My Week with Marilyn (37 page)

Incidentally we saw the ‘rushes' of our efforts yesterday and the coach does seem to jerk mightily on departure every time. It is always
doubtful when you insert a note of reality into a fairy story but I think it will work. In fact it looked quite amusing to me, if not to Tony.

Paula has gone back to NYC, taking Susie with her. This is seen as a great victory by the anti-Paula brigade but it is bound to put an added strain on MM, and indeed on AM. Luckily, it coincided with her getting very good reviews in all the papers for her latest film,
Bus Stop
. Josh Logan, the director, told a different story, but as usual the only thing that matters with a film is the final result. So MM was full of the joys of spring on a cold grey morning. Just as well. We are still on the lot, and this scene follows her dance. She was happy when she did the dance, so she has to be happy now. And that isn't easy when you are perched up behind a fake window in a long white evening dress. There wasn't any serious dialogue to remember. The first time she looks out of the window – or through it, since it is out of doors, there is only a crowd of extras beneath. The second time she sees her friends and waves. Then she has to hush them, as she pretends that she is listening to Jeremy on the phone. This was a little hard for her. ‘Listening Intently' does not conjure up any particular expression. MM chose anxiety – not a difficult one for her to choose, given the circumstances. Then Elsie moves out onto the broad balcony over the front door, to reassure her friends and talk about the Grand Duke. The final shot was of the Grand Duke, standing in front of another fake window reacting to her description of him. In these window shots, SLO always exaggerates and stands too close to the edge – both of the window frame and the camera frame. I know he wants the audience to be sure to see MM in the background, but it looks artificial. He did just the same in the purple room, but if Tony doesn't see it there is certainly nothing I can say.

We are back in the studio to film the interior of Westminster Abbey. Roger has built two sides of the nave with an arch in between. As usual with film sets, when you first see it you can't believe it will work, but it always does. The angles have been worked out long in advance. SLO and Dame S are on one side of the Abbey, and the arch, and MM sits next to Dicky W on the other, but they can see one another. By now we all assume MM will be late (I wish we'd done that from the beginning), so we started with Dame S and SLO, sitting among a group of the most distinguished-looking extras we could find. These were dressed as other minor royalty and ambassadors and they looked pretty good. Everyone stood up and bowed as a row of even more elderly extras trooped past, dressed as ‘serjeants at arms' or whatever, escorting the royal couple. Rightly King George V and Queen Mary were left to the imagination! When MM arrived, we did the same procedure with her and Dicky. MM looked suitably awed and was on best behaviour. She's always more relaxed when there is no dialogue (who isn't?). She had a very pretty headdress and necklace on which the Queen Mum (Dame S) had lent her earlier on.

After his usual conference with SLO, Milton asked me to go back with him to Tibbs. He and Amy then invited me to move in to the spare room at Tibbs and stay for the rest of the movie. I was overwhelmed.

‘When?' was all I could say.

‘Tonight if you want to.' It's true that I don't have much luggage, but I must say goodbye properly to my friends at the pub so I am back here for another couple of nights.

‘Can I come on Saturday afternoon?'

‘Whenever you like.' That open hospitality, with no strings attached, is absolutely the best side of the American character. Milton and Amy have always been so easy-going and friendly and I am absolutely thrilled. I suddenly realise how lonely life has been here. Now I feel back in the family again.

Today was MM's big day. At last she really had to act in a ‘method' way. She had a chance to put all she had learned from Lee Strasberg into practice. No song and dance, no flippant chat. She had to feel emotions and convey them to the camera with nothing to help her other than her own face. She is in the Abbey; she is in close-up; she is in the midst of a solemn and historic occasion. The Monarch of England is being crowned. Now that is pretty strong stuff for a showgirl. Of course to act in a conventional SLO way would have been easier. But MM had been determined to do something the ‘method' way or bust in the attempt. The problem is that with the crew all round – and there are often as many as 60 people behind the camera
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  – it is very hard to sit and
feel
anything. It must be easier to pretend you feel them, but that would be cheating! Elsie was supposed to be so overcome with the drama of it all that tears spring to her eyes. Evidently MM has done the tears trick in previous movies, and she is rather proud of the achievement, so she had told SLO that it would be no problem. She had been powerfully briefed by Paula before she left. ‘Think of Frank Sinatra. Think of Coca-Cola,' Paula had said. (I swear that is a direct quote.) But in the event, poor MM could not manage to squeeze a single tear. Loud Handel (‘Zadok the Priest'??, I think), played on a tape in the studio, meant nothing to her. (Why should it?) Her lips parted and quivered and she seemed to go into a trance. The camera rolled away a lot of very expensive film, but no tears came. Glycerine was produced to make fake tears but she refused it. She flushed an unmakeupable rash and we all settled down to wait some more – while she went back to her dressing room.

I fancy she had a couple of glasses of champagne to steady the nerves, but for whatever reason, when she came back to the set, a real tear did indeed trickle down her cheek. A triumph for the Actors Studio indeed, but glycerine would have been much quicker!

This is my last night in the pub. They were all very kind and gave me a jolly evening. Funnily enough I found that I have drunk much less in the evenings than I usually do. Perhaps after the film is over, I should get a job working behind a bar instead of sitting in front of it!

It is simply great to be at Tibbs. What luxury after the pub, and even dear Runnymede. There is nothing like deep pile Wilton underfoot in the bathroom. Milton and Amy run an open house, with drink and food always available. Milton's assistant David Maysles is very ‘laid back' and easy-going. I suppose he and I are a bit too alike to be friends. He is to Milton what I am to SLO, and so we both know what makes the other tick, and how much ambition lurks beneath the surface. David has an incredibly pretty girl friend, an English actress called June Thorburn.
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(There he is definitely one up on me.) Both of us are ‘gofers' for now, and no gofer likes gofering in front of another gofer, which makes us wary of each other. In his case, he is forever running down to the shops (on a motorscooter) to get Milton and Amy fresh supplies. I think Amy is taking Josh back to USA soon, and then life will get even more relaxed. There is only one problem. It is going to be very difficult to go up to bed at 9.30 p.m. I have found that if I want seven hours' sleep, from 10.30 p.m. to 5.30 a.m., I have to be in my room by 9.45 p.m. I need the time to write this diary, and to compose myself. Milton likes to start to eat dinner at 9 p.m. One thing is certain, I still have to be at Pinewood by 6.40 a.m. each morning if I want to keep my job.

Plod called up, early, to say that a new ‘shrink' had arrived from the USA to see MM, a Doctor Hohenberg I think. Just what MM
needs  – another daft piece of advice from someone with instant solutions! He
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may hold her hand and calm her down temporarily but it would take years to cure her problems permanently. His arrival definitely means MM will not be in today.

We have moved into the Grand Ballroom set. SLO and Dicky had a nice scene with Maxine Audley.
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Maxine is Lady Sunningdale, an old girl friend of the Grand Duke's. (Her name is a typical ‘in joke' of Rattigan's. He lives in Wentworth, which is just down the road from Sunningdale, and people who live in Wentworth look down on Sunningdale.) The Grand Duke is setting up a date for later that evening, because Elsie Marina had passed out on him the night before. She had drunk ‘an amount of vodka which, in Carpathia, you would add to the morning milk of a two-year-old child' – in reality about six glasses, plus champagne. Naturally SLO and Dicky and Maxine played the scene impeccably. They have all acted together many times. It was only the ‘extras' and the lights which needed attention. Maxine used to be a great beauty on stage. She is still very handsome (and sexy), but compared to MM she looks tired. SLO and Jeremy have very fine matching white uniforms, with red sashes. A ball scene really brings out the best in Bumble (and Cecil Beaton), and the ladies' dresses are equally sumptuous.

My main task was to look after the horde of extras, mostly members of old-time dancing clubs, who will fill the ballroom tomorrow. They have to be carefully shepherded between wardrobe, where their costumes are fitted, to dance rehearsals with Billy Chappell. Unlike regular FAA extras, they must not be yelled at and ordered around. Our regular extras are still here, of course, as guests and servants, and anyone else who doesn't speak or dance. They will all be on camera tomorrow. It is going to be a hectic week. At least
Milton had no one to dinner tonight so I could slink up here early with a sandwich from the ‘fridge'.

The dancers looked fabulous as they swirled round the studio floor. There are real crystal chandeliers, and Roger has included a magnificent carpeted staircase with a full orchestra at the bottom of it. Roger, Carmen, Bumble and Dario all fuss around until the camera is actually running, and Elaine has a terrible time trying to keep track of such complicated continuity. The band plays the Sleeping Prince Waltz, while the couples all revolve under the watchful eye of Billy C. Even MM was exhilarated and gave a sparkling performance when she finally arrived. (Music and a new set – both always cheer her up.) We have finished on the gallery and moved to the staircase. The first shot with MM was of her and Jeremy sitting in the middle of it, blocking the paths of the other guests. Lady Sunningdale is stuck behind them and we hear her say, acidly, ‘Excuse me, please.' Then we cut to Maxine and see her walk, disapprovingly, round Elsie, and down to the dance floor. It was a good moment to compare the two, one a fading beauty and the other so young and fresh; one so British and one so American. For all the pills and problems, MM looks so full of life and
joie de vivre
in comparison.

The Grand Duke enters the shot from behind and Jeremy persuades them to dance. They went out onto the crowded dance floor, and it was quite a touching scene in a way. MM is a good dancer, and for once SLO's ultra stiff posture made a moving contrast. Our problem was that the extras tend to slow up. They are not as blasé as our regulars, and they all want to be in a close-up shot with SLO and MM. But one can't blame them.

The good news came at the end of the day. The ‘rushes' looked fabulous and even MM, who came to watch for a change, was very
impressed. She looked great, the dancers looked great, the set looked great, even SLO looked quite handsome. During the day, things were not so good. For some reason, MM was in a bad temper, so everyone suffered. She was curt with Milton, abrupt with SLO and even snapped at her dresser and her make-up man, which is extremely rare. Plod says that she suspects Milton of some sort of knavery. He also said that she grumbles at AM all the time now.

Even so we managed one very long take in which Elsie and the Grand Duke start to dance. Elsie tries to persuade the Duke to make peace with his son and, as they swirl around, she reads out the young King's conditions. She seemed to forget the last one for a second – genuinely or not I don't know – and then blurted out, ‘Oh yes, and he wants a general election.' Strangely enough, it actually worked quite well.

The Grand Duke is dismissive of her attempts to play politics. ‘Madame de Pompadour is beyond your range, my dear.' Then he asks ‘Do you reverse?' meaning the waltz. MM gave a wild laugh. ‘Just try me!' she cried and off they both swept into the crowd.

Only in fairy tales, and films, alas, does such a large crowd dance in such perfect harmony.

But that was all we did get today. The other dancing shots will be done tomorrow, as each requires a new set-up down on the floor. Lots of work for Jack and the stand-ins to do first thing. When MM arrives at her usual hour (8.30), three set-ups a day with her are the best we can hope for. Thank goodness this is such a simple, studio-bound film to shoot.

Another day of MM dancing with SLO. The two-shots aren't too bad, but the close-ups are technically very tricky. The cameraman has really to dance with them, and the lighting is critical. In his close-up, SLO had to show that he now realises how delightful this showgirl is, no matter how headstrong and ‘disconcerting'. In MM's close-up
she had to make it clear that she is now ecstatically in love with the Grand Duke. This was asking quite a lot of both of them. MM was clearly the subject of a technical debate most of the morning, and anyway she was still feeling pretty bad-tempered. Added to that she clearly loathes the man she is meant to be in love with. I think the final – and successful – result was more the result of self-hypnosis than great acting, but perhaps there isn't, or shouldn't be, much difference between the two. In the end we managed four set-ups so we should be out of here by the end of the week.

I had a total surprise when I got back here to Tibbs tonight. Waiting on the doorstep in a hire car were Little David Tennant and Dommy Elwes.
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I knew at once that they must be desperate for money, and couldn't but wonder which of them would end up paying the fare! They had found out where I was through Lockhart and Mr Cotes-Preedy at the Club. It turns out that they want me to share a flat with them when the movie is over, and they want to take the flat right now. It is at No 3, Mount Street and has a drawing room overlooking Berkeley Square. It sounded terrific but of course there was a catch. It is quite expensive – £24 per month (£8 each) – and I have to sign the lease, and I have to put up £300 for the privilege (to own the lease). David even insists that he has one of the bathrooms to himself, and Dommy and I share the other one. Dommy has to take what he can get of course. He hasn't got a bean and, I suspect, has no intention of paying the £8 per month either. It seems a bit hard on me but David is so arrogant that one can't argue with him.
He
found the flat, he is doing me a favour etc. Well, I have to live somewhere, and David and Dommy are very stimulating company. Also it is the only offer I've had, and I hate living alone. So I said ‘yes' and duly wrote out a cheque. Dommy is going to start
redecorating right away. He is very good at this, but he has very expensive tastes. Right now he tells me he is involved with the two ‘geniuses' of interior decoration – a Mr Bonsack and a Mr Fowler.
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He says he will make the flat so beautiful that no girl will be able to say ‘no' at the crucial moment! I gave him an absolute spending limit of £400, but limits mean nothing to Dommy. He can charm credit out of a stone. I have lived rent-free for most of the film, and I've spent very little of my wages. Even so it means dipping into GrandPapa's trust – again.