The film Claudia Cardinale almost ruined

The Red Tent 

In 1969, Claudia Cardinale almost stopped the production of a movie, how?

The film, The Red Tent, is about a failed Arctic crossing by an air balloon in the 1920s.

The reason Claudia was in the film is because it had to be sold to Italy, to bet the funding, and she was the romantic interest of one character. Though the airship was built in Italy, from a design by an Italian, it was manned by a crew from Russia.

How did Ms. Cardinale almost stop the production?

Her lover at the time was the films director, and he wanted a larger role in the film for her, but the producer told him her role did not warrant being expanded, so the director left the film.

The film stars, Peter Finch, Sir Sean Connery, and Hardy Kruger as well.

The story behind the film is that in 1928. Italian aviator Umberto Nobile attempted a crossing of the Arctic. For some reason the airship had an engine fire, to put the fire out Nobile ordered the pilot to climb - a reasonable decision - the lack of oxygen would put the fire out. Unfortunately, this meant that ice formed on the skin, and forced them down. The reason for the ice was not discovered, one hypothesis is it was formed on the skin from damage to the skin done when it laned in Russia.

The weight of the ice forced the ship into a dive, which refuelled the flames, as the ship was about to crash it was lifted, ripping the gondola off. The loss of weight shot the balloon, and five crew members in the air.

Sensing their death the crew threw out what they could to help those on the ice. The balloon then flew out of sight; it wasn't until a few weeks later they were found, dead, by Roald Amundson, who died in a crash trying to take-off having found them. 

The crew probably died a long tine before they were found, as the balloon rose in the Arctic air, they would have suffered Oxygen starvation, frostbite, and hypothermia as the balloon rose out of control.