‘Dolls’ made money
disapp . got her second choice for Helen Lawson: Judy Garland. Finally, the project had a little star power.
Except Garland had been a falling star for years. And she would end up nearly taking this film with her.
The shoot was in trouble from the beginning anyway. The coldly intimidating Robson gave his actresses little guidance after a take except “Again.” Parkins, eager for sexsymbol status, kept giving interviews bragging about her nude scenes. “Barbara Starkins,” Duke dubbed her.
Duke, meanwhile, wasn’t just playing Neely. She was becoming her.
Duke had won an Oscar at 16 for “The Miracle Worker.” She had also been abused since childhood by her controlling managers. Addicted to booze, drugs and food, battling an undiagnosed bipolar disorder, she was hospitalized several times before shooting even started.
On the set, Duke constantly feuded with the director, with Parkins, with the crew. Patricia Winters, who had a bit part in the film, remembered her as “a combative little twerp.” Insulted by being second-billed to Parkins, Duke determined to outact her, turning every scene into an over-the-top campfest.
It was like the stories of how Judy Garland had self-destructed. Except then Garland herself arrived, ready for her
, . The legend was only 45, but already broke and broken. Garland needed this job. But as soon as she showed up, so did the old problems. She drank. She forgot her lines. “By the third day, Judy was flipping out,” Parkins remembers. “She stormed off the set and locked herself in her dressing room.”
Finally, the studio had enough. “It’s better that we just call it a day,” studio president Richard Zanuck told her. The head of casting was even blunter. “You’re through,” he snapped. Within a week, Susan Hayward had the role.
Hayward realized she was walking into trouble, but by the time she arrived on set, the mood was toxic. When, in the famous catfight scene, Neely pulls off Lawson’s wig, Duke knocked Hayward to the floor. The older actress hit her head and had to be rushed to the doctor.
“That awful [director] said I did it on purpose!” Duke protested afterward, not too convincingly.
If it hadn’t been a pleasant shoot, the sneak preview in
San Francisco was worse. “The film was so campy, everyone roared with laughter,” producer David Brown recalled. One audience member, less amused, dumped his Coke in Zanuck’s lap on his way out.
When the film opened two