Forward to Glory

by Brian Paul Bach

  Sure enough, even after the legendary director found out who his gag extra was (a terrified a.d. dared approach the throne, because Butter was bigger than Buzz, but Buzz had already done the a.d.’s work for him), he still howled with annoyance.

  In the end though, like Bob Evans, the kid stayed in the picture. Fans can detect Butterbugs for about fourteen seconds onscreen, which is rather a long time for a Berkeley shot. But it was all glorious, and he who worked, ever so briefly, under the Master, knew that on the screen the old magic of soulful kitsch, nostalgia, longing, and Central European scoring/phrasing would move viewers almost to tears, both with pleasure and in sweet, unattainable fantasy. For a moment, and only a moment, Butterbugs wanted to be a chorus… girl.

  In hopes of repeating their success with ‘The Peacock House’, Babcock & Baby Pictures got Butterbugs to pole-vault into playing another stalwart Brit of cultural achievement. This time it was Sir Adrian Boult, the conductor. While the ecstatic heights of the previous success were not attained, the artistic merit of ‘Boult’ was nevertheless very high. Even though he had performed brilliantly in his previous conductor biopic, that of Wilhelm Furtwängler, the musicians of the London Philharmonia graciously indulged the actor’s attempts at conductorship. But the general consensus was that though he’d mastered the Furtwänglerian technique, he was not fated to be a great conductor of British music. After directing the first movement of Havergal Brian’s ‘Gothic’ symphony in toto on set, most of his time off the podium was spent cheerfully doling out autographs to each and every one of the musicians. These included patrons, like Lord Baggs, Lady Tingo-Laye-O, Princes Charlie and Harry, and Grand-Princes George and Sacheverell, who were in attendance – just for fun.

  Happily, the musical director for ‘Boult’ was Sir Constellation Mackenzy.

  ‘I understand you implicitly, dear boy,’ the eminent composer-conductor whispered to the star, when disgruntlement from the Philharmonia was at its worst. ‘I will work wonders of healing. It’s about time they accepted ‘Furtwängler’ as a guest conductor, and got on with it!’

  In the urban context, Butterbugs fell in love with Hampstead to such an extent that he commissioned a house to be successfully built in (what else?) the Halsey Ricardo style. He even received a commendation from the Hampstead Council for architecturally improving the neighbo(u)rhood. The house was his first overt act in showing his new interest in environments for living, allied with equally-new pal Prince o’ Wales Charlie Windsor, in promoting better perspectives in architecture.

  The steady and increasingly professional stream continued to flow.

  ‘Spleen and Ideal’ (Pathé), a foray into the chartreuse and wormwood-addled Bohemians of Eugene Sue’s Paris, featuring absinthe, midnight bell-tower scenes in the church of St. Vincent de Paul, absinthe, organ symphonies, absinthe, hallucinations, absinthe, syphilitic crises, absinthe, chimæras, absinthe, Félicien Rops, absinthe, Alexandré Séon, absinthe, awful paintings, absinthe, randy bare-breasted models, absinthe, sex, absinthe, sex, absinthe, sex, absinthe, etc. Lev Ventrakowskoff, more bankable now (thanks to Butterbugs), directed competently, and with considerable experience. Once again, the media was full of Faun & Butterbugs pix.

  When in Paris, Butterbugs did as Faun did.

  Back in Merrie Olde, for ‘Town and Clown’ (Oddball), an Oxford-ish don-ish comedy. Our star shuttled between Hampstead and Highgrove, with many an Oxon quad used as location shots in between.

  Faster, faster.

  ‘Melmoth the Wanderer’ (20th-Fox) was a biggie, based on the famous novel by Charles Robert Maturin (1782–1824). The massive production had locations from Wexford to the Andhra Pradesh coast, and the Inquisition sequence was particularly arduous, though Butterbugs had a super time with it. Al Newman and Benny Herrmann reprised their successful collaboration, à la ‘The Egyptian’ (20th-Fox, 1954), except, this time, Alfred did the Main Title, thus setting the alternating-cue schedule. Pappy Ford directed with astounding sensitivity and nuance into the often-sledgehammer-ish original material. Though Maturin had been a Protestant curate, Ford’s Oirishness bridged any gaps in cred. Producer John Brabourne had been so taken with the style and success of ‘The Albigenses’ that he had a whole Maturin Cycle mapped out, which the superstar glommed onto, like bugs take to butter.

  ‘Osmyn the Brave’ (20th-Fox), based on the famous novel by Maturin.

  ‘The Fatal Revenge’ (20th-Fox), based on the famous novel by Maturin.

  There was no reason to stop now.

  ‘Bertram’ (20th-Fox), based on the famous play by Maturin. With Kirk Douglas, Jane Birkin (you know, the sexy one, who lives in Fraance), and Isabel Adjani, still splendid after all these years – that ‘Story of Adele H’ (New World, 1975) girl, and Jack Nance, whose death was greatly exaggerated.

  ‘Kroon’ (Metropolitan), a pic about an artist in 1904 Estonia. Butterbugs was interested in attitudinal illumination through the artistic experience.

  ‘With Fire and Sword’ (Continental), based on the famous novel by Sienkiewicz. Yes, it had already been filmed, somewhat adequately (‘Ogniem I mieczem’ Zodiac, 1999), but when the star first heard ‘A tomb was seen in the sky over Warsaw…’ that was enough for Butterbugs to take up the sword.

  Time out. Time to brush up. On theatrical technique. Butterbugs did Tennyson’s dramas, ‘Harold’, ‘The Cup’ (which he filmed previously) and ‘Beckett’ on stage, in Middlesbrough. It was his first appearance on a British stage. SRO all the way.

  Sir Norcroft Pantiwaste-Semm, who was in all three plays, naturally, said of him: ‘He (Butterbugs) is more than one of us. He honors us. We can only follow. I know that Larry would agree.’

  Lord Larry did in fact agree.

  Down to Dinocittà for ‘The Sufferings of St. Jerome’ (Paramount), Zeffirelli’s astounding living fresco, and ‘The Forest of Error’ (De Laurentiis) – set in AD 1300! – the enchanting prelude to the ‘Divine Comedy’.

  Back stateside, ‘Hot Tar’ or, as it came to be titled, ‘Hot Tar Tour’ (Columbia). Very dangerous to film. Life on the tar-hauling trains, with huge kettles of boiling product (inspired by a compelling story and illustrations by fourth graders in Tarker, Kansas. Upon viewing, the kids felt guilty over the tremendous toll the picture took on its makers; however, Butterbugs emerged unscathed).

  Followed by his most fringe role yet, a guy whose career is to watch over drying concrete in order to keep graffiti people away: ‘Wongo’ (Grandad Ted). It was a big hit.

  Butterbugs then starred in a Dark Ages epic, ‘The Vaunted’ (Vitagraph), concerning a lonely drifter who lives by his wits. All done in art nouveau gloom, with sickly color and icky décor. An artistic triumph for those and other reasons. Audiences loved the scene when the lead character approaches a manor house above a river valley at dusk, entirely scored with hushed tubas and bass. This was Butterbugs’ favorite sequence in his favorite picture of the year. Music: Georgy Sviridov.

  And then, one of the star’s most daring pictures: ‘In the Walls of Eryx’ (UA), based on the H.P. Lovecraft story. Almost a solo performance for about 100 minutes. Filmed on the steppes of Mongolia in spring, in order to get the proper otherworldly feel. The landscape itself was altered with more ‘electric’ colors, to resemble the ‘chartreuse planet’, Venus! It was Butterbugs’ first picture under his Bugs of Butter Pictures production banner. Headed up with the stellar invisible triumvirate of Warren Sarjent, Carmen Trasch, and Carnival d’Bloat. Butterbugs himself had been riveted by the tale as a kid in far-off Carstairs, and even fancied encountering such sinister and mysterious structures once, whilst wandering out on the Bitter Plateau, far from home. So this was his baby. Directed by Joseph Newman. World premiere at the formerly derelict United Artists theatre in downtown Detroit, a restoration which Butterbugs spearheaded. The Motown event of the decade.

  ‘The Erebus and the Terror’ (Ziggurat) was a big adventure pic in the ‘Mutiny On The…’ style for Butterbugs. Brando signed as Franklin and
Butterbugs signed as, yes, a Fletcher C. type, who participates in the cannibalism. A completely different picture from the earlier ‘Stark Raving Mad’ (MGM), which concentrated on the grim aftermath more than the expedition itself. The Preparation Sequence in this production was fairly lengthy, but had the same tone and foreboding as ‘Penthesilea’ (20th-Fox). The second half of the six and a half-hour film covered the ships’ Arctic (mis)adventures.

  A film version of George Saintsbury’s ‘Notes on a Cellar-Book’ (Janus) in the same ‘series’ as the Ricardo pic etc., followed cheerily. Reflections on dark wine bottles. Gas lamp flares. A comfortable, plummy film. With Oz Clarke.

  Strangely enough, Butterbugs appeared in another, contemporary wine pic with Oz, titled ‘Corked’ (RKO), and its mellow comedy was played out in South Africa and Victoria (Australia).

  Butterbugs hopped back into the Central Asian saddle again for ‘Kwuz Zum’ (Intergalactic Dynamotor Super Presentations), which used the climax to Sviridov’s ‘Pathetic Oratorio’, ‘The Poet and the Sun’, so magnificently, for the Departure from the Great Gate sequence, which concluded the Afghan-set epic.

  One of the signal examples of Butterbugs’ ever-expanding versatility was his ready embracing of performing in screen musicals. When no less a songsmith than Cole Porter came to Butterbugs in person and laid his new score at the youngster’s feet, dotted lines only remained to be signed.

  Cole asked no questions, and that very afternoon ‘A Big Blue Bone For A Big Brown Dog’ went into production at 20th, under Jack Cummings’ expert hand. The now legendary score was full of instant Porterian hits, such as ‘That’s What Big Ol’ Houndogs Do And That’s What You Do, Too’, the dogtrot favorite, ‘Tich Tich Tich Tich – Tichy – Tookah Tich’, and the relentlessly entertaining hip-hop number, conspicuously performed by SnoopDogg, ‘Come On, Come On, Come On Come On Come On, Yeah Yeah, Yeah Yeah, Yeah Yeah Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah’, and so many others.

  In ‘Zemlinsky’ (Criterion) Butterbugs undertook and mastered another musical angle, playing the talented composer. This one turned out to be way past the stylish Ken Russell’s forays into Transcendent Filmmaking, or the Incandescent Style. Ken directed, but Butterbugs led the way forward.

  Back in Hollywood, DFZ knew that Butterbugs had been greatly impacted by his own seminal production of ‘The Egyptian’ (20th-Fox, 1954), and so proposed a re-release with Butterbugs morphed into the Edmund Purdom role. The results were a revelation, and the pic became a golden classic. Butterbugs’ incandescence had a remarkable effect on Bella Darvi’s performance, which in itself was praised for the first time. Purdom was pleased to have been relieved of a role he never really cared for.

  Speaking of DFZ, he inked Butterbugs to star in a particularly stylish and controversial picture, ‘The Rising Wind’, based on the bestseller by Bennison Weast. Director: Jean Negulesco. Set in Gwadar, Baluchistan. Butterbugs, as a local British trader, has an affair with local girl. It was a twist on ‘Island in the Sun’ (20th-Fox, 1957), complete with Indo-Populuxe sets, colors, and moods. With Aishwarya Rai.

  Famed Greek stage director Yakkis Theseokopolphosolous then snagged the star to play in his first motion picture, the title role of ‘Sophocles’ (Criterion).

  Then, another biopic, of John Steves, based on the famous book: ‘John Steves: The Enigma and the Failure’ (RKO). A tortured, out of control artist, who is also radically untalented, yet lives the consummate artist’s life, with complete success.

  The star hastened to do pix for kids whenever possible. One of his best had animated sequences featuring Yakky-Doodle and Chopper, titled simply and elegantly, ‘Yakky and Chopper’ (Columbia). Butterbugs thought the project ‘So very much fun’.

  Ever the student of film, Butterbugs hosted a remarkable documentary celebrating his great friend Whit: ‘Whit Bissell Thee Go…’ (UA).

  And then, a steely, harsh return to Stalinist chronicling: Butterbugs as ‘Voroshilov’! (Metropolitan).

  ‘A Dreary Couple’ (Oxidized Onion) was an odd little b&w pic about a boring couple who wander purposelessly under freeway pilasters and associated abutments. He: drab raincoat and style-less hat. She: a plain cloth coat. With Annie Potts. Music: Fred Katz and Maurice Leroux.

  ‘Amphitrite and Tethys’ (Bronston). Greek myths, told in the bare sun on a wine-dark sea! With tantalizing production design by Alice and Martin Provensen.

  With ‘My Own Little Empire’ (Oxidized Onion), Butterbugs got to play a corporate bastard at last. Research for the role had already been done. (An Isaac Davis biopic was sometime off yet; litigious action dominated the efforts of scriptors Ranald MacDougall, Abby Mann and Sidney Buchman vs. the remains of IDHII/Merrette plc, in getting a script hammered out.)

  Following Orson Welles’ precedent, Butterbugs did a rare ad appearance for Gothic Portico wine. Within seconds, the YouTube version was seen across the globe. The 11-minute sequence was produced and directed by the Coen Brothers.

  ‘The Big Shill’ (WB): Vegas bookie – c. 1959, who turns into an oily Frank Luntz-type media person.

  ‘Ragnarök’ (Mega|Goth): Odin stage-manages the end of the world.

  ‘A rather big picture,’ Larry Olivier, who played Odin, quipped. Butterbugs is (who else?) Thor. Tough filming in Iceland and Franz Josef Land. The Gullfoss waterfall played a huge role.

  ‘Stalin in Tiflis’ (Svensk Filmindustri), 1899 – before his crawl to the throne of all the Russias, Iosef Vissarionovich Djugashvili worked as a night watchman at an astronomical observatory. Butterbugs doesn’t play Stalin, but the guy who trains him at the observatory.

  ‘Massive Pomp’ (MGM), Butterbugs’ biggest Roman picture to date. In the days of Elagabalus. With Æmelia Clohaskin, ravishing as always.

  ‘Ondine’ (UA), de la Motte Fouqué’s tale, done up fit and proper. Production design was based on the paintings of Louis Lessieux (released somewhat later, due to litigation with the de la Motte Fouqué family).

  ‘The Jape’ (Foonman Stvdios), a ‘highest’ comedy, with everyone from Steve Martin to Emmanuel Lewis. Set in gas-lit St. Louis in the 1880s.

  ‘Ravi Varma’ (Selznick), story of the famous Mysore painter.

  ‘Belshazzar’s Feast’ (Continental), with Ralph Richardson, John Gielgud, Alec Guinness, Larry Olivier, John Mills, Janet Suzman, Vanessa Redgrave, Jack Hawkins, Richard Burton, Peter O’Toole and an all-star cast; art direction: John Martin (related to the Victorian artist). Music, William Walton and André Previn. Direction: David Lean. ‘Astounding.’ – Boston ‘Daily Baked Bean’.

  ‘The Immortal Hour’ (Jonathan Narthex Presents) about the staging of the Rutland Boughton opera in Aden, 1925. Incongruity of Celtic twilight in the boiling Red Sea-ish port. Decadent colonialism. Yet, the production becomes something of wonder. René Binet, who designed much in the Paris 1900 Universal Exposition, was engaged to be art director. His original designs were used.

  ‘The Sleeper Cell’ (Mega|Goth). Butterbugs was moved by the story of the Iran War vet who hounds the Sec’y of Defense to the point where the Sec’y slays himself by flinging himself from the interior of the US capitol dome. A parallel plot is set deep inside al-Qaeda. Both concomitant plots were based on true stories.

  ‘If These Be Ducklings’, followed by ‘The Shaggy Duckling’ – very serious pictures about duckling studies (both Foonman Stvdios).

  ‘Embodiment’ (Astor): pic in small Danish village, 1820s. Slow-motion pedestrians, all very staid and proper, scored by the opening movement of Beethoven’s Trio, Op.11. Then, two female nudes, one exotic, one local (both real), stroll down the main Pikk. Voluptuous and confident. Then, once they reach a central point, they are captured by nets. The scene shifts to an opulent slott interior, where they have been put on pedestals, admired by staid locals as ‘statues’. Production design based on ‘Golden Age’ Danish paintings. Based on a dream by Butterbugs, based on a non-existent H.C. Andersen story. It played in art cinemas for months.

  ‘The Alienist’ (Standard
Pictures): a lone gunman who shoots… nothing. An individual against his society, and the rightness in doing so.

  ‘The Wayland and Dietrich Saga’ (RKO), distant, austere, mediæval, mesmerizing, stunning.

  ‘American Hardass’ (Universal), brawling barroom SOB! Rollicking, jovial, outrageous.

  ‘Soups and Seeds and Soaps’ (Tinker), country store life.

  ‘Sparkles and Tinsels and Spangles’ (Tinker), urban store life.

  ‘The Aristobrats’ (McLendon Radio Pictures): NYC’s Fifth Avenue kids, and what they get up to!

  ‘Vinalon’ (Criterion), filmed in Pyongyang, concerning the fellow who invents the miracle material. The vinalon suit and other products. Exec Prod: Kim Jong Il & Un (from jail; no salary or screen credit).

  ‘Her Volcano Lover’ (Continental), with Patricia Routledge.

  ‘Fort St. Elmo’ (British Lion). While in Naples filming ‘Volcano Lover’, Butterbugs added this important project. Things were going fine until he saw a street derelict with an outrageous facial growth, which deeply bothered him. Solution: to fix such problems through art and drama. Butterbugs had the person traced and saw to it that the growth was hacked off and that his recuperation was complete, and got him a job as caretaker of the St. Gobbo charnel house, which he enthusiastically accepted.

  ‘Under the Rugby’ (London Films), a gritty roogby picture, on location in tough old Wolverhampton, and Tyne & Wear. No one was especially injured.

  ‘The Genius of Fire’ and ‘The Wanderings of Yima’ (both De Laurentiis), two Parsee pictures. No mere follow-ups to ‘Sacred Flame, Sacred Fame’, these two were set in legendary times. Strange Zoroastrian moods, with Yima, the Yasts, etc. Even Butterbugs couldn’t grasp much of it, but they resulted in two of his most dynamic pictures.