‘Willy Wonka’ director Mel Stuart refused ‘talking down to children’

When “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory� was released in 1971, director Mel Stuart had no inkling that the film would go on to be a beloved classic.

The director, who died Thursday at 83, faced some scathing initial reviews for his adaptation of Roald Dahl’s children’s book “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.� Daily Variety called Gene Wilder’s Wonka “cynical and sadistic� (though Wilder did receive a Golden Globe nomination for best lead actor in a musical/comedy for his performance).

Word-of-mouth focused on the movie’s harsh treatment of the children who are taken on a tour of a Rube Goldbergesque confections factory by Wonka, a strange candy-maker. One by one, they meet disturbing fates, including being sucked into a giant tube, blown up into a giant blueberry, dropped down a chute toward a furnace and shrunken.

Q&A;: Mel Stuart talks ‘Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory’

In a 2001 interview with The Times to mark the 30th anniversary of the film, Stuart – who was nominated for an Oscar in 1965 for the John F. Kennedy documentary “Four Days in November� and won an Emmy in 1964 for his “The Making of the President� -- said he had made peace with the fact that “Willy Wonka� would be the work for which he would always be remembered.

“When you make a movie, you always do the best you can, but you never know what the audience response is going to be,� he told The Times. But he believed that the lasting popularity of “Wonka� lies in its unflinching honesty. “I’m not talking down to children and giving them squirrels with funny faces and all that stuff,� he said.

Stuart credited his daughter, Madeline, with inspiring him to do the film. She was 10 when she asked him to turn the book into a movie.

Stuart approached producer David L. Wolper, who helped cajole Quaker Oats to put up $3 million to make the movie to promote a new candy bar.

Dahl was asked to write a first draft, but when Stuart read it, he felt it was outdated. The young David Seltzer, who had done some documentary work but never a screenplay, was brought in to give Dahl’s work a more contemporary tone and add comedy. (Seltzer would go on to write numerous screenplays including “The Omen� and “Lucas� plus the HBO movie “Cinema Verite.�)

Stuart and producer Stan Margulies brought in the songwriting team of Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley. Their score earned an Oscar nomination and featured “The Candy Man,� which became a No. 1 single for Sammy Davis Jr.

Watch the above clip from the film featuring that song.

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