Steve McQueen - Marc Eliot [34]
However, Sturges’s biggest problem was his bickering cast members. According to Elkins, bad chemistry between Brynner and Steve continually threatened to shut down production. “The film was important because it popped Steve heavily into the limelight. The problem was the rest of the cast was a unit, all friends, and then there was Yul Brynner, who was very busy being a star and Steve knew what he was up against.”
Not just Steve, but all the newer, less well-known faces resented Brynner’s black limo and separate trailer, and broke up into their own groups—Steve, Vaughn, Buchholz, and Coburn; Brynner and Dexter; and, always the loner, Bronson, who remained aloof. (On the last day of shooting there was a big wrap party and the Mexican casting director did impressions of the American actors. Everyone fell down laughing except Bronson, who angrily stormed out, slamming the door behind him.)
On-screen, everyone was determined to be noticed. But the worst of it, as Elkins confirmed, was between Steve and Brynner. According to Robert Relyea, the assistant director on the film, the scene stealing began with the very first sequence that was shot—the seven gunmen riding in single file across a narrow creek. “We only had three or four rehearsals, with the men just riding and looking about from side to side, but when film was going through the camera, Steve on horseback [who was directly behind Brynner in the formation] swung out of the saddle with his hat, scooped up water from the stream and doused himself. Next I think was Charlie Bronson who unbuttoned his shirt, stretched and turned his bandana around, and then Brad Dexter who did three acts of Hamlet. Poor Yul didn’t know what was going on behind him while everybody was trying to stake their ground.”
In his memoir, Robert Vaughn recalled the incident a little differently. “In one scene, several of us, including Yul and Steve, were sitting on our horses next to a stream and debating our strategy for retaking the village from the banditos. In the midst of the scene, Brynner suddenly doffed his black Stetson, revealing his famous bald pate glistening in the afternoon sun.
“Between takes, McQueen drew me aside. ‘Did you see what that bastard Brynner did?’ he hissed. He couldn’t take this act of scene stealing lying down. A few minutes later, we shot another take. Once again, Brynner doffed his hat. This time, McQueen took off his hat, leaned way over from his perch in the saddle, lowered his hat into the stream and filled it with water. Then, without missing a beat, he replaced it on his head. Water cascaded down his head and shoulders, soaking him thoroughly. He looked like a fool, but at least no one was looking at Yul Brynner.”
More than the others, throughout the entire production, during scenes Steve continued to wave hats, play with his gun, and do everything he could to take the audience’s eyes off Brynner, who was known to have a very short fuse. He grew increasingly frustrated and noticeably angry over what he considered to be Steve’s obstinate disrespect. Inevitably it came to a head between the two. According to Dexter, who witnessed the incident, after Steve took his hat off while he was in the background of a three-shot that featured Brynner in the forefront, “Brynner turned around and said to Steve, ‘Do this one more time, and in any scene you have all I have to do is take my hat off and you won’t be seen anymore.’ ”
Steve remembered the tension between him and Brynner this way: “No, we didn’t get along. Listen, I’m a pretty fast draw. I’m a farm boy, man, I grew up around horses and guns. I know how to handle them. When we were making The Magnificent