Quotes
Kong has hung around a long time. That is what I told him in my book: "You made only one movie and I made 80 and the one you made has been fabulously well known." So he has the edge over me, hasn't he?
Kong has always been fascinatingly present in my life. When I was in Paris at the Follie Bergere, there was a wonderful revue with King Kong. I went to see the show and a very popular Follies star was in the big hand.
KING KONG was difficult only because of the hours we had to put in. At that time, there was no protection for actors about time or anything. We worked straight through for 22 hours once on KONG.
Just scary for scary's sake is not worth anything. But, there was a fascinating story, where Claude Rains was a mindreader, and to his surprise he anticipated the winner of the derby.
Juan Tripp was a friend. Good name for an airline man, huh? "Juan Tripp after another?
Joel McCrea was a sweet human being, a very dear human being. Gentle, gentle kind of person. We had a social relationship because we both went frequently to the home of Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks.
Joan Crawford was so worried about herself, I felt. She was a good soul, a good soul. She wanted to be nice to everybody and kind, certainly kind to her fans. She thought about them a lot. Kind of a "queenish" thing to be doing.
It was such a sweet relief to me, because I had always worked, I had always worked, I had always worked-and it was time to do something else.
It was so satisfying for me-a great reward, just to see it done well. And it was beautifully directed by my daughter Susan Riskin. Imagine, a play about my mother directed by my daughter?!
It was really a wearying experience, because it was mechanics, really, as much as anything that we were dealing with.
It was necessary for the audience to see this and be shocked. But when I struck him, and the moment I saw part of him, I just froze! I wanted to run; I just couldn't go on! So they had to make another mask and do it over when I recovered. It was just so real.
It was good for us, I suppose. Those kinds of times produce qualities in us that make us better for having had them. My parents were not getting along. My mother was quite intolerant of friendships that were being developed.
It was appropriate to have someone who had written CASABLANCA-and it didn't hurt to have me, because I was married to some very great writers who fit into that time era.
It was a play of John Monk Saunders called NICKY and the book had been called Nicky and Her War Birds. I wouldn't have been in it, except that the girl who was supposed to do it was the daughter of the investor and things weren't going well. So they sent for me.
It had been about 10 years and I wasn't doing the pictures I would really have liked to have done, but there was a kindness and generosity and sweet feeling toward me that was quite lovely. I did get a larger salary than I had had before, and that was because they cared.
It didn't hurt that picture at all! It was Zaroff's idea to send the people out and then send the hounds after them.
Instead of going to shoot TITANIC, my play THE MEADOWLARK was presented in New Hampshire and that was worth 20 TITANICs.
I've written a play, THE MEADOWLARK, that was produced this past summer, and that was so much more rewarding than anything else could have been. It had the best cast and production it's ever had.
I would say the secret is to be enthusiastic about everything that comes into your life. To care, to care about people. To be excited about everything that comes close to you. I love to read. And I love to write, mostly.
I went to Washington to ask for a little residual payment for the people who had written films in the early, early days, people who never got any residuals on tapes or anything at all.