Spencer Tracy_ A Biography - James C. Curtis [419]
As an added gesture of both fondness and respect, Tracy spoke to Paramount and arranged for the billing clause of his contract to be modified, permitting Wagner’s name to be placed above the title, the first time the younger actor had been accorded equal billing with a star of Tracy’s stature.
“It was extraordinary,” said Wagner, “and it made a big difference in my career because it took me out of being homogenized with all these other people. He made very sure that I had a dressing room at Paramount and that I was on dressing room row with all of them, so I was there with Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Spencer Tracy, Bill Holden, me. He did that for me. I said to him, ‘Jesus, Spence, thank you so much.’ He said, ‘That’s okay, I wanted you to have it.’ He was sure that I had the same thing.”
However much he initially wanted to do the film, Tracy began to tense up as the start of production grew near. He fretted over individual lines of dialogue, disapproved of the supporting cast assembled by Dmytryk—Claire Trevor, William Demarest, Barbara Darrow, Richard Arlen.
The prospect of a long plane trip filled him with dread, for the actor who hated location work above all others had somehow committed himself to the ultimate location picture. “I can’t do it,” he finally said to Dmytryk. “It’s just not the part for me. How about Gable? I think he’s free, and he’d be perfect. Or Robert Young?” Dmytryk was gently reassuring but at a point decided that Tracy needed—and wanted—a firm hand. “When he stalled again, I simply said the car and driver would be calling to take him to the airport at a certain time, and I would expect to see him there. That was it. He showed up.”
To calm Tracy’s nerves on the flight that took them to Europe, R. J. Wagner presented him with a St. Bernard medal, Bernard being the patron saint of mountaineers. “He wore it on a chain around his neck throughout the trip and never once took it off.” They paused for a few days in Paris, putting up at the Raphael and taking in the nightlife. Bert Allenberg saw Tracy there and dutifully reported back to Hepburn that he was looking and feeling fine: “He was leaving the next morning for Chamonix and seemed to be in excellent spirits.” Dmytryk bought a convertible, planning to have the car shipped back to the States.
“The three of us drove together from Paris to Geneva,” Wagner recalled, “then up to Chamonix and the French Alps to get acclimated. That was the first time ever that there had been a company up there shooting.” Their arrival at Chamonix preceded the start of production by a couple of weeks, time to acclimate and train with Charles Balmat, a prominent Alpine guide whose ancestor, Jacques Balmat, was said to have been the first to climb Mont Blanc in 1792.
“Mr. Tracy is very unhappy with his accommodations,” production manager Harry Caplan advised his office in Los Angeles, the Hotel Les Alpes being something less than the Sun Valley resort Tracy had evidently envisioned. “We offered to rent (he proposed it) a chateau so that he could have more privacy. However, before looking at some chateaus, I took A. C. Lyles [Dmytryk’s assistant producer] to the Le Savoy Hotel and Lyles agreed with me that he (Tracy) and all the Paramount staff might be better off there … Tracy is one of those artistic people who is a complainer. The room is filthy, the rugs, beds are dirty, and the food (being pension plan) has no variety or selection to it.”
Caplan had started out in the thirties as prop man to the Marx Brothers and W. C. Fields, so he was used to difficult talent. It fell principally to Eddie Dmytryk to nurse Tracy along while the company was on location. “Our unit is definitely being run by Mr. Tracy,” Caplan reported a couple of days later.
Eddie kowtows to his every wish. As a result, it is hard to get organized. We found Tracy a chalet (apartment) but now he doesn’t want it. I added some rugs to his room [and] am employing an English-speaking chamber maid, and we are