Miscellaneous Documents

I managed to get my hands on some original documents that I think are from the THX 1138 News and Feature Service pack. If anyone is in the possession of the full THX 1138 News and Feature Service could you let me know about the contents and maybe document the text for this web site and also if you are willing to part with it?

What does it feel like to live in a future century in a world where everyone exists underground, where the poplulace is kept under control with soothing drugs where all activities are programmed by computers?

Not so good, says Robert Duvall, who stars in Warner Bros.' "THX 1138," story of a futuristic society which fits that description. "If that's the way it's going to be, and who can say it isn't, then I'm glad I won't be around to see it." says Duvall, whose co-stars are Donald Pleasence and newcomer Maggie McOmie. "We had just enough while individuality is a crime and conformity a requirement.

"For instance, we spent weeks underground, in tunnels around San Francisco and Oakland. That alone has quite an effect on you. Everyone in the picture had his or her head shaved and wore the same kind of white coverall, reducing everyone to a common denominator. The impact of all this was terrific. You felt like a cow in a herd and you could see where a kind of apathy would settle over everyone if they had to live like that."

"THX 1138" is the brainchild of George Lucas, who wrote and directed it, base don a short prize-winning film he made while a student at the University of Southern California. Lucas is only 25, a man with a free-swining imagination whose whole existence revolves around film. The mind-bending visions fo his 25th century world, he feels, contain the seeds of possiblilty.

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"We have all the potentials today," he says, "polluted air to drive you underground, tranquilizing drugs and computers. Whether it happens depends on the human spirit. Or the lack of it."

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The son of the movies most famous Tarzan is prominently featured in Warner Bros.' "THX 1138" but, alas, nobody's going to see his features.

He's brawny Johnny Weissmuller Jr., whose father was the world's greatest swimmer before giving up the water for the jungle. Johnny Jr., plays a robot policeman in "THX 1138," a film laid in a future century when people live underground and their lives are controlled by soothing drugs and vigilant computers. The robot cops in the films, which stars Robert Duvall, Donald Pleasence and introduces Maggie McOmie, all have faces of stainless steel, hence the real face of Johnny Jr. will not be seen.

Johnny worked in Holly wood several years ago as a stuntman and actor but gave it up for San Francisco, where "THX 1138" was filmed.

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Getting people to shave their heads, even for a movie, is no easy matter, as director George Lucas discovered during the filming of Warner Bros.' "THX 1138" in San Francisco.

The shaved heads were necessary for principal actors and extras alike because "THX 1138" is the story of an advanced subterranean society which disapproves of individuality. Hence the citizens--men and women alike--shave their heads and dress in identical white jumpsuits.

Lucas' problem was finally solved when 50 members of the Synanon House in Oakland consented to have their heads shaved smooth in order to supply Synanon with badly-needed cash.

Each of the Synanonites in the film, which stars Robert Duvall, Donald Pleasence and Maggie McOmie, got $30 for their hirsute sacrifice. As Chuck Dederich, Synanon founder, observed philosophically, "nobody's hair is worth $30."

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That man who crashes a jet-propelled motorcycle into a jet-propelled car in Warner Bros.' "THX 1138" is well-named. He's Speed Stearns, whose stunt is one of the thrills in the American Zoetrope film about life as it might be in a future centry with stars Robert Ducall, Donald Pleasence and Maggie McOmie.

Speed is well-known to racing enthusiasts who have seen him in the Tournament of Thrills auto show that tours the United States. He is the master of such stunts as rolling off the back of a car going 70 miles an hour, crashing through a three-foot thick wall of ice and putting a car through a roll-over manoeuver. In the thrill game since 1958, Stearns' dangerous vocation has earned him a lot of money, but only a broken ankle and some minor burns in the way of injuries.

A second-generation Stearns is also in "THX 1138," but he doesn't do any stunts. He's Speed's son, Toby, aged four.

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Donald Pleasence has a deja-vu feeling about his role in Warner Bros.' "THX 1138." He's been there before. Pleasence stars with Robert Duvall and newcomer Maggie McOmie in the Technicolor film about a futuristic century drug-programmed, computer-controlled society which exists underground. Not only is Pleasence restricted in a subterranean life, as is everyone else, but he attempts to escape and ends up in the confines of a prison.

Pleasence, one of those great character actors the English are so adept at developing, has had enough of that in real life. During World War II he was a radio operator aboard British Lancaster bombers. On a mission over Germany his plan was shot down and Pleasence bailed out to become a prisoner of war. He spent two depressing years in a Nazi prison camp for fliers. "One doesn't get over that sort of thing completely," says Pleasence. "Further confinement, even in the make-believe sense of a film, brought it all back to me. But I must say I enjoyed the role immensely."

Pleasence is a veteran of British repertory in such places as Plymouth, Jersey and Birmingham an eventually graduated in such places as Plymouth, Jersey and Birmingham and eventually graduated to London's West End, where he joined Sir Laurence Oliver's "Antony and Cleopatra" company in its New York engagement and its American national tour. He has been a star in both American and English motion pictures and television for many years.

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One thing about a futuristic film dealing with a look-alike society: It's easy on the man in charge fo the costumes. For Warner Bros.' "THX 1138," in which all the people are dressed alike and have their heads shaved as befits a future century, costumer Don Longhurst had only to provide 200 pairs of white overalls, 200 pairs of tennis shoes and a dozen black leather jumpsuits.

The leather jumpsuits in the picture, which stars Robert Dvall, Donald Pleasence and Maggie McOmie, provided the futuristic garb for policemen in the film. The gentlemen out of costume, in center, is the films' director George Lucas.

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At 25, George Lucas is the youngest director of a studio-financed, bigtime film, which he also wrote and edited. For a young fellow who almost became a mechanic, he's doing pretty well.

The picture is Warner Bros.' "THX 1138," the story of a dehumanized, subterranean civilization in a highly technological era and is based on a short he made while a film student at the University of Southern California. It stars Robert Duvall, and Donald Pleasence and newcomer Maggie McOmie.

Lucas grew up in Modesto, Calif., with a passion for souping-up cars. "I was set on becoming either a mechanic or a race driver," he says. "My father was equally set against it."

After passing through a phase when he became interested in art and thought of becoming a painter, Lucas entered USC. At the same time he began building a race car for famed cinematographer Haskell Wezler, who later became director. Wezler helped him get into the film school at USC and there Lucas thrived.

After several years of hitting the books, he finally got his hands on some film. "It was just 80 feet of 16 mm, enough for about one minute on the screen, if uncut," he recalls.

The other students took shots of themselves or conducted tests or experiments with their allotment. Lucas took his supply to an animation camera and made a one-minute film that eventually won over 30 film festival awards. The technique he used had been imitated repeatedly since.

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Later he won a scholarship which permitted him to observe Francis Ford Coppola directing "Finian's Rainbow" at Warners. He not only observed, but helped, and when Coppola made "The Rain People" Lucas became his assistant. He also shot a 90-minute featurette on the making of the film itself.

When Coppola formed American Zoetrope, with his first feature to be for Warner Bros., he chose Lucas' "THX 1138" script and Lucas as the director.

It was a big compliment to a young man whose big ambition once was to be a mechanic.

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