July / Aug 2009 Noir City Sentinel 15 THE SENTINEL INTERVIEW ARNOLD LAVEN TALES OF THE DARK SIDE Arnold Laven is not typically associated with film noir. The vet- eran director/producer/writer is probably best remembered for his thoughtful war drama The Rack (1956), starring a young Paul Newman, and a pair of hit television series, The Rifleman and The Big Country, produced in conjunction with his longtime partners Arthur Gardner and the late Jules V. Levy. Laven also directed several superior crime films, including Without Warning! (1952), Hollywood’s first contemporary-serial-killer movie, and the n underrated Slaughter on Tenth Avenue (1957). During a wide- e v a L d ranging conversation with Alan K. Rode, Laven comes across as l o n r A y a charming man who, in the words of Sydney Greenstreet’s s e t r u Kasper Gutman, “likes to talk to a man who likes to talk.” o C Sentinel: Tell me about your early life think it paid 25 cents an hour—this at Warner Bros. He broke me in on the important. A secondary responsibility and how you got into the motion was in 1939 or 1940. My father military training films and I learned by was continuity. If someone in the picture business. insisted that I should get inside the observation. There were some fine scene was smoking a cigarette in a studio, so I took it. At Warner Bros. I directors working on these films as close-up at a certain point, when you Arnold Laven: My family moved to was in and out of the mail room. I got well as assistant directors and editors go to the master shot, you tell the California in the late 1930s, during the temporary jobs in publicity sometimes, who moved up after working on the actor “Right here, you have to be Depression. My father couldn’t get but nothing of any consequence. less-complicated films. For example, smoking when he says this.” Or when work where we were living in Illinois, John Sturges was a film editor there someone takes a hat off, you need to so we packed everything we had in an Sentinel: Did you ever sneak onto the who went on to be a very distin- tell the director that so you can make old 1932 Ford and drove to Los Ange- Warner Bros. sound stages to watch guished feature film director. I wasn’t the cut from one shot to another with- les. Los Angeles was the cheapest movies in production? really thinking of being a director at out a hat suddenly appearing back on major city to live in at that time. The this point, but I loved film and was again. Essentially, you are responsible five of us rented a three-bedroom AL: Of course. I would go in, stand by actually studying various directors for making notes to yourself in the house in the Carthay Circle area for the door, and watch. I took great care under a microscope and subcon- script so that all the shots in a given $80 a month. not to attract any attention to myself. I sciously preparing myself for what scene will match. I was quite a film fan. I guess I was on the sound stage when they shot would come later. saw every reasonable film there was, Casablanca (1942). No one, particu- Sentinel: After World War II you con- wrote down the title and rated it from larly me, thought anything about it at Sentinel: What does a script super- tinued working as a script supervisor one to four stars. I also educated the time, but I actually watched that visor do? and did a number of pictures for myself by reading the best literature, final shot in the movie with Bogart Eagle-Lion. Was this a contractual Dostoevsky, Shakespeare, what have telling Claude Rains, “Louie, I think AL: It’s a hell of a job. On the hierar- relationship or did you work picture- you. I also read all of the plays from this is the beginning of a beautiful chy totem pole from one to ten, the to-picture? New York. My interest was very much friendship.” It’s hard to believe, but director is number one and the director in this direction. At the time, I was it’s perfectly true. of photography is number two, and the AL: I can’t quite remember how I got driving a truck for about $18 a week. At that time, the war in Europe script supervisor is probably number the job at Eagle-Lion, but I became My father’s business partner had was full-blown and all men of a cer- nine. But he has a very significant job. their regular script supervisor. I think a son who was an executive at Warner tain age had a draft number. The 1st He keeps track of all of the shots in that I went from picture-to-picture Bros. My father called Bobby Lord, a Motion Picture Unit was formed the script, in shorthand and with rather than a contract. producer at Warner Bros. who did One [about a year and half before Pearl sketches. In those days it was Way Passage (1932) and several other Harbor]. General Hap Arnold was the extremely time consuming for an Sentinel: Where was Eagle-Lion relatively important films. Lord evi- head of the Army Air Corps, and editor to run the film in order to keep located? dently passed the word to the man under him, the Signal Corps made all track of the different camera place- who hired people for the studio. The the training films for both the Army ments for a given scene: close-up, AL: It was a small independent studio studio called and asked me if I wanted and the Air Corps. After Pearl Harbor, dolly, what have you. The script super- on Santa Monica Boulevard. It was a job in the mail room as a messenger. when I joined the Motion Picture Unit, visor’s notes enabled the editor to under the auspices of Arthur Krim and I told them that I wanted to be a I would kibitz at the end of the day understand what coverage he had United Artists. Brynie Foy, who was in reader—I was an avid reader and with the head of the script supervisors instead of going and running the film. charge of the B unit at Warner Bros., made a couple of synopses of books— department. He was the trainer and So the script supervisor’s primary job took over as the production chief. but they only had the mail room job. I qualifier of all of the script supervisors wasn’t highly technical, but it was Eagle-Lion ran the gamut from very 16 Noir City Sentinel July / Aug 2009 low-budget films to mid-level pictures, very bad about it. Turhan Bey was a including He Walked by Night (1948) very likeable man. I would frequently and Canon City (1948). run lines with actors—it was a second- ary feature of my job as script supervi- Sentinel: Wasn’t some of the filming of sor, since they didn’t have cue cards at Canon City done on location in Col- that time. Some actors had instanta- orado? neous recall. Mickey Rooney never read the script; he didn’t have to. I AL: It was all done at the state prison remember reading a scene with him out there. Certain things I can remem- one time and then asking him, “Do ber quite well and Canon City is a pic- you want to go over the lines?” He ture that I distinctly recall. The said, “No, I know them.” And he did, weather! We left Los Angeles and cold! Dana Andrews on The Best arrived at Canon City and had to shoot Years of Our Lives (1946) was the immediately. The night we got there, same way. they wanted to make one shot that evening and it was practically zero Sentinel: Another Eagle-Lion film noir degrees! The story was that 12 men assignment was Hollow Triumph broke out of the prison, and one of (1948). them holed up at a house with a family held hostage. One of the AL: I have a silver ashtray right there hostages, a young daughter, had an on the table that is engraved from Paul appendicitis attack and the lead con- Henreid that he gave as a gift to mem- vict made the self-sacrifice. The actor bers of the cast and crew on that film, was Scott Brady and his character’s including me. I got to know Henried name was Sherbondy and I can’t tell better later on, when he directed some you why I remember that! episodes of The Rifleman and The Big Valley. What I remember about Sentinel: The director of Canon City Hollow Triumph is how Henreid and was Crane Wilbur, who dated back to the director Steven Sekely wanted to Pearl White silent movies and stage have a fast tempo. It was potentially a work around the turn of the 20th cen- fairly good picture, it communicated tury. He really excelled at writing and well and there was a good sense of directing prison movies. What was he how to use the camera, but the prob- like? lem—this is my sense of it—was that the increased pace didn’t vary from, AL: He was an actor and a writer, but say, a sad scene to a happy scene.