Behind the Planet of the Apes Page #3

(Roddy McDowall)|With the start of fiIming drawing near,...

..the production was hit by the unexpected|Ioss of actor Edward G Robinson.

Voicing concerns over|the Iengthy makeup process,...

..he decided to withdraw|from the roIe of Dr Zaius.

When we got to make the picture and|we said ''Eddy, we gotta have a go'',...

..he said ''Guys, I can't do it.''

He said ''My heart's shot.''|He said ''I'm too oId.''

And he said ''That makeup|just drove me crazy.''

He said ''I couIdn't possibIy do that,|day after day.'' He said ''I gotta pass.''

(Roddy McDowall)|Studio executives were aIso concerned,...

..this time over the fiIm's escaIating budget.

On ApriI 28th, onIy three weeks|before fiIming was set to begin,...

..the studio cut the production's|55-day shooting scheduIe by ten days.

AII aspects of the production were affected...

..with the exception of the makeup|and wardrobe budget,...

..which remained at aImost|one miIIion doIIars.

Jacobs and the studio finaIIy settIed|on a budget of $5.8 miIIion.

And, on May 21st, 1967,...

..Planet of the Apes|went before the cameras...

..and HoIIywood history|was about to be made.

ln less than an hour we'll fiinish|our sixth month out of Cape Kennedy.

The earth has aged nearly 700 years|since we left it.

While we've aged hardly at all.

Seen from out here, space is... boundless.

lt squashes a man's ego.

l feel lonely.

l leave the 20th century with no regrets.|But... one more thing:

Does man, that marvel of the universe, that|glorious paradox who sent me to the stars,...

..still make war against his brother?

FoIIowing a proIogue estabIishing|the character of astronaut George TayIor,...

..the fiIm's opening sequence|depicted a dramatic spaceship crash.

Striving for reaIism,|FrankIin Schaffner and WiIIiam Creber...

..came up with a simpIe|yet effective visuaI approach.

I convinced Frank to do it subjective,...

..as though you were Iooking out|the front of the spaceship.

A whoIe montage|of kind of tumbIing, crashing.

You just see the hurtIing at the water.

And then the screen goes bIack,|and when it comes up,...

..the camera puIIs back,|you're inside the spaceship.

She's sinking! Dodge! Read the atmosphere.

(Roddy McDowall)|To show the astronauts' escape,...

..a fuII-size mock-up of the ship's nose|section was constructed out of pIywood.

It was 24 feet Iong or Ionger, and we took that|to Lake PoweII and I anchored it in the Iake.

Blow the hatch!

Abandon ship!

So those scenes with the guys|comin' out of it, we rigged it aII.

They couId get inside and jump off of it.

It was in 300 feet of water.

(Roddy McDowall) A miniature|and a detaiIed matte painting...

..were used for the shots of the sinking ship.

Going.

Going.

Gone.

OK, we're here to stay.

(Roddy McDowall)|The first sequences to actuaIIy be fiImed...

..depicted the surviving astronauts'|trek across a desert wiIderness.

They were shot in a remote area surrounding|the CoIorado River in Utah and Arizona...

..by director of photography Leon Shamroy.

The Iocation was desoIate and treacherous.

Camera and sound equipment arrived|by heIicopter, foot and muIe-pack team.

Jeff Burton, who pIayed astronaut Dodge,|fainted from the heat,...

..which often reached 120 degrees.

You're no seeker.

You thought life on Earth was meaningless.|You despise people.

So what did you do? You ran out.

No, no. lt's not like that, Landon.

l'm a seeker too.

But my dreams aren't like yours. l can't help|thinking somewhere in the universe...

..there has to be something|better than man. Has to be.

(Mort Abrahams) At the beginning of the fiIm,|IittIe figures move across the Iandscape.

The shooting went for days and days.

I said ''Frank, why are you so particuIar|about the opening sequence?''

He said ''It sets the mood, the tone|and the objective of the fiIm.''

We're going.|We don't know where we're going.

We have no idea of what's going to happen.

Scarecrows?

Let's see.

And that sets the body of the fiIm.

To hell with the scarecrows!

(Roddy McDowall) Most of the fiIming was|at the Fox Ranch, where this scene was shot.

- Whoo-hoo!|- Hey! Yay! Yay!

This swimming hoIe was originaIIy|created for Arthur Jacobs' Dr Dolittle.

But the waterfaII was enhanced|for this production,...

..courtesy of two dozen|carefuIIy hidden fire hoses.

Taylor, look!

ObviousIy the intent here was to show|the astronauts from the touchdown...

..very graduaIIy going into the green area.

(Taylor) They look more or less human|but l think they're mute.

The Iogistics were tough.|For exampIe, we had to grow a fieId.

The Iocation we seIected on the ranch|was perfectIy equipped to grow corn.

lf this is the best they've got around here,|in six months we'll be running this planet.

(William Creber)|FrankIin wanted the corn six feet high.

(roaring)

We had, Iike, ten weeks.

We had sprinkIers, you know,|goin' 24 hours a day watering it.

And we'd fertiIise the whoIe fieId|with speciaI fertiIiser and, you know,...

..everything to pump this stuff up|because of the amount of time we had.

And about three days before shooting,|we had eight feet.

So I went back to FrankIin Schaffner|on the set.

I said ''Hey, Frank, we got the corn. It's|gonna be eight feet.'' He said ''I said six feet.''

And I said ''What do you want me to do?''|He says ''Mow it at six feet'',...

..you know, then smiIed and puffed his cigar.|That was his sense of humour.

He destroyed that fieId of corn.

(Roddy McDowall) The cornfieId hunt|offered one of the most powerfuI...

..and disturbing sequences.

That sequence reaIIy had to grip you...

..and convince you right away|what you were gonna see...

..was going to be extraordinary,...

..was going to be shocking, was going to be|unIike anything you'd ever seen before.

I knew right away we'd made|the right decision with Schaffner...

..when I saw how he was shooting|that sequence. He hit it.

(Roddy McDowall) HeIping to create|an eerie, otherworIdIy atmosphere...

..was the experimentaI music score|composed by Jerry GoIdsmith.

GoIdsmith utiIised unusuaI instruments,|Iike metaI mixing bowIs,...

..a ram's horn,...

..and a BraziIian cuica,|which couId recreate eight vocaIisations.

At the concIusion of the hunt,...

..TayIor is taken captive.

- Smile.|- (all chuckle)

Now a prisoner of the apes,...

..TayIor attempts to make contact|with a sympathetic femaIe chimpanzee...

..named Dr Zira.

Well, Bright Eyes. ls our throat feeling better?

That Bright Eyes is remarkable.

He keeps trying to form words.

You know what they say.|Human see, human do.

Zira was pIayed by kim Hunter,...

..best known for her Academy|Award-winning performance as SteIIa...

..in A Streetcar Named Desire.

My agent sent me a copy of the script,...

..wanted to know whether I was interested,|shouId he pursue it.

And I thought it was fascinating.

EventuaIIy it came through and they fIew me|out to LA for the costume tests.

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