Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Film and theatre star, best known for his acting career and as the son of silent screen legend.
On the island
Eight records
Richard Burton is the one I heard sing it for the first time, so I chose him.
George Gershwin... Did you know him? Yes, I did. Of course they have a popular modern composer uh write an opera in the sense being popular music in operatic form was quite an accomplishment when he wrote Porgy and Bess. I thought it was a a marvelous thing.
One of the records which I would like very much to bring with me is one I had a personal interest in because I presented it and worked on it. It was my idea... Larry said, Yes, of course I would and so I said, Well, then why don't you do it instead of me? And he said, Well, why don't you ask me? And I said, All right, I'm asking you and he said, All right, I'll do it And so that's how it was done. And he did do a most magnificent job.
Oh yes, well I've always been impressed with Barbara Streisand's phrasing and the technical side of popular singing. And um I thought that her song People was a very good example of that and it's a very nice song as well to listen to, so I chose that.
Fantaisie-ImpromptuFavourite
Ah, well now I'm inclined again to a friend of mine, I'm very proud to say, although another generation, but I think one of the greatest artists of our time, Arthur Rubinstein... His um interpretation of Chopin's um fantasie impromptu would be uh an a nice thing to have if I'm if I'm limited to one.
Bing Crosby. I was the one who advised him against ever going into films or ever leaving the Paul Whiteman Orchestra... We remained friends in spite of that. So I really like almost everything that Bing sings. But the thing that came to mind now would be My Blue Heaven.
Well, just as a change of um mood and and gives it a little variety. I thought the Beatles, Strawberry Fields Forever, the most enchanting song and I thought that might be a good one.
Andre Kostelanetz and His Orchestra
And of all of his songs, I've chosen Night and Day because it's such a marvelous rhythm, wonderful composition idea. The lyrics are superb, and the cold port are at his best.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:49Could you adjust yourself to extended loneliness?
I think I could, yes. I like people. I'm very gregarious, but I am quite self-sufficient on my own.
Presenter asks
4:30How did you feel about the proposition [of a film contract at age thirteen]?
Well, at 13 I didn't feel much one way or the other. I thought it was a great luck. I was aware that I was doing it because I had to, and my mother's family had fallen on what is known as evil days. And this was an opportunity of helping out. But it was very short-lived. I was sacked within six weeks of the job, went back to studies here and in Paris, and then got another job back in California, but a much more modest salary and jobs. And I was then taking any job that came along, either very small parts, bits, and I was sometimes assistant property man. And at 15, I was assistant cameraman as well as playing parts in films and going to drama school and studying in between.
Presenter asks
5:33Why did you decide to cross the Atlantic [to make pictures in the UK]?
Well, the circumstances were quite different. I came here first at the age of five months old because my mother and father had a house here before I was born... I came over here originally because in my early 20s I wanted to be my own boss and have my own company if I possibly could. and I was unable to get together the finance or the organization in my own country. So I came back to my other home in the UK. Where that did become a land of opportunity and I was able to start.
The keepsakes
The book
Daniel Defoe
I suppose a copy of Robinson Crusoe to give me some hints as to what to do in case I couldn't think of anything more to do on the Desert Island.
The luxury
Well, under the circumstances, I suppose the greatest luxury would be a pencil and paper. Quite a lot of paper, I hope, not just a sheet. As much as you need. Just to be able to write down my experiences, put them into a bottle and hope somebody would find it or whatever.
Presenter asks
7:15Which [of your films] do you look back on as the best?
As you say, I made over 70, probably near 80 films all in all. And there'd be about five or six that I like for different reasons... Well, I mean, take Prisoner of Zender, for example. It was not the star part, but it was a classic part... So I do look back on that as one of the favorites, because it was such a marvelous part in a very fine film, even though I didn't produce it and wasn't technically the star.
Presenter asks
7:55Out of the whole lot, which was the worst [film]?
Well, among those that I starred in I would say um thing called Green Hill that Joan Bennett and I made, which was voted by the students of Harvard University as being the worst film of that year, and I dare say it was the worst film of the ten years previously, and is now enjoying popularity during this... mood of of nostalgia in the world. It keeps on being reissued on television in the States, much to my embarrassment.
Presenter asks
10:42Did you run into a lot of trouble [stumping the country for US intervention in the war]?
Oh, quite a good deal. An awful lot of people didn't particularly sympathize with with um the Nazis or anything, but they just felt it was another a war in which they were not involved. Oh yes, I was threatened violence and kidnapping and bombing and I was attacked by very responsible editors in the papers. Some of my films were withdrawn and so forth.
“I like people. I'm very gregarious, but I am quite self-sufficient on my own.”
“I was aware that I was doing it because I had to, and my mother's family had fallen on what is known as evil days. And this was an opportunity of helping out.”
“I came over here originally because in my early 20s I wanted to be my own boss and have my own company if I possibly could.”