Shooting 007: And Other Celluloid Adventures (21 page)

Everything about this sequence was at best extremely uncomfortable, and the camera and everyone involved remained soaked to the skin throughout a long day’s difficult filming. There was more to come: when completing the sequence in the so-called controlled conditions of Pinewood Studios the actors constantly disappeared from sight in the surging water. Nor was there room for any doubles or stand-ins; all were excluded from these tight spaces, with only my giant grip Jim Kane and camera assistant Ron Drinkwater helping me to stand against the pressure of the oncoming tide.

Another scary moment shared with Roger Moore and Susannah York was the scene in a small light aeroplane which could hold only four people – including the pilot. The scene was of the two actors flying back to the mine after hearing of the flooding disaster on the television, both of them sitting in the back seat while I sat up front next to the pilot, filming them. With no room for the director, the actors had to direct their own performances.

So now came a genuine drama with the aircraft itself. The plane was supposed to pass through a deep, narrow gorge with the cliff face close to both sides challenging the pilot’s expertise in manoeuvring the plane, tilting the wings if necessary – it really was that close! Looking through the camera, my concentration was focused entirely on Roger and Susannah’s performances, watching them carefully as I had been instructed by the director. I would say that they were not at their best with all these aerobatics going on around, which was not surprising as I could feel the swaying movement of the plane while I struggled with the camera under the black cloth which I used to prevent any light creeping through the eyepiece and fogging the film. Happily we survived the ordeal.

In the film, Rod Slater (Roger Moore), the manager of the Sonderditch goldmine, discovers a plan to drill into an underground lake with the intention of flooding the mine so that members of a criminal syndicate can make a killing by rigging the price of gold on the international market. Co-starring with Roger was Susannah York, the veteran American actor Ray Milland, Bradford Dillman, John Gielgud and Simon Sabela, not forgetting hundreds of very brave black miners.

It would seem that I inherited the problem of my bad memory from my mother Lil, so that important events and accounts are lost, while painful experiences such as
The Hiding Place
would remain as a constant reminder of our tragic past.

What came from the post-war years were the many stories of the Jewish families and their loved ones who suffered under the German occupation. One particular account which captured the public’s interest was the story of the young Dutch girl Anne Frank, a teenager who lived with her family in Amsterdam during the war. Sadly Anne would not survive the ordeal, dying in the Belsen concentration camp in 1945. However, she would become famous for the diary she had kept, which was first published in 1947.

There was another true story of a Dutch Christian family who secretly sheltered Jewish refugees in their home above their father’s workshop. Casper Ten Boom and his daughters Corrie and Betsie were devoted Christians who were appalled with all that was happening around them under the German occupation and decided to build a false brick wall in their home, behind which they could hide Jewish families from Nazi persecution. The wall was created little by little by gathering up old bricks scattered around the city and smuggling them into their home in order to build the hiding place
.
Eventually they were discovered in February 1944, with Betsie and Corrie sent to the Ravensbrück concentration camp where Betsie died in December 1944. Corrie was accidentally released two weeks later due to a fortunate clerical error!

Unit picture outside the concentration camp during filming of
The Hiding Place
in 1974. The camera crew are to the right, including Danny Shelmerdine (clappers), Ron Drinkwater (focus), Michael Reed (cinematographer) and me.

It was Corrie’s 1971 book which encouraged the Billy Graham Organisation to finance the making of the film, a backer that might suggest a strong religious bias. However
The Hiding Place
was not weighed down that way but was more concerned with the personal issues of Corrie and her family’s commitment to their faith in risking their lives for others.

This true story benefited from having a wonderful director in James Collier, a quiet, gentle human being who set out to capture the atmosphere of Ravensbrück as he recreated the past darkness which had existed in those menacing days. He was helped in no small measure with the careful selection of Michael Reed as his cinematographer, making this the perfect team.

One scene in particular would leave even the most hardened film crew saddened as Betsie lay dying on a wooden bedstead, where her only comfort came from Corrie nursing her with a little help from another prisoner as the director recreated Betsie’s death, summoning a chilling and unforgettable atmosphere that would affect the entire unit. Words alone could not do justice to this scene.

With director James Collier in a snow-covered concentration camp. James was one of my favourite directors, full of compassion in the moment of others’ suffering.

Watching this director working with his actors, it seemed to me that James Collier came from the same school of directors as José Quintero, a director who harmonised his actors to his very own excellence. In return, the director would be rewarded with memorable performances from his actors, allowing this spectator looking through the camera to appreciate the art of good directing. With the Collier method it seemed that every person in my frame – and here I include the crowd artistes in the background who were given their own special part to play – responded well to the director’s wonderful skills. This was no ‘Cut – over here, boys!’ director; James quietly strived for perfection with the screen performances and the feel and timing of the camera movement matched the mood. He was a true, honest director with whom I was privileged to work and learn from – shades of Roman Polanski.

Julie Harris (Betsie) and Jeannette Clift (Corrie) both gave extraordinary performances, as was recognised in all of the reviews, while Michael Reed’s photography captured the camp’s chilling atmosphere with his clever ‘painting’. Oddly enough, this project took place when my own marital problems were coming to an end. Even so it was a timely reminder that my troubles were of little consequence compared to those of the Ten Boom sisters, as no doubt was true for many others.

It was Corrie’s account which later influenced me to visit the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Poland with Suzy, perhaps a necessary reminder of the cruelty suffered from other so-called human beings. With time moving on I was now ready for the next chapter of my professional life, and another sad story of Nazi persecution.

The tragedy of war inevitably brings out the best and worst in the human race, times when we are reminded of the evils lurking round the corner. Opportunity once again came my way, working for Lewis Gilbert on his next ‘exciting’ adventure,
Operation
Daybreak
– it is an expression I choose carefully with regard to Lewis. I had no idea how this project came about, as the last time we had worked together I was a clapper boy on
A Cry from the Streets
, the film on which Lewis had given Harry Gillam his break as cinematographer – which inevitably brings to mind a flashback …

As a camera assistant – the lowest form of life in the camera department – I quickly learned that it takes time to make helpful contacts with the camera fraternity, but it is a necessary part of the journey when keeping an eye open for future employment. The lonely individual should be aware of the saying ‘if the face doesn’t fit’, which could make it harder to establish those connections within the already established camera crews of the day. Keeping that in mind,
A Cry from
the
Streets
would set me a challenge to overcome all that nonsense and make sure that Harry would remember me on his debut as cinematographer and keep me in mind when any other films were offered in the future. My performance as Harry’s camera assistant was faultless to the end, but as filming neared completion there was still no sign from the cinematographer that we would ever work together again; it would seem all my efforts were in vain.

Prague, 1975: On location with Lewis Gilbert during the filming of
Operation Daybreak
.