20 AFV Winter 2013.pub - Federation of Australian Movie Makers

URBAN LEGENDSFACT AND FICTIONBy A Film FanWhat I like about movies is that they engage you on so many levels. You can be transported to anotherworld, excited by a story, entranced by scenery, fall in love with a hero or heroine or be fascinated by specialeffects all in the space of a couple of hours.But there is another level which interests many of us, sometimes for decades after the movie has finishedits run; the urban legend.These tales are often funny, sometimes intriguing and frequently macabre. They may have little more thana nodding acquaintance with truth but they fascinate and captivate us. Is it, I wonder, the idea of being inon a secret that makes us so interested in what might have been unexpectedly recorded? Or is it that someof these stories cut our heroes down to size? Who knows?Could there really be a ghostly image of a child in the background of a scene in “Three Men and a Baby”?Many think so and have spent hours running the DVD in slow motion to prove it. The studio’s answer isthat a prop – a cut out figure - was inadvertently left on set. However, the photos supplied as evidence donot really back this up with little resemblance between the “child” image and the cut out figure. Spooky!Reports of scenes where stunt men have died being included in the finished product are popular in theworld of the movie urban legend. Two that immediately come to mind are “How The West Was Won” and“Ben Hur”. Stories have circulated for decades about both these movies. It is true that stuntman Bob Morgan,husband of Yvonne De Carlo, was seriously injured and lost a leg during a break in filming a gunfighton a moving train. Chains holding logs on a flat-bed car broke, crushing Morgan.Anyone who has seen “Ben Hur” would wonder how no one was killed, but that is due to the cleverness ofthe special effects department. According to those who know, no one was killed in the version filmed in1959. However, an earlier version was filmed in 1926 and it is generally believed that at least one stuntman died during production and that the footage was included in the end result. The second-unit director B.Reeves Eason was known for his ruthlessness and uncaring attitude towards stuntmen. No Health andSafety in those days!Of course, some urban legends are merely wishful thinking. For example a rumour went round that thehoverboards used in “Back To The Future II” were real and would be available for sale shortly. What kid(or, let’s be honest, adult) wouldn’t want one? When they didn’t appear the story was expanded to includean accident that had delayed production. Perhaps an overzealous publicity department at work?Today we consider urban legends to be of minor interest or a bit of fun, however in earlier days before theterm was coined they had a darkly insidious side – they were believed as Gospel truth. Several careers wereended because of rumour and innuendo, Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle being a notable example.In 1921, at the peak of his career, he hosted a party where a young woman died. Roscoe was accused ofmanslaughter and put on trial three times. Newspapers published lurid innuendo in an effort to generatesales and this swayed public opinion to such an extent that a fair trial was impossible. The first two trialsresulted in hung juries but by the time the third one came around, public opinion had calmed down and hewas acquitted with the jury deliberating for six minutes, five minutes of which were spent composing thefollowing:Page 8 AUSTRALIAN FILM & VIDEO—VOL 20 WINTER 2013