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Waiting List. Much is written about the responsibility-to-the-stockholders sort of reason why movies are made abroad—the now waning tax advantages, the cheap labor—but those are often just very good excuses for what the stars, producers and directors want to do anyway: get out of decaying Hollywood and go off to foreign playgrounds for a jolly good time. Hollywood historians are left to ponder whether the films have taken the people away or vice versa.
"Look, I bought a car," says young Robert Wagner, "nothing special, just a great car. Well, I love that car. It has taken me all over—France, the Alps, Sicily—and I'd never done any of that before. Now, in Hollywood, someone else would get a new model and maybe I wouldn't—you know. And in the States if you worry about wines, people think you're queer or something." Wagner lives in Rome, which has long since sacked Hollywood. Nearly twice as many films were made in Rome last year as were made in California. It is an O.K. city to work in, but the more or less permanent new Romans seem to give off an odor of being on a waiting list for Geneva: Cameron Mitchell, Guy Madison, Fernando Lamas, John Barrymore Jr., Esther Williams, Steve Reeves, Gordon Scott, Anita Ekberg.
Quo Vadim? Not everyone is giddy with euphoria, however. Many of these Hollywood Romans, for example, spend their time in Jerry's American restaurant, eating hamburgers and French fries, and listening to an American jukebox. A few speak Italian; most of the others don't bother to learn. They seldom mix with their Italian peers. There is a growing wistfulness and nostalgia for the good old gaudy joys of Hollywood.
Thus the worms are slowly turning, facing west again. For every acclimated John Huston, there are at least a hundred Homesick Harrys. Some of them may soon be following French Director Roger Vadim, once the husband of Brigitte Bardot but now somewhat bored with his native playgrounds. Vadim has discovered the way to find action and excitement on his spare weekends. He goes to Los Angeles.