movievault:

Thanks for taking the time to do an interview with Movie Vault. Welcome Lynn Guthrie! What made you interested in going into the film/tv industry?

Lynn Guthrie:

I am third generation in this industry. My grandfather went to work for Jack Warner in 1920. He was previously in the United States Secret service and was one of the men who started the FBI. With his contacts in Washington, Jack hired him as his trouble shooter, and was contact man to get ships, planes, tanks etc. for Warner Bros. WWII films.

My dad followed in his footsteps and was a charter member of the Directors Guild of America. He started as an Assistant Director and later became a producer. I had the opportunity to get into the Directors Guild at age 20 and as I knew a great deal about the industry joined. My children and grand children are in the business now which is five generations.

movievault:

Great! What would you say is your most memorable experience?

Lynn Guthrie:

Of course its hard to single out any one experience. I was blessed with many. The making of "A Man Called Horse" had many interesting and difficult problems attached to it. We made the film accurately according to history concerning how the Souix lived at that time. All colors available to them were observed. No blues for instance were used as the indians didnt have it yet. All props were closely watched by..a historian (Clyde Dollar). The only area that was not historically true was the main plot which was Richard Harris being captured by the Souix and made a warrior. The Souix never let a white captive live. Another would have to be watching and assisting a young Mike Nichols make "The Graduate" with a newcomer to the screen called Dustin Hoffman. The making of "A Man Called Horse", was more interesting than the film itself with all the problems.

movievault:

Any particular anecdotes surrounding "The Graduate"?

Lynn Guthrie:

LOL funny you should ask.....Gene Hackman was hired to play Mr. Robinson after two weeks of rehearsals Mike Nichols let him go and hired Murray Hamilton in the role. Mike later hired Gene for "The Bird Cage". Also Richard Dreyfuss had a one line part in "The Graduate. Also it was great being a part of Simon and Garfuncle coming in to do the music and having meetings with them and seeing the birth of Mrs. Robinson.

movievault:

"You've done lots of different jobs in the industry, assistant director, production manager, producer, etc. What would you say is your favorite?"

Lynn Guthrie:

LOL Well I would have to say the further you go up the latter the easier it is and certainly it becomes more creative. You have more fun after many years as you work with more knowledge of your craft.

movievault:

"You've worked with many important directors over the years (Billy Wilder, Robert Aldrich, Mike Nichols). Did you observe their different working styles, and would you say that helped you as an assistant director?"

Lynn Guthrie:
Absolutely. Those three work intirely differently. Billy still works old style in that he prefers to work in the studio. He is very well prepaired and knows every shot he will do in the morning with very few changes. He also has a tremendous sense of humor which amplifies it self on the set and has you in stiches all day. Hes king of the one liners. Mike was directing in a very new and high tech fashion. He made use of camera technology and lenses to tell the story and had some camera moves that required a 360 degree shot with walls and set dressing coming in while other walls were being removed.....during the shot. His style of direction with actors was different than I had seen at that time. He used tricks to get them to give the performance he wanted.One time Mike was laughing so hard during filming he ruined several takes so we had to put him behind the set so he couldnt see the actors. You could still hear the muffled laughs behind the set.

movievault:

"Which would you say you enjoyed working with more, television or films?"

Lynn Guthrie:

Each has there good and bad points. TV is more challenging than features in the respect of time alotted and budget and keeps you moving, while features are done much slower but most times with a lot more production involved. There are times in doing features that it becomes so slow you become bored and want to get into the fast pace of TV. It was nice to do both......and be well rounded in your experience of filmmaking. The best I think was doing two hour and four hour MOWs. It blended time and budget in the best ways. Sometimes you have budgets so big in features its hard to watch the waste. Also some directors become self indulgent with large budgets.

movievault:

One of my favorite directors is Sydney Pollack, and you worked on "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?". Do you have any recollections from that film?

Lynn Guthrie:

Yes and Sydney as well. A wonderful and most talented director and actor. A mix of many directors is in Sydney. He is also a very nice man to work with.
The film was shot on one stage for months. Sydney was pressed to come up with different styles of shooting to make the film interesting as you basicly only saw one set the entire film. The one exterior set we did was the horse scene in westlake, at westlake blvd and the 101 fwy. At that time there were no buildings there at all. Now its a city.

movievault:

"You were also a stuntman for a brief period. ("Little Fauss and Big Halsy"). Did you learn anything from that? Any Painful injuries?"

Lynn Guthrie:

LOL yes. I learned that I didn't want to be a stunt man. It was ok to crash once but when the director said "Do another one" I knew how it hurt and I really didnt want to do it again. It was then I learned to appreciate the qualitys that stunt men had. Many of my friends in the industry were stunt men because I guess I was an adrenilin junky and liked to do dangerous things, so I hung out with them off the set. We raced motorcycles at that time and I was doing it for fun. LOL I was actually the assistant director on the film but it was all about motorcycle racing. I also did other stunts with my car racing experience and I did a lot of airplane stunts as I have a commercial pilots license and raced aircraft also. I did a lot of work with the late Frank Tallman and Paul Mantz. Aircraft stunt men have short careers. The old saying "There are old pilots and bold pilots but there are no old, bold pilots". ...is true.

movievault:

"You started in film around the time the studio system started flailing. Did you sense that a new kind of cinema was emerging?"

Lynn Guthrie:

I was so blessed to have entered at a time when the old style of filmaking was being done and ART was the primary consideration. Films were actually fun to do and I couldn't believe I was getting paid to have fun. As films became more expensive the majors had to restyle the whole film making process or die. I was working at MGM when they had to auction off all the beautiful possesions they had acumulated over fifty years. As an employee I was able to go in the stages where they assembled all the items. How sad it was. Beautiful pieces of fabulous antiques from Europe and a multitude of priceless wardrobe items including the ruby slippers from Wizard of Oz etc.. This was the awakening that films had to have more astringent budgets and directors had to work within those figures and art started becoming less and less the primary issue. The industry had became a business with all the pressures of high finance.

movievault:

"You worked with many eccentric actors through Television and film (Steve McQueen, Marlon Brando, Sinatra, Christopher Jones). Any interesting stories there?"

Lynn Guthrie:

LOL god yes EVERY ONE OF THEM! Christopher Jones became a personal friend,
he was into trying to bring the James Dean image back. He even took me to his home on Benedict Canyon to show me ghosts he claimed to be there. His ability to imitate James was unbelieveable. On day on the set he got in a fist fight with John Cassavettes. Susan Strassberg stood and watched as the two went at it on the floor. Sinatra was the first and only actor I saw to tell a director that he wasnt doing another take because that was the best he could do it. Burt Kennedy (the director) was flabergasted. Marlon of course is complex. Steve was great. We had a lot in common as we both enjoyed racing cars and motorcycles.
In the early days you had the golden era of actors that were professional who came in knowing thier lines and craft and gave fantastic performances. I worked with many of the golden era. Claudette Colbert, Debbie Reynolds, Yul Brenner, Tony Curtis, David Niven, Trevor Howard, .......

movievault:

I see you worked with Daniel Petrie in the mid-1970's quite a few times, ("Returning Home", "Eleanor And Franklin", the amazing "Sybil"). Did you learn anything from his directing style?

Lynn Guthrie:

Daniel is a wonderful director. After Buster and Billy and Eleanor and Franklin I mounted a film Called Sybil. The director was very poor and after the first of day if shooting I realized we had made a mistake. I had to let the director go and I used my friendship with Daniel to get him to accept Sybil and he prepared in a week and came in and saved the film. Daniel is a very emotional man and draws from his emotions to direct. Something I had never seen before. His son and wife who is a producer are also very talented.

movievault:

"Your first job was on Rod Serling's "Twilight Zone" series. Could you tell us a little bit about that? (And how you got a great first job! lol).


Lynn Guthrie:

Actually my first job was doing commercials for a company called filmways on the M.G.M. lot. God was that boreing I knew then I had to get out of commercials so while I was the assistant director I had to let MGM know where I was shooting my commercials each day and gave the production office my call sheet. I of course made friends with Ed Morey who was head of production there at that time and he took me under his wing and brought me over to do Twilight Zone, Dr. Kildare, The Man From Uncle, after a year Ed moved me to features where I did Mutiny on the Bounty, Hawaii, Ice Station Zebra etc.
Also did The Sandpiper with Vincent Minnelli and the Burtons.

movievault:

What was it like working with Minnelli?

Lynn Guthrie:

LOL I knew that was the next question. Not easy. He had a huge ego and would sometimes not come in prepared and would set up a tremendous first shot that would require hours of set up time. He then jumped into his dressing room and prepared the rest of the day. One example on Sandpiper was we were at Big Sur on the beach. He couldnt really come up with a difficult first shot at the beach I thought. I was wrong. He wanted the grips to dig a trench six feet deep and 100 ft long to allow the Chapman Crane to drive down it in the sand so he could get the lense at sand level for a walking scene and then arm up to thirty feet which the crane is capable of. He then retired to his dressing room to plan his day.

movievault:

"What was the most difficult thing you had to deal with in all your experience in the film industry?

Lynn Guthrie:

I would have to say on the film entitled "Avalanche Express", the Director Mark Robson and Robert Shaw both died during production. I was brought in to finish the film and there were still scenes to be shot with Robert Shaw and "The Avalanche" had not been shot yet. It also starred Lee Marvin, Linda Evans, Joe Namath, Maximilian Schell, Mike conners and Horst Buchholz.

movievault:

Before we let you go, is there anything you would like to say to the Movie Vault audience?

Lynn Guthrie:

My life was not planned when I came out of school. I was truly blessed to have been put into such an industry with took me to 124 countries all over the world. I have had a fantastic life and the industry has afforded me opportunities that would have never come to me. Including meeting with Kings, A princess of Monaco, Prime ministers of counties in helping the economy all over the world while entertaining and bringing joy to millions. Who could ever wish for so much. But my advice to anyone who wants to come into this business is captulized in a statement I heard from James Cameron during the filming of Titanic that said it all. "This business is too intense for the uncommited."

movievault:

Thanks, Mr. Guthrie. You have an indelible filmography with many highs. Thanks for your time and effort put into your answers.