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Attention to detail has helped make many of Darryl Zanuck's gambles
pay off. His latest gamble: using unknowns such as Juliette Greco.
At 56, Zanucfc still retains much of the enthusiastic daring
that won him the title, "boy wonder," when he wo turning
out weekly potboilers or his first big star, Rin Tin Tin.
In all of Hollywood history, Zanucfc has eu peers as a
pioneer, blazing trails others have rushed to follow.
In a world of conformity, movie-maker
Darryl Zanuck stands
out as a bold nonconformist.
by Pttr J. Oppenheimer
IN his lavish hotel suite in Paris, Darryl
F. Zanuck a short, stocky man with
clear blue eyes and sparse, graying hair
was in a typical Zanuck mood, pacing
back and forth, chewing an unlit cigar.
He'd had a bad night. His chest, waist,
and arms were burning with shingles, a
skin disease contracted during 11 agoniz
ing weeks in French Equatorial Africa.
Even stronger and stronger doses of corti
sone were losing their effectiveness.
But his personal discomfiture was the
least of his problems. Juliette Greco, the
star of his picture, was ill. Unless she
could return to work within a week,
Zanuck would be unable to complete the
film and he'd already spent $4 million on
it, most of it from his own bank account.
The other stars in the picture had other
. commitments, and the studio space had to
be relinquished in 14 days with no place
to move the sets.
Asked what would happen if Miss Greco
didn't return, Zanuck shrugged and
snapped, "That's one of the gambles you
take in this business."
Zanuck should know. In a business
noted for its colossal conservatism where
man-eating sharks are considered fairly
safe symbols of evil, and even Zanuck
himself, after one of his rare flops, has
been heard to mutter, "I'll never make
another movie without Betty Grable"
Darryl Francis Zanuck is notorious as a
Family Weekly, February S, 19S9
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