by Colin Clark
Needless to say, when we filled the stand, it was only half full. David roared and stamped and we all went off like hounds, in search of the rest. The men’s lavatories yielded 14, playing cards, with a bottle of whisky between them. Many threats and pleadings later they were on parade. The ladies’ lavatories were the same. There was even a card game going on under the stand itself. The canteen, which was off limits as they will be given lunch boxes, had almost 30! At last we got about enough and we stopped counting. (They are very adept at confusing a count to protect their ‘mates’.)
David and I and another two second assistant directors yelled and applauded and waved and cheered to encourage them to do the same. Then we mixed them up and did it again. It was a lovely sunny day, which helped us a lot, but apparently that is a very bad thing for the film. It seems we have some real Coronation footage (Elizabeth II) which will be cut in with our footage to make it more impressive, and of course on QE’s Coronation it never stopped raining, so the two footages might not match. How perverse.
We did the whole operation about 10 times, until everyone was fed up, not to say rebellious. We then took the opportunity to audition some of them for the ballroom scene, in a rehearsal room with a piano. We will need a mass of dancers for the Grand Ball, and we can get them from ballroom dancing clubs, but NOT until every member of the FAA who can put one foot in front of another to music has been given a chance. Otherwise we will have a strike. They all want to work, so many of them claimed to be experts, but in the end we took only eight couples, and they are not much cop. It was a sop to the union to take any at all, but hopefully they won’t be noticed in a crowd of professionals.
SUNDAY, 2 SEPTEMBER
Last night, after an excellent dinner, Tony told me of a rumour that MM was pregnant!! He is very alarmed. Will we soon have to cope with morning sickness, depression etc. as well as everything else? He wanted me to try to check it out with the household before he told SLO and started a panic. So this morning I rang Plod and went over to Parkside for a quiet chat, on the pretext of talking to the staff. (They are restless, as usual.) Plod was very jolly. He would confirm nothing but just put a finger beside his nose with his lips sealed. I’m not quite sure if this means ‘yes’ or ‘no’, but I assume ‘yes’. Plod is the only one who never seems to be affected by the lunacy going on all round him. As he is now more loyal to MM than to me, and quite rightly so, I couldn’t ask for details. Plod and I are close, but MM is his employer. She never speaks to him. He’s like a stout walking-stick for her to lean on and he’s very happy just to be that.
Paula appeared, looking as if she was trying to keep calm in a whirlwind. I sympathise with her. She has definitely bitten off more than she can chew. In the beginning, it was Milton who undertook to deliver MM’s person, and Paula who undertook to deliver her performance. Now they are both facing failure. The whole film – and a lot of money – depends on their success but they both seem to have run out of ideas.
AM has left the country, and Hedda Rosten is no help at all. Plod says she encourages MM to drink champagne with her at all hours of the day. Naturally this makes MM feel ghastly and so she starts hitting the pills. There is no discipline whatsoever, and when Paula and Milton try to impose some, they become very unpopular and have to back off to survive. Hopeless.
I came back and told Tony there was no truth in the rumour about the pregnancy. Why give SLO another worry when there is nothing we can do about it? If the rumour does turn out to be true, we will all simply have to adapt as best we can, or the film will grind to a halt.
MONDAY, 3 SEPTEMBER
Once again, MM surprised us. Today she was inspired to make an enormous effort by the music. She has two music scenes in the film and they are being shot ‘back to back’. The first was her dance to the music of a barrel organ, which was coming in through the open windows of the purple room. Richard Addinsell has written two pretty tunes for her, and this one is light and happy. MM is, as always, in that gorgeous white figure-hugging creation of Bumble’s, and it is perfect for dancing.
The dances in this film are all ‘choreographed’ by Billy Chappell.63 He is as camp as coffee but he is very sweet and cosy and gets on well with MM. All in all it was a delightful scene and MM did it exquisitely. The dance is interrupted by the young King, Jeremy Spenser, and it was easy to see that he was genuinely impressed by MM’s performance. He is now almost the only person whom MM still likes, so it ended up a successful day.
One has to remember that even though MM is making a film with SLO, it is up to MM to make it something special – a super-star creation. SLO has made many films – some great and some mouldy. Only on stage, to a very limited audience, can he be seen as the great actor he is. And MM is carrying quite a lot of other burdens as well – a husband who is unsupportive, and away; a manager who could be seen as exploiting her, and ‘best friends’ who are sycophantic and weak. ‘Ruth amid the alien corn’ really. MM rose to where she is now by being stronger, more talented and more ambitious than the competition. I dread to think how many blonde bombshells there are in Hollywood right now, trying to get where MM got by any means, fair or foul.
Whenever I meet anyone who has got right to the top, I always notice that they have something extra that ordinary people – including me alas – do not have. And that ‘little extra’, whatever it is, does not mean that they have a happy or an easy life – quite the contrary. We have no right to demand that they share that little extra with us and then criticise them for being different or difficult or ‘dangerous to know’. MM has more than a little extra, and yet the technicians expect her to behave like a twopenny Rank starlet. If I was SLO I would tell them off, and lay out the red carpet for MM every day. But that would mean telling himself off too, and admitting that while he is great in many ways, it is MM who is the MOVIE STAR.
TUESDAY, 4 SEPTEMBER
Inspired by the success of the dance scene, MM was in a more confident mood than I have seen her for some time. The set was declared ‘closed’ (i.e. no spectators) – as if it had ever been open. This was because MM had to sing the whole of the Sleeping Prince Waltz to SLO, in a close two-shot.
It did at least mean a minimum of hangers-on, with no Drapes, Chippies, Plasterers and Props, who are usually hanging around, ‘just in case’. Those who were essential but not absolutely essential – i.e. most people – were kept firmly out of sight. MM was kneeling over SLO on the purple sofa, in the purple room. She had quite a long, difficult speech, leading into the song. SLO was prepared to break it down into two extra shots. Instead of one shot for the whole scene it could have been made up of a close-up of SLO, a close-up of MM, and then the two-shot favouring MM for the song, but this wasn’t necessary. Earlier, when the Grand Duke wanted to seduce Elsie Marina, he had arranged for his valet to play the violin in the corridor. Now it was Elsie’s turn to seduce the Grand Duke, and she arranged for a veritable orchestra of valets and footmen in the corridor, all waiting to play on her cue.
Close-up Grand Duke (genuinely puzzled): ‘Where’s that music coming from?’ (He knew he hadn’t laid it on this time.)
Two-shot favouring MM. MM giggles: ‘Oh never mind. It’s just that Hungarian, I expect.’ (She knows now that the ‘Hungarian’ had really been the valet.) ‘You told me he plays every night.’ She paused and sang the waltz:‘I found a dream, I laid in your arms,
The whole night through,
I’m yours, no matter what others may say or do . . .
‘My sweet . . .’ she said and gave SLO a passionate kiss.
It was very good – singing and acting, and indeed the scene went on for another couple of speeches. For the first time MM behaved like a trouper. She is really happiest when she sings. Perhaps it is because it is a nice uncomplicated thing to do, something she often does when she is alone, or frightened.
In the previous films she’s always seemed a rather reluctant chanteuse, but not this time. I should add that she didn’t have to sing the final ver
sion. Today’s voice will not be in the film – that will be ‘post-synched’ in the sound studio much later. But her lip movements today will be vital so she had to sing properly, nonetheless. And she did, in fact, give a performance which impressed everyone. What a pity SLO can’t build on this, but it is really too late. After lunch, things weren’t quite so easy. MM had to declare her passion – ‘Oh gosh, your Grand Ducal Highness, how I love you’ – and throw herself into his arms. Then they were interrupted by the hapless Dicky W, once again with a phoney excuse, this time on the Duke’s behalf.
I don’t know if MM had had a drink in the break, or a pill, or both. (MM loves champers but she does not ever drink too much on its own.) Anyway she seemed to be on another plane. She was jolly enough, but communication got more and more difficult. By the end of the day, when she had only one close-up left to do, she had become wistfully sad – and completely lost. Her only line was ‘I didn’t quite catch that’ – referring to the Duke’s declaration of love in Carpathian – but even that was almost impossible for her to say. The hair got tousled, the red rashes came and went. Then, suddenly, she got it right, like catching a butterfly in mid-flight. I do see why directors dread working with her, poor lady. You never know which MM you will get next – or how long it might take to get anything at all.
WEDNESDAY, 5 SEPTEMBER
They have finished building the Grand Duke’s dressing room, which leads into the purple room. This means there are a lot more scenes we can now shoot without MM. She did not turn up until lunch, and again she wasn’t in very good shape. If she hasn’t arrived by 9 a.m., and I haven’t been able to learn from Plod when she is due to leave Parkside, I have to go to help David in the studio. I don’t know until lunchtime whether she is there or not. It is academic really because she needs to be in Make-up before 9.30 for any work to be done with her before the lunchbreak.
This morning we did the follow-up to the Grand Duke’s attempted seduction. Elsie has passed out and four footmen have been summoned to carry her into a bedroom. The sleepy valet, who has been dragged out of bed to play his violin, wanders into the drawing room, still fiddling away, gawping with curiosity. The part is played by a little old Greek actor called Andrea Melandrinos. It was hard to tell whether he was acting or really in a dream. When SLO yelled at him to shut up, he jumped out of his skin exactly like a real servant would have done and the crew dissolved into laughter. Neither he nor SLO could decide whether to be pleased or not by this comic success. The shot had to be done several times, and was never quite so funny again.
In the afternoon we did MM’s long silent walk around SLO. He is being shaved by the same valet and is totally preoccupied. Elsie comes out of the bedroom in the background, walks through the purple room, into the dressing room, takes a cup of coffee, walks right round the Grand Duke and returns to the bedroom. She was draped in a pink bedspread, totally dishevelled with her blonde hair (a different wig) hanging loose down her back. The Grand Duke only does a double-take as the bedroom door shuts. For some reason, this scene bothered MM a lot. Perhaps it was a situation with which she could identify all too closely? She had no lines to remember but, in her confused state, even little details like when to collect the cup of coffee gave her maximum trouble. And, wrapped up as she was, it wasn’t easy to carry anything. Although the camera could hardly see her face, her general appearance was frightful. Her walk, however, was unmistakable, especially from behind. If that wiggle of the rear end comes out on camera, the film will be saved!
Finally we did the shot of her collapsed on the bed, under the pink coverlet, where Dicky discovers her and, presumably, wakes her, before that walk. There was nothing anyone could do to make this shot presentable. The truth was that she just looked like a tart, the morning after. It is a very hard thing to define, but I’ve seen it (to my shame), and SLO could certainly recognise it too. No amount of fussing by drapes and set dressers could alter it. Something in the way MM sprawled on the bed, I guess. We’ll see in ‘rushes’ tomorrow.
I just can’t see how MM can keep this up all week. She looks shattered, washed out, in a dream. LOP and MMP have a huge insurance policy in case SLO or MM are ill. Filming must be stopped for five days before they pay and an independent doctor has to examine the ‘ill’ person. Mental illness does not count. Of course this does not apply to MM yet, but SLO had Mr P check the policy because he can see the writing on the wall. The most difficult question is – what will make MM recover her composure? What will help her to start working properly again? AM is not due back for a week. Plod says MM phones him in NYC for hours and hours, but that does not seem to make her any better – sometimes worse! And what if she is pregnant? Suddenly it looks possible that the film will never be finished . . . and we are only four weeks in.
THURSDAY, 6 SEPTEMBER
Sure enough, at 10 a.m. we had an official message from Parkside to say MM was not well, and a doctor had been called. I reported this to SLO. He wanted to know which doctor. A local GP? A specialist in nervous diseases? There was quite a difference. I rang Plod and spoke to Hedda. AM had found the name of a London physician from a friend and had recommended him over the phone. Hedda had arranged for him to call that afternoon. But whatever he says, Hedda thinks that MM will not return to the studio before next Wednesday (Sept 12th). As AM returns from NYC next Tuesday (Sept 11th) this seems a likely guess.
Milton arrived late. He had been to Parkside, and even he had been kept waiting for an hour. He and SLO immediately went into conference, frantically calculating whether a claim could be made on the insurance, and how to get the insurance company to examine MM for a second opinion (some hope!). I do not know if it would be necessary to shut the film down for five days in order for a claim to succeed. Presumably we would all still be paid – by the insurance company. But such an interruption is a horrendous thought. In the meantime, there are cut-away shots to be done with SLO, and scenes in the dressing room with SLO, Dicky, and Jeremy Spenser. Most of these are done very quickly and efficiently, with the only delays being for moving the camera and relighting. But they filled today and will fill tomorrow too. Mr P and Teddy Joseph have arranged for a day on location at the Foreign Office (the real one) for Monday which means a lot of work for the Ast Dirs. The road outside the FO in St James’s Park has to be closed from very early in the morning, and filled with horses and carriages and extras dressed as passers-by. Everyone concerned is being very helpful. Even though MM is not going to be there herself, her name alone always works magic.
The dressing-room set is much more sympathetic than the purple room, although it may not be so dramatic on camera. It is a bedroom/ dressing room which must have been quite rare in 1911 in such a large mansion as the Carpathian Embassy in Belgrave Square. Since this script is taken from a play in which all the action took place in one room, and it has been stretched to take place in one house, the rooms must interconnect. SLO has many changes of extremely handsome military-style uniforms – but somehow they do not suit him. He has chosen an ultra-teutonic bearing for the Grand Duke, his short hair slicked down, his collar buttoned up to his chin and a monocle in his eye. This worked well with Vivien on stage. She knew exactly how to play against it, and she could melt your heart with her combination of bright intelligence and vulnerability. (She certainly melted mine.) But with MM – as naive and well-intentioned as a puppy – the Grand Duke seems stiff to the point of absurdity. He never seems to relax. I don’t know if that is in the script or because SLO feels so unhappy. It certainly takes away the romantic appeal and makes Elsie falling in love with the Duke stretch credulity to the limits. We can already see this in the ‘rushes’. Of course Tony B is full of ‘how wonderful Laurence is’ but I feel there isn’t enough for SLO to get his teeth into. Rather, the role has got its teeth into him. He gives the impression of a director who has walked onto the set and into the leading role. And that isn’t make-believe – which is what the film is meant to be about – it is exactly what has happened.
Another long scene of the Grand Duke being shaved, in his bedroom/dressing room, by Andrea Melandrinos, the valet who played the violin. Since he still behaves exactly like a valet, one must now assume he is a brilliant actor. There is another valet, played by Dennis Edwards, who is tall and thin, and quiet to the point of seeming in another world. When Elsie Marina, wrapped only in a bedspread, did her long walk round the Duke, Dennis was directed to stare in amazement. The trouble is that in the meantime, no one has told Dennis to stop staring in amazement. So all through today’s scene, when nothing untoward is happening so far as he is concerned, there he is, still staring in amazement. SLO couldn’t see him, of course, because he is acting in the scene, and Tony B did not notice. I must admit that I was not brave enough to point out the problem, so it will be in the movie. It is not the job of the assistant directors to assist the director to direct. Years ago I was invited, by Vivien I suppose, onto the set of Caesar and Cleopatra.64 Gaby Pascal was directing a crowd scene. Caesar’s troops had just landed in Alexandria or something, and the people were in a panic. After a couple of takes, I pointed out to Pascal that quite a few of them were just wandering around, looking blank. I now know that this was because he hadn’t told them what to do. Extras who are not told what to do wander around and look blank. But my observations were not well received – (I was 12 at the time) – so I didn’t risk repeating my mistake. When I am a director . . .