“We parted as enemies”: Is Otto Preminger the most hated director in Hollywood history?
Hollywood history has been littered with tyrannical directors who’ve regularly made life miserable for their cast and crew, but has anyone been more despised by such an array of industry icons as Otto Preminger?
There’s definitely a recurring theme between filmmakers with an overbearing personality being able to deliver exceptional results. Stanley Kubrick is arguably the most famous, with the auteur’s micromanagement and repeated run-ins with his collaborators doing nothing to dent his reputation as one of the all-time greats.
James Cameron has reinvented the technological boundaries of cinema several times over and has helmed three of the four highest-grossing features ever, and he’s hardly a happy-go-lucky guy. That said, it’s hard to think of anyone who can hold a candle to Preminger, a two-time Academy Award nominee for ‘Best Director’ who played an important role in tackling cinematic taboos through films like The Man with the Golden Arm, Anatomy of a Murder, and Advise & Consent.
Anthony Hopkins worked with him on 1965’s Bunny Lake is Missing, where he called him a “fake.” Not only that, but the Welshman spoke of the duality that defined him. When the cameras weren’t rolling, Preminger was “a delightful man to talk to socially”. When he was on set, though, “He becomes Adolf Hitler.”
He wasn’t the last person to use that comparison, either. In fact, Hopkins’ description was eerily similar to Kirk Douglas, who said Preminger “was in private and on a social level a charming man,” albeit one who became “a bully” who “behaved like the sadistic Nazi commandant he played in Stalag 17.”
Paul Newman was another decorated actor who didn’t typically clash with his directors, but he was merely the latest Oscar-winning idol to reflect on Preminger’s two sides. Once again, he described the auteur as “articulate, informed, funny, and absolutely loveable” when they weren’t on set, only to brand him as a “fascist asshole” for the way he would “pick out the most vulnerable person and walk all over him.”
It seems like he was a good guy until he called action, after which he became a dick. As mentioned above, Preminger and Douglas co-starred in Billy Wilder’s Stalag 17, and his reputation didn’t suddenly evaporate when he was restricted solely to an on-camera role in someone else’s picture. Speaking to Pop Culture Classics, the six-time Oscar-winning director put it bluntly: “We parted as enemies.”
What did Jean Seberg say about him? “With him, I became a nervous wreck.” What about legendary composer Elmer Bernstein? “He was a scary character.” Why did Lana Turner quit Anatomy of a Murder a month before filming? Because she couldn’t deal with him. What did Laurence Olivier call him? “A bully.” What about Adam West, who worked opposite Preminger when he played Mr Freeze in the 1960s Batman TV show? “Despicable.”
Michael Caine was one of the few who had nothing but nice things to say about Preminger, who seemed to be a decent bloke until he was called into action to earn his nicknames of ‘Otto the Terrible’ and ‘Otto the Ogre’, which wasn’t ideal when he made his living as a filmmaker and occasional actor.
