Nobody should be actively rooting for any movie to fail, regardless of whether they’re an A-list actor or an armchair expert. There aren’t many benefits to wishing doom upon something many people have worked hard on for a long time, even if Kirk Douglas let the green-eyed monster get the better of him on one occasion.

At the time, he didn’t have much to worry about. Secure in his position as a household name and in the rare position of being able to alternate between lucrative studio gigs and passion projects he built from the ground up through his own production company, Douglas was a made man.

He was a triple-threat player in Hollywood during an era when there weren’t too many of them around: he was a great actor, as his three Academy Award-nominated performances in Champion, The Bad and Beautiful, and Lust for Life had displayed, he was a movie star as the grosses for Gunfight at the OK Corral, Spartacus, and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea had shown, and he was also a powerhouse producer.

In short, he was on top of the world. Even when the ‘New Hollywood’ era began, Douglas eased into his evolution as a veteran character actor and occasional leading man while continuing to produce, write, and direct. And yet, despite being upheld as a beacon of integrity throughout his career, he sat on the sidelines with his fingers crossed, hoping one particular picture would go down in a ball of flames.