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The Roots of Heaven (film)

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The Roots of Heaven
Original film poster
Directed byJohn Huston
Screenplay byRomain Gary
Patrick Leigh-Fermor
Based onThe Roots of Heaven
(1956 novel)
by Romain Gary
Produced byDarryl F. Zanuck
StarringErrol Flynn
Juliette Gréco
Trevor Howard
CinematographyOswald Morris
Edited byRussell Lloyd
Music byMalcolm Arnold
Production
company
Darryl F. Zanuck Productions
Distributed by20th Century Fox
Release date
  • October 15, 1958 (1958-10-15)
Running time
121 minutes
LanguageEnglish
Budget$3.3 million[1][2]
Box office$3 million[3]

The Roots of Heaven is a 1958 American adventure film made for 20th Century Fox, directed by John Huston and produced by Darryl F. Zanuck. The screenplay by Romain Gary and Patrick Leigh Fermor is based on Romain Gary's 1956 Prix Goncourt-winning novel of the same name. The film stars Errol Flynn, Juliette Gréco, Trevor Howard, Eddie Albert, Orson Welles, Paul Lukas, Herbert Lom and Grégoire Aslan. Huston later said that Roots of Heaven "could have been a very fine film. And largely owing to me was not a good film at all."[4]

Plot

In French Equatorial Africa, crusading environmentalist Morel sets out to preserve the elephants from extinction as a lasting symbol of freedom for all humanity. He is helped by Minna, a nightclub hostess, and Forsythe, a disgraced British military officer hoping to redeem himself.

Cast

Production

Development

20th Century Fox bought the film rights the novel in April 1957 for more than $100,000.[5] The novel had sold over 300,000 copies in Europe but had not yet been released in the U.S., where it would become a bestseller.[6][7] In May, Darryl F. Zanuck announced that he would produce the film independently for Fox (he had a contract with the studio to make films), and wanted John Huston to direct.[8] Zanuck said that the theme of the film was "simple... A man comes to the conclusion that if we don't stop killing people we destroy ourselves." And he says, "Why not start with our biggest companions on earth, the elephants, whose only enemy is man?"[9] He later added:

This picture is really great for us – intellectually great. Whether it's commercially great, whether people will grab on to it, we must wait and see. If they grab on to a man in love with a bridge, then why shouldn't they grab on to a man in love with an elephant?[9]

Huston said that he wanted to direct the novel before Zanuck approached him:

After my experience with Selznick [on A Farewell to Arms] – all those memorandum! – I'd sworn never to work with a producer again, but I did want very much to make this particular film. So we met several times and talked it through and finally agreed to try it.[10]

Huston agreed to direct for a fee he described as "slightly higher" than $300,000. Regarding the irony of a big-game hunter like Huston making a film about a militant elephant conservationist, Huston said: "Contrary to prevailing opinion, I never found an elephant big enough to justify the sin of killing one."[11] Zanuck visited the Belgian Congo in late 1957 to scout locations.[12][13]

Casting

William Holden was mentioned as a possibility for the lead part of Morel, as was James Mason.[14] Holden wanted to take the role but he was under contract to Paramount, which would not permit him to make the film unless he signed another contract, but he refused.[15][16]

The lead role was taken by Trevor Howard. Errol Flynn signed to play a key support role but was given top billing.[17] Flynn left the cast of the play The Master of Thornfield to appear in the film.[18][19] Flynn and John Huston had famously brawled at a Hollywood party more than a decade earlier.[20]

Juliette Gréco, who had appeared in Zanuck's version of The Sun Also Rises and became his lover, was signed as the female lead.[21] Eddie Albert and Paul Lukas rounded out the main cast. Orson Welles signed on for a cameo role.

Shooting

Shooting took place mainly on location in French Equatorial Africa[22] over five months in the Belgian Congo and Chad in the Northern Cameroons, where the elephants were located. The cast and crew suffered from heat, malaria and other tropical diseases. Temperatures would routinely reach 134 °F (57 °C) in the day and 95 °F (35 °C) degrees at night, and people would shower four or five times per night. Some days required a four-hour drive to the location and back, and all water was transported to the set by aircraft.[9] Juliette Gréco contracted a serious illness[23] and the company reported 900 sick calls from a cast and crew of 120.[24] Flynn mentioned the challenges of the location with affection in his autobiography My Wicked, Wicked Ways (1959).

Zanuck said "I would never make a picture there again"[2] but he was proud that "[t]here is not one dubbed line, transparency plate or process shot in the whole picture."[9]

The unit then moved to Paris for studio filming. While there, Gréco fell ill with a recurrence of her illness. Flynn also had a recurrence of malaria requiring hospitalization.[10]

Welles filmed his part over two days at a Paris studio. His rate was normally $15,000, but he was not paid because he wished to reciprocate Zanuck for helping Welles fund Othello (1952).[25]

Huston later said: "I still don't want to have to work with a producer again but if I had to, I'd certainly choose Darryl. He's been very good, co-operative and decent throughout."[10] He also said that he was "completely responsible... for the badness of The Roots of Heaven. I really wanted to make that one and Daryl Zanuck got me everything and everybody I wanted. But I had the screenplay done by someone who had never done one before, and it was bad. By then the cast, crew and me were in Africa; it was too late to turn back, we would have spent a fortune for nothing, so we went ahead and did the best we could."[26]

Post-production

The film was edited in London rather than Paris so that Zanuck could be near Gréco, who was making a film there.[27]

Reception

Box office

The film earned rentals of $3 million in the United States and Canada[3] and recorded admissions of 1,266,452 in France.[28]

Critical

The Los Angeles Times wrote that "John Huston may have bitten off more than he could chew in 'The Roots of Heaven', but much of it makes for thoughtful mastication... it sometimes seems too strange to be real."[29] Bosley Crowther wrote in the New York Times that "[t]he first two-thirds of 'The Roots of Heaven' … looks like a highly potential adventure film" but that "the final third of the film goes down the drain"—a conclusion "the more disappointing—and strangely surprising, indeed—because the elements, up to this point, have seemed so beautifully under control."[30]

Filmink called the film "possibly the first big budget studio film about an eco-terrorist (unless you count Tarzan movies)."[31]

See also

References

  1. ^ Solomon p251
  2. ^ a b A CorrespondentZ (16 Aug 1958). ""Never Again": Making a film in Equatorial Africa". The Manchester Guardian. p. 3. {{cite news}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  3. ^ a b Cohn, Lawrence (October 15, 1990). "All-Time Film Rental Champs". Variety. p. M182.
  4. ^ "The Innocent Bystander" Robinson, David. Sight and Sound; London Vol. 42, Iss. 1
  5. ^ Thomas M. Pryor (Apr 29, 1957). "Tracy Will Star in 'Last Hurrah': Actor to Play Political Boss in Columbia Film, Which John Ford Is Directing 'Roots of Heaven' Planted". The New York Times. p. 21.
  6. ^ "Of Local Origin". The New York Times. Sep 17, 1957. p. 39.
  7. ^ "BEST SELLERS". Los Angeles Times. Apr 20, 1958. p. E6.
  8. ^ Schallert, Edwin (May 8, 1957). "Magnani to Do Comedy; Zanuck Seeks Huston; Birdwell Deal Tripled". Los Angeles Times. p. B9.
  9. ^ a b c d Scheuer, Philip K. (Oct 12, 1958). "Zanuck's Subject: 'Roots of Heaven'". Los Angeles Times. p. F2.
  10. ^ a b c Grenier, Cynthia. "Huston at Fontainebleau". Sight and Sound. No. 27.6 (Fall 1958). p. 280.
  11. ^ Richard W. Nason (September 28, 1958). "Huston Hits High With 'Heaven' and 'Geisha'". The New York Times. p. X9.
  12. ^ Dorothy Manners (Nov 5, 1957). "Tyrone Power Eyes Role of Wise Solomon". The Washington Post and Times-Herald. p. B9.
  13. ^ Art Buchwald (Jan 24, 1958). "A Diplomat Cracks the Movies". Los Angeles Times. p. B5.
  14. ^ Scheuer, Philip K. (Feb 12, 1958). "Studio Opened to Preminger: 'Mardios Beach' First of Pair; Mason Up for Consul's 'Roots'". Los Angeles Times. p. B9.
  15. ^ Hopper, Hedda (Apr 6, 1958). "NEVER A BAD SHOW: Hollywood Producers Call Bill Holden the All-American Face". Chicago Daily Tribune. p. c20.
  16. ^ Thomas M. Pryor (Feb 20, 1958). "U. S. Vs. Al Capone to Be Film Theme: Story of Treasury Agents' War on Breweries Slated -Holden-Paramount Rift". The New York Times. p. 29.
  17. ^ "Thomas p 219".
  18. ^ ""Lana, Yul Brynner in Faulkner Story" Hopper". Hedda. Los Angeles Times. Feb 22, 1958. p. B2.
  19. ^ Thomas M. Pryor (Feb 26, 1958). "Unproduced Play Bought for Film: Comedy Is by Samuel Taylor and Cornelia Otis Skinner -- Paramount Retrenches". The New York Times. p. 23.
  20. ^ Dorothy Kilgallen (Mar 13, 1958). "Kim's Gunning for Harlow Biog". The Washington Post and Times-Herald. p. D8.
  21. ^ Hopper, Hedda (Feb 14, 1958). "No Work Here, So Holden Is Off to Europe". Chicago Daily Tribune. p. 12.
  22. ^ "The Roots of Heaven (1958) – Trailers, Reviews, Synopsis, Showtimes and Cast". AllMovie. Retrieved 2014-07-13.
  23. ^ "Juliette Greco, Actress, Ill". The New York Times. June 9, 1958. p. 26.
  24. ^ Bacon, James (June 29, 1958). "Here's Switch: Flynn to Play a Teetotaler". Chicago Daily Tribune. p. 19.
  25. ^ Hopper, Hedda (June 11, 1958). "Hedda Visits Old Friends in Paris Studio". Chicago Daily Tribune. p. b11.
  26. ^ John Huston: As He Was, Is, and Probably Always Will Be By Brian St. Pierre. New York Times 25 Sep 1966: 121.
  27. ^ The (Aug 26, 1958). "Ava's Got a Crush on Her Costar". The Washington Post and Times-Herald. p. B8.
  28. ^ 1958 French box office figures at Box Office Story
  29. ^ Scheuer, Philip K. (Jan 1, 1959). "'Roots of Heaven' Exotic Adventure: But Its Hero's Cause Falters in Film of Romain Gary Novel". Los Angeles Times. p. B7.
  30. ^ Bosley Crowther (Oct 16, 1958). "Screen: 'Roots of Heaven'; Save the Elephants! Palace Film Theme". The New York Times. p. 46.
  31. ^ Vagg, Stephen (December 15, 2019). "The Films of Errol Flynn: Part 6 – The Final Adventures". Filmink.

Bibliography

  • Flynn, E. My Wicked, Wicked Ways. G.P. Putnam's Sons 1959, Pan Books 1961 in association with William Heinemann Ltd, 5th Printing 1979.
  • Norman, B. The Hollywood Greats. Arrow Books, 1988 edition.
  • Solomon, Aubrey. Twentieth Century Fox: A Corporate and Financial History (The Scarecrow Filmmakers Series). Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 1989. ISBN 978-0-8108-4244-1.
  • Thomas, T. Behlmer, R. & McCarty, C. The Films of Errol Flynn. Citadel Press. 1969.
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