Irving Thalberg

Thalberg likewise did not think that color would replace black and white movies.

When an assistant protested a script that envisioned a love scene in Paris with an ocean background Thalberg refused to make changes, saying "We can't cater to a handful of people who know Paris." A more serious distraction to Thalberg’s efforts was his obsession with making Norma Shearer, his wife, a prominent star. Flamini notes that these efforts led to sometimes "overblown and overglamous" productions, and speculates whether his focus on Shearer led to him dismissing a chance to produce Gone with the Wind. Thalberg himself admitted to his obsession years later to a fellow producer: "You're behaving like I did with Norma. I knew positively that she could play anything. It's a kind of romantic astigmatism that attacks producers when they fall for an actress."

One of the first pictures he took charge of, Ben Hur, was inherited and already in production by another studio when MGM was formed. The film was turning into a disastrous expense with cost overruns already in the millions due to its lavish sets and location shooting in Rome. Most studio executives chose to terminate the film to cut their losses. Thalberg, however, felt differently, and thought the film would have an impact on movie audiences, due to its classic literary source, and would highlight MGM as a major new studio. Read Less