Page 29 - Fujifilm Exposure_8 Wildlife John Downer_ok

The film roll-call is eclectic and vast. David Niven in The Silken Affair (1956), with Genevieve Page and Wilfred Hyde White, directed by Roy Kellino. There are some names for you buffs out there. Shooting next door was Don’t Bother To Knock, a glamorous romantic comedy set at the Edinburgh Festival which launched Richard Todd’s Leonardo Di Caprio type status with the girls of the period. Elke Sommer, then 19, also performed much to Todd’s delight supposed- ly, but gave me my first bout of flu!. As Todd told me later, “well, what’s more international than a pretty girl or more British than one with flu?”
Sophia Loren was also filming her debut British movie, The Key, a WW11 drama with William Holden and Trevor Howard, with Sir Carol Reed directing. Claude Dauphin starred in The Full Treatment, a Hammer Films’ psy- chological drama of merit, along- side Sean Conner y’s future wife, Diane Cilento.
One great party to remember was that given to celebrate Oscar winner Patricia Neal’s birthday, returning to filmmaking after a near fatal stroke in Baxter with Lionel Jeffries directing. Her co- star Jean-Pierre Cassel, enter- tained all with his Gallic dance and song routines.
Gregory Peck produced The Dove, about teenage lone sailor Robin Lee Graham’s round-the- world voyage, due mainly to his liking for the studio. He had previ- ously been there as star for both Captain Horatio Hornblower and Moby Dick directed by John Huston. He remarked that all three films utilised the great water tank facility on the lot.
Vamp wise, there were many, including Miss Australia 1970, Valli Kemp, leading lady to Vincent Price in the horror spoof Dr. Phibes Rises Again . The delec- tably curvaceous Caroline Munro, believe it or not from Rottingdean and famed for her teenage parties at her parent’s house on the hill and invariably the best looking girl at The Pav, as it was known to reg- ulars in Brighton in the 60’s, played Phibes’ dead wife Victoria. She will remember us both being covered head to toe in a plastic sheet falling from the skies! Also
Hungarian beauty Zsa Zsa Gabor joined Frankie Howerd for the comedy Up The Front much to everyone’s delight. But Howerd was not pleased when approached whilst wearing his drag queen apparel for some reason, leaving producer Ned Sherrin to calm him down. Not so Danny La Rue during his only film role in Our Miss Fred, another Elstree comedy.
Elstree made stars like Dave Prowse, 6’7” tall in his bare feet and encased in black plastic armour as the marvellously named Sir Grumble de Grunt in Frankie Howerd’s romp, Up The Chastity Belt. Well known as the monster in many a Frankenstein horror classic, Prowse finally made it big as the baddie’s baddie, Darth Vader, in the Star Wars trilogy.
Venom starred a real poiso- nous snake, a black mamba, kept under sedation by David Ball, head reptile keeper at London Zoo. Even star Oliver Reed kept his distance.
Christopher Lee was continu- ing vamping whenever possible in the countless Hammer classics, Dracula - this that and the other, keeping always in close contact with his pal, Vincent Price and his f i l m p a l R o b e r t ( C o u n t Yo r g a ) Quarry.
Classic films abounded, most notably at this time, Ice Cold In Alex, starring that famous Red Cross ambulance along with stars John Mills, Sylvia Syms and Anthony Quayle.
Cliff Richard guaranteed him- self eternal youth in The Young Ones, Charlie Drake starred in Sands Of The Desert, Tony Hancock in The Punch And Judy Man, and Ken Russell introduced Twiggy in The Boyfriend and Faye Dunaway, walked the Elstree decks for Lew Grade’s Voyage Of The Damned. All in sharp contrast to the kitchen sink dramas of the early sixties, such as Tony Richardson’s Look Back In Anger starring a young Richard Burton and Claire Bloom.
Singer Frankie Vaughan found temporary film fame under the Anna Neagle/Herbert Wilcox aegis, while young Yvonne Mitchell won awards for many a weepie. Poltergeists became popular in The Legend Of Hell House with Gayle Hunnicut and Pamela Franklin. Percy (and his later progress) heralded in distaste in
some quarters, whilst Jack Nicholson scared everyone in The Shining, another Elstree classic. Julie Andrews and Alan Bates starred in Duet For One for Cannon in the 80’s, a sad enough period by any stretch. Along with an effects movie, Space Vampires, Christopher Reeve donned the cape yet again in Superman 4 again for Cannon.
Times changed and the likes of Star Wars, Indiana Jones were joined by the Monty Python pranksters for The Meaning Of Life and Mel Smith’s Morons From Outer Space - shot on the same stages where Car y Grant and Ingrid Bergman filmed Indiscreet.
In 1987, Val Kilmer was over shooting Willow, with Joanne Whalley and Jean Marsh in a story of myth and magic, the magic being no stranger at Elstree after Young Sherlock Holmes , Disney’s Return To Oz and Jim Henson’s, The Great Muppet Caper.
The studio played host in early ‘88 to Steven Spielberg’s Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, with Bob Hoskins. A far cry from Diana Dors as the convicted murderess in Yield To The Night or when Michael Anderson directed George Orwell’s 1984 starring Edmond O’Brien some twenty nine years before that prophetic date.
More recent movies at Elstree include the Tom Hanks starrer Saving Private Ryan, and from director Jon Amiel, the Bill Murray, Joanne Whalley spoof comedy thriller The Man Who Knew Too Little, plus the whacky teenage romance Virtual Sexuality.
No wonder Hollywood remains in awe and in love with Elstree. “I love it here,” enthuses Harrison Ford. “It’s been lucky for me with all eight movies I’ve made at Elstree from Star Wars to ‘Indy Jones’ and Hanover Street.”
For me though, a visit to Elstree in my capacity as a free- lance unit publicist on many movies shot there over the years, often meant a very wet lunch at the old Red Lion pub opposite the studio gates - now a ruddy McDonald’s would you credit? It daily played host to many a well known Hollywood star enamoured with a good old pint of warm British beer on a nasty day’s shoot. I miss it but wish Elstree all
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