Modern Screen (Feb-Dec 1957)

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How BILL HOLDEN Helped JEFF HORNE Get over Being scared ■ 'We're going to start shooting tomorrow morning at 7 a.m.," the director said. As he heard these words young Geoffrey Home's stomach flip-flopped. This was it. Zero Hour. Only his second appearance before a camera. Oh, sure, he had lots of experience — on the stage, on tv, but this was only his second movie. And he was scared. He didn't get much sleep that night. He tossed and turned in his bunk. He listened to the Ceylonese jungle noises outside, shivered, and said to himself, "I'd rather take my chances in that jungle right now than face the camera tomorrow." And then he dozed off. At six in the morning his alarm rang and Jeff jumped out of bed. He washed, dressed, took a swig of coffee from a thermos bottle and hurried to the river where the scene was to be shot. One other person was there. William Holden. "Good morning; Mr. Holden," Jeff said. "Morning, Jeff — only the name's Bill." And for forty-five minutes the veteran actor and the youngster were alone. Jeff found it very easy to talk to Bill. In fact, Jeff was soon telling Bill how scared he was now that the actual shooting of The Bridge On The River Kwai was about to begin. Bill listened quietly, nodded, and then said, "I'm scared, too." "What? After all, you've . . ." ". . . been in lots and lots of pictures," Bill continued. "I know, but it doesn't matter. Take this picture, for instance. Today they're going to shoot us building a raft. For the next two weeks we'll be in and out of that river. No dialogue; just dunking and drying off, dunking and drying off, for two weeks. Easy. No acting, just in and out. But I'm scared." Bill was right. For two weeks, camouflaged from head to foot like the other soldiers in The Bridge On The River Kwai, it was dunk and dry, dunk and dry, in and out of the river again and again. The jungle was sweltering and the water was cool. But the water was also filthy. Late in the afternoons the actor-soldiers got cold, and when they dragged themselves out of the river for the last time, everyone was served brandy — "for medicinal purposes," as Jeff said, "and no kidding about that brandy being strictly what the doctor ordered!" Throughout this time, in the days and during the evenings, Bill went out of his way to give Jeff encouragement. Little things . . . but important. A little thing . . . Bill invited Jeff to help him set off fire balloons. At twilight Jeff would hold one of Bill's balloons, Bill would light a fire under it, and it would soar into the air, flaming higher and higher for about fifteen minutes until it disappeared from view. A little thing . . . Bill would take Jeff along when he visited his own private zoo. Bill loves animals and managed to collect a bunch of them: a baby elephant, parrots, snakes, monkeys. Jeff helped feed them — all but the snakes, which he left strictly to Bill' A little thing . . . Jeff was always part of the jam session that Bill organized. If there was anything Bill liked to collect more than animals, it was Ceylonese drums. Once in a while, late at night, he'd get the gang together: one of the cameramen who had been a well-known jazz drummer, the assistant make-up man, a Ceylonese native who was a famous dancer, other dancers from the village and Jeff. Bill would set the beat; the cameraman would join in; the dancers would respond to the rhythm — and away they'd go, far into the morning. A little thing . . . like pitching quoits. Bill was an expert, the champ, but Jeff himself said he soon became "the second best quoit-thrower in Ceylon." Finally the day came when the preliminary shooting of the river scenes was over and it was time for Jeff to say his first line. He had to say it to Bill and he froze up. Petrified —like stone. Not a word would come out. And Bill, just off-camera as Jeff was in the center of the screen for a close-up, smiled at him — a warm, friendly, encouraging grin. And the words came out of Jeff's mouth, even before he knew it — not good, not loud. But the ice was broken, the fear was gone . . . Bill and Jeff appear in Columbia's The Bridge On The River Kwai, and Jeff in Columbia's Bonjour Tristesse. IieW mOVieS (continued from page 8) hundred times that she's no good, he won't believe it. How can a girl with such a wardrobe and such a gorgeous color hair be no good? She also has a little son (Gary Hunley) whom she keeps sending off to boarding school, but Rod is convinced she'd rather keep him home. So he marries Diana anrl takes her home to Mama (Beulah Bondi) and the vineyard which is worth a fortune. That is the fortune Diana would like to have. She would also like to have a handsome young man named Tom Tryon, and proceeds to get both by murder. She commits a perfect crime, and innocent Rod Steiger winds up in the deathhouse. But there are forces at work — there's Rod's brother, priest Arthur Franz, whose very presence gives Diana the shivers; there's Rod's indestructible nobility and there's 'the good' which apparently lurks in even the most corrupt of souls. — Technicolor, U-I. MISGUIDED English delinquents George Baker Frankie Vaughan Carole Lesley Jackie Lane Katherlne Kath ■ We have Elvis Presley, but England has Frankie Vaughan and after you see this movie you'll be hard put to choose between them. Story's set in Liverpool where a gang of teen-age delinquents hang out in a cave on the waterfront. But these delinquents seem a cut above some of our own. They go to respectable dance halls, for instance, and meet respectable girls. Frankie wins a singing contest and meets pretty Carole Lesley on the same night. Shortly thereafter he's drafted, but he has a tendency to bad behavior when aroused. He smears someone's face with mashed potatoes, socks a chaplain (George Baker) in the jaw and shaves all the hair off the company barber. He really gets into trouble when someone tricks him into leading his squad onto a minefield where his best friend is blown up. awol and wanted for murder Vaughan does a lot of sweating before he grows up. You'll be fascinated by this view of teen-agers in another country. — Warners. RECOMMENDED FILMS NOW PLAYING THE SUN ALSO RISES (CinemaScope, 20th-Fox) : Ernest Hemingway's famous novel of the 1920's comes to the screen in color. Ava Gardner flits from Mel Ferrer to Errol Flynn to a young matador (Robert Evans) always returning to Tyrone Power (left impotent by a war injury) for comfort. Gay scenes of Paris and the spectacle of the bullfighting season in Spain. LES GIRLS (CinemaScope, MGM) : A funny, sophisticated story about the aftermath of a book published about a youthful Paris dance team — Kay Kendall, Mitzi Gaynor, Taina Elg and Gene Kelly. They have since married, and well — now these revelations are very threatening. Each tells his own version of what actually happened, and you may believe whichever one you choose. OPERATION MADBALL (Columbia): A crazy, mixed-up triangle involving Private Jack Lemmon, army dietician Kathryn Grant and Captain Ernie Kovacs — involving also a morgue, a missing corpse, escaping German prisoners of war, and many other zany ingredients. Mickey Rooney provides some solutions when the party gets rough. THE WOMAN IN A DRESSING GOWN (Warners): A scatterbrained housewife (Yvonne Mitchell) keeps her husband (Anthony Quayle) and teen-age son (Andrew Ray) happy with her slapdash ways of fixing meals and homemaking. Then comes Sylvia Syms, a young, efficient, tidy secretary. See if twenty years of marriage can hold out against order and youth.