list_text=          Every Disney fan remembers the dramatic squid attack in Walt Disney's classic motion picture "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea". As does director Richard Fleischer, who recalls its dramatic staging challenges.
          "The squid that had been constructed was totally inadequate," he says. "It looked completely phony; pieces were falling off it.
		  "After we spent a lot of money and time shooting it, Walt and I finally decided to stop and go on to something else, while giving his geniuses a chance to revamp the creature.
		  "I was talking to the writer and we realized the concept was wrong. When we first did the sequence, it was done on a flat, calm sea at sunset, and everything was very clear; you could see the mechanics of the thing. We decided to stage the attack at night, during a storm at sea, so we had spray and wave and great excitement, while obscuring the action."
		  The son of animation pioneer Max Fleischer, who brought Betty Boop and Popeye, among other popular characters to the screen, Richard was born in Brooklyn, New York. He studied drama at Yale School of Drama and joined New York's RKO-Pathe' News in 1942, where he wrote newsreel commentaries and directed two-reel wartime documentaries for the "This Is America" series and wrote and produced "Flicker Flashbacks," shorts compiled from silent film.
		  His successes won him a ticket to the RKO studio in Hollywood, where Richard directed a series of suspenseful grade-B film noirs, including the 1948 "Bodyguard," based on a story co-written by Robert Altman, followed by "The Clay Pigeon" in 1949 and "Armored Car Robbery" in 1950.
		  "The Narrow Margin," his 1952 thriller set aboard a train, is considered a classic in moviemaking today and in 1947, he co-produced the Oscar-winning documentary feature "Design for Death".
		  After directing "The Happy Time," a 1952 charmer starring Bobby Driscoll, who starred in such Disney films as "Song of the South" and "Treasure Island," Richard received a call to meet his father's arch rival Walt Disney at his Studio.
		  Richard recalls, "I was completely taken aback. I couldn't understand why he'd selected me to direct "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea". I said, 'I'd love to do this picture, but I'd like to talk with my father, first, knowing the competitive relationship you've both had.'
		  "Walt agreed. I called my father in New York that night and told him the story. He said, 'Of course you must take that job without any question. Just do one thing. Give a message to Walt for me, tell him that he's got great taste in directors.'"
		  Even today, "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" remains one of Disney's most ambitious live-action films. And after its 1954 release, Richard went on to direct many other big movies since then, including "The Vikings" (1958), "Fantastic Voyage" (1966), "Doctor Dolittle" (1967), "Tora! Tora! Tora!" (1970), "Soylent Green" (1973), and more.
		  In 1993, Richard published his autobiography "Just Tell Me When to Cry" and in 2001, he appeared in the ABC documentary "Walt Disney: The Man Behind the Myth". Today, Richard Fleischer is the busy licensor of his father's creation Betty Boop.&