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Leacock's special gift
was directing children
of TheColumnists.com
Watching an old movie on TV a few weeks ago was like revisiting an old friend from my childhood. It was the 1953 British film "The Little Kidnappers," which I’d first seen at the age of eight at the local Odeon Danforth theatre in Toronto, Canada. I liked it so much I went again a week later to another children’s matinee, but I hadn't seen it since.
Then I noticed the director’s name:
Philip Leacock.
I’d somehow forgotten Leacock’s ability to direct children.
"The Little Kidnappers" has two of the best performances
ever given on screen by children. Both juvenile stars--Jon WhiteIey
and Vincent Winter--had even won special Academy Awards in Hollywood
at the 1954 Oscars. Then I remembered I’d interviewed Leacock
in 1987, but had never used the interview because my newspaper
considered interviews with directors as somehow too "arty."
Now I'm happy to revive my notes and to
present here what is now a rare interview with Leacock, who died
in 1990, just two years after our interview.
Philip Leacock was born in 1917 in London, but grew up in the
Canary islands. He spent World War II with the British Army’s
Kinematograph Service and after the war joined the Crown Film
Unit. He became famous for his “story documentaries”
which used real incidents supplemented by actors.
In 1952 Leacock made a strong documentary about a Scottish coal
mining disaster titled "The Brave Don’t Cry,"
which led to a contract with the J. Arthur Rank Organization.
Here’s my talk with Leacock from July, 1987, when we met
in an Italian restaurant right across the street from Warner
Bros. studios, where Leacock was busy directing American television
programs:
Q. How did you get to direct your first big feature, "Appointment
in London" with Dirk Bogarde?
A: It turns out Rank had been watching me for some time and after
the unexpected success of "The Brave Don’t Cry,"
I was offered the thriller "Appointment In London"
(1952). The idea was to use some terrific wartime footage of
Britain’s Lancaster bombers and add them to newly shot scenes
with the actors. And this is what I’d been doing for some
time. I was lucky Bogarde approved of me. He was that big at
the time, at least in Britain. A more taciturn man I have never
met but it made him a great film actor. Audiences felt they knew
what he was thinking. It’s all about Squadron Leader Bogarde
trying to hold his boys together despite tremendous losses. Yes,
it did resemble "Twelve O’Clock High" (1949) somewhat.
But it packed them in and even got a U.S. release.
Q: That got you the film for which you are most remembered
"The Little Kidnappers" (1953).
A: Called simply "The Kidnappers" in Britain. It was
a story about nothing much really, but it had such simplicity.
The problems started with our minuscule budget. It meant we could
not shoot in Nova Scotia where the story actually happened. We
substituted northern Scotland and nobody knew the difference.
The idea was to get the two boys as used to each other as possible.
Jon Whitely had already acted so he was fine but I couldn’t
find my Davy until I looked in at one school and saw this marvelous,
fantastically extroverted seven-year-old Vincent Winter and he
played himself. They simply kidnap a baby. We’re never really
told why and we watch as they try to cope along with their wonderful
grandfather Duncan MacRae. It was a huge U.S. hit and the two
boys got honorary little Oscars as child performers.
We then flash forward to 1985 when I’m directing "Falcon
Crest." A bearded, burly man, six feet, of huge girth approaches
me and I instinctually turn away. But he grabs me and lifts me
up and down all the while laughing. It was Vincent Winter, my
little Davy quite grown up and still in the business as a production
manager (Winter died of a heart attack in 1998 at age 50.)
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...the Oscar-winning juvenile from Leacock's "Little Kidnappers" went on to play other featured roles as a youngster, but left pictures in his adult years and died at age 50 in 1998. |
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Q: Have you heard they’ve sold it for an American TV movie remake by the Disney folks?
A: I tried to buy it but I hadn’t enough money at hand. I hear they have cast Charlton Heston as the grandfather. I just don’t know about that. ("The Little Kidnappers" remake, starring Heston as the grandfather, premiered on cable's The Disney Channel in 199*.)
Q. What was "Escapade" (1955)
about? It had a great cast but I’ve never caught it.
A: Well, it was the height of the blacklist scare and all of
a sudden all this American talent appeared under new names. Our
screenwriter Gilbert Holland was actually Donald Ogden Stewart!
And the story was all about a pacifist (John Mills) getting so
involved in his calling that he neglects his family. By the way
it was a Cold War comedy–a real rarity--but the premise
so shocked American distributors it was rarely seen over here.
Oh, I had a wonderful cast with Andrew Ray as one of the sons
and Yvonne Mitchell as the much put-upon wife and Alastair Sim
stole all his scenes, naturally. In America it had this insidious
reputation which was not deserved.
Q: You were back with Bogarde and Whitely in 1956’s "The
Spanish Gardener," which I have seen and liked.
A: They had already co-starred in "Hunted" (known in
America as "Strangers In Between," 1952) so they knew
each other and that contributed to the astonishing naturalness
of their acting. But I gave Dirk bad advice at the first. I asked
for a thick accent and he only wanted to try a very slight one.
He was right and that accent disturbs me to this day. He was
Jose, the estate gardener and Whitely was the neglected son of
a British diplomat played just so by Michael Hordern. The boy
so desperately needs friendship and then the man gets jailed
for a crime he didn’t deserve. I got this reputation for
how I directed youngsters but the secret was to treat them with
dignity and respect. If there was any subtext we didn’t
see it at the time.
Q: "Innocent Sinners" (1958) found you once again
getting marvelous acting from a child.
A: It was based on a Rumer Godden story and was about the efforts
of a 13-year old Cockney lass Lovejoy (played by June Archer)
who lives with her guardians while her actress mother is away
in the provinces. Lovejoy gets a packet of sunflower seeds and
creates a bomb-site garden. Flora Robson was the terminally ill
lady who helps her along. It was all character study, very down
according to reviews. But we saw it as a character study and
I wasn’t expecting much business at the wickets.
Q: By that time you had moved to L.A. Explain please.
A: Everybody was doing it. The British industry was melting away.
Alexander Mackendrick had moved over to direct "The Sweet
Smell Of Success" (1957) to tremendous critical acclaim.
And he kept talking me up to his employers, Hecht-Hill-Lancaster.
So I became a bit of a hot commodity because small pictures were
then all the rage. But my first wasn’t made for HHL but
another United Artists producer, Harry Kleiner: "The Rabbit
Trap" (1959) with Ernie Borgnine ("Marty," 1955),
a nice man, very good at playing average Joes like this one.
There was a cast of mainly TV veterans--Jeanette Nolan, Bethel
Leslie, David Brian, even Don Rickles was in it and he was fine.
But lightning did not strike twice. The film wasn’t the
kind of feel-good movie people wanted to see. It ran 76 minutes,
just about the same length as when it was a live TV drama. I
can remember its catchy ad line: “This is a happy picture!”
Well, it was unhappy.
Q: Then came "Let No Man Write My Epitaph" (1960).
A: Directing "Rabbit Trap" had not exactly endeared
me to HHL. So I was loaned out to Columbia, specifically Boris
Kaplan Productions. The movie was based on a novel by black Chicago
writer Willard Motley. It was a sequel to another of his novels
made into a movie, 1949’s "Knock On Any Door."
Not that anybody remembered that film more than 10 years later.
Ours was a film noir after that genre had supposedly disappeared,
stark black and white and a pretty good cast: Shelley Winters,
Burl Ives, Jean Seberg, Ricardo Montalban, Ella Fitzgerald. A
dandy little picture but the public (was) no longer attending
dandy little pictures. Shelley overacted all over the place.
She just won a supporting Oscar and she was going to show the
world it was not a fluke. Burl just grunted, whispered, stole
every scene from her.
Q: Then came an Alan Ladd vehicle, "13 West Street."
I saw it when it came out, the bottom of a double bill.
A: It was Laddie at the end of his tether. He was hard to photograph.
His hands shook from drinking, read his lines in an odd monosyllabic
way. Completely depressed. How to direct him? Didn’t, just
let him say his lines and get on with it. I remember a night
shoot and we’re off to one side watching a stunt double
race down a street to get the hoods. Suddenly the guy lost control
and (the car) veered straight to us. Everybody ran. Everybody
but Laddie who sat glassy eyed in his chair. I asked why he didn’t
run. He could have been killed. "Frankly, Phil," he
said, "I just don’t care at all, anymore.”
Q: I really do like "The War Lover"
(1962), a very good war movie.
A: Directing Steve McQueen before he became a super duper star
was a treat. He took direction well and added his own charisma
which contrasted with Bob Wagner’s more repressed way of
looking at things. It was more character study than actioner
and McQueen liked playing the anti-hero very much. The John Hershey
novel got a Pulitzer, you know, and this Columbia release did
very well at the box office. Yet, it was just about my final
feature, I’d already been dabbling in TV.
Q: How did that come about?
A: Well, Columbia bought up my contract and the bosses did not
like to see their indentured laborers idle. It started in 1960
when I directed a few episodes of the new hit "Route 66"
and I later became executive producer. At Columbia segregation
ruled. If you worked for the TV subsidiary, Screen Gems, you
had to eat in the separate Screen Gems cafeteria. But I never
felt I was lowering myself, in fact I was in on something new
and exciting.
On "Route 66" we were always
on the road, it made for a host of difficulties in getting the
film to the editor, for example. And the housing of the crew.
In 1963 I directed one with Joan Crawford titled 'Same Picture,
Different Frame.' She was difficult in terms of lighting, getting
a good trailer etc. But once the lights were up she’d do
every scene on the first take, not all the guest stars were that
accommodating. The star of the show, however, wasn’t the
guys, it wasn’t the car, but Stirling Silliphant, the very
accomplished and very nice writer.
Q: Through most of the Sixties you were a TV director for
hire.
A: Did them all. Not a problem, I’d worked just as fast
in the documentary world. Some shows I liked doing include two
stints on "The Defenders," two on "Rawhide,"
"Bonanza," "The Virginian," "Danger
Man." I kept jumping from genre to genre.
Q: But you also functioned as executive producer on more than
one hit series.
A: It’s like being the executive head of a hotel. You must
know a little bit about a lot of things. On TV the most important
aspect is keeping the production on time. You have editors, sound,
publicity all needing fodder. And you must keep that pace. In
1960 they were making around 30 hours a year of a hit series.
It was deadly if you didn’t know how to make it all work.
I first put that hat on for "Gunsmoke" (1964-66), wound
up executive producing 53 hours in two years. Jim Arness was
most cooperative as long as you didn’t overwork him, humored
him and provided fresh scripts every week. Of course, to keep
going, he had but a few scenes some times. Other weeks he’d
be all over the place. When I got there they were toying with
old movie names. Jean Arthur arrived for one, 13 years after
she retired (with) "Shane"--and was a real pickle to
motivate. She had to feed the ducks in the pond before she’d
report for acting scenes. Jean was treated regally and decided
she’d had so much fun she’d return to acting full time–she
picked a dreadful sitcom which tanked. The cast liked Jean; she
was so eccentric. But when Betty Hutton arrived it was total
confusion. In 1969 I returned to "Gunsmoke" and directed
12 episodes over the next three years which was ever so peaceful
after being executive producer.
Q: You also executive produced "The Wild, Wild West"
(1965-66), "Cimarron Strip" (1967-68) and "Hawaii
Five-0" (1975, 1976-77).
A: Not much fun on "The Wild, Wild West," where there
was cast friction sometimes, plus the problem of mounting all
those stunts and not going over budget. On "Hawaii Five-0."
it was keeping a popular series on track and meeting the demands
of the stars. I much rather preferred directing by then.
Q: In 1972 you switched to TV movies with three big titles:
"When Michael Calls," "The Great Man’s Whiskers"
and "The Daughters Of Joshua Cabe."
A: I had the same amount of time as on a British movie: 21 days
to get it all together. It always seemed impossible but great
veterans got us through. On "Whiskers" I had Ann Sothern,
Charles Lane, John Hillerman, Isabel Sanford. They just knew
how to do a scene on one take. On "Daughters," Buddy
Ebsen was on set and in makeup at 9 and he’d work until
dusk along with his buddies Jack Elam and Leif Erickson. It was
the young ones who couldn’t take such a schedule.
Q: Tell me about your last TV film "Three Sovereigns
For Sarah" (1985).
A: Miss Vanessa Redgrave is something else again. Tough, resilient,
durable –I use these terms in a favorable context. We shot
in the dead of winter. Those are real icicles on that formidable
jaw of hers. The story is completely true, based on transcripts
of the Salem Witch trials and how Sarah Cloyce (Redgrave) and
her two sisters are accused and found guilty of witchcraft –her
two elder sisters are burned at the stake while Sarah serves
a term in a small box without any heat in winter. Patrick McGoohan
(from "Danger Man" days) was wonderful as the chief
prosecutor and I got top value from Kim Hunter and Phyllis Thaxter,
two great old pros. Playing the nephew was John Dukakis--yes,
the Governor’s son, his last acting job.
Q: In 1974 you started directing "The Waltons" and
wound up with 24 episodes over the next eight years. In 1981
you turned to "Dynasty." I remember when I met you
on "Falcon Crest," I asked who was directing that day.
A: And I said, "Jane Wyman is." Which was always true.
I got as close to her as anyone can get and I found a resilient
survivor of the Hollywood wars. Jane turned this series into
a hit, a remarkable fate considering she was at least 65 when
the series started in 1981. Now contrast her with Joan Collins’
behavior on "Dynasty." Joan simply tried to go as far
as she could, to test the barriers. Then everybody started behaving
that way and it became very difficult.
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...the "Falcon Crest" star was an Oscar-winner who knew the business inside and out. |
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With Jane it was a question of kowtowing
to somebody who knew the business inside out. She’d first
produced "The Jane Wyman Show) aka "Fireside Theatre"
(1955-58). On "Falcon Crest," she constantly demanded
better production values. You know when Lorimar bought the MGM
lot it was assumed the series would have to move to Metro but
Jane said that studio had become too tacky and she kept the show
on the Warners lot which was her home for so many decades anyway.
Directing her is a challenge but not an impossibility. If I raced
through a scene she’d say, ‘Who the hell do you think
you are, Mike Curtiz? But she’ s very generous with the
young talent, you know, it’s when somebody like Lana Turner
arrives that she’ll rant about the ‘international harlots’.
Leacock talked to me in July, 1987, when he definitely felt
out of the game at 70. Dogged by persistent ill health, including
chronic asthma, he looked frail that day but it still was a shock
to learn he’d dropped dead on a London street in 1990, aged
73, the victim of a collapsed lung. We’d talked about getting
together again but it never happened.
©2008 by Jim Bawden.
This column first posted June 30, 2008.
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