Maureen O'Hara doesn't come out of retirement for just any ol' movie.
As a matter of fact, she's come out of retirement only twice in the past 22 years, most recently for the CBS-TV movie "The Christmas Box," which airs Sunday at 8 p.m. on Ch. 2. It's only her second made-for-TV movie."The story was so wonderful and the character was so wonderful that any performer would find it very difficult to turn it down," the 75-year-old O'Hara said in a telephone interview. "An awful lot of scripts get sent to me, but none of them in the last few years have intrigued me enough to give up my way of life. And this one did."
O'Hara had not read the best-selling book by Richard Paul Evans, but she was immediately taken by Greg Taylor's screenplay, which is based on that book. And she ended up doing the movie for the same reason she did "Only the Lonely" in 1991 - because she loved the script and her character.
As a matter of fact, she came to do both movies in exactly the same way. Five years ago, writer/director Chris Columbus wrote "Only the Lonely" with her in mind but didn't know where to find her. So he sent the script to O'Hara's brother, Charles FitzSimons.
"And he read it and he called me in Ireland and his remark was, `This you do,' and I said, `Don't send me the script. I don't want to go back to work.' But he did, and I read it and I called him and said, `OK, this I do.' "
This past September, O'Hara was back in Ireland and not looking to go back to work.
"Well, the same thing happened with this." Executive producer Beth Polson "couldn't find me, and she sent the script to my brother Charles. He read it and he called me again, and he said, `Alright, another one. This you do,' " O'Hara said. "I read it, closed the last page, picked up the phone, called my brother and said, `OK, this I do.' "
Not only was O'Hara excited about the script, but the producers were more than a bit excited when she agreed to do it.
"We were thrilled," said Al Henderson, an executive producer for Bonneville Producers Group who is also vice president and general manager of KSL. "We didn't think we'd ever get her. We lucked out on it."
"She's got an incredible presence, both in person and on screen," said executive producer Chris Harding. "She walks in a room and she's got this aura. But she was very nice. She treated everybody very cordially, and it was a pleasure to deal with her."
And, while the producers were expecting a movie legend to show up, what they got was a hard-working actress.
"Here's this famous movie actress doing television," Henderson said. "And unlike most TV actors or actresses, she really had prepared. She had to use some Latin words and correct the Richard Thomas character - correct his English. She went to the library and five or six sheets of handwritten notes and did all this research. For a TV movie, you don't normally see that."
The producers, wanting to make O'Hara as comfortable as possible, acquired what Henderson called a "standard, large motor home" for her use while on location in Pasadena, Calif. But after the first day, O'Hara asked for smaller quarters.
"It was a great big, elegant trailer with double beds and a kitchen and a very uncomfortable toilet, where you could hardly back in, and a big sitting room area," O'Hara said. "And I said, `Where's the makeup mirror? Where's the makeup chair?' And they said, `Oh.' And I said, `Haven't you got anything else? I'm not going on a holiday, I'm going to work.'
"So they showed me a trailer that was about half the size - had a beautiful shower, a lovely toilet - pardon me being so honest - with plenty of room so that you could dress and undress in the toilet if somebody else was in the other part, one single room with a makeup chair, a makeup mirror with proper lights, and a little tiny, tiny refrigerator and a couch. I said, `This is it. This is to work in. I'll take this and you can give somebody else the big fancy one.'
"The trailer they had given me would be wonderful if I was going on a hunting vacationing or up in the mountains but no d--- good for work."
Still, asking for a smaller trailer is unheard of in Holly-wood.
"We all said later, `Boy, that's a first. How many times do you hear a star say, `Could we have something smaller?' " Henderson said.
For O'Hara, a veteran of movies that range from "How Green Was My Valley" to "Sinbad the Sailor" to "McLintock!" to "The Parent Trap," acting is not only a craft but a business. Which made getting the movie shot in just 18 days possible, "because they were all competent performers who were there doing their job," she said. "And you had a very competent crew, a very competent director and very competent producers. All professionals doing their job. Nobody pulling any nonsense.
"Except somebody who wanted a smaller trailer."
Many stars complain about the rushed pace of TV movies but not O'Hara.
"Yes, it's long hours and hard work," she said "In the old days, we didn't work such long hours, but we made movies in a very short time. `Against All Flags' that I did with Erroll Flynn, we made in 28 days. That included all the fencing and stunts and everything else. And `The Quiet Man' we made in eight weeks."
She said she doesn't understand the current extended theatrical movie-making schedules.
"I'd get bored, going to work every day and doing nothing," O'Hara said. "It would bore me to tears. I'd rather go to work and work like a dog, go home exhausted and fall into bed."
O'Hara said that one of the reasons she agreed to do "The Christmas Box" was that it reminded her of another of her movies - the original 1947 version of "Miracle on 34th Street." Her role in that film is still one of her favorites, and it has remained a favorite with viewers for almost 50 years.
And even all these years later, youngsters still recognize her from "Miracle." She recalled an encounter with a group of children one time in New York City.
"I was coming from church . . . and a bunch of kids came up behind me and pulled on the back of my jacket," O'Hara said. "I turned around and I saw all these kids. And one of the kids spoke up - they're all looking at me with their eyes popping out - and said, `You're the lady who knows Santa Claus, aren't you?' "
Actually, O'Hara is hoping that "A Christmas Box" will become another holiday classic, "a twin to `Miracle on 34th Street' that you'll see every Christmas."