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87 chapter four Filming Challenges Filming of The Pirate began on February 17, 1947, with the opening scenes of Manuela, her friends, and Aunt Inez on the patio of Manuela ’s home. Minnelli continued shooting those scenes the next day, in addition to scenes that took place in Manuela’s bedroom. The first daily rushes were shot beautifully by Harry Stradling, the cinematographer on the project, and Minnelli was pleased.1 Internal M-G-M memos reveal that even though production had started, many details associated with hiring additional cast and crew members, and with Kelly’s schedule, still had to be sorted out. Kelly rehearsed and prerecorded some of his numbers for up to three weeks after the start of filming. He had suffered a sprain while rehearsing , sometime prior to this point, which set back his schedule a bit. Walter Slezak generously agreed to give one week free to the production if he was called for added scenes or retakes within two weeks after he completed principal photography. Lenny Hayton was hired starting February 25 to help with musical arrangements. Character actors were lined up for prominent secondary roles starting in March. The studio hired Ben Lessy for the role of Trillo (one of Serafin’s two main assistants) at $750 a week. Cully Richards was signed on for the role of Esteban (also a troupe member) at $1,000 a week. O. Z. Whitehead was hired to play Hurtado (one of the citizens ) at $500 a week. In April, M-G-M recruited Lester Allen at $600 a week for the role of Manuela’s Uncle Capucho, which placed him prominently in the visual field but offered him only two short lines. George Zucco was hired in May and received $1,500 a week to create the role of the Viceroy.2 It appears that the roles for the character actors were switched around from what was mentioned in the M-G-M memos. Ben Lessy played Gumbo (a troupe member) and Cully Richards played Trillo. O. Z. Whitehead played the prominent role of Coutat (the other of Serafin’s two main assistants), but he did not receive on-screen credit. 88 • Chapter Four Garland Judy Garland was a source of delay and vexation from the start of filming. In past projects, she had often not shown up for work but seemed to have a sense of how many days she could do this without upsetting the overall schedule too much. Now she seemed to have lost touch with that sense. She and Minnelli fought more often as soon as filming began, and both sought refuge at the home of Ira and Lee Gershwin when they felt the pressure was too much at their own house. The Gershwins offered a spare bed to either one whenever they asked. Minnelli also felt trapped in the middle when dealing with Garland’s repeated refusals to go to the studio. As her husband, he wanted to be supportive, but as her director, he later regretted that he was not more demanding of her. “These were agonizing times,” Minnelli remembered.3 Al Shenberg, the production manager, kept careful records of how many days Garland missed. As during preproduction, either her mother or secretary, and sometimes her maid, called in to report that the actress felt ill and could not come in to work. Or, she arrived much later than expected without any notice. Filming of the “Voodoo” number and wardrobe fittings for Judy were postponed thirteen times because of such delays.4 Minnelli also called in for his wife. On February 22, he phoned Wally Worsley, the assistant director, to say that he and Judy had been on their way to the Culver City studio but she suddenly felt too ill to work, so they returned home. Garland was “nervously exhausted and run down after spending a sleepless night,” in Worsley ’s words. Consequently, “Company call for today was cancelled,” as Shenberg informed Freed. On the morning of February 27, Kelly called to report that his wife was quite ill and he preferred to be with her most of the day. But he promised to arrive at 2 p.m. to rehearse the “Voodoo” number with Garland. Minnelli, who also seems to have taken the day off, called at 2 p.m. to say that Garland was too ill to perform, but she would come to the studio to watch the company rehearse “Voodoo.” Kelly arrived at 2 p.m. but...

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