West Side Story

Trivia: "West Side Story" was the first film to win the Best Picture Academy Award for two directors (Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins).

Trivia: Rita Mareno was unable to hit the low notes in the song "A Boy Like That"; the entire song had to be dubbed. Natalie Wood was not told that all of her songs were going to be dubbed until after filming was completed; she went through the production thinking it would be her voice used in the songs when the film was released. Dubbing the songs after filming was completed posed an unusual problem. Normally when a song is dubbed, they play it during filming so that the actors can mouth the words so that they match the lyrics. The songs in West Side Story were dubbed after filming was completed, so it was the singers who were brought in that had to match their lyrics to the actors mouthing the words (from the documentary "West Side Memories", 2009).

BocaDavie

Trivia: Rita Moreno was reduced to tears when she was nearly raped by the Jets(although it was only acting) when it brought back memories of her being raped as a child. When she started crying the cast immediatly stopped and tried to comfort her.

Trivia: Richard Beymer and Natalie Wood barely talked to each other in real life. They would say "Good Morning" to each other as if they'd just met, and then start making out when someone said "action." Whenever they finished a scene, Wood would go straight back to her trailer. She wasn't this cold toward many of the other actors in the film. Her ability to cover this up shows her great acting skills. This fact is also mentioned in the West Side Story Special Edition DVD.

Trivia: Tucker Smith (Ice) dubbed Riff's voice in the "Jet Song."

Trivia: The actors loved being on location in New York, so in order to get to stay there longer they would do rain dances to make it rain and delay production. It ended up raining so often that the director forbid them to do any more rain dances.

Trivia: In the original stage version Tony and Maria sing "One Hand, One Heart" on the fire escape on the night of the dance. This song was considered too solemn in that scene when the movie was made, so they lifted a tune from "Quintet" and did some lyrics adjustments. The result was "Tonight", which is still the song sung in that particular scene in most stage productions.

Trivia: Eliot Feld had pneumonia when they were filming "Cool."The studio they were filming in was extremely hot so when the cast took a break they went outside in the cold air. This all took a toll on Eliot and he collapsed.

Trivia: When Tony sings "Maria" towards the beginning, that sequence is actually made up of several shots of him walking through the city that were filmed spread over the course of the four-month shooting schedule. The final note of the song - when Tony sings the word 'Maria' in the alleyway as the camera slowly pulls up and away from him - was the last shot filmed (from the documentary "West Side Memories", 2009).

BocaDavie

Trivia: The bracelet Natalie Wood wears on her left wrist is to hide an injury she got while working on a previous movie.

Continuity mistake: When Maria is hitting Tony while saying "Killer," her hair is across her left cheek. In the next shot, it is completely away from her face. (01:48:20)

More mistakes in West Side Story

Riff: Boy, am I a victim of disappointment in you.

More quotes from West Side Story

Question: During the war council when Krupke shows up, how does he know where the gangs were? They didn't have cars, so how did he track them down?

Answer: Officer Krupke and his partner pulled up in the squad car in front of Doc's earlier that night and asked the Jets why they were all there blocking the sidewalk, then mentioned that he knew they were cooking up something at the dance, and warned that he's coming back. Later, during the war council it's Lieutenant Schrank who shows up at Doc's. So how did Schrank know to show up there? Krupke could've told Schrank something may be going on at Doc's involving the two gangs.

Super Grover

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