Anne Baxter agrees on THE TALL WOMEN

From: SO YOU WANT TO MAKE MOVIES

My Life As An Independent Film Producer

by Sidney Pink

Westinghouse agreed to buy TV rights to the six pictures I made prior to FINGER ON THE TRIGGER. We arrived at the price of $60,000 apiece for a fifteen-year term. These pictures were HAWK OF CASTILE, SWEET SOUND OF DEATH, BALBOA, BALLAD OF A BOUNTY HUNTER, and FATA MORGANA. Total acceptance of these films was contingent only on the negative material being in good condition. Larry Meyers at Trade Bank agreed to discount the contract for these six films, giving us more than $300,000 in working capital. Larry further agreed to finance the Westinghouse deal for the total amount of its face value, if necessary. For the first time in my career, I was well financed and on solid ground. It was a totally new feeling for me and I relished it. When I signed that Westinghouse contract and saw the first $300,000 in the bank, I realized that this would be a Christmas to remember.

We had a big celebration that night with the Meyers, Kopelsons, and Gettingers, and then I flew back to the West Coast to meet with Anne Baxter. Jim Henaghan met me in Los Angeles. We decided he would carry the ball and do all the talking, with my role that of the producer-director to be consulted only if there were real problems. Our lunch with Anne was set for the next day at the Polo Lounge at the Beverly Hills Hotel.

It will always be a high point for me that first time I saw Anne Baxter in person. When I arrived at the hotel ten minutes early, I expected her to be fashionably late like other leading-lady types, but as I looked around the room, I saw her seated in a booth. She was wearing a cute little hat with a leopard skin band and was dressed in a chocolate beige suit that made her look breathtakingly beautiful. I realized then that stunning was the description for Anne Baxter-completely and utterly stunning...

I have always looked at myself as someone from the wrong side of the tracks who by a stroke of good fortune was able to bluff his way into a world filled with gullibles who would some day discover he was there and throw the "bum" out. But here I was about to discuss a movie with an Oscar-winning actress...

I felt almost hypnotized until I saw Jim Henaghan approach Anne's tale and give her the usual Hollywood greeting, the kiss that I find so phoney...

Anyway, somehow I was able to propel myself to Anne's table to be introduced, and in that moment I fell in love all over again...

It was crazy, but thank goodness the feeling departed when Anne turned to me and asked, "How do you see this part, Sid?"...

My response to her query was to ask her to define the character of a woman with that kind of guts. I think her experiences in the wilds of Australia gave her the answers she need to understand THE TALL WOMEN. She wanted the part, and she really needed to make the movie to get herself back into the milieu she truly loved. Maybe the offhand remark from Jim Henaghan was all she needed to totally convince her. "Anne, how can you refuse?" he asked. "How many women get the chance to play John Wayne without balls?"

She started to laugh and told me to call Harold Citron again, this time to tell him how much I could pay so he could write up a contract. She wanted to do the movie and she would brook no interference on his part. That's how Anne Baxter became the star of our first Westinghouse production.