Yesterday I posted a clip of a pissed-off Burt Lancaster at a press conference. Today we’ll temper that a bit by looking at a much more cordial Burt in a 1963 interview, done shortly after the release of ‘The Leopard’. He talks about directors, a species he was notably hard on. Here, though, he has nothing by kind words for Lucino Visconti, John Huston and Carol Reed. Of course it’s the year before he fired Arthur Penn from ‘The Train’ and fifteen years before he terrorized Louis Malle during the making of ‘Atlantic City’ (he made fun of his heavy French accent among other things). But this is five years after ‘The Sweet Smell Of Success’, a movie on which he had physically violent altercations with Alexander Mackendrick. Burt didn’t suffer fools and why should he have? The only thing is that Penn and Mackendrick were far from fools–they were two of the finest directors of the era. I’m not sure what went wrong between them and Burt. Anyway, he’s in a good mood here but note how he steps on the interviewers questions, not quite letting her finish them. Is this a sign of impatience or eagerness to address the matter at hand? Pleasant though he is, he gives off an edgy vibe that makes me nervous…
October 16, 2026
One Response
Lancaster had actually picked up John Frankenheimer and physically carried him across the room and placed him where he wanted the camera to be during Birdman of Alcatraz. Frankenheimer never wanted to work with Lancaster again after that. Lancaster had to trick him to come to France to direct The Train. Frankenheimer went there not knowing the Lancaster was in the film. Frankenheimer was then talked into doing it, in part by Lancaster. After that they did other films without issue. But, yeah, if Burt wanted something and someone wasn’t listening, look out!