MGM did everything in the studio’s power to delay, defer and avoid paying him compensation during those years. It would cost him a leg and result in him taking five years before he could recover to the point where he was able to move by himself and walk unaided. Stuntman Bob Morgan & wife Yvonne De CarloĪctor/stuntman Bob Morgan was playing a robber in the log-train sequence and was crouched next to a pile of logs on a flatcar when the chain holding the logs together snapped and he was crushed beneath them. An intermission became necessary to allow projectionists to re-thread the three projectors and synchronize the sound. Although the directors (John Ford and Henry Hathaway) skilfully used camouflage techniques to hide the joins (the placement of trees, building corners, lamp posts etcetera), they remained clearly visible far too often, giving a gimmicky feel to the whole production. The three cameras employed in Cinerama resulted in two dividing lines separating the three projections. Many of the players were intimidated as the enormous camera (it contained three cameras beneath a black hood) would be literally in their faces– just eighteen inches away! Several of the actors felt the need to ‘elevate’ their performances (much as they would on a theatrical stage), at the expense of the more subtle movie-acting style. Consequently, the best it could do was to place a key actor or actress in the central frame, then try to get in as close as possible. The picture was filmed in the new Cinerama process, a process so expansive it could not really be configured for close-ups. Unfortunately, the popularity of the western movie was on the decline by 1962, probably on account of the numerous western TV shows that proliferated on the box. Fur-trapping, the Gold Rush, the US Civil War and the building of the trans-continental railroad were each featured and connected by members of the same family down the generations. How The West Was Won (1962) was an ambitious attempt to encapsulate several stages of American history and westward expansion, over several decades in the nineteenth century (1839-89), and to squeeze the findings into a movie that ran for 164 minutes.
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