Noël Coward, 74 (1899-1973) actor/director

decided with his appearance in Carroll Reed's 1959 film our man in Havana mr. Codd you act very seldom these days I wonder why you chose to act to our man in Havana this particular part well principally because Alec Guinness since the cavalry Nascimento and also I like the book very much and I thought it was a very good part although it's quite a small one it is the part of secret agent acting yes it's all a curious thought struck me some people have fantasies about themselves as engine drivers or princes or Dukes I wonder if it ever you had a fantasy about yourselves a secret agent oh good heavens now I feel these varied other lives you're very variously endowed person mr. kharde I wonder how you applause from the satisfactions of writing acting and composing in short which of them gives you the most satisfaction but it's also difficult to say because I enjoy doing what I'm doing but one of the problems of my life is to make the time for each without sacrificing one to the other that's why I only play limited seasons when I do play on the stage and I only do a film here and there because that takes me away from something else so therefore I have to keep it all balanced I'm not inviting you to be modest when I ask you this but I wonder if you have any idea which you're best at no I don't know I tried to be the best at it all of them but doesn't always work but sometimes it does and you you're not only a real person actually composed of flesh and blood but you're a legend as well is it tiresome to be a legend no I haven't found it so I didn't know that was all that much but I suppose I am no I don't think it's very tiresome I rather enjoy it yeah do people expect you to be witty all the time at breakfast dinner and tea I see very few people at breakfast and so therefore I don't suppose there's any answer to that question and as the de Monte if they always expect them to be with it that out of luck sometimes maybe a little joke might slip up but that's not an essential no do you get told an awful lot of bad jokes yourself not if I can help it and I wonder if you get tired of admiration you you are admired and I think just pay for your your ability and all these various fields do you ever get tired of being in bad I'll have yet to meet an artist of any sort who gets tired of being admired you've been hugely successful in your career I wonder if success has been the only thing you've been aiming at or perhaps you've been aiming at something more well the varying degrees of success success for the public I fortunately had a great deal of and I'm very grateful for success with myself is something quite different that's what I am for and how what is success with yourself when I feel that I've done something well will you ever retire eventually to the grave can you tell me some of the things that boy use to kind of really on the whole certain types of people bore me but I'm not very easily bored because I if I see a ball heaving up over the horizon I run like a stag is there any yes is there any special method of spotting up oh yes bores emanate a sort of aura of orb and we sort of gray quality and when they say stop me if you've heard this one then I know and I'm at this seems to me to be a paradox in your nature as an artist mr. card on the one hand you write plays which seem to me to be extremely cynical and on the other you write plays that seem to me to be extremely sentimental and I wonder if you're aware of this paradox in yourself I think there's a paradox in all creative artists without wishing for any invidious comparisons my esteemed colleague William Shakespeare was capable of writing very light comedy and very serious trying to day little romance I think it all depends on the subject that you happen to choose to write you must write to truly and yet she wasn't you might you wouldn't say he was cynical it seems to me that you are I mean in your plays and that one who is good to being cynical he's not good at being sentimental well I don't really think that cynical is a very good word I don't think I've ever been cynical I certainly have a strongly developed sense of the ridiculous and I sometimes laugh rather flippantly at serious problems because I don't consider them all that serious but that's not being cynical not really coming acting was no accounts first love after his first stage performance aged 11 he found a mentor in Charles hauled free not the carrion actor but a silent movie star and a celebrated actor of the period Hawtrey was an inspirational figure in Coward's life as he explains in this interview with Michael McGowan from 1966 well Michael other we're going to have a little discussion about comedy acting in a fairly comprehensive subject Hindi you came under the influence of the great naturalistic comedian of the time Charles horrid you've often said that he's had a tremendous influence on your acting ever since well he was a perfectly brilliant comedian and one of the most sensitive directors I honestly think I've learned practically all I know about comedy playing from him not only from what he actually taught me but from his example can you give examples can you say the kind of thing which you got from him oh yes he used to watch me very carefully when I was rehearsing and he never bullied me I was very precocious and he I think quite a lot of other directors would have said oh shut up but I was eager to learn and he knew it and I used to stand at the side of the stage watching him and he used to teach me a thing he's taught me how to laugh I remember him standing me at rehearsal in front of the whole company and saying now boy you got a laugh now start with this ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha the butcher breath right and he stood of meat lighted if he didn't side and I smiled with a bit now ha ha ha then he said now give way and I would ha ha that was entirely technical and you said you've got to be thinking about a great many different things your mind working on different levels this is awfully interesting isn't it because people think of it in the wrong way don't they think that you're thinking now this now that now the other but in fact you're thinking about them all simultaneously at the same time or what it must be yes they're like reflexes and driving a car it becomes so automatic that you don't it isn't even conscious thought you'd be in America for a time quite lot of yeah yes coming back to the theater in England how did it feel after all the it's very curious Malaga I was just preface this by saying that in the old days before the war in the 20s and 30s whenever I was about to new a do a new production in England I always used to go to New York for a fortnight and stay at the Astor hotel and go to every single play because the temper and this wonderful speed and the vitality of the American Theatre was far superior to the English them since the war America has the theaters deteriorated I think enormous Lee now in England I think the standard is immensely high today among young actors the only thing I have to say about that the owing to the dearth of playwrights I mean light comedy playwrights not good playwright sort of several fine playwrights in England but those it's rather fashionable now to say the day of the well-made play is over that's nonsense Madras will say the day of the well painted picture is over it's silly my early days in the theater and the actor managers time which is certainly going back a bit I always would never go into a theater belonging to Charles Hawtrey or generally more Yale's George Alexander also have a tree without being spick-and-span whatever I was going to play if I'm gonna play a dustman I would be have my suit pressed for rehearsals out of respect for the theater itself the edifice the building you could mercy a lot of people in denims and blue jeans and dirty old sweaters walking about the stage assistant James's I think as a slovenly appearance indicates in some ways slovenly mind I wish I could only explain and it sounds so one almost pompous that with the decline of manners and the decline of elegance it is much more difficult for young actors to achieve range to be a good actor you must constantly better yourself if you come from humble beginnings you must then think where like obviously I can play cockney I can play North Country now I must learn how to play proper English improve my voice so that I've got rain so that I can play Henry the eighth one night and the caretaker the next that's range is what actors should aim for that range that nodes strive to achieve helped you create one of his best-known roles the captain evey Kinross in in which we serve the film also saw a young Richard Attenborough making his big screen debut nearly thirty years later the pair were reunited for session at the National Film Theatre with Richard taking on the role of the engineer got any questions yes no it is 50 years since you first appeared in front of a movie camera in hearts of the world yes yes with Lillian Gish yeah directed by DW Griffith that's a talented boy I wondered knowing that the theatre is basically your first love whether you think in those 50 years movies have become comparable in stature to the theater I think they've become different in stature and I don't understand I've never thought they were comparable I think it's something quite different I learned when I started doing movies myself an enormous amount that helped me as an actor the meticulousness of having to do a movie you see on the stage you can make a little fluff and very laugh and get on with it and nobody notices except somebody who's never seen the plane before and in movies one fluff a new cat and I hate that word cut but I really having been in the theatre since 1910 it's my first love and it will be my last love I'll always love the theatre a little better and I know why it is it's very simple it's the contact of an audience and say I'd rather play a bad matinee at how incidentally I never played a goodness and just do a movie though I like doing movies and I enjoy it it's a completely different approach but the theaters my love I suppose in which we serve is the picture by which you will be always remembered in movies I at this date have no idea how it was evolved I don't know the circumstances under which you got the idea and I'm sure people will be very interested to know something of its origin it was a very complicated business it took a year to prepare there was a very sweet man called del Giudice who was very had a very very strong Italian accent signor just fabulous marvelous wonderful so I said listen that's not the point how Russia is looking and then of course my friend here gave a wonderful performance in it and coming not too far behind me I was fairly good it was very carefully cast and I must say I think I'm very proud of it indeed it repaid for many many years having none the Navy and come from a naval family I had been at sea a great deal with the Navy and I wanted in a way to pay a very tiny bit of my debt back for all the wonderful hospitality that I had received and without Lord Mountbatten I couldn't it would never have got off the floor and onto the screen he was just taken over combined operations and was working like a dog and every Sunday Bea's I think I told you this used to work on the rushes with me so that we did get it accurate and of course with his usual extraordinary concentration he did arrange everything I am the commander in chief Portsmouth lent me 200 real sailors every day for two weeks so that all the drill and everything was accurate and not a lot of actors putting their lanyards in unorthodox places and of course the net result of having the authentic chaps doing it made it real oops tosh.o tosh.o chick it wasn't entirely a mistake costing him so that practically stole the picture and it was fun fun quite a lot of it was fun but it was very hard work but thank God it turned out all right I'd like to tell just one very brief story about in which we said towards the end of the film we we were in a collie float and we were in a tank in the studios and because we were all somewhat delicate the water was heated slightly we were in this tank for I think between two and three weeks the smell was something to be wonder that there was oil on the water that was sawdust all around the tank which was going mouldy it was absolutely awful immense of us every day and on our last day we all used to lower ourselves holding out those is it to the water but the master of course never always first in off the edge and died little flat nevertheless dived in on this last day he emerged from underneath the water with oil and filth and dirt streaming off his face and turned to all of us who are waiting to go in and said there's dysentery in Belize Ripple No what made you choose David Lean well when I knew that I was involved on this project and up until then I hadn't been profoundly impressed with British films as a whole and I thought well I'd better have a look-see and so I went to a projection room twice a day for two weeks and saw every British film that was available out of the credits I observed that the ones I'd like the cutting had been done by somebody called David Lean the photography had been done by somebody called run one name and the general production had been done by Antony have a look Allen and so I said all right let's have a look at one so I asked David Lean to come and see me and he said yes he would do it with pleasure but he insisted on co-directing people stiffened like a basement droid yeah but I said oh please do because I knew nothing apart from having played the discard well I knew nothing really about any of the technical side of making a movie and of course it was David who directed the picture I took the actors aside occasion but he was a wonderful event and later when I was not put anyone about at all he did a little number called brief encounter she's one of the most beautifully directed pictures I ever saw again David that was the other film I was going to mention I would think almost anybody here in this theater who decided to select dozen of the best British films would certainly include brief encounter amongst those and we often talk about the late fifties dealing with contemporary life in an enormous documentary style in a totally realistic style whereas in fact your screenplay for brief encounter was was of a sophistication which was quite new for the cinema yes I suppose was you see it was based on the play which I played was in darling Gertie and I've always liked suggestion rather than flat statement and so I've always in my best things written a bit obliquely and it worked on the screen I wasn't at all short it would but it did can I see you again he is of course perhaps will come out to catch with madness and it's not a fire I never we should be delighted what is it next Thursday the same time yeah I couldn't possibly is I ask you know tell me you'll miss your train goodbye thank you do you in fact think that the style of acting in theatre as well as in films has changed significantly in the last say 40 years 30 40 years no I think this has been not particularly now I think that good acting was always good acting I believe that I didn't ever unfortunately see him that's a Charles Windham had a quality of naturalness which was incredibly good and quite you meet it's often difficult I was trained but by a master Charles Autry in comedy you see and comedy playing does vary obviously playing emotional parts falling off a love let him come I always remember the advice or the story of the advice that you gave to a young actress at the end of a dress rehearsal who would stumble through and at the end mastered given notes and so on and this young actress came up to him at the end and said tomorrow mr. Carr we're going to open it's going to mean a tremendous amount to me there must be surely some slogans some motto something which inspires you in all your work which is which shows in the standard of work that you've always done that you write in makeup across your mirror could you possibly tell me what it is and the master said I think get on say your lines and get off without crashing into the furniture endlessly quotable card was always comfortable talking about his many talents I love criticism he said just so long it's this unqualified praise when once asked if he tired of having two arms of the same old questions about himself Howard replied not at all I am fascinated by the subject his writing skills were the subject of this next interview which comes from a program recorded in 1969 when did you first become aware of your own ability not only to act obviously led you into the theater but in fact to write plays well I used to write plays when I was about 10 or 11 well I I suppose it was a absolute gift because I wasn't I left school when I was nine to go into ballet school and then I went on the stage when I was 10 so I didn't have a name formal education which of course left me free to educate myself and what steps did you take to educate yourself as a writer that is the area I belong to Battersea Park public lab the level triple library so I didn't slip I read and read and read everything I could lay hands on what books I mean what what particular authors I've never known well the first one with a lady called eveness Pitts who wrote books for children and sake sake was another of my inspirations and up to a point Dickens I'd read most of Dickens by the time I was 16 or 17 is in any case you you you seem to be able to write with great facility and ease this is a tremendous gift isn't it oh yes an old butter gift is if given you know you can't work on that that is sheer luck the danger of too much of that facility is that you write and and it's done and sometimes it's not quite good enough then I very seldom do revise I think perhaps I should have revised sometimes more than I have but it's awfully hard to go back when you you think you've done it lovely and then it isn't as you do right so easily as do you have the place as it were already made in your head that it's almost a matter of a physical labour of writing them down there in my mind for a long time before him and they generally before going to sleep at night they come back if it's a good idea it comes back into my mind and I get a little more until the moment comes to start writing it but there have been exceptions hayfever was conceived on a Friday and finished on the Monday being one of the most successful ever didn't I didn't even think about it before but that's an exception when you were writing your first players and in the nineteen twenties it was always felt you spoke with the authentic voice of the nineteen twenties and then right-click the authentic voice of the 1930s do you feel that that your voice is less authentic than it was I think has been rather a lot of months has talked about their the twenties the gay bright yelling things and all that nonsense they would have been in minor part of the twenties if I were writing a play about the 50s which I met conceivably to all the sixties I think I would have automatically right in that idiom each decade carries with it its own changes I think if you got alert you've fallen with the changes are you going to write a new player are you writing one at the moment I'm not writing one at the moment but I probably shall if the bell rings you don't feel any particular inclination to well with me no I've always feel the inclination to providing I get the right if I get a good idea if suddenly something can stop me off I'll probably fly to this desk ill-health meant that no new play could be written after that interview Howard did our or make one last screen appearance in 1969 playing mr. Bridger in the Italian Job Michael Caine described the experience as a bit like acting with God actually the next 12 months saw Howard knighted elected a fellow of the Royal Society of literature and presented with a Tony Lifetime Achievement Award on the 29th of May 1973 Noah card died his home in Jamaica in London the lights went out in theatres to mark the passing of a great writer and a legend today Noel Coward is remembered for his personality his wit his style and for his huge and hugely influential body of work coward once said thousands of people have talent I might as well congratulate you for having eyes in your head the one and only thing that counts is do you have staying power and in his case the answer is very definitely yes

Channel: George Pollen

Views: 22,530

Keywords: Noël Coward

Id: f-sAgmEYdm4

Length: 28min 49sec (1729 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 17 2017