By
now, nobody puts too much stock in Wikipedia and other online databases. This
is especially true when it comes to the filmographies of Harold and Lillian
Michelson. For years, their contributions to classic Hollywood productions as a
story board artist and researcher have been vaguely credited or completely
uncredited. They finally get their due in Daniel Raim’s Harold and Lillian: a Hollywood Love Story (trailer here), which screens
during this year’s DOC NYC.
Unsung
is maybe a slight exaggeration in Harold’s case, since he was able to graduate
up to production designer gigs, earning two Oscar nominations (including one for Star Trek: the Motion Picture). Still,
it is not like people out there are saying: “of course, Harold Michelson. He
was the production designer on Johnny Got
his Gun.” Credits for Lillian Michelson are even sketchier, but she
enriched hundreds of pictures, often through research into period design
details, but also into more specialized fields, such as occult imagery for the
dream sequences in Rosemary’s Baby. Francis
Ford Coppola thought so much of her, he ensconced her and her research library
at his Zoetrope Studios, but unfortunately that did not last as long as he
hoped.
Obviously,
their Greatest Generation romance and six decades of marriage are of central
importance to the film. It is quite endearing, but most viewers will be more interested
in their contributions to classic cinema. Happily, one of the directors who
comes off the best in their recollections is everyone’s favorite auteur, Alfred
Hitchcock, who treated Harold like a genuine collaborator on The Birds and Marnie. Coppola and Mel Brooks also have plenty of nice things to
say as does Harold’s old crony, executive producer Danny DeVito.
Sadly,
Harold Michelson passed away in 2007, but Raim still has sufficient interview
footage for him to be a consistent presence in the film. The poems in his
handcrafted valentines and birthday cards to Lillian also provide an ironic running
commentary on their lives. However, the surviving Lillian always gets the last
word, not that that would concern her beloved Harold. She is absolutely lovely,
but she can also dish like Hedda Hopper, which makes her reminiscences highly
watchable.
