♪ [Theme Music] ♪ ANNOUNCER: Otto Preminger
is one of that breed in the theatre known as
an actor's director. Not only has he set young
people and unknown actors on the road to stardom,
he's provided the vehicles in which a number of
established stars have ridden to Academy
Award nominations. It's a remarkable record
for a man who started out in Vienna more than sixty
years ago to become a lawyer but was drawn
ineluctably to the stage as an actor, a
director, and a producer. Eight years in
Europe, five in New York, then on to the challenge
of Hollywood and the new medium of motion pictures. Thirty years and
thirty pictures later, Otto Preminger continues
to set new standards and stir new controversies. JAMES DAY: Mr. Preminger, why
do you make films? Is there a real purpose
other than making money or is each film a
purpose in itself? OTTO PREMINGER: Well, you
see the question of making money has
nothing to do with it. In our society, money is
what we measure success by. If my pictures
didn't make money, then I couldn't
make more pictures. JAMES DAY: So they
have to make money, whatever else. OTTO PREMINGER: Yes, but
you don't think of money, I mean at least
I don't think. I love -- I often
think about it, that I am a
very lucky man, that I have found a
profession which I love. I love to work. I love to start in the
morning whether I am shooting a film, or
rehearsing a play, or casting a play, or
looking for vehicles, or traveling with a film,
or talking here to you. It's a wonderful thing
that I don't have to be -- and they could pay me any
money they wanted to and I would not switch. JAMES DAY: It's a more
than a love of the work. OTTO PREMINGER: Because I
don't have to be in the morning at a desk
every day from 9:30 or 10 o'clock until 5
in the afternoon, and do the same thing. Merely not doing
the same thing, I mean that you can use
your own imagination, your own
choice what to do, that you are
not hemmed in. That's wonderful. It is not money,
just the thing, and maybe other people
wouldn't like it but I love it. JAMES DAY: It's the use of
your own talents and the exercise of
your own talents, the God-given
talents that you have. OTTO PREMINGER: Yes, it's
the choice, the choice. JAMES DAY: And the
choice, and the freedom, I suppose. OTTO PREMINGER:
It is freedom. JAMES DAY: What drew
you to the theatre? OTTO PREMINGER:
Well, when I was very, very young in
Vienna where I was born, I always wanted to be an
actor from the age of 9, and then when I was
17, I became an actor. JAMES DAY: Did you go to
the theatre a good many times when you
were very young? OTTO PREMINGER: Yes, at
least four times a week from the age of 10 and 11. JAMES DAY: What kind of
theatre was it in Vienna? OTTO PREMINGER:
Well, there was very, very good theatre. There's a state theatre. There was another
private theatre, and a second
private theatre, and then there was this
theatre that Max Reinhardt founded, or took over
and renovated in 1924, and this is where I
acted for the first time. My first part was the Open
Theatre with a Goldoni play, [Italian], and you
see there was no curtain and the young actors
changed the scenery, and I used to
dance with dancing. I used to dance out with
music buy Mozart and carry a chair out, a
table, a glass. JAMES DAY: How
old were you then? OTTO PREMINGER:
Not quite 17. JAMES DAY: And you were
studying law at the time? OTTO PREMINGER: No. JAMES DAY: You weren't? OTTO PREMINGER: Then
after I got this job, my father was a lawyer. My father didn't take
this very seriously. He suggested that I
should do something. He said, "You do
whatever you like. You want to be
an actor, fine, but do something
formal, finish some formal studies," and because he
was a lawyer and we were very close, I studied law. I never
practiced law ever. JAMES DAY: Was
this painful for you, to have to study something where
you didn't intend to practice? OTTO PREMINGER: No, no,
it was very good for me. JAMES DAY: Good for
you in what sense? OTTO PREMINGER: Discipline, because you learn to sit
still for a few hours, and I did it only in
between engagements. I went to various
theatres as an actor, and when I came
home for vacation, my father had a tutor
for me and I studied, and I had already my own
theatre in Vienna when I became doctor of law,
but I never practiced. JAMES DAY:
Your own theatre, and that was what,
when you were 22, I suppose? OTTO PREMINGER: No, I
was a little younger, about 21. JAMES DAY: How does
one get his own theatre, Mr. Preminger? OTTO PREMINGER:
I started it. JAMES DAY: And it's a
commercial theatre, obviously. OTTO PREMINGER: Yeah, sure. JAMES DAY: It
had to make money, too. OTTO PREMINGER: There
was another theatre, and then eventually I took
over the theatre from Max Reinhardt that I
told you about, but if you talk to
me too much about it, it's bad because I'm
writing my autobiography, and then Doubleday
will be very mad at me. JAMES DAY: I see. Well, maybe this will
help sell the autobiography. Was the Vienna of your
childhood a different kind of place insofar as
theatre was concerned? You speak as though
there was a great deal of theatre available, and if
one can start one's own theatre, it
certainly must be so. OTTO PREMINGER: Well,
not so many theatres but I started a theatre because
I had a partner with money, he was also an
actor and a director. He was older than I, and
he had a very rich wife and they financed this
theatre, bless him. JAMES DAY: Why would you
want your own theatre when you were doing
so well acting? Simply to have --? OTTO PREMINGER: I was not
doing so well, I just told you. JAMES DAY: You
weren't doing so well. I see. OTTO PREMINGER: The part
that I described doesn't seem so great. I wanted to play big,
but besides I gave up. When I was 19, I gave up
acting and I started to direct. JAMES DAY: Why? OTTO PREMINGER: Because I was
more interested in directing. JAMES DAY: Max Reinhardt
is something of a legend. What kind of a man was he? OTTO PREMINGER: He was
a very interesting man. He was a great director. He was somewhat shy but
when he felt that an actor really wanted to
be directed by him, he was amazing. His imagination and
the way he could get variations of scenes
and characterizations for actors, it's the only
school I ever attended is watching him direct. His hundredth birthday,
as a matter of fact, will be in September. JAMES DAY: Is that right? OTTO PREMINGER: They are
having a Bingham, a festival, a
Reinhardt festival. It's one of these days is
his hundredth birthday. JAMES DAY: If you were to
choose one man who had the greatest influence, would
it be Max Reinhardt then because of his
early influence? OTTO PREMINGER:
Probably. Yeah. You don't know. You are influenced by
everything that happens in life. JAMES DAY: Of course,
and constantly influenced, I suspect. OTTO PREMINGER: Yeah. JAMES DAY: What led you
from Europe to American, then? OTTO PREMINGER: A man came
to Vienna who heard about me. I was by that time, I
had succeeded Reinhardt. I ran his theatre. I was 28. His name was
Joseph M. Schenck, and he had just
merged Twentieth Century and Fox, and offered me
a contract in Twentieth Century-Fox. JAMES DAY: With the motion
pictures in Hollywood, then? OTTO PREMINGER: Yeah. JAMES DAY: But you came to New
York, didn't you, at first? OTTO PREMINGER: No, I came
to Hollywood but I stopped in New York and I directed
a play here on the way for one of my
friends from Europe, who I knew in
Europe, Gilbert Miller. JAMES DAY: When was that? OTTO PREMINGER: 1935. It opened on the
20th of December, 1935. How is this for
accuracy, hmm? JAMES DAY: Very good. Very good. OTTO PREMINGER: Thank you. JAMES DAY: It must have
been an experience that can be recalled
rather vividly. I suspect coming to
this country and opening a stage play in this country
was quite an experience. OTTO PREMINGER: Well, the
whole idea of coming to this country was a
tremendous adventure. You see, Americans travel
but Europeans rarely come to America, now more than
before but at that time, to go to America was in
itself an adventure -- the ship and the ocean. I came on a new
ship, the Normandy, a faster ship, and it
was just fascinating. I never forget it. JAMES DAY: So the reality
was fully as exciting as the anticipation of it? OTTO PREMINGER: Yeah. Right. JAMES DAY: Then when did you go from New York to Hollywood. OTTO PREMINGER: On the
2nd of January-- you are a very
tough taskmaster-- 2nd of January, 1936,
professor. JAMES DAY: The
2nd of January, you know it to the very exact
day. Why is that? OTTO PREMINGER: There
are very few dates that I remember but I remember
the day I arrived in this country I remember the
days when my children were born, and I remember when
I arrived in Hollywood -- and my own birthday. JAMES DAY: And what
happened when you arrived in Hollywood, then? OTTO PREMINGER:
Oh, don't ask me. Let's talk about
something intelligent, not about my life. I met Darryl Zanuck and
we got along and we had fights. I left Hollywood again. I came to New York. I did plays. I went back to
Hollywood again. I eventually had a very
big hit with one film, and in show business
that's all that counts. You need one hit. JAMES DAY: And
that big hit? OTTO PREMINGER: Was Laura. JAMES DAY: Laura. OTTO PREMINGER: A
film called Laura. JAMES DAY: Now the films
that you have done since then, a number of them of
course have been at least classified as
controversial. Controversies have
surrounded some of these films. The Moon is
Blue, for example, was a controversial film
because of pushing new grounds with
respect to taste. OTTO PREMINGER: Well, it
was played on television without cuts so the
controversy is over. JAMES DAY: Do you
think that change will constantly bring about a
situation where films made today will be seen on
television tomorrow, so to speak? OTTO PREMINGER: Sure. Certainly. JAMES DAY: What prompted
you to push ahead with films like The Moon is
Blue and other films? OTTO PREMINGER:
It's not like this. I mean, these
things happen. I directed and produced
the play called The Moon is Blue. The play ran three
years in New York. It was a tremendous
hit, 18 months in Chicago. When I put it on film, suddenly
people started to object. The Catholic Church said I shouldn't use the word "virgin." Our own censorship
administration in Hollywood didn't give
me the seal of approval, so I did it without
seal of approval. It didn't hurt the film. JAMES DAY: It didn't
make any difference, then? OTTO PREMINGER: No. JAMES DAY: What about a
lawsuit with Columbia over the cutting of one of your movies for showing
on television? OTTO PREMINGER: It was
Anatomy of a Murder, and it was not a big
cut. They couldn't cut it. I had a contract where
they couldn't cut my films but they permitted, they
sold it to television and did not forbid
them to cut it. They sold it to 105
television stations, each station had
their own version, that's why I sued. JAMES DAY: And as a result of
that suit, what happened? OTTO PREMINGER: Now all my
films, they are afraid now. My films are
shown without cuts. JAMES DAY: You didn't win
the lawsuit, so to speak, but -- OTTO PREMINGER: No, I
did not win the lawsuit, but the judge said that minor cuts can be made
according to television usage but as nobody
knows what a minor cut is, they don't cut at all
because they're afraid if they do cut
more than minor, that I could sue them
again and they don't want to take the risk. JAMES DAY: And do you feel
that any cut is a major cut, that a film really ought to
go on television precisely-? OTTO PREMINGER:
Yeah, let me tell you, I am not pretentious and
I don't think of my films are such masterpieces that
it's really sacrilegious to cut them -- no. But I make a film, the
film is shown in theatres under a certain title,
and the audience is now turning on their
television set, and they are entitled in
my opinion to see the same film on television. It's like when you
buy, I don't know, when you buy a watch,
whatever the watch is, when somebody
buys it from you, he's entitled to
get the same watch. You don't erase the firm's
name and make changes. It is like a trademark. A film is finished, and
you have the right to see it the way like a book. How would you like to buy
a book and then suddenly have ten pages cut out? It's wrong, but even
in our free society, this is what we
are standing for. As you can see from many
things that happened in the last few months, we
have to really defend our freedoms in every area. I mean, who would have
thought that somebody could come in while
you were sitting here, and go to your home, and
go through your files with the permission of various
government agencies? Would you have
thought that? Apparently it is possible
so we must fight it. JAMES DAY: So it's a
gradual change that takes place, and we accept each
small change until we find ourselves in
serious difficulty. OTTO PREMINGER: Yeah, and then
suddenly we have no freedom. This is what
happened in Germany. This is very dangerous.
That is important. Each of us in our own area
must defend his own freedom. JAMES DAY: In
the same way, when you make a
film for the theatre, I presume you
build a certain mood. It has a certain
cohesion which oftentimes destroyed, as you
know, on television by the interruptions. I
suppose you feel -- OTTO PREMINGER: Yeah, and
naturally, like every film-maker, I am very much
against the interruptions for commercials. You know in
England, for instance, where there is also
commercial television station, they play the ads
in the beginning and at the end, in France too,
and there are some shows here where they do it. But because it is a
question of money again, you know -- you accused me
in the beginning that I love money -- if you sell
it to a television station or the film is sold, the
advertiser in our system pays for it, and the
advertiser wants to see his ads so they do it, but
I hope eventually it will cease. They will learn that
they don't sell like this, that they only
make the public mad, that it is better for them
to say in the beginning, "So-and-so
proudly presents, and have the ad
in the beginning, but they have not
learned it yet. JAMES DAY: How would you
put films on television, or would you put
them there at all? OTTO PREMINGER: Sure, I
think it's very good. Why not? No, I think films have
a much longer life now because of television, and
they'll be even more now with all these
films, the cassettes, the films that
they show in hotels. Films live longer. JAMES DAY: Um, but
you would preserve the integrity of the artist
and not invert the values where the money-making
becomes more important. OTTO PREMINGER: I
don't want to make big words like integrity of the artist.
It is something that is sold, and the buyer should have
the right to get it in the same form, good or bad, as
it was originally created, and it is very
simple, you know. It will eventually because
it just has to be agreed upon. It will come to it. The public will object
to the interruptions. JAMES DAY: You've made
a number of films from books, and at
least in one instance, in The Exodus, the author
has criticized you for changing his book. Obviously the same rules
don't apply in your -- OTTO PREMINGER:
No, because look, when an author sells the
rights to have a film made of his book, the word
"sell" and "buy" implies that now I, the
buyer, am the owner, and he has no rights
of the book any more. I don't have any -- unless he
puts it in the contract. He can do it. I have no obligation to be what
you call faithful to the book. The book, the story, is
now filtered through my brain. I do and emphasize
the things that I like. That's why I bought it. I don't like 3,000
pages of the book. I like only certain
things in the theme, certain characters
more than others. JAMES DAY: So you create
it from your point of view. You created a new work. OTTO PREMINGER: Sure, right,
and if it's a success, then I am right, if it's a
failure, then I have the failure, and if the author of
Exodus -- and the reason really was a
personal reason. He was supposed to
write the screenplay. I didn't like the
screenplay that he wrote. He's a very good writer but
he cannot write scenes. He cannot write
dialogue, drama, and so I had to have somebody
else write the screenplay. That made him mad, but
I don't really care. I am not mad at him. I had a
tremendous success, which is after all
based on his book, but he didn't like it, and
it's only one in millions of people. What does it matter? JAMES DAY: Mr. Preminger,
you're one of several who have fought
censorship in filmmaking. Where does censorship
leave off or where is the balance between
complete freedom, complete license, let
me put it that way? OTTO PREMINGER:
Well, it is very simple, and it doesn't have to be
achieved by censorship. We have laws. We have laws
against obscenity. If you now would take
off your clothes here, and forget that we
are being filmed, you would be arrested. People would come and
either put you into a hospital or into
prison, right? JAMES DAY: Right. OTTO PREMINGER:
The same thing, if you without any reason
commit an obscene act that has no what they call
in law "social redeeming value" on the screen,
then the picture will be confiscated and you
will go to prison. It's very simple. Censorship should really
be called pre-censorship. It is when people, be it
the government agency or private agencies
or vigilantes, you know, tell you in
advance before you do it, you are permitted to
do this and you are not permitted to do
that. That's wrong. JAMES DAY: Prior restraint.
Prior restraint, yes. OTTO PREMINGER: Yes. JAMES DAY: So you
obviously would not favor the complete license or
virtually the complete license that now
seems to exist? OTTO PREMINGER:
It's no favor. It's a law. The law exists, and the
police and the courts have to do their duty. JAMES DAY: How do you feel
about violence in films? A good many films nowadays
are a question of violence. OTTO PREMINGER:
Well violence, you see, it is very
difficult to fight it. I personally
hate violence. For instance I have
children who are very young, they are
12 years old, going on 13 now. Now they have
always been permitted, you know, when I
show pictures, sometimes I show
it in my house, to see anything they
want, so they can ask me questions about sex. I don't think
there is any harm, particularly if you don't
make a big secret about it. I know my little son
came home one day and my daughter, they are twins,
they were 9 years old, and my son
said, "In school, secretly they are
reading Playboy." I said, "You don't
have to read it secretly, and I happened to have
two issues of Playboy. I gave one to the
girl and one to the boy. They went through it,
and all he said to the centerpiece, he
said, "Vicky, give me yours. I don't like blondes." Yeah, and they
exchanged the Playboy, and they forgot it, and
there was no big thing about it. Now violence is different. You see, I think that
if violence -- very hard, bloody violence -- is
committed and put into the minds of children,
of young people, there is also the
danger that because it is glorified that they would
be tempted to imitate it, to do the same thing. I don't know how it could
be forbidden because I am against censorship but I
think the parents should look out for it, and this
is where I would like to protect young people. It's like alcohol --
there's nothing wrong about alcohol but we want
to protect young people from it. I think the same thing
is true with violence. You wouldn't be
particularly impressed with violence --
you would leave, you'd be bored -- but a
child could be hurt by seeing too much violence. JAMES DAY: What kind of
films do your twins see? I suppose they see a great many
in your home, wouldn't they? OTTO PREMINGER: I must
confess that my son, yes, he likes films. She is an absolute
television freak. When there were
these, what was it called, Watergate things, you know,
on television -- she cried. She called me in
my office and says, "Daddy, it's a tragedy. I come home from school
and there's not one of my soap operas there. They are all
cancelled for Watergate." JAMES DAY: What's the
attraction of soap operas, do you know? OTTO PREMINGER:
Well, she loves them. You see, I first was
against them but you can't stop children from
seeing television, and then I found it
has one very good thing. Children today, much
earlier than ever before, acquire a very
big vocabulary. They somehow know about
the world more because they see it,
it's all visual, you see. It is easier
than reading books. Of course they don't
want to read at all, they say it is dull, but
I think it has a value, and I also hope that as
they are getting older -- he already is not
interested and they're the same age -- but that they will
give up the soap operas. JAMES DAY: Do you do a
great deal of reading yourself? OTTO PREMINGER: I have to, it's
part of it, and I also like it. JAMES DAY: Of course, it is,
and as you read, are you constantly
looking for the possibilities of a
stage performance? OTTO PREMINGER:
Always, yeah. JAMES DAY: What
most attracts you? This is a stupid question
but there must be some standards that you have. OTTO PREMINGER: No, it's
not stupid -- characters or people, yeah, much
more than plots. JAMES DAY: Are
there things -- plots, characters, plays, books
-- that has been the one you've always wanted to
do and haven't done yet? OTTO PREMINGER: Yeah. I
mean, there are things that I started to do. I wanted to do a
picture on Gandhi, I was in India, I
worked very hard on it, and then it
didn't materialize. I was not happy with
the whole concept, and I also felt after
knowing more about India that it was really a thing that
they should do themselves. Their reactions are
different than ours. They are going to make one
now but a Western actor is not right to play Gandhi. There is such different,
there are different human values there. They
are wonderful. I enjoyed being there and what
I learned there was wonderful. I met Nehru, who is one of
the most impressive people I ever met in my life. He and Roosevelt are my
-- but I -- JAMES DAY: I suppose
for reasons that may be fairly obvious
to anyone, both Nehru and Roosevelt,
or were they so obvious? OTTO PREMINGER: What? JAMES DAY: The reasons
that these two men stand out so vividly in your mind,
the qualities? OTTO PREMINGER: Yeah,
their human qualities, much more than the
political thing. They seem to have a
personality which you can't forget, a
warmth, a humanity, and freedom about them
which was wonderful. JAMES DAY: Mr. Preminger,
you collect art, modern art, do you
not? I'm told you do. OTTO PREMINGER:
Yeah, I don't collect. I have some
paintings which I like, I live with them.
I am not really a collector, only really in my house
where I have a place. JAMES DAY: But you have
chosen artists of the twentieth century. OTTO PREMINGER: Yeah. JAMES DAY:
Picasso and Clay. Miro OTTO PREMINGER: How
do you know all this? JAMES DAY: Well, we always
try to find out what we can before we meet the
guests. It is dangerous. OTTO PREMINGER:
Did you break in? JAMES DAY: No,
no, I haven't yet, but I am curious to
know why modern art? Just a matter of
taste, I suppose. OTTO PREMINGER: Well, when
I was young in Vienna, I used to sit through days
and days in museums and see old art, and then
eventually when I grew up, I felt I need, I
just don't know. I liked contemporary art
better. It speaks to me more. It's an emotional
thing, you can't tell why. JAMES DAY: Is
being modern, being interested in
contemporary things, a part of staying
everlastingly youthful as well? OTTO PREMINGER: No. JAMES DAY: That
doesn't come into it? OTTO PREMINGER: I'm
not worried about age. Look, you must admit that
every age, if you really use it right, if you live
through it, has its great, wonderful things, and
also its difficulties. Now I have been young and
I am enjoying being older. JAMES DAY: What are the
benefits of being older? OTTO PREMINGER:
I don't know. I mean, I enjoy every day
getting older just as much as I enjoyed it
twenty years ago. JAMES DAY: Part of
getting older is a kind of freedom, is it not?
Your youth is behind you. OTTO PREMINGER:
Maybe that is true, too. Not exactly but it
is in a way true. JAMES DAY: And
maybe doing, as you said at the outset,
going to work every day and doing the things that- OTTO PREMINGER: That you like,
that is the main thing. JAMES DAY: --
that you like to do. Do you have, among
all of your pictures, any that you are particularly
proud of for any reason? It's unfair to single
one out because you shall always be known by
all of your pictures, not one. OTTO PREMINGER: No. I don't. I
don't think in these terms. I make a film. I concentrate
while I am making it. When it is over, deliberately
after I have seen the film twice or three times with
an audience, I detach myself. JAMES DAY: Why? OTTO PREMINGER: Because
I want to work on a new thing, otherwise I would
always think of the old one. JAMES DAY: And
redoing it, I suppose. OTTO PREMINGER: Right. JAMES DAY: Mr. Preminger, it's
been a delight to have you here. OTTO PREMINGER: Thank
you It is my pleasure. JAMES DAY: We appreciate having
the chance to talk with you. OTTO PREMINGER: It's nice
to see another man who has a similar hairdo that I,
although you could use an electric razor here so
it's a little shorter. JAMES DAY: Well,
I hope if I do, it'll bring me the
same kind of success that you've enjoyed
in your career. OTTO PREMINGER: I
thank you very much. It was very
charming to be here. ♪ [Theme Music] ♪
