CONTENTS

Cast and Crew 4

Secret Spine-Chiller: The Other Side of Robert Wise (2019) 7

A Discussion Guide for Teachers and Students (1971) 15

About the Restoration 30

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 CAST CREW
Arthur Hill Dr. Jeremy Stone Directed and Produced by Robert Wise
David Wayne Dr. Charles Dutton Screenplay by Nelson Gidding
James Olson Dr. Mark Hall From the novel by Michael Crichton
Kate Reid Dr. Ruth Leavitt Music by Gil Mellé
Paula Kelly Karen Anson Editors Stuart Gilmore, John W. Holmes, A.C.E.
George Mitchell Jackson Director of Photography Richard H. Kline, A.S.C.
Ramon Bieri Major Manchek Production Designer Boris Leven
Kermit Murdock Dr. Robertson Special Effects Douglas Trumbull, James Shourt
Richard O’Brien Grimes
Peter Hobbs General Sparks
Eric Christmas Senator from Vermont

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 Secret Spine-Chiller:
The Other Side of Robert Wise
by Peter Tonguette

What do you do if you are the man who edited Citizen Kane (1941)? You go on to make
B-movies, of course.

Despite having been chosen to be the cutting-room collaborator of Orson Welles on the
greatest film of all time, Robert Wise first called “action” on low-budget exercises in genre
filmmaking. He was launched as a director thanks to a trio of films for producer Val Lewton,
including the undisputed classics of horror The Curse of the Cat People (1944) – co-
directed by Gunther von Fritsch but completed by Wise – and The Body Snatcher (1945).
As his career progressed, Wise was again and again assigned to modest but effective films
that operated within the parameters of their genres, including the chilling film noir Born to
Kill (1947), the dramatic boxing tale The Set-Up (1949), and the powerful science fiction
fable The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951).

Yet, after establishing himself with these agile, relatively unassuming entertainments, Wise
found himself at the helm of increasingly self-serious, sometimes turgid projects – films
that seemed to belong less to his own B-movie heritage than to what French film critics
might have termed “the tradition of quality”: Executive Suite (1954), Helen of Troy (1956), or
I Want to Live! (1958). These films – along with Wise’s subsequent super-sized epics West
Side Story (1961), The Sound of Music (1965), and The Sand Pebbles (1966) – led to the
director’s banishment to the category of “strained seriousness” in Andrew Sarris’s 1968
book The American Cinema. “His temperament is vaguely liberal, his style vaguely realistic;
but after The Sound of Music and The Sand Pebbles, the stylistic signature of Robert Wise
is indistinct to the point of invisibility,” Sarris glumly concluded.

More than five decades have passed since the publication of The American Cinema, but
many film buffs continue to regard Wise – who died in 2005 at the age of 91 – as Sarris did:
a director of handsome but hopelessly bland films. Yet such an assessment overlooks not
only Wise’s early accomplishments as an editor and a director – after all, talents as diverse
as Orson Welles and Val Lewton both saw something in him – but his own tendencies later
in his career. In fact, Wise often seemed like a B-list moviemaker trapped in the body of
an A-list impresario. A self-effacing man, when I interviewed him in late 2004 for my book

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Orson Welles Remembered, he demurred when I asked if Welles had an influence on his satellite, a team communicates via radio with Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, but
work as a director: “I think probably a little bit, yeah. But how much, I couldn’t tell you.” Wise and Kline only show us one side of the conversation. As the servicemen at the base
listen – first casually, then more attentively – the increasingly frenetic dispatches from the
As if intuiting that he had been miscast as a maker of epics, Wise fell into a pattern: after an team in Piedmont are represented visually as audio waves on a monitor: “The signals from
overstuffed misfire – and, sometimes, after an overstuffed success – the director unfailingly the satellite are getting very strong”; “We see bodies – lots of them”; “It’s sort of like they
turned to a quieter but more expressive genre film. Thus, the failed play-on-film Two for just dropped in their tracks, sir.” A scream follows and then silence, hauntingly visualized
the Seesaw (1962) was followed by the eerily effective haunted house tale The Haunting as a straight green line.
(1963); the not-entirely-convincing true-life disaster drama The Hindenburg (1975) was
followed by the atmospheric reincarnation yarn Audrey Rose (1977); and, most notably, the Drawing on his decades of experience in the director’s chair, Wise devised elegant solutions
famously unsuccessful Gertrude Lawrence biopic Star! (1969) was followed by one of the for bringing each of the scientists into the flow of the film. For example, before we are
most impressive science-fiction films ever produced – The Andromeda Strain, which was introduced to Dr. Stone, we see his wife, Mrs. Stone, who is hosting a swanky dinner party
released by Universal Pictures in March of 1971. when she goes to the front door to find a pair of Air Force officers (and two other military
men outside carrying rifles). “Please call Dr. Stone to the door,” one of the officers says.
Drawn from a 1969 novel by Michael Crichton, The Andromeda Strain revolves around “Otherwise, we’ll go get him, ma’am,” the other adds, emphatically. When his wife goes to
the panic that ensues when a U.S. satellite descends from the sky and crashes in the fetch Dr. Stone, the camera mimics her movement, creeping up behind him. She informs
village of Piedmont, New Mexico, which is transformed overnight into a veritable ghost him that “some army types” have been sent for him, prompting him to depart the party
town. The satellite has apparently become tainted with a lethal alien organism, resulting and head for parts unknown. Wise perpetuates the overall mood of mystery moments
in the deaths of close to the entire population of Piedmont. Rounded up to investigate later, when a panicked Mrs. Stone attempts to make a call in her bedroom. “You tell the
the organism, as well as determine the steps necessary to mitigate its damage, are four senator it’s his daughter,” she says in a line that efficiently conveys the information that
scientists who together form a team: Dr. Jeremy Stone (Arthur Hill); Dr. Mark Hall, a surgeon the character is well-connected: her father is in Congress. Yet, when Mrs. Stone reaches
(James Olson); Dr. Charles Dutton (David Wayne); and Dr. Ruth Leavitt (Kate Reid). To carry her father and tries to express her concern, the call is interrupted by some beeps and a
out their work, the quartet is shuttled off to a hush-hush subterranean compound known message: “This communication is being monitored. The connection has been broken for
as the Wildfire Laboratory. reasons of national security.”

As the director of West Side Story and The Sound of Music, Wise had spent the better Equally effective is the first scene featuring Dr. Leavitt, who had been a male character
part of the sixties surrounded by show tunes, but for this altogether different project, Wise in Crichton’s novel. The gifted screenwriter Nelson Gidding – a frequent Wise collaborator
commissioned a score that could hardly be described as tuneful. Heard over the opening whose credits included The Haunting and The Hindenburg – thought the character would
titles are the sounds of early computers: buzzing, beeping, and whirring. It may be music be more intriguing if reimagined as a woman. Wise initially resisted the idea, fearing
of sorts, but it’s a long way from Rodgers and Hammerstein. “I wanted it to be almost like comparisons to Raquel Welch’s superficial presence in Richard Fleischer’s Fantastic Voyage
sound effects,” Wise said in Sergio Leemann’s book Robert Wise on His Films. “I listened to (1966), but Gidding proved persuasive. “He said, ‘It’s going to enrich the whole film. She’s
a number of people who were doing electronic music at the time and settled on Gil Mellé.” not Raquel Welch, she’s an older woman with a biting, sarcastic sense of humour,’” the
In crafting a soundtrack for the film, Wise instructed Mellé to avoid any sounds that called to director recounted in Robert Wise on His Films. “As played by Kate Reid, she turned out to
mind actual instruments. “I would stop, call Gil, and say, ‘That little passage in there sounds be the most interesting character in the film.”
almost like music.’ He’d go back and rework those bars and take out the musical sound,”
Wise recalled in the book. When ordered to join the team, Dr. Leavitt is delightfully recalcitrant as she puffs on a
cigarette and pops pills (with a glass of water helpfully provided by a lab assistant). “My
Wise may have opted for trendiness in the film’s soundscape, but – working with the great experiment is at the critical stage,” she says, insisting that she is too absorbed in her
cinematographer Richard H. Kline – the director devised a cool, restrained visual style own work to do her civic duty. “I’m working around the clock. I can’t just leave now.” As
that contrasts with the urgency of the storyline. After entering Piedmont to track down the portrayed by Reid, we have the sense that Dr. Leavitt relents only out of a grudging sense

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of professionalism – among other things, The Andromeda Strain takes a kind of Hawksian (the infant and the old man), as well as the unexpected fragility of Dr. Reid, who has a
delight in portraying a group of characters united in a common mission. seizure at a most inopportune moment.

When Dr. Stone and Dr. Hill are helicoptered by the Air Force to Piedmont, the film’s tone Without ever foregoing its sense of fun, The Andromeda Strain progresses through a
shifts from darkly comic to downright apocalyptic. Fearful of buzzards disseminating the series of riveting revelations (including how the government might marshal the organism,
organism after poking at the scattered corpses, the chopper drops a noxious mist of green- eventually known as Andromeda). The pleasure of the film derives from coming within
yellow gas – a sight as frightening to the environmentally conscious among us as any little inches, or seconds, of disaster but being pulled back each time, especially when Dr. Hill,
green man. While the two scientists examine the scene, Wise and Kline conjure a series of impaired by laser wounds, must actually use that key. Let us, then, give Robert Wise his
unforgettable images, including a low-angle shot of a deceased man lying on his back on proper due. The next time someone dismisses the director for such staid efforts as The
the ground. Because of his position, the man’s face appears upside-down on the screen. Sand Pebbles or Star!, remind them that his directorial career began with a film called
In a striking move, the camera tilts up as Dr. Stone and Dr. Hill walk over and stand above The Curse of the Cat People and peaked, perhaps, with the spine-chilling effects of The
him – as the helicopter that brought them to Piedmont hovers above them. In a rare stylistic Andromeda Strain.
misstep, Wise and his editors, Stuart Gilmore and John W. Homes, make use of overly fancy
split-screen effects to show shots of the assorted victims as the scientists discover them. Peter Tonguette is the author of The Films of James Bridges and the editor of Peter Bogdanovich: Interviews.
Such excesses intrude upon Wise’s otherwise classical mise-en-scène. His articles on film have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Sight & Sound, CineMontage,
American Cinematographer, and many other publications.

Having made the key finding that the organism acts to change blood into powder –
and having happened upon two survivors in Piedmont, a constantly crying infant and a
bewildered old man – the scientists proceed to Wildfire in Flatrock County, Nevada. Evoking
a sort of nightmarish Area 51, production designer Boris Leven created a sleek complex
consisting of all-red curving corridors and circular rooms, many flashing with geometrically
patterned buttons and panels, but the look of the place is not half as frightening as its rules:
split into five levels, the scientists must be continually cleansed – scanned, prodded, and
irradiated – to assure a fully sterile environment. Even worse, if the organism contaminates
the larger complex, Wildfire will automatically destroy itself via a nuclear detonation, unless
Dr. Hill – charged with carrying a key to stop the process – finds a substation in time
to intervene. With its suspicion of government, The Andromeda Strain anticipates such
conspiracy films of the seventies as The Parallax View (1974) and Three Days of the Condor
(1975), with a dose of Dr. Strangelove’s Doomsday Machine thrown in for good measure.

Wise milks the drama for all its worth, but the film is at its most pleasing when the
scientists put their heads together to unfurl the mystery of the satellite and the organism
that accompanied it to Earth. In one of the film’s signature images, the four watch intently
– arms crossed, hands on hips – behind glass as a series of lab animals, including a
monkey, are exposed to the organism; the scientists are as frightened as the audience
as each animal quickly expires upon exposure. “Whatever killed them in Piedmont is still
there and still as potent as ever,” Dr. Stone says. Yet, in depicting their efforts to determine
the organism’s structure and method of attack, Wise never overlooks the scientists’
fundamental humanity, evidenced in Dr. Hill’s genuine concern for his two living patients

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 A DISCUSSION GUIDE FOR
TEACHERS AND STUDENTS
by Tom Andrews

As part of the original publicity campaign for the film’s release in 1971, an educational
“study guide” was commissioned by Universal and distributed to high schools across
the United States. The following text is attributed on the front cover to Tom Andrews, the
Director of Dramatics at Kent School in Kent, Connecticut.
INTRODUCTION
“6-0-1.” Interpretation: “Computer overloaded.”
The three numbers spewing out of a confused computer filling the screen at the end of The
Andromeda Strain grimly remind us that what caused the overload is a very real question:
“What do we do in the event of another biological crisis in the future?”
Robert Wise’s screen science thriller, taken from J. Michael Crichton’s bestselling novel,
doesn’t provide the answer. It simply poses the question, after it has brought us chillingly
through Earth’s first biological crisis.
In urgent, news-like computerized fashion, Wise dramatically tells the story of a living
organism from the outer regions of space that has hitchhiked its way to Earth aboard
an Earth-launched satellite, attacked and destroyed an entire community – except for
two survivors – and is threatening to divide and mutate into a deadly super-colony with
unlimited destructive force. Project “Wildfire” – established for precisely such a catastrophic
emergency – wheels into action. In a top-secret underground research laboratory, a team of
four hand-picked scientists (portrayed by Arthur Hill, David Wayne, James Olson and Kate
Reid) face an almost impossible task: within 96 hours, isolate, identify and find a method
of controlling the deadly invader.
In documenting the havoc created by this extraterrestial microorganism, director Wise has
employed highly sophisticated cinematic techniques to define the intricate plot.
The research laboratory, patterned after NASA’s receiving lunar lab at Houston, Texas,
is a five level super-sterile underground facility, one of the most intricate and elaborate
sets ever assembled for a motion picture. Within the set, Wise uses such visual aids as
illustrations, diagrams, schema technique, computerized animations, multi-screen effects,
printouts and psychedelic montage sequences.

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In filming The Andromeda Strain, Wise tells a story that is very much “now.” Indeed, the AFTER VIEWING THE FILM
film becomes more frighteningly “now” with each new scientific accomplishment in space.
Among the many questions it asks, three stand out: 1. Does outer space pose a threat to Science, English, humanities, ecology, theology and film studies classes all have a stake in
man’s survival? 2. Can living organisms from another galaxy invade Earth? 3. Can mankind The Andromeda Strain. One of the significant aspects of this film is that it can be a part of so
defend itself against such a possibility? many school courses. Teachers are finding that inter-disciplinary projects may be the most
valid approach to educating today’s media-saturated youth. Teachers may discover that
The Andromeda Strain is a fascinating story, one which makes a positive statement about a well-organized cooperative effort on The Andromeda Strain will prove valuable in many
biological and chemical warfare. ways. It can serve as the catalyst for future cross-discipline projects.
BEFORE SEEING THE FILM Whatever the approach, some of the topics below might serve in kicking off a discussion
of The Andromeda Strain.
Before either reading the novel or seeing the film, students and teachers might enhance
their appreciation of The Andromeda Strain by considering some of the recent scientific DISCUSSION TOPICS
accomplishments in space.
1. Early in the film, Dr. Jeremy Stone berates one of his associates for not having done his reading
Man has walked on the moon and has brought back samples of its surface to Earth. The homework for such a critical assignment as “Wildfire.” As the helicopter they are riding in swerves
moon is a quarter of a million miles away. Tens of millions of miles from Earth, a Russian over the destroyed village of Piedmont, New Mexico, Dr. Mark Hall replies, “Sorry I don’t go in for
satellite, Venera 7, has landed on the surface of Venus, and has radioed information back science fiction.” Stone replies tersely, “Neither do I.” The tone of this science-thriller is set. Wise
ffrom its surface to Earth. begins creating this tone even before this event. He juxtaposes scenes of science adventure with
scenes of domestic tranquility. Cite these scenes and consider dramatic and thematic effect.
The significance of these facts, particularly that of the Soviet Union, is heightened when we
realize that a Russian unmanned rocket landed on the moon, scooped up a few ounces of 2. Dr. Leavitt is an epileptic (In the movie a female; in the novel a male; why the change?).
lunar dirt, and returned it to Earth. Another vehicle, Lunohold I, is at this moment inching Her epilepsy raises some questions: For example, what is the author’s attitude towards
its way over the surface of the moon. The Russians fully expect to have satellites return epileptics in a highly classified job? How is it that Leavitt’s epilepsy went unnoticed by the
samples of the surface of Mars and Venus in the near future. experts who had apparently checked very thoroughly on the backgrounds of the “Wildfire”
team? What does the epilepsy subject do for the plot? Are all three motives for the epilepsy
There is always the possibility that the Andromeda Strain in the film could possibly be element dramatically and thematically valid in The Andromeda Strain?
similar to a living organism on the surface of Venus, if indeed a living organism can survive
its 1000 degree fahrenheit temperatures, and its atmospheric pressure of 100 times that 3. Explain the nature of the deaths in Piedmont.
of the surface of the earth.
4. Explain how Jackson and the baby survived the Andromeda attack. What obvious clue in
Dr. Wernher Von Braun, the one man perhaps most responsible for landing men on the their acidity disparity did Hall continually overlook?
moon, holds that science cannot rule out the presence of living microorganisms or viable
spores existing elsewhere in space. “What if they survived,” Von Braun says, “and hitch- 5. The President of the United States delayed ordering a 7-12, an order to explode an atomic
hiked to earth, took to its more benign climate and multiplied at a runaway rate?” bomb over the Piedmont area. He was ultimately proven to have made the correct decision.
What plot crises occurred in creating contradictory orders in regard to the explosion?
What if indeed!
6. What did Stone learn about Andromeda from the experiments on the animals? In
The Andromeda Strain is not science fiction. what different ways do Wise and Crichton handle Dutton’s responsibilities to the animal
experiments? What clues do the animals give in solving the Andromeda mystery? (The
Another way to prepare students to read and see The Andromeda Strain is to have them animals in this film did not die. Their oxygen was briefly cut off during the shooting, and a
research and report on some basic scientific terms they will meet in the story. 1. strain, 2. team of physicians hurriedly revived them after each “take.”).
Andromeda (both in astronomy and Greek mythology) 3. mutation, 4. PH factor, 5. alkalosis,
6. acidosis, 7. respiratory alkalosis, 8. epithelial tissue. 7. What is respiratory alkalosis? How did respiratory alkalosis save Dutton? Explain how this
crisis helped Hall discover the clue to Jackson’s and the baby surviving the attack of Andromeda.
Now have your students read the book and see the film.

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8. What event activated the automatic self-destruct? What event negated the reason for
self-destruct? What were the obstacles Hall had to overcome in reaching a key station to
disengage the self-destruct? Explain the “Odd Man” theory. Why is Hall chosen “Odd Man”?
9. Explain the organism mutating to a nonlethal form. Ironically, this mutation causes the
contamination and the automatic self-destruct to begin its countdown. Was all this a “deux-
ex-machina” or a valid and credible way of bringing the story to its conclusion?
10. Students might appreciate the roles of each “Wildfire” team member if they knew
the nature of each scientist’s job. Dr. Stone is a biologist. Dr. Leavitt, a microbiologist. Dr.
Dutton, a pathologist. Dr. Hall, a surgeon. Research the nature of their individual avocations.
Then relate their contributions to “Wildfire.”
11. A lavishly mounted set plays an important role in helping to create the mood and drama
in this story. Recall some of the details which Wise employs in the set. How do the scientific
tools add to the story? Compare the use of these tools with the use of space equipment in
other recent science fiction films.
12. Consider the unbilled “star” of The Andromeda Strain, the microorganism itself, code
named Andromeda. By the end of the film, what have we learned about it?
SOME FILM NOTES
Many of The Andromeda Strain sequences were filmed at the near-ghost town of Shafter
in the southwestern rangelands of Texas. Shafter represents Piedmont, New Mexico, where
the space capsule descends to Earth. Its present population is 26.
The research laboratory for the Wildfire team was constructed on the grounds of Universal
City Studios. The elaborate set is the work of Boris Leven, an Academy Award winner for
his set work in West Side Story.
THE CAST OF THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN
Arthur Hill (Dr. Jeremy Stone) created the role of George in the original Broadway production Who’s
Afraid of Virginia Woolf. He made his screen debut with Marlon Brando in The Ugly American.
David Wayne (Dr. Charles Dutton) first achieved Broadway success as America’s favorite
leprechaun in Finian’s Rainbow. He later created the role of Ensign Pulver in Mister Roberts,
as well as the wily Sakini in Teahouse of the August Moon.
James Olson (Dr. Mark Hall) was Joanne Woodward’s faithless lover in the film Rachel,
Rachel. His stage appearances include roles in Elia Kazan’s J.B., Romulus; The Chinese
Prime Minister; Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and the Actors Studio revival of The Three Sisters.
Kate Reid (Dr. Ruth Leavitt) has received Tony Award nominations for her performances
in the Broadway productions Dylan, and Tennessee Williams’ Slapstick Tragedy. She also

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received an Emmy nomination for her portrayal of Queen Victoria in the award-winning His films since then have included The Set Up, The Desert Rats, Executive Suite; Tribute
television production The Invincible Mr. Disraeli. to a Bad Man; Somebody Up There Likes Me; Run Silent, Run Deep, and I Want to Live!.
The nurse-technician in The Andromeda Strain is played by Paula Kelly who made her film Wise has won four Academy Awards, two each as producer-director of West Side Story
bow co-starring with Shirley MacLaine in Sweet Charity. A very talented dancer, she has and The Sound of Music. He was won the Irving Thalberg Award and has been nominated
appeared on several television specials. for “Oscars” as a director on I Want to Live!, and as an editor for Citizen Kane.
THE AUTHOR
J. MICHAEL CRICHTON
J. Michael Crichton (rhymes with frighten) is a Renaissance-style talent, a graduate
physician whose self-prescription for the full life includes dashing off a novel whenever
time hangs heavy on his hands.
He wrote The Andromeda Strain while completing his final year at Harvard Medical School.
It was his ninth full length novel, but the first under his real name. He has written seven
thrillers under the pseudonym of John Lange and another book, A Case of Need, under the
name of Jeffery Hudson. Another non-fiction work, Five Patients, is now on the stands, and
an additional property Dealing, written in collaboration with his younger brother, Douglas,
has just been published. He has also written a screenplay, Lucifer Harkness in Concert,
which deals with marijuana use among college students.
He entered Harvard Medical School in 1965 and received his MD Degree in June 1969. He
is currently serving as a post-doctoral fellow at Salk Institute for Biological Studies at La
Jolla, California.
He reports that people who have read the novel are obsessed with attempting to find out
how much of this story is true. Adding to the confusion was Crichton’s citing imaginary
authorities and the inclusion of an impressive reference bibliography – fictional from
beginning to end.
THE DIRECTOR
ROBERT WISE
Among Robert Wise’s 34 films are West Side Story, Sand Pebbles, Star and the biggest
money-making film in motion picture history, The Sound of Music.
He deliberately chose The Andromeda Strain, because he wanted to get away from period
pieces and make a contemporary film. The Andromeda Strain, Wise says, “is about as
contemporary as you can get.”
Wise’s first directorial effort came in 1943, when the director of The Curse of the Cat People was
dismissed for being behind schedule. Wise, who was editing the film, also became its director.

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 ABOUT THE RESTORATION PRODUCTION CREDITS
The Andromeda Strain has been exclusively restored by Arrow Films and is presented in Disc and Booklet Produced by Michael Mackenzie, James Flower
its original aspect ratio of 2.35:1 with mono audio. Executive Producers Kevin Lambert, Francesco Simeoni
Technical Producer James White
The original 35mm camera negative was scanned in 4K resolution on a Lasergraphics QC Nora Mehenni, Alan Simmons
Director at EFilm, Burbank. The film was graded on Digital Vision’s Nucoda Film Master Production Assistant Nick Mastrini
and restored at R3Store Studios in London. Blu-ray Mastering Fidelity in Motion
Subtitling The Engine House Media Services
The original mono mix was remastered from the optical negatives at Deluxe Audio Artist Corey Brickley
Services, Hollywood. Design Obviously Creative

All materials for this restoration were made available by NBC Universal.

Restoration supervised by James White, Arrow Films

R3Store Studios:
Gerry Gedge, Jo Griffin, Nathan Leaman-Hill, Rich Watson, Jenny Collins SPECIAL THANKS
EFilm:
David Morales Alex Agran, Ian Froggatt, May Hong Haduong, David James, Kim Newman,
Bryan Reesman, Jefferson Root, Sean Savage, Peter Tonguette,
NBC Universal: Anthony Whittam, Todd Wiener
Peter Schade, Tim Naderski, Jefferson Root, John Edell

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AV203 / FCD1905