New York, April 27: A new book by author AE Hotchner, `The Good Life According to Hemingway`, documents legendary Nobel winning author Ernest Hemingway`s disdain for Hollywood.Legendary producer David O Selznick, who produced the classic `Gone With the Wind`, said that his wife Jennifer Jones would star in `A Farewell to Arms` and that he would pay Hemingway a USD 50,000 bonus from any profits.
But Hemingway wrote back: `If by some miracle, your movie, which stars 41-year-old Mrs. Selznick portraying 24-year-old Catherine Barkley, does earn USD 50,000, you should have all USD 50,000 changed into nickels at your local bank and shove them up your [bleep] until they came out of your ears.`
According to pagesix.com, another producer Daryl F Zanuck, then head honcho of 20th Century Fox, asked Hemingway if he could shorten the title `The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber` starring Gregory Peck.
Hemingway, according to Hotchner, reportedly said: `I said, you want something short and exciting that will catch the eye of both sexes, right?`
Zanuck later changed the name of the movie to `The Macombe Affair`.
Of `The Sun Also Rises` Hemingway ranted: `Any picture in which Errol Flynn is the best actor is its own worst enemy.`
As for `The Old Man and the Sea`, he remarked: `I sat through all of that movie, numb. Spencer Tracy looked like a fat, very rich actor playing a fisherman.`
Speaking of a love scene in `For Whom the Bell Tolls`, he pointed out that Gary Cooper `didn`t take off his coat. That`s one hell of a way for a guy to make love, with his coat on - in a sleeping bag.`
Hemingway committed suicide in 1961.
Bureau Report
First Published: Sunday, April 27, 2008, 13:48
