The title decree was proclaimed by legendary producer Darryl F. Zanuck in response to a petition signed by Tyrone Power, Ava Gardner, Mel Ferrer, and other cast members of The Sun Also Rises who had lobbied to have the woefully inexperienced Robert Evans removed from his crucial role in the picture. Evans would go on to rise fast in the industry as a producer and present some of the most important films of the 1970s (The Godfather and Chinatown for starters) before going into a catastrophic tailspin in the decade to follow. Evans put his life story into a same named memoir which is an ego stroking and wildly entertaining read that becomes extremely compressed, even more egomaniacal, and devoid of most of its value when translated into documentary form. It was interesting to see a few elements described in the book such as Evans filmed plea to the Paramount brass to save The Godfather production, but mostly I spent the film wishing a similar appeal for his own book adaptation had been rejected.
