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decades as an operator. Among other cinematographers he’d supported down the years were Gunter Krampf, Otto Heller, Reg Wyer, Chris Challis, Paul Beeson and Geoff Unsworth.
So many films, so many memories. The worst – Personal Affair for director Anthony Pelissier “who had a very sadis- tic streak. He’d seen a particular French movie which had been shot with a Debrie through which you got a direct look and the stuff you could do with that was magnificent.
With our Mitchell, the viewfinder was at least nine inches away from the actual shooting length which could cause parallax problems. If I got an ear
in the viewfinder I knew I was all right. It was very exhausting and the tension was relentless.” The coldest – “That has to be A Night To Remember. They’d built part of the port side of the Titanic 30-to- 40 feet up out on the lot at Pinewood. It’s fairly high up there already and there always seemed to be an east wind whip- ping in. It was mostly night shooting and a lot of it was done from a crane even higher up. Like my assistant Johnny Alcott I was soon wearing a special padded suit with newspaper also wrapped round inside.”
The most serendipitous – There’s a scene in 1976’s The Voyage of The Damned, on which Harcourt operated at
Elstree, where they show the passengers Invitation To The Waltz on which he’d worked at BIP 40 years earlier.
There were many tricky moments too, like shooting a chase on a cramped staircase in Hell Drivers. But none per- haps as potentially confrontational as the time out in Durango when Harcourt briefly took over on the western Kid Blue as DP from Billy Williams who was suffering with a bad back.
They were shooting a table scene with about ten artistes, including the star Dennis Hopper, and the noise level was deafening. Harcourt recalls: “I just lost my cool and yelled, ‘Shut up, for Christ’s sake!’ Hopper then
chipped in with ‘There’s a double shadow across that face.’
“I quickly replied with, ‘You do your job, and I’ll do mine.” It was a very tense moment. The next day was a night shoot and Hopper came up, hugged me and said, ‘I shouldn’t have done what I did.’ That did him real credit.”
Clearly this consummate profession- al had a real way with people, perhaps best summed up by the director Ken Russell who’d smile when beginning the day with Harcourt who always tended to work in trademark headgear.
“Ah, the hat,” Russell would say to the gathering throng, “I feel much more comfortable now.” ■ QUENTIN FALK
Photos main: behind a vintage camera on Voyage of The Damned, 1976; from top left: David Harcourt with Anne Heywood and Reg Wyer
Ken Russell, David Harcourt and Billy Williams shooting Billion Dollar Brain, 1967; David’s father, actor James Harcourt, with his children Jo (continuity girl) and David (camera assistant) on The Young Mr Pitt, 1941