Daily Dialogue — June 24, 2012

McMurphy: [about shock treatments] They was giving me ten thousand watts a day, you know, and I’m hot to trot! The next woman takes me on’s gonna light up like a pinball machine and pay off in silver dollars!

— McMurphy (Jack Nicholson), One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (1975), screenply by Lawrence Hauben and
Bo Goldman, based on a novel by Ken Kesey

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week is bragging suggested by churnage who also suggested One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest.

Trivia: Rumors that production shut down because Jack Nicholson had hair plugs implanted are false (this can be verified by actually looking at his scalp). The story, as related by production designer Paul Sylbert, was that Nicholson and director Milos Forman had very different ideas about how the narrative should play out; for example, Forman thought that the ward should be in bedlam when McMurphy showed up and Nicholson posited that his character would have absolutely no effect on the mental patients if they were already riled up, which would have negated the purpose of his character and therefore much of the plot. Nicholson and Forman both refused to give an inch, each believing he was right and the other was wrong. The “two months” that Nicholson was supposed to have disappeared was actually closer to two weeks, and he didn’t “disappear”. In actuality, Nicholson spearheaded a coup among the other actors and refused to let Forman run rehearsals, running them himself instead. During production, Nicholson and Forman spoke to each other through the cinematographer, but faked a friendly relationship when the media and studio personnel would show up to the set. This is one explanation why Nicholson doesn’t appear on any of the DVD special features.

Dialogue On Dialogue: This observation from Churnage: “This is bragging as FU. McMurphy returns after getting shock treatment. He’s taken the best shot that Nurse Ratched and the institution can give him and instead of returning as a docile conformist, he’s crazier (i.e. saner) and more dangerous than ever.”