If you can manage to access this WaPo article, it's a good read. (Maybe use TOR browser.) Extensive quoting is a no-no here, but here are a few tidbits:
"Filming was not off to a great start on the movie set at Hollywood's Warner Bros. Studio in May 1942. The script was only half-completed, the leading lady didn't know how to play her part, and the male star was hesitant because he had never been in a romantic role.,..."
"..."None of [the people who created it] foresaw that the film would be so well-received," Isenberg said. "Director Michael Curtiz didn't even have an acceptance speech ready when he won Best Director at the Oscars. In a Hungarian-inflected accent, he stood up and hilariously said, 'Always a bridesmaid. Never a mother.' "
"...Many of the extras ...had actually escaped Europe to avoid Nazi persecution. Perhaps the most stirring performance by an extra came from Madeleine Lebeau, who fled Paris with her then-husband Dalio ahead of the invading German army in 1940, and who leads a tear-stained rendition of "La Marseillaise" and shouts of "Vive la France! Vive la démocratie!"
And if you can access it, since Soylent Green has been mentioned on The Lounge, there's also a link to this article "..."None of [the people who created it] foresaw that the film would be so well-received," Isenberg said. "Director Michael Curtiz didn't even have an acceptance speech ready when he won Best Director at the Oscars. In a Hungarian-inflected accent, he stood up and hilariously said, 'Always a bridesmaid. Never a mother.' "
"...Many of the extras ...had actually escaped Europe to avoid Nazi persecution. Perhaps the most stirring performance by an extra came from Madeleine Lebeau, who fled Paris with her then-husband Dalio ahead of the invading German army in 1940, and who leads a tear-stained rendition of "La Marseillaise" and shouts of "Vive la France! Vive la démocratie!"
In 1973, 'Soylent Green' envisioned the world in 2022. It got a lot right.
