. . . which is the source of untold thousands of Movie "Goofs" listed here on IMDb, itemizing instances in which "Wild Bill's" brain-child destroyed a film's illusion of Reality by inadvertently poking down from the top of the screen. Mr. Wellman is subtitled as a "HOLLYW0OD MAVERICK" because he was so abrasive to Rich People while a wounded warrior suffering from PTSD (with a steel plate in his head caused by German anti-aircraft flak) that when one of the first dozen films he directed called WINGS won the inaugural "Best Picture" Oscar, he wasn't even allowed to attend the Academy Awards presentation. Other bits of Wellman trivia include the fact that neighbor kid Robert Redford played baseball with Wild Bill's seven offspring in the Wellman yard, and that Wellman directed at least two of U.S. President Ronald Reagan's wives (Jane Wyman and Nancy Davis) in his films. Since Wellman had even more spouses than "The Gipper," he delivered mail to one of them as a movie studio errand boy and supervised an infamous box car rape episode featuring another of his wives during WILD BOYS OF THE ROAD. Wild Bill's other movies included the first version of A STAR IS BORN, the most famous BEAU GESTE outing, Martin Scorsese's mobster movie template (PUBLIC ENEMY), and the first notable airliner disaster flick, THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY. Wellman once deposited a $20 bill into actress Loretta Young's "swear jar," and he proved that the "American Way" was a Path to Hell in HEROES FOR SALE. His career "jumped the shark" with BUFFALO BILL in 1944.
Review of Wild Bill: Hollywood Maverick
