George Stevens Jr. needs no introduction, he is one of the most respected and accomplished figures in Hollywood history. He is an award-winning writer, director, and producer. He is the founder of the American Film Institute, co-creator of the Kennedy Center Honors and he has served as co-chairman of the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities. He created the George Stevens Lecture as a tribute to his father in 1982 and it has been running ever since.
This year’s Lecture will take place at The Academy Museum on November 22nd, 2024, with celebrated Actress Annette Bening, who will introduce The More The Merrier, directed by George Stevens and starring Jean Arthur, Joel McCrea, and Charles Coburn. It was a hit film upon release and was nominated for six Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Writing (Story), and Best Writing (Screenplay), and Coburn won Best Supporting Actor.
Stevens recently spoke to Immersive via Zoom.
[This conversation has been edited for clarity and length]
Please tell us about the history of George Stevens Lecture.
I donated a lot of my father’s materials to The Academy, and we talked about collaborating on something special. We decided to start the George Stevens Lecture in 1982 with Robert Benton as our first speaker. Through the years we’ve had many great guests like Steven Spielberg, Sidney Poitier, Warren Beatty, and Woody Allen’s remote lecture was memorable (he also wrote about Shane for The New York Times). Christopher Nolan was a great gift to have him speak.
I was in the audience, and hearing him talk about Shane’s influence on The Dark Knight was a masterclass in filmmaking. This year’s lecture is one to be excited about, as you have Annette Bening. She is an amazing actress and, a five-time Academy Award Nominee, and she is the Board Chair of the Entertainment Community Fund, an essential organization that helps out those in need who work in the industry.
I think there’s a little bit of Jean Arthur in Annette, she’s a good friend… I know that she loves The More The Merrier. I saw her and Warren (Beatty) last time I was in Los Angeles about four weeks ago and she told me that they had screened it recently and she said, “It’s sexy.”
It feels very much of the time period in a good way. It has captured that wartime period and delves into issues, but without feeling labored with the housing crisis in wartime Washington. It’s very fascinating the way that’s handled.
My father started shooting it in October of 1942 on a 40-day shooting schedule, and they went 20 days over, but Harry Cohen liked him and they had an understanding that Harry Cohen would never come on his set when he invited him to come over. Dad kind of indicated things would be a little rough at Columbia. He said I’ll never come on your set. And he kept his word and Dad finished it and did some editing. And then in January, did a few pickups, previewed it twice, and went away to war. He headed the Combat Motion Picture Operations on D-Day and all through Europe.
I know you visited some of your father’s sets. I know you would’ve been pretty young, but did you visit the set of The More The Merrier?
I did not, but I did go to The New York Film Critics Awards where my father was nominated for best director. I was with my mother and we sat near Jennifer Jones and Jean Arthur and when the winner for best director was announced by Mark Sandrich in my deep 10-year-old voice, that in that pause before the applause, I said, “We was robbed and all these ladies burst into hysterics.”
Casablanca is pretty hard to beat. The true test of a film is does it stand the test of time. Why do you think The More The Merrier stands the test of time?
It does stand the test of time. Stan Laurel taught my father that comedy could be graceful and human. He felt that comedy came out of believable characters and The More The Merrier is a really good example of that, and the love story, there’s something so genuine about it.
The George Stevens lecture will be at the Academy Museum on November 21st.
