Go Behind the Scenes on Real Hollywood Film Sets From the Age of Hail, Caesar!

  • The sleek new building that hosts the offices of producers and directors of MGM, 1943.
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  • Movie director George Sidney riding on camera crane moving in closer while photographing a circle of swimmers amidst garlands of floating plastic flowers for a scene in the movie musical 'Bathing Beauty' starring Esther Williams in pool at M-G-M studios. 1944
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  • Frank Sinatra having conversation with director George Sidney in between scenes from the film 'Anchors Aweigh', 1945.
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  • A film crew shoot a kissing scene at the Warner Brothers Film Studios in Hollywood, 1946.
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  • Actor, producer, writer and director Orson Welles poses with actress and wife Rita Hayworth on the set of the Columbia Pictures film 'The Lady from Shanghai' in 1947 in Los Angeles.
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  • Lloyd Nolan throwing a punch towards cameraman Paul Vogel as actor-director Robert Montgomery looks on from his director's chair on the set of MGM's 'Lady in the Lake' in 1947.
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  • Rosalind Russell sits with her legs crossed on the edge of a wooden desk, holding a cigarette, as director John Gage and his crew film a scene on the set of 'The Velvet Touch'. 1948.
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  • Montgomery Clift and John Wayne on the studio set of the western 'Red River', 1948.
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  • Ingrid Bergman sits next to the motion picture camera during a break in filming on the set of director Victor Fleming's film, 'Joan of Arc.' 1948.
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  • Cecil B DeMille sitting on a camera rig with members of his crew, on the set of the film 'Samson and Delilah', for Paramount Pictures, 1949.
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  • The technicians, craftsmen and studio personnel - the small army of workers behind the scenes - during the filming of MGM's 'The Next Voice You Hear.' 1950.
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  • Marlon Brando and Vivien Leigh relax on the set of 'A Streetcar Named Desire', circa 1951.
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  • Gene Kelly on the set of the film 'Invitation to the Dance', 1954.
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  • Joseph MacDonald shows Arlene Dahl the mysteries of the CinemaScope Technicolor camera on the set of the film 'Woman's World', 1954.
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  • George Sidney wears a diving mask while directing American swimmer and actor Esther Williams in a swimming pool on the set of his film, 'Jupiter's Darling'. The camera man is wearing scuba apparatus. 1955.
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  • Metro Goldwyn Mayer Studios (MGM), Los Angeles Hollywood Studios, 1955.
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  • Alfred Hitchcock sitting with James Stewart on the set of his latest thriller 'The Man Who Knew Too Much'. 1956.
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  • Elizabeth Taylor, actor Rock Hudson and director George Stevens on the set of the movie "Giant," 1956.
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  • Hedda Hopper and Sam Goldwyn on the set during production of MGM's "Porgy and Bess." 1958.
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  • Director Howard Hawks with Angie Dickinson on the set of 'Rio Bravo', 1959.
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By Lily Rothman and Liz Ronk

The new Coen Brothers movie Hail, Caesar! finds its inspiration in the mid-century Hollywood movie factory—but, as cinematographer Roger Deakins told Variety, the mission was not to make a tribute to the movies of that era but rather to make a cohesive modern film set in the real and complicated world behind the camera.

And, as these images show, the work of making a movie back then was by turns glamorous and gritty. It was clearly hard work: an army of technicians was always at the ready, the shoots might require long days, there was plenty of waiting around to do. But—with bathing beauties, dancing feet, artificial desserts, busy backlots and some of the biggest stars in movie history—it looks like a heck of a lot of fun, too.

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Write to Lily Rothman at lily.rothman@time.com.

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