HOLLYWOOD TIDBITS: VICTOR/VICTORIA

The film's screenplay was adapted by Blake Edwards (Julie Andrews' husband) and Hans Hoemburg from the 1933 German film "Viktor und Viktoria" by Reinhold Schünzel. According to Edwards, the screenplay took only one month to write. There was also a 1935 remake named "First a Girl," made in the United Kingdom and directed by Victor Saville, about a woman who stands in for a female impersonator and becomes a hit. Julie Andrews watched the 1933 version to prepare for her role. The film had been planned as early as 1978 with Julie Andrews to star alongside Peter Sellers, but Sellers died in 1980 while Andrews and Blake Edwards were filming "S.O.B." (1981), so Robert Preston was cast in the role of Toddy that originally was envisaged for Sellers.

Reportedly, Andrews struggled with her role in this movie. Andrews has said of this, "There were so many things to be worked out. As someone who likes to be in control, I felt wobbly. There was something else, too. When you get older, you kind of get on to yourself. You know the tricks you play to get by, and you like them less and less if you care about your work. I was trying hard to get away from them, and was sometimes falling back."

The costume worn by Julie Andrews in the number "The Shady Dame from Seville" is in fact the same costume worn by Robert Preston at the end of the film. It was made to fit Preston, and then, using a series of hooks and eyes at the back, it was drawn in tight to fit Andrews' shapely figure. Additional black silk ruffles were also added to the bottom of the garment, to hide the differences in height. The fabric is a black and brown crepe, with fine gold threads woven into it, that when lit appears to have an almost wet look about it. Preston did the final musical number in one take, which explains why he was so clearly out of breath, physically stressed, and sweating profusely during the second half of the number.

Although Edwards' movies garnered numerous Oscar nominations over the years, this was the only time that he received an Academy Award nomination, for Best Screenplay Adapted from Another Medium. However, in 2004, he was awarded an honorary Oscar in recognition of his writing, directing, and producing an extraordinary body of work for the screen...