THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR & LE MANS!

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Neille McQueen, Steve's first wife corralled Steve into auditioning for this Norman Jewison film in 1968 one morning while serving Steve his French Toast for breakfast. Neile started reeling off the names of leading men Jewison was ready to cast. McQueen felt overlooked, and actually drove his car over to Norman Jewison's home in Brentwood, California to meet with the director and plead with him that he really was Thomas Crown! Norman initially demurred and said to Steve, "Look, this guy is wealthy, he plays polo, he walks around in a suit. This is just going to be a difficult role for you" . McQueen replied that this was the exact reason that he wanted to play it and eventually he convinced Norman--who had already cast the role to another actor. Thomas Crown is a young, handsome millionaire who pulls off "the perfect crime" by having five men rob a bank with tremendous intrigue. Vicki Anderson, an independent insurance investigator (Faye Dunaway), is contracted to investigate the heist. As she digs deeper into the case she begins to suspect Crown's involvement. In an attempt to get closer she begins seeing Crown socially, openly telling him she is investigating him. They eventually fall in love and Vickie faces the decision to betray Crown and risk losing him or escape with him. The film was modeled on the life of noted Belgian thief Tomas Van Der Heijden who used a dune buggy to steal seven paintings by French painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir from the Louvre in 1961. For the temptress, Faye Dunaway is superb having been cast opposite Steve. From Jewison's accounts, McQueen initially didn't like the idea of working with Dunaway, at least once referring to her as "Dun fade away" (this was only Faye's second film) but soon the chemistry onscreen ignited. And the result was Cinema's longest non-stop lip-lock of a kiss at 55 seconds! This scene alone took over eight hours to film over a number of days (lucky for Steve)!McQueen's idea to rig the dune buggy with a Chevrolet Corvair engine and blazing at high speeds through the beach amid a flock of seagulls that disperse scared the living hell out of Dunaway. At the time, Jewison had just finished work on two films, "In the Heat of the Night" and "The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming!" The sparse screenplay of 85 pages was penned by a 35 year old Boston lawyer named Alan Trustman--who had never written a movie script in his life! The Chatmaus' "split screen" effects had just been showcased at The Montreal World Expo--which Jewison and his film crew attended. This enabled the audience to follow the time-line of events with all five different characters and geographics. Theodora Van Winkle had full Card Blanche on Faye's wardrobe. And yes, "Windmills of Your Mind" by Michel Legrand with lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman is dated (along with Faye's wardrobe). But remember, all of this was "cutting edge" for 1968---especially the "split screen" to reveal simultaneous action. Of course, the now famous chess scene between McQueen and Dunaway goes from silently flirting with each other, to heightened sexual tension. It was an unusual film for Steve, albeit, many prefer it to the Pierce Brosnan/Renee Russo remake many years later. Norman coached Steve in his role as a Cary Grant type of persona and there was so much creative freedom that Norman Jewison today says he misses, with the advent of huge corporate marketing divisions placing restraints on what can or cannot be undertaken. That piece of music, according to Jewison was so central to the McQueen character of Thomas Crown and works remarkably well in the glider scene as a metaphor for his cool and collected persona. The script was approximately 82 pages long, so a lot of improvisation was encouraged and captured here!

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This was a troubled film from beginning to end that coincided with the divorce of McQueen's marriage to Neille McQueen, after news of his infidelity began reaching her during the filming of 1968's "Bullitt". There were reportedly girls waiting for McQueen everywhere on this set, according to Mario Iscovich--Steve's personal assistant. Original Director John Sturges said in exasperation after McQueen demanded multiple rewrites and scenes endlessly re-filmed, "I'm too rich and too old to put up with this", then threw his script into the air and stormed off the set. A new director, Lee H. Katzin was brought in to replace John Sturges. The core of this turbulence during the McQueen film led friends to grow increasingly worried about his erratic behavior and at least part of it seemed to center on McQueen's vision to create a film that would become the quintessential racing movie, while John Sturges wanted more of a personality-oriented film with racing in the background. Part drama and part documentary, this in-depth movie depicts one of the most grueling auto races in history--the famed 24 Hours of Le Mans in France. With two drivers, the race takes place on 14.5 kilometers of cordoned country road. Every few hours the two drivers per car alternate - but it's still a challenge for concentration and material. In the focus, is the duel between the German Stahler in Ferrari 512LM and the American Delaney (McQueen) in Gulf Team Porsche 917. Delaney is under extraordinary pressure, because the year before he caused a severe accident, in which his friend Lisa's husband was killed. True life racer Peter Revson was hired by McQueen to work with him on the actual driving. And to this day Chad McQueen, Steve's son is occasionally told by those who were present on the set, "Your old man was damned fast". Unknown to fans in the theaters at the films release, McQueen completed the movie with a broken foot in a cast--the result of an earlier motorcycle mishap before filming for Le Mans started. This is an intense film that McQueen wanted to make dating back to The Sand Pebbles, and considering the human toll of the various pressures in Steves life (and those around him at this time), it is a small miracle that this film was made at all. However troubled with the production "behind the scenes", it still manages to hold up very well today. The ending will jar you! INTENSE!

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