The Picture Show Annual (1960)

tfreatOemsum Cmema /"'\f all the great occasions in the cinema world, glamorous, tinselled, frantically excited as it is, there is in this country one occasion that outstrips all others—the Royal Film Performance. The 1959 Royal Film Performance was held at the Empire Theatre, Leicester Square, on February 2nd, where so many previous ones have been held. Suppose that you were lucky enough to have had a pass that enabled you to go into the first floor lounge, after you had pushed your way through the gathering groups in the entrance foyer. There, as you arrived at seven forty-five, the latest time allowed for arrival by car or taxi before the estimated time of arrival of the Royal guests, this year Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother and H.R.H. Princess Margaret, you might expect that you would have to cool your heels while you felt more and more dull. Instead you would find your eyes roaming restlessly round the beautifully decorated, roped-in enclosure—for here come the film celebrities who are to be presented and all the women are beautifully gowned and bejewelled and perfumed, and the men are all very smart in their evening dress. Everyone is apparently very much at ease. ★ ★ ★ Among those you could see were Lauren Bacall from America, tall, slender, fair, wearing the most gracefully elegant long pale grey dress, above which her hair shone like burnished copper ; Janette Scott, gay and giggly ; Richard Todd, sternly nervous, with his wife; Juliette Greco, catching all eyes with her Directoire satin gown and her shockingly careless hairdo ; Peggy Cummins, young, pink and white with a vivid smile. Then, not so interesting from a fashion point of view—but then who looks at men from that point?—you could see tall Max Bygraves, bespectacled Peter Sellers, and Maurice Chevalier with his blue eyes, smiling mouth and wonderful complexion, brushed and groomed until he looked as if he had just popped out of his valet’s hands, and the star of the film which was to be shown, Alec Guinness, the Gulley Jimson of The Horse’s Mouth. At each end of the place were the television cameras and the heat and buzzing of voices made one feel warm—- a sensation which when the arrival of the Royal party was announced and the lights for the cameras were switched on, increased practically to suffocation. ★ ★ ★ The stars and directors formed themselves into a line for presentation—then presently there came a hush that was practically a dead silence—H.M. The Queen Mother and H.R.H. Princess Margaret had arrived. Under the brilliant lights, with the television camera- men concentrating, the Queen Mother and the Princess moved slowly along the line of those presented to them, now and then stopping for a brief chat. When the ceremony was over we all went to our seats, and when the curtain went up, the stars appeared one by one as their names were called and grouped themselves on the stage. They included in addition to those already mentioned, Henry Kendall, producer of the stage presentation, Richard Attenborough, Ian Carmichael, Diane Cilento, Renee Houston and Kay Walsh, who both appeared in The Horse’s Mouth. Virginia Maskell, Simone Signoret, Terry - Thomas and Frankie Vaughan. Then began the showing of The Horse’s Mouth, the clever adaptation by Alec Guinness of Joyce Cary’s amusing yet savagely melancholy novel, which had already been well received at the Venice Film Festival, winning for Alec Guinness the Volpi di Misurata—the best actor award—for his performance in the film. How do the stars feel about these premieres ? “ Well,” said Ian Carmichael, " I was shaking like a leaf for a week beforehand. This time it was considerably better." The time beforehand had been the year The Battle of the River Plate was shown and he had to introduce the stars—each with a quick, sharp phrase or two of formal introduction. ” There was no show that year,” he explained. This year he was one of those who came down the stairs when their names were called and lined up to right and left. ★ ★ ★ There has been a good deal of argument about the form the stage show should take, some wanting a sketch to be performed, others not. Ian Carmichael is one of the “ nots ” and he told me that he had said so firmly. The reasons are mainly two—for performing in front of Royalty, he pointed out, you need perfection and to get that you need two things—good material and unlimited rehearsal. For the Royal Film Performance, even assuming, which is dubious, that you get the first, it is impossible to achieve the second. The reason for this is easy to understand. Say that there are three stars. A, B and C, in an act and they try to arrange rehearsal time. A suggests a convenient time for himself. B and C are working at those times. A and B arrange times— C still cannot make it—then B and C are all right but A is not. " The result is that when you go on, you're like a bad show of amateurs,” Ian Carmichael told me. “ I would much rather not do anything.” ★ ★ -fc There are many other shows—mainly premieres which Royalty sometimes attend—which draw huge and en- thusiastic crowds outside as well as inside the theatres. In America the greatest excitement and turmoil which exceeds all other premiere attractions is the presentation of the annual Academy Awards which took place this year at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood. It lasted for two hours—the longest programme ever staged—and one hour of it was seen in this country on television. There were six M.C.s—Bob Hope, David Niven, Tony Randall, Mort Sahl, Sir Laurence Olivier and Jerry Lewis. Other stars we saw included Shirley MacLaine and Peter Ustinov, Joan Fontaine, Doris Day and Rock Hudson, Maurice Chevalier and Rosalind Russell, Anthony Quinn and Bette Davis, Red Buttons and Shelley Winters, Charlton Heston and Jane Wyman, Wendell Corey and Ernie Kovacs, Dean Martin and Sophia Loren, Gary Cooper and Millie Perkins, Dirk Bogarde, Van Heflin and Elizabeth Taylor, James Cagney and Kim Novak, Irene Dunne and John Wayne, Cary Grant and Mitzi Gaynor. It takes a tremendous amount of energy and enthusiasm to make these affairs go as they should and we have to honour those who put great heart into these great occasions.