Slick Memories

Billy Crystal penned this behind-the-scenes retrospective of the filming of City Slickers:

After we'd shot for five weeks, Jack [Palance] joined us for two weeks. We were a well-oiled machine by the time "the Big Cat," as we called him, arrived. The crew was as excited as I was about his arrival. When Jack, dressed all in black, arrived on the set, everyone applauded. Jack's first shot was to confront a ranch hand who was making lewd remarks to Helen Slater's character. He would rope the dude around the neck and then enter the corral and confront him and me, which would start our relationship. [Director] Ron Underwood, who is a gentle, sweet man, easily mistaken for a puppeteer, softly explained to Jack what he wanted: "Then you come through the gate and see Billy and give him a glare—"

Jack pounced: "What the fuck does that mean, give him a glare? I don't glare, I'm a fucking actor—tell me what I'm thinking, not what I'm doing!" Things had been going swimmingly, and now "the Big Cat" apparently had a thorn in his paw. I quieted Jack down, and Ron apologized to Jack as best he could.

"Let's just fucking do this!" Jack yelled.

"ACTION!" Jack got off his horse, walked through the gate, and gave me a glare like a laser beam that went through my head and burned a hole in the fence behind me. "CUT, PRINT!" said Ron.