Sunset Blvd.
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:04:00
Sometimes taking chances is great
but it doesn't work for every director.

:04:02
That car better be here by noon
tomorrow or there'll be fireworks.

:04:05
The director has to ask
for something special.

:04:07
You say the cutest things.
:04:09
If they didn't, she played it pretty safe.
:04:11
She wasn't shy.
She was powerful, she was strong.

:04:14
She was demanding. She was tough.
:04:19
In 1948, at the insistence of Edith
and other Hollywood designers,

:04:20
I needed about $290 and I needed
it real quick, or I'd lose my car.

:04:23
an Academy Award for best
costume design was finally established.

:04:26
It wasn't in Palm Springs,
and it wasn't in the garage.

:04:28
Two Oscars would be given, one
for black and white and one for colour.

:04:30
I was way ahead
of the finance company.

:04:32
Edith was nominated for the picture
"The Emperor Waltz".

:04:33
I knew they'd come
and I wasn't taking chances.

:04:36
She didn't win,
and was very disappointed.

:04:37
So I kept it across the street
behind Rudy's shoeshine parlour.

:04:40
The next year she was nominated again,
for "The Heiress", and she did win.

:04:42
Rudy never asked any questions
about your finances,

:04:45
It was the first of eight Oscars Edith
Head would win in her 60-year career.

:04:45
he'd just look at your heels
and know the score.

:04:52
Darling, let's never leave this place.
:04:53
I had an original story
kicking around Paramount.

:04:56
My agent said it was dead,
but I knew a bigshot who liked me.

:04:57
Let's just stay here alone.
:05:00
Don't let Father upset you.
I'm the one who counts.

:05:02
The time had come to take advantage
of it. His name was Sheldrake.

:05:04
In 1949, Edith began work
on "A Place in the Sun".

:05:07
He was a smart producer
with a set of ulcers to prove it.

:05:08
It was directed by George Stevens.
:05:10
Elizabeth Taylor was borrowed
from MGM to play the lead.

:05:13
You've got five minutes.
What's your story about?

:05:15
That was the start of her friendship
with Elizabeth Taylor.

:05:16
A baseball player, a rookie shortstop
that's batting 347, once did a hold-up,

:05:18
And of course Stevens
wanted her to look immaculate,

:05:21
as a very high-society,
kind of spoiled, rich girl.

:05:21
but he's trying to go straight,
except some gamblers won't let him.

:05:25
They tell him
he's got to throw the World Series?

:05:25
The "Place in the Sun" tulle
evening gown was copied many times

:05:28
More or less. I've got a gimmick.
:05:29
by Seventh Avenue designers and
department stores all across the country.

:05:31
- Got a title?
- "Bases Loaded". There's an outline.

:05:34
Call readers department, find out
what they have on "Bases Loaded".

:05:34
I'm just fooling around.
:05:37
- Maybe you'd like to play.
- Oh no, I'll just watch you. Go ahead.

:05:39
They're pretty hot about it
at Twentieth, except Zanuck's all wet.

:05:40
Edith later worked with Elizabeth Taylor
on "Elephant Walk"

:05:42
Can you see
Ty Power as the shortstop?

:05:44
and over the years
did a number of projects with her.

:05:45
You've got the best man, Alan Ladd.
:05:47
It'd be a change of pace for Ladd.
And simple to shoot.

:05:48
She always tried to emphasise
Taylor's beautiful shoulders,

:05:51
Lots of outdoors stuff. I bet you
could make it for under a million.

:05:53
her bust and her small waist.
:05:55
Edith's favourite director, one she worked
with many times, was Alfred Hitchcock.

:05:56
- Excuse me.
- There's a great part for Bill Demarest.

:05:58
An old trainer got beaned,
goes out of his head sometimes.


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