In the book, definitely yes. But in the movie... it seems we have a definitive answer as to what the studio was thinking. :) 20th Century Fox studio head Darryl F. Zanuck was famous (or infamous) for his lengthy memos which scrutinized scripts from every angle -- his own script-writing attempts were mediocre, but he was a very fine editor of others' work. Rudy Behlmer's book, "Memo From Darryl F. Zanuck," offers many of Zanuck's memos and they are fascinating reading indeed. I had completely forgotten this book published in 1993 was on the shelf (I have a LOT of movie books and I don't always remember what's in my collection) but spotted it the other day and thumbed through for anything on Tyrone Power. And what should appear but the following, in a memo to Jason Joy, Fox director of public relations:
Dear Jason:
I have spent the entire weekend doing nothing but carefully studying this script...
We took a bestselling novel and eliminated the illegitimate pregnancy sequences and the illicit love story...
In the haystack scene which, after all is not a haystack, but a kind of barn-like shelter, Prue and Clive fall in love -- and nothing else...
Why should we assume that they have consummated an illicit affair? What have they said or done, or what do they later indicate to prove that they have gone the whole way?...
*******
So there you have it. :) I admit my view of the movie is colored by reading the book and just what I know of human nature and I keep thinking that off-camera more is going on that Darryl F. Zanuck wanted us to realize but obviously that was not the intent. No mention of Clive's ultimate fate but given Zanuck's view of things, I'm sure he meant for Clive to survive. The memos on Razor's Edge and Nightmare Alley are really interesting -- Zanuck twists himself into knots trying to make these best-selling books palatable to movie audiences. He does "get" the ending of Razor's Edge though, thank goodness, and did not change it. Nightmare Alley, sordid though it was in 1947 (and it's still pretty hard stuff) was greatly softened from William Gresham's novel -- I really recommend that book to anyone who hasn't read it.
Yeah, it doesn't surprise me as it seems like they wanted to make it fairly clear in the film that this was a lilly white relationship. Great info. Peachtree, txs :-)! (I always thought Zanuck was a cut above most movie moguls of his day as he was a filmmaker as well as an executive.)
BTW, I had to chuckle over your statement that you have too many film books. I suffer from the same ailment :-)! The 'worst' period being when I was in college and the majority of my collection was at my parent's house. Needless to say, over 4 yrs. of purchasing resulted in some duplicates once I got home and saw what I had done :-). Ended up donating the dups to the library.
