When Lewis Milestone was directing The Captain Hates the Sea (1934) for Columbia, he had trouble with John Gilbert, who drank excessively.
”It’s too goddamn bad,” said studio head Harry Cohn, “but if a man wants to go to hell, I can’t stop him. Shoot around him as much as you can. But keep the picture moving!”
Milestone tried to do so. When the company went to San Pedro harbor on location, he persuaded the maritime union to allow the ship used in the film to sail despite a shipping strike. The director thought Gilbert could be controlled more easily at sea, where liquor was less available. He failed to consider the rest of the cast, including other confirmed imbibers such as Victor McLaglen, Walter Catlett, and Leon Errol, who supplied Gilbert with drinks out of their private reserves. Production on the film became even slower, for the actors were often too drunk for their dialogue to be understood.
Finally Cohn fired off a cable to Milestone: HURRY UP. THE COST IS STAGGERING.
The director cabled back: SO IS THE CAST.
Source:
Boller, Paul F., and Ronald L. Davis. "On Location." Hollywood Anecdotes. New York: Morrow, 1987. 185. Print.
Original Source(s) Listed:
Bob Thomas, King Cohn (N.Y.: Putnam, 1967), pp. 100-101.
Norman Zierold, The Moguls (N.Y.: Coward-McCann, 1969), p. 201.
Further Reading:
Leib Milstein / Lewis Milestone
CBC Film Sales Corporation / Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. / Columbia Pictures / Columbia
[John Cecil Pringle / John Gilbert](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Gilbert_(actor)
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