Robert Wise

Christopher Plummer hated this role.

He turned it down several times before letting director Robert Wise convince him that of course he'd be right for it.

They'd already rejected Sean Connery, Richard Burton, Bing Crosby, Yul Brynner.

But he regretted signing almost as soon, he said, as the ink was on the page.

I really want that Dreams 4K as well that Criterion did.

Anyway, uh, next week is West Side Story from the great Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins.

Uh, but in the meantime, this was the episode of The Golden Hour Film Podcast where we covered the incredible Singin' in the Rain, Gene Kelly's podcast debut, Debbie Reynolds' podcast debut-

Yeah

They did the director's cut for a motion picture.

So Robert Wise in 2000 went back in and he and Darren Docterman and some other production team members went back in in 2000 and finally did a good sound mix and did a director's cut edit of the motion picture.

It did improve it.

But now having seen it again on the big screen with the good sound, with the good projection system, I'm here to tell you, boy, does that movie suck.

1915, Edmund O'Brien, who appeared in the 1939 version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Dream No Evil.

1914, Robert Wise, director for The Day the Earth Stood Still, Curse of the Cat People, Body Snatcher, Audrey Rose, and The Haunting.

If you've never seen The Haunting, I strongly urge you check that one out.

That is a great flick.

But yeah, it was a really...

Really? Robert Wise directed it? He also directed a couple...

Star Trek 1, the motion picture.

So funny.

I'm looking up right now.

I had no idea.

It won Best Picture and Best Director for Robert Wise, but it did not win Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress for...

Wow, I'm surprised.

And it's that the movie's literally not done.

They, they gave Robert Wise the date, and they said, "This is the date your movie's coming out." So they were doing that even in 1979.

That's not a new invention.

Oh, no. That's never a good sign.

And, and they weren't done.

And, and so in 2001, Robert Wise was like, "What if, what if we finished it? What if we use this fancy new thing called CGI and we kind of polish up the visual effects that we didn't have time to polish up?" And so that cut of the movie exists.

Uh, but no, like in 1979, Robert Wise considered it to be an un- unfinished movie.

So-

Uh, that TV series never happened, but the idea for the unmade pilot of that series is what would eventually become the first official film, which was Star Trek: The Motion Picture in 1979.

Uh, original series creator Gene Roddenberry was heavily involved, and the film was directed by Robert Wise, who was a very respected filmmaker with a lot of critically acclaimed movies in his past.

Even in the sci-fi genre, he made the original The Day the Earth Stood Still in 1951-

Mm