Hollywood legend Wise to visit 'U'

Now in the twilight of his career, Hollywood veteran Robert Wise can look back with tremendous pride on a life in movies that has spanned six decades and more than 50 films. Today, Wise speaks nonchalantly about his remarkable life, an 83-year span studded with diverse motion pictures that have brought him numerous accolades.

Speaking to him, one would scarce believe that this is the man responsible for the smooth pacing and stylized cutting of "Citizen Kane," for the beautiful epic images in "The Sound of Music," or for the renaissance of the "Star Trek" phenomenon on the silver screen. Behind-the-camera cinema giants like him are few and far between, and, shockingly, their celebrity often comes with a touch of modesty.

At age 83, director Robert Wise, the creator of silver screen classics like "The Day the Earth Stood Still" and "The Sound of Music," is still going strong. He

Wise will be in Ann Arbor this afternoon to present a screening of his 1963 horror classic, "The Haunting," which, among other things, is reported to be a favorite of fright master Stephen King. "'The Haunting' is very different from horror films that came 10 years later, because there is nothing violent in it," said Prof. William Paul of the University's Program in Film and Video Studies.

Indeed, in a recent interview with The Michigan Daily, Wise discussed the popularity of the film that he adapted from a story by "The Lottery"'s Shirley Jackson. "People always come up to me and say, 'You've made one of the scariest films I've ever seen.' It is also one of my own 10 or 12 favorites."

That's an especially high honor for one movie in a career that includes stints as an editor, producer, director and, most recently, as President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences during the 1980s.

Born in Indiana, Wise abandoned a career in journalism to work as a messenger in the editing department of RKO studios. Success struck quickly: He got his first credited editing job at age 21, and went on to work in that capacity on 19 films, including "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," and Orson Welles' "The Magnificent Ambersons" and "Citizen Kane."

Wise received his first of many Oscar nominations for the latter, a movie that most film enthusiasts consider the greatest of all time. "Working with Orson Welles was always up and down, never level," Wise recalled. "Sometimes he'd get so crazy that I'd want to tell him to shove it, and then he did something totally brilliant. So I never left the production.

PREVIEW
	The Haunting Today at 3 p.m. in Angell Hall Auditorium A; presented by director Robert Wise

"In his early days, Orson Welles was as close to ingenious as anyone I've ever seen."

As his career progressed, Wise took a more crucial role in production, working as the director and occasional producer of 39 more motion pictures. He began with B-type flicks like 1944's "The Curse of the Cat People" - which he directed as a replacement in just 10 days - and continued with dramas such as "The Day the Earth Stood Still" (1951) and "I Want to Live!" (1958). In the 1970s, Wise experimented with more contemporary forms, namely the disaster flick and science fiction movie, most notably "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" in 1979.

But perhaps his greatest onscreen achievements arrived in the early-1960s when he won a total of four Oscars for his work on 1961's "West Side Story" and 1965's "The Sound of Music." "It was a great thrill to win the Academy Awards," Wise said of his repeated reception of his industry's highest honors for Best Director and Best Picture.

In fact, his directoral win for "West Side Story" offered one of the more unique circumstances in Oscar history: the only time that two people have shared a Best Director prize for the same movie. "It is an odd situation directing a film with someone else," Wise noted. "I worked with Jerome Robbins who was the Broadway director, and he took care of the musical parts while I did the book part."

To be sure, it was a strained relationship. According to legend, neither director thanked the other in his Academy Award acceptance speech.

However, Wise must give a great deal of thanks to the legion of legendary actors whom he has directed over the years. The names read like a Hollywood Hall of Fame: Julie Andrews, James Cagney, Clark Gable, William Holden, Burt Lancaster, Shirley MacLaine, Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, and dozens of others.

It is surprising, then, that Wise chose to cast unknowns in some of his later projects, including an adaptation of Michael Crichton's landmark novel "The Andromeda Strain," in 1971. "We decided that if the actors had big names, seeing what they were doing on screen wouldn't seem as real," he said.

Luckily, the philosophy worked for the most part, and he followed that success with five more films, most recently "Rooftops" in 1988.

Of late, he has devoted his life to guest lecturing to young film students, and heading numerous motion picture organizations, including the American Film Institute's Center for Advanced Film Studies. His work culminated in 1992, when President Bush awarded him the National Medal of Arts.

But, as Wise remarks, his work in filmmaking is not yet finished: "At this point I've directed 39 films. When I was on No. 35, I thought it would be nice to stop at 40. So I have a few plans going for one more movie that I hope to make very soon."

As it has been for the last 62 years, the world is waiting. visits Ann Arbor this afternoon to present a screening of his film "The Haunting."

09-26-97