Editing George Stevens (section)

===1957–1970: Later films===
====''The Diary of Anne Frank''====
{{Main|The Diary of Anne Frank (1959 film)}} 
In 1954, Stevens learned that [[20th Century Studios|Twentieth Century-Fox]] had held the film rights to ''[[The Diary of Anne Frank]]''.{{sfn|Moss|2004|p=230}} By February 1957, it had been reported that Stevens signed a two-picture contract with the studio. [[Frances Goodrich]] and [[Albert Hackett]], who had written the [[The Diary of Anne Frank (play)|1955 play]], were hired to write the script adaptation.<ref name="StevensDGA" /> During pre-production, in September 1957, Stevens flew to [[Amsterdam]] for research and location scouting where he visited the attic inside the [[Anne Frank House|historical site]]. He also hired Tony van Renterghem as a technical advisor. Stevens reflected, "Whenever we hit a stumbling block in translating from the stage to the film, not only I did return to the original diary for help, but I also returned again to the concentration camp areas and roamed house in Amsterdam in the quarter where Anne lived where I talked with countless people who had survived the Nazi period there."{{sfn|Cronin|2004|p=22}} 

A worldwide casting search for the title role underwent, with Stevens auditioning more than 100,000 applicants.<ref name="TheNewPictures">{{cite magazine |url=https://time.com/archive/6827477/cinema-new-picture-mar-30-1959/ |title=Cinema: The New Pictures |magazine=Time |date=March 30, 1959 |access-date=April 22, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240919210433/https://time.com/archive/6827477/cinema-new-picture-mar-30-1959/ |archive-date=September 19, 2024 |url-status=live}}</ref> [[Audrey Hepburn]] had been offered the part but she declined.<ref>{{cite news |last=Pryor |first=Thomas M. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1957/05/01/archives/audrey-hepburn-weighs-film-role-actress-is-uncommitted-on-offer-to.html |title=Audrey Hepburn Weighs Film Role |work=The New York Times |page=41 |date=May 1, 1957 |access-date=April 22, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250505184650/https://www.nytimes.com/1957/05/01/archives/audrey-hepburn-weighs-film-role-actress-is-uncommitted-on-offer-to.html |archive-date=May 5, 2025 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live}}</ref> [[Millie Perkins]], a nineteen-year-old model from [[Fair Lawn, New Jersey]], was cast in her screen debut.<ref>{{cite news |last=Langer |first=Adam |url=https://forward.com/culture/536082/how-hollywood-found-anne-frank-millie-perkins-george-stevens/ |title=How Hollywood found its Anne Frank — and why it wasn't Audrey Hepburn |website=[[The Forward]] |date=February 14, 2023 |access-date=April 22, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250130014044/https://forward.com/culture/536082/how-hollywood-found-anne-frank-millie-perkins-george-stevens/ |archive-date=January 30, 2025 |url-status=live}}</ref> [[Joseph Schildkraut]], [[Gusti Huber]], and [[Lou Jacobi]] reprised their stage roles for the film. [[Shelley Winters]] campaigned for the role of [[Auguste van Pels|Petronella van Daan]]. An exact replica of the factory was built on the Twentieth Century-Fox studio backlot, where filming occurred from March to August 1958.{{sfn|Moss|2004|p=251}} 

Released in March 1959, ''The Diary of Anne Frank'' received largely positive reviews from film critics.{{sfn|Moss|2004|p=251}} A review in ''Time'' magazine called the film a "masterpiece" praising Stevens and the screenwriters for depicting "the courage and dignity that man can summon from within himself when the only logical course seems to be to lie down and die."<ref name="TheNewPictures" /> However, the film was a commercial disappointment, earning $2.3 million in estimated box office rentals from the United States and Canada.<ref>{{cite magazine |title=1959: Probable Domestic Take |magazine=Variety |date=January 6, 1960 |page=34}}</ref> It won three [[32nd Academy Awards|Academy Awards]] in 1960, including [[Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress|Best Supporting Actress]] for Shelley Winters.

====''The Greatest Story Ever Told''====
{{Main|The Greatest Story Ever Told}} 
In 1958, while filming ''The Diary of Anne Frank'', Stevens became aware that that Fox held the screen rights to [[Fulton Oursler]]'s 1949 novel ''The Greatest Story Ever Told''. Oursler had novelized a half-hour radio series by [[Henry Denker]], which told of the life of [[Jesus]] from the four [[Biblical canon|canonical]] [[Gospels]] of the [[New Testament]]. Stevens founded an independent company, named after the novel, to film the novel.<ref>{{cite news |last=Pryor |first=Thomas M. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1958/11/19/archives/stevens-to-film-a-life-of-christ-plans-the-greatest-story-ever-told.html |title=Stevens To Film the Story of Christ |work=The New York Times |page=45 |date=November 19, 1958 |access-date=April 22, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250117064041/https://www.nytimes.com/1958/11/19/archives/stevens-to-film-a-life-of-christ-plans-the-greatest-story-ever-told.html |archive-date=January 17, 2025 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live}}</ref> Stevens affirmed his vision for the film would be stripped of pageantry and spectacle, opposite of [[Cecil B. DeMille]]'s Biblical epics.<ref>{{harvnb|Moss|2004|p=270}}, {{harvnb|Harris|2008|p=151}}</ref> In 1960, Stevens collaborated with Ivan Moffat and James Lee Barrett on the script, and then hired [[Carl Sandburg]] to revise the script. For the next two years, Fox continually delayed the film's release date until 1963.{{sfn|Moss|2004|pp=270–273}} However, in September 1961, [[Spyros Skouras]], president of Fox, announced the studio had "indefinitely postponed" the project due to concerns about the project's commercial prospects.<ref>{{cite news |last=Archer |first=Eugene |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1961/09/01/archives/film-about-jesus-postponed-by-fox-multimillion-dollar-greatest.html |title=Film About Jesus Postponed by Fox |work=The New York Times |page=11 |date=September 1, 1961 |access-date=April 22, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230205060429/https://www.nytimes.com/1961/09/01/archives/film-about-jesus-postponed-by-fox-multimillion-dollar-greatest.html |archive-date=February 5, 2023 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live}}</ref> As a result, Stevens moved the project to [[United Artists]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Schumach |first=Murry |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1961/11/07/archives/ua-to-sponsor-film-by-stevens-will-finance-and-distribute-greatest.html |title=U.A. To Sponsor Film By Stevens |work=The New York Times |page=38 |date=November 7, 1961 |access-date=April 22, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230205060425/https://www.nytimes.com/1961/11/07/archives/ua-to-sponsor-film-by-stevens-will-finance-and-distribute-greatest.html |archive-date=February 5, 2023 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live}}</ref>

Meanwhile, Stevens, George Jr., and researcher Tony van Renterghem embarked on a research trip to the Middle East to scout potential filming locations. However, Stevens decided to film near [[Page, Arizona]] and around the [[Glen Canyon]] upwards to [[Utah]]. Stevens explained to ''The New York Times'' in 1965: "Unfortunately some of the landscapes around Jerusalem were exciting, but many had been worn down through the years by erosion and man, invaders and wars, to places of less spectacular aspects."<ref>{{cite news |last=Stang |first=JoAnne |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1965/02/14/archives/-the-greatest-story-in-one-mans-view.html |title='The Greatest Story' in One Man's View |work=The New York Times |page=X7 |date=February 14, 1965 |access-date=February 4, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250304100650/https://www.nytimes.com/1965/02/14/archives/-the-greatest-story-in-one-mans-view.html |archive-date=March 4, 2025 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live}}</ref> [[Max von Sydow]], the first actor cast in the film, was selected as Jesus, while the hiring of an ensemble cast was borne from conversations Stevens held with Skouras.{{sfn|Moss|2004|pp=280–281}} 

Principal photography began in late October 1962, but months into production, filming was paused by a severe blizzard near the [[Colorado River]]. Refusing to delay shooting until the spring, Stevens grabbed a shovel and ordered the cast and crew to do the same to clear the snow off the sets.{{sfn|Moss|2004|p=283}}<ref>{{cite web |last=Renterghem |first=Tony van |url=https://www.canyoncountryzephyr.com/oldzephyr/feb-march2004/greateststory.htm |title=The Last Days of Glen Canyon: ''The Greatest Story Ever Told'' |website=Canyon Country Zephyr |date=2004 |access-date=April 22, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250421215018/https://www.canyoncountryzephyr.com/oldzephyr/feb-march2004/greateststory.htm |archive-date=April 21, 2025 |url-status=live}}</ref> Concerned that production had fell behind schedule, Stevens allowed [[David Lean]] and [[Jean Negulesco]] to shoot interior scenes representing [[Jerusalem]] at the [[RKO Forty Acres|Desilu Culver Studios]]. On August 1, 1963, the production had wrapped. Seventeen months were spent on editing and post-production, and the film's total production budget skyrocketed to $20 million ({{Inflation|US|20000000|1963|fmt=eq}}), becoming the most expensive film shot in the United States at the time.{{sfn|Moss|2004|p=285}} 

''The Greatest Story Ever Told'' was released in February 1965 in select [[Cinerama]] theaters, with the film's runtime reduced to 141 minutes for the general release.{{sfn|Moss|2004|pp=285–286}} Columnist [[Hedda Hopper]] called the film "a magnificent spectacle photographed gloriously. No one could have played Christ as well as Max Von Sydow. You believe. But it was an hour too long."<ref>{{cite news |last=Hopper |first=Hedda |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/chicago-tribune/102550918/ |title= 'Greatest Story' Called Magnificent Spectacle |work=Chicago Tribune |at=Section 2, p. 12 |date=February 12, 1965 |access-date=April 22, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250224042814/https://www.newspapers.com/article/chicago-tribune/102550918/ |archive-date=February 24, 2025 |url-status=live |via=Newspapers.com}} {{Open access}}</ref> On the other hand, [[Shana Alexander]], reviewing for ''[[Life (magazine)|Life]]'' magazine, criticized the film's glacial pacing, the "cameo" appearances, and cited a "lack of risk, lack of daring, lack of invention, [and] even lack of inspiration" on Stevens's part.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Alexander |first=Shana |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KEEEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA25 |title=Christ Never Tried to Please Everyone |magazine=Life |page=25 |date=February 26, 1965 |access-date=April 22, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230422104230/https://books.google.com/books?id=KEEEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA25 |archive-date=April 22, 2023 |url-status=live |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref>

Later that same year, Stevens filed a $2 million lawsuit against [[NBC]] and Paramount, charging them of "mutilation and dismemberment" when they had aired ''A Place in the Sun'' with television commercials. Stevens had made a contractual provision with Liberty Films (and then upheld with Paramount), which allowed him to control the film's editing.<ref>{{cite news |last=Bart |first=Peter |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1965/10/27/archives/nbctv-is-sued-by-film-director-stevens-seeks-2-million-if-place-in.html |title=N.B.C.-TV Is Sued by Film Director |work=The New York Times |page=39 |date=October 27, 1965 |access-date=April 22, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250505185842/https://www.nytimes.com/1965/10/27/archives/nbctv-is-sued-by-film-director-stevens-seeks-2-million-if-place-in.html |archive-date=May 5, 2025 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live}}</ref> In February 1966, William Wyler voiced his support for Stevens at a [[Directors Guild of America]] (DGA) dinner gala. That same month, a federal judge sided with Stevens, barring NBC from televising the film.<ref>{{cite news |last=Bart |first=Peter |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1966/02/14/archives/place-in-the-sun-is-spared-scissors-judge-bars-showing-on-tv-if-ads.html |title='Place in the Sun' Is Sparred from Scissors |work=The New York Times |page=33 |date=February 14, 1966 |access-date=April 22, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250505190700/https://www.nytimes.com/1966/02/14/archives/place-in-the-sun-is-spared-scissors-judge-bars-showing-on-tv-if-ads.html |archive-date=May 5, 2025 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live}}</ref> However, the [[Los Angeles County Superior Court]] reversed the ruling and upheld the defendants, in which it was held the commercials did not "substantially damage" the film.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1967/05/24/archives/stevens-loses-suit-over-his-film-on-tv.html |title=Stevens Loses Suit over His Film on TV |work=The New York Times |page=95 |date=May 24, 1967 |access-date=April 22, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250505191041/https://www.nytimes.com/1967/05/24/archives/stevens-loses-suit-over-his-film-on-tv.html |archive-date=May 5, 2025 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live}}</ref>

====''The Only Game in Town''====
{{Main|The Only Game in Town (1970 film)}} 

During that same time, [[Warren Beatty]] had conversed with Stevens about directing ''[[Bonnie and Clyde (film)|Bonnie and Clyde]]'' (1967). Beatty remembered, "And we would have long silent meetings in Chinese restaurants, And he would think, silently [...] And I could never get him to do the movie but I sure had a lot of meetings with him."<ref>{{harvnb|Moss|2004|p=292}}; {{harvnb|Harris|2008|pp=150–152}}</ref> In 1968, Stevens read [[Frank D. Gilroy|Frank Gilroy]]'s script for ''The Only Game in Town'', which he adapted from [[The Only Game in Town (play)|his own play]]. [[Frank Sinatra]] was intended to star opposite of Elizabeth Taylor, but Sinatra pulled out. Stevens then asked Beatty to assume the role, which Beatty immediately agreed without reading the script. Principal photography began in [[Paris]] on September 30, 1968 and lasted until February 1969. They relocated to [[Las Vegas]] for a week before wrapping the shoot on the Fox studio backlot on March 3.{{sfn|Moss|2004|pp=289–290}} 

In the film, Taylor stars as Fran Walker, a middle-aged chorus girl, who is the midst of a divorce. She falls in love with Joe Grady (Warren Beatty), a frustrated musician and compulsive gambler who dreams of escaping Las Vegas for success in New York City. ''The Only Game in Town'' opened on January 23, 1970 to favorable reviews.{{sfn|Moss|2004|p=291}} [[Charles Champlin]] of the ''Los Angeles Times'' wrote the film was "an endearing old-fashioned romance, even if its premise could hardly be more up-to-date and permissive. (And at that the permissiveness is granted verbally. It's all tell, no show, and I'm glad.)"<ref>{{cite news |last=Champlin |first=Charles |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-charles-champlins/170816562/ |title=Stars Shine in 'Only Game' |work=Los Angeles Times |at=Part IV, p. 16 |date=January 23, 1970 |access-date=April 22, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250505191418/https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-charles-champlins/170816562/ |archive-date=May 5, 2025 |via=Newspapers.com |url-status=live}} {{Open access}}</ref> 

In 1970, Stevens was appointed as the president of the jury at the [[20th Berlin International Film Festival]].<ref name="berlinale 1970 jury">{{cite web |url=https://www.berlinale.de/en/archive/jahresarchive/1970/04_jury_1970/04_jury_1970.html |title=Berlinale 1970: Juries |access-date=2020-07-27 |website=berlinale.de |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250312145450/https://www.berlinale.de/en/archive/awards-juries/juries.html/y=1970/o=desc/p=1/rp=40 |archive-date=2025-03-12 |url-status=live}}</ref> A screening of the film ''[[o.k. (film)|o.k.]]'', directed by [[Michael Verhoeven]], was interrupted when the jury held a 7–2 vote to pull the film from competition after they had expressed concerns over whether the film "encouraged understanding between nations," as stated in the statutes for the festival.<ref name="berlinale 1970 yearbook">{{cite web |url=https://www.berlinale.de/en/archive/jahresarchive/1970/01_jahresblatt_1970/01_jahresblatt_1970.html |title=Berlinale 1970: Yearbook |access-date=2020-07-27 |website=berlinale.de |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250312140500/https://www.berlinale.de/en/archive/yearbooks/1970.html |archive-date=2025-03-12 |url-status=live}}</ref> Based on the 1966 [[Incident on Hill 192]] during the [[Vietnam War]], the film depicts a young Vietnamese girl who is kidnapped, raped, stabbed and shot by four American soldiers and dies. A fifth American soldier takes no part in the assault, and his official report goes ignored in the files. Verhoeven denied the film was anti-American, stating in an interview with the German newspaper ''[[Hamburger Abendblatt]]'': "If I were an American, I would even say my film is pro‐American. The biggest, part of the American people today is against the war in Vietnam."<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1970/07/04/archives/war-film-dropped-by-berlin-festival.html |title=War Film Dropped by Berlin Festival |work=The New York Times |access-date=March 10, 2020 |archive-date=November 3, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201103155606/https://www.nytimes.com/1970/07/04/archives/war-film-dropped-by-berlin-festival.html |url-status=live}}</ref> 

Yugoslavian filmmaker [[Dušan Makavejev]], a member of the jury, accused Stevens of censorship and overstepping his authority. After many press conferences and numerous declarations of protest, the jury announced its resignation, thereby halting the continuation of the festival. Berlinale director {{ill|Alfred Bauer|de|Alfred Bauer}} and the umbrella organization Berliner Festspiele GmbH, Walther Schmiederer, tendered their resignations, though Bauer returned. On July 5, 1970, the competition was cancelled and no major prizes were awarded.<ref name="berlinale 1970 yearbook" /> In 1973, Stevens was a member of the jury at the [[8th&nbsp;Moscow International Film Festival]].<ref name="Moscow1973">{{cite web|url=http://www.moscowfilmfestival.ru/miff34/eng/archives/?year=1973 |title=8th Moscow International Film Festival (1973) |access-date=2012-12-25 |work=MIFF |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130116194922/http://www.moscowfilmfestival.ru/miff34/eng/archives/?year=1973 |archive-date=2013-01-16 }}</ref>