I Thought We Were Making Movies, Not History

13. John Sturges and The Magnificent Seven [contains image plates]

13 John Sturges and The Magnificent Seven S oon after we had made our arrangement with United Artists and had asked Billy Wilder to join us, Harold and I felt that we should try to secure other first-rank directors for our films. We tried to find projects for the men we knew and with whom we had previous associations, such as William Wyler and John Huston. John Sturges, however, was a director with whom I had been very impressed and had wanted to attract to our company immediately after its formation. Among his outstanding credits were Gunfight at the O.K. Corral and Bad Day at Black Rock. I tried to interest him in our philosophy and our working system, and, happily, I was able to make a deal with him to join our company, take offices with us, and develop projects together. His contract provided that I was to be the executive producer on all the pictures that he produced. I brought The Magnificent Seven project to him and took credit as executive producer. Our company had chosen to be represented by the law firm of Kaplan, Livingston, Goodwin and Berkowitz. It was headed by Leon Kaplan, who called me one day and told me that a client of his, Yul Brynner, was interested in the possibility of doing a Western film that would be based on the well-known Japanese film The Seven Samurai, made by the great Japanese director Akira Kurosawa. I questioned him 108 about the nature of Brynner’s involvement and what role he saw for himself in the project. He told me that the idea had been originally broached to Brynner by Anthony Quinn, who had directed a film, The Buccaneer, in which Yul had starred some years earlier. Quinn had suggested The Seven Samurai as a Western project for the two of them. With the passage of time, there had been a falling out between them, and Quinn had now dropped out of the project. I thought the idea had excellent possibilities. I arranged to get a print of the Japanese film, ran it alone in a projection room, and began to visualize it as a Western. I then became even more enthused about the project. Having recently made our arrangement with John Sturges, I called him and told him the idea. I suggested that we run the film together. We did and had a most stimulating session. One idea led to another, and we became very excited about the possibilities of the project. We explained the concept to United Artists. The company was pleased at the idea of doing a film with Yul Brynner, although certainly the concept of doing a Western with Yul seemed quite contrary to his usual screen persona. John suggested that we sign Walter Newman to write the script of The Magnificent Seven, as we were now calling it. We assigned the task of acquiring the rights to The Seven Samurai from Toho, its producer, to Leon Kaplan and his team of lawyers. They finally were able to arrange for us to acquire the rights. Walter Newman worked at the studio and progressed at a snail’s pace. One day he came to my office and said, “I have to ask you about something I’ve been thinking about, and I don’t know if it’s crazy or not, but I’ve got to talk it over.” He continued, “Now these two men are out there, challenging one another, as we have seen so often in Westerns, except that one guy has a gun and the other guy has a knife. Do you think that a knife can travel as fast as a bullet?” I said, “No, it can’t, I’m positive it can’t.” He said, “That’s what’s worrying me, but just think about it.” I reflected for a moment, and I said to him, “You know, let’s do it anyway.” The script was finally finished, and we began to talk about the possibilities for casting. John Sturges suggested a young actor named Steve McQueen, with whom he had worked in a film he had directed for John Sturges and The Magnificent Seven 109 / MGM called Never So Few. Steve had played a supporting role to Frank Sinatra and was now playing the lead in a Western series, Wanted— Dead or Alive. I arranged to...