Fuller's speaking voice, " 'Come on over to the shack, kid.' Which meant come over to his house, which was in... Do we have time for this Bruce?"
The audience shouted its endorsement. Goldstein nodded and shrugged "It's the cut version."
Bogdanovich smiled. "It's all an elaborate set-up for that line, isn't it? So anyway, we went over to the shack. Sammy says, 'Why do you kill your leading man in the middle of the picture?'
"I said, 'Well, I only have him for two days.'
" 'Forget about it! Don't think about that. Never think about limitations. Only think about what you want. You don't want to kill Karloff in the middle of the picture!'
I said, 'You're right, I don't, but--'
'Forget about it! Write what you want! Worry about the other stuff later. All right. Now.' And then he started ad libbing, and it was brilliant. I took notes, and in about an hour and a half, he rewrote the whole script. And I just took some notes, and I said, 'Jesus Christ, this is great.' "
Fuller eventually conceived the film's ending and some of the narrative tricks that allowed Bogdanovich to intercut footage from The Terror. "And so I said to Sammy as I was leaving three hours later, 'Sammy, I gotta give you credit for this. You just rewrote the whole script.'
"He says, 'No, kid. Forget it. No credit.'
"I said, 'Why not?'
"He said, 'Because if you give me credit, they'll think I did everything.'
"I said, 'Well, you practically did."
Bogdanovich also delved into his working relationship with the debilitated 79-year-old Karloff, who was initially reluctant to play a self-deprecating actor so closely resembling himself. To hear the Karloff stories and the remaining, you know, hour or so of the director's epic (and genuinely funny and smart and cool) introduction, stand by for Film Forum's podcast of the event, which I am told should go up on the theater's Web site sooner than later. Me? I will just start the countdown for my next Bogdanovich run-in, which I guess should also occur any day now. You know how that goes.
Posted by stvanairsdale at February 10, 2006 11:46 AM
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Comments
I've been lucky enough to see Bogdanovich twice here in Austin. A couple years ago they showed a beautiful print of Targets at the Alamo Drafthouse, then he came back for a mini-Bogdanovich-fest last year where I got to see the director's cut of Mask which included the Springsteen songs he originally wanted. Hoping he comes back again!
Posted by: Bryan Poyser at February 10, 2006 01:06 PM
Word up on the coolness of Bogdanovich. I advise everyone reading this never to miss his DVD commentary tracks whenever they are offered to you. He's so relaxed, amiable, such a good storyteller and such a good teacher...
The man's just good company.
I'll be on the lookout for that podcast, Reeler.
Posted by: jfigl at February 10, 2006 09:02 PM
Targets is one of my favorite movies. How was the 75 minute cut?
Posted by: Matt Singer at February 11, 2006 11:48 AM
Weird. Mere hours after I posted my comment above, I saw that Bogdanovich is indeed coming back to Austin next week to present The Last Picture Show as part of a Stella Adler tribute. I'm guessing he digs this town.
Posted by: Bryan Poyser at February 11, 2006 08:46 PM