notonlyamovie | The cliff threat redux – Marc Sheffler's commentary track version

I've already noted Marc Sheffler's story about threatening Sandra Peabody with being thrown off a cliff – as a technique for jolting her into hitting her marks – in my post about Celluloid Crime of the Century. As I noted there, Sheffler has told this story more than once, and today we'll look at one version he recounted at around the same time (early 2000s) as that documentary: the DVD commentary track he shares with David Hess and Fred Lincoln.

Again, this concerns the woods scene where Mari is attempting to convince Junior to let her go. On the commentary, Marc Sheffler says:

Ugh, I remember this scene. What a freaking pain. Do you remember what happened? With her not getting it and I had to hold her over the cliff?

After a brief and unrelated digression by the actors, Sheffler tells us that Sandra "wasn't at the anxiety level that she needed to be" for the scene, and that after multiple takes "everybody was getting annoyed". He adds that he asked Wes Craven to "give me a minute with her". Sheffler then notes they were over a cliff and says:

I took her and I put her over the cliff, I just grabbed her and I went like this. And I said, 'If you don't get this fucking scene right now, I'm gonna drop you, I'm gonna fucking drop you, right now. And Wes'll shoot it, and Vic [Hurwitz]'ll shoot it, and we'll have a different scene, but it'll work 'cause you'll be fucking mangled.' And I said, 'You better fucking get this.'

Given that this is necessarily an audio-only track, we don't know what "went like this" refers to. Vic Hurwitz was the cinematographer, a man who Sandra describes in Szulkin (p47) as "great" and "fatherly". There's no suggestion in either version of Sheffler's story that Hurwitz was involved in the threat or its setup.

Sheffler concludes his anecdote by saying that he signalled to Craven to roll the film, and that Sandra was "so nervous and so scared" when he brought her back up that she hit her marks.

David Hess adds a corroborating note immediately afterwards, saying they were all on the rock at the same time. Hess tells Sheffler that:

One of the things you said that I remember, ‘And the film will keep going. And the film will keep going!’

Hess adds of Sandra in connection with the above that "she al—" but he is then cut off by the others moving on to the next topic of discussion.

It's only fair to note that this is the harshest-edged version of the cliff threat story I have found; there are also versions of it couched in significantly milder language, and I shall certainly return to those. The "boys' club" atmosphere of a commentary track like this can sometimes result in its participants exaggerating details for effect; Sheffler does not usually swear to this extent in interviews, for example.

As with the Celluloid Crime of the Century version, Sheffler shows that he saw this as a way forward born of frustration, not malice. What it does add to our knowledge, though, is that Sheffler felt Sandra's anxiety level was insufficient for the scene, instead of the vaguer "she wasn't getting it" the documentary version included. He is also explicit that Sandra was "nervous and scared" when brought back up. Hess's addition to the story isn't in Celluloid Crime of the Century, either.

Both versions of Sheffler's story contain the details that he asked Craven for a short time with Sandra, and that this was when he took her to the cliff. However, the director himself says on his commentary track that he was the one whose pushing led to the scene working. For Craven to state that suggests that he did not enquire particularly closely about exactly what Sheffler had been doing during his "minute with her".

Looking at Szulkin to see whether this incident is recorded there, we find that it seems to be, albeit quite briefly (pp 75–76). Sheffler and Sandra both refer to the scene, but with different emphases. Sheffler tells us that "a lot of that [scene] was improvised" and that:

For some reason, for her that scene was a struggle, and I kind of bullied her a little bit to get a performance out of her.

He notes that the scene "required a lot of takes" – so the basics here match both the documentary and commentary versions Sheffler gives. "Kind of bullied her a little bit" is one of the milder wordings of this incident that I've mentioned already. Assistant director Yvonne Hannemann also reminisces:

I remember that Sandra was really very worked up about that scene. Quite enormously worked up.

Szulkin does however note that Hannemann's memories may be at least partly confusing this event with Phyllis's death scene, as she goes on to mention a detail that doesn't apply to Sandra's scene. Still, she does use Sandra's name, so perhaps she was conflating the two scenes, not especially surprising given she spoke to Szulkin a quarter of a century after the Last House shoot.

We'll give the final word to Sandra herself, who provides only a short quote. In full:

I thought I was quite wretched in that scene.

"Wretched" is an ambiguous word. It can mean both "very unhappy" and "of poor quality". As such, we can't tell whether Sandra felt distressed or whether she was criticising her performance. All that can be ascertained from the movie itself is that Mari's desperation – entirely appropriate to the character's situation – seems highly convincing to this viewer.

An audio-only extract from this section of the commentary track, including the part beginning with Sheffler's "I took her and I put her over the cliff" above, was uploaded to YouTube in 2012 by user servomoore. At the time of posting, it can be listened to here.