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SUMMER BOOKSHELF SELECTION
Book Reviews
SO YOU WANNA BE A DIRECTOR?
BY KEN ANNAKIN (TOMAHAWK PRESS, £16.99)
SO YOU WANT TO BE IN PICTURES
BY VAL GUEST (REYNOLDS & HEARN, £14.95)
Apart from the near coinci- dence of their titles, there’s a lot more common ground revealed in the readable mem- oirs of two of Britain’s most prolific and successful film men.
Guest, now 90, and Annakin, 86 (fresh from a UK promotional tour including a book-signing at BAFTA), directed nearly 50 pictures apiece across every genre (including a Robin Hood swashbuckler each).
They’ve had fabulously successful second marriages (Guest to actress Yolande Donlan, Annakin to production secretary Pauline), now reside in California and don’t have much good to say about Tony Curtis. Both were also responsible for giving promising talent their first significant film ‘breaks’ (Guest to Peter Sellers and Cliff Richard, Annakin to Julie Christie and Charlotte Rampling).
The Yorkshire-born nephew of a Labour Chancellor Of The Exchequer, Annakin seemed destined to become a tax inspector when a £100 win in the Derby sent him on a mind-broadening trip to far flung places.
After stumbling into film-making during the war with tersely titled information documentaries like Crop Rotation and Know Your Enemy: The Japanese Army And How It Became
with ‘big-hearted’ Arthur demon- strating that ‘Coughs and Sneezes Spreads Diseases.’
Guest may not have enjoyed some of Annakin’s more lavish budgets but he still crafted some memorable pic- tures like a pair of Quatermass chillers, Expresso Bongo and that startling sci-fi drama, The Day The Earth Caught Fire.
A minor gripe (especially with the Annakin book) is the odd bout of messy editing, but what’s a few typos amid such a rich source of filmmaking memories. ■
Just in case
you didn’t
know, the subtitle of this
solid autobiography tells us, helpfully, ‘Director of five James Bond films.’ Glen worked his way up from the cutting rooms to become, first, ‘editor/second unit director’ of some of the series’ most spectacular stunts (in The Spy Who Loved Me etc) before taking over at the helm on For Your Eyes Only. ■
CHRISTOPHER LEE: THE AUTHORISED
SCREEN
HISTORY
BY JONATHAN
RIGBY (REYNOLDS & HEARN, £15.95)
The formidable Lee, still going strong at 79 with current roles in Star Wars 2 and Lord Of The Rings, once wrote his own mem- oir drolly entitled Tall, Dark & Gruesome. Film buffs will, however, be even better off with this fantastically well researched and handsomely crafted movie companion to a career which has spanned the sublime to the cor blimey. ■
THE WORLDWIDE GUIDE TO MOVIE
LOCATIONS
BY TONY REEVES
(TITAN, £16.99)
So there
you are
kicking
a ball
about in Crissy
Field, just east of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco when suddenly you’re struck by a sense of déjà vu. Yes, that’s where Mrs Doubtfire played soc- cer with her young charges. Along with your Rough Guide or Lonely Planet is now another essential back-packed aid to the foreign hol. ■
What It is Today, he was guided into features by a powerful mentor, Sydney Box.
From Miranda and Across The Bridge to Swiss Family Robinson and Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines, it has been a fascinating, globe-trotting career which he has effected despite some distinctly dodgy producers.
His stories of making The Longest Day (he was one of three directors) while trying to ensure that Darryl F Zanuck’s current actress girlfriend Irina Demick filled the screen too are suitably epic.
Perhaps befitting someone who once helped turn out scripts in the 30s for Will Hay, Arthur Askey and The Crazy Gang, Guest has a jauntier approach to his autobiography than Annakin’s more hard-nosed style.
The stage-and-screen mad young- ster, christened Valmond, had a false start too, as an apprentice accountant with the Asiatic Petroleum Company, before beginning to indulge his proper passion as a performer and showbiz hack. His first directing credit was The Nose Has It!, a 10-minute wartime short
FOR MY
EYES ONLY
BY JOHN GLEN (BATSFORD, £16.99)
COMPILED AND REVIEWED BY QUENTIN FALK 2001: AN
ANIMATION
ODYSSEY
BY STEVE
MCMELLON (BAKER TILLY, £75)
This is
not an exhaustive market research document,” writes McMellon, chairman of the media group Baker Tilly. “It is an overview of a very exciting industry sector and an attempt at identifying some of the problems affecting anima- tion in the UK and at offering some pos- sible solutions.” Slim (just 46 pages), expensive but timely given the recent success of home-grown hits like Chicken Run. ■
JOHN G:
THE AUTHORISED BIOGRAPHY OF JOHN GIELGUD
BY SHERIDAN MORLEY (HODDER, £20)
So many words have already been written about, arguably, Britain’s greatest classical actor, who died last year aged 96. One also shouldn’t forget that Gielgud – created a BAFTA Fellow in 1992 - was no mean writer himself, commentating on his profession and other performers in delightful vol- umes like Stage Directions and Backward Glances. It would be nice to think that this comprehensive and thoroughly enjoyable account of a remarkable life and career – including chapter and verse on the once-shad- owy business of that close encounter in a public loo – might be the last word. Of course, it won’t. ■
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