Radio review – MT#3 - “Tale of Two Cities” (1938) ***

Orson Welles is excellent as Sidney Carton – all booming voice, wasted talent and dissolution. He would have made a wonderful film lead in this role, provided he wasn’t too fat at the time. (You know what, it would have even worked with a fat Welles). A good solid adaptation with the best performances by the Defarges; Charles Darney is a little dull but he was in the book.

Book review – “Titmuss Regained” by John Mortimer

Sequel to Paradise Postponed which correctly picks Leslie Titmuss as the most interesting character – here he falls in love and is determined to prove the ex of his wife as a cad. He also becomes involved in environmental issues. This is Mortimer in Chekhov mode – lots of funny/sad stuff, everyone is in love with the wrong person. Well written and entertaining, like most Mortimer; I didn’t enjoy it as much as the first one – it has less sweep, and the characters aren’t as engaging. The dull doctor character comes in and you think he’s going to do something but he doesn’t really.

Book review – “My Word is Bond” by Roger Moore

Roger Moore is one of those rare male actors who owe their career to their looks, but since they are so charming and likeable no one really resents it, not even men. This is a highly entertaining memoir, which reads as if Moore is regaling you with it over a lunch. You can hear the dulcet tones as he goes from anecdote to anecdote and he has this lovely dry sense of humour.

Moore had something of a blessed life – well, not totally, he was forever having illnesses. But he was an adored only child, good at school, liked by family and friends; he was a trainee animator out of school but got the sack; he did some extra work on Caesar and Cleopatra with some friends from a swimming pool and was spotted by the gay Brian Desmond Hurst who encouraged him to become an actor. He got into RADA, then had a fairly cruisy three years in the service (most of the time in the entertainment division), and gradually got work once he was in civvies. It helped that he could supplement his income with modelling work.

His career received a boost when he married the much older Dorothy Squires; he then nabbed an MGM contract, and the studio gave him some decent chances in not very good films. He kept going, though, become a small screen star in England with Ivanhoe. Then Warners put him under contract, mostly using him as a handsome romantic male lead or a TV star, then he hit it big on the small screen with The Saint and The Persuaders. Then of course there was James Bond, during which he occasionally made other films – in these he seemed most effective as a co-star (eg The Wild Geese). He has had an enormously successful Indian summer to his career as a UNICEF ambassador, sort of like a member of a royal family, jetting around the world meeting heads of state and poor people.

While Moore makes a lot of jokes at his own expense about his ability you don’t have a career as long as he did without some talent. He’s got the looks (he got better looking as he went older – though he seems weird now), but also charm and a great speaking voice, a skill at light comedy – interestingly enough he never seems to have made a successful comedy, but his comic touch was useful in thrillers and action films; he could handle the rough stuff believably. He also seems to have been hard working – playing the sole lead in a TV series is a very heavy slog - and easy to get along with. The only time he really discusses his art as an actor is talking about the dialogue director he worked with on The Miracle – but that experience does seem to have left an impression with him.

Lots of stuff I didn’t know: he’s a big fan of Les Patterson (doing a skit with Les got him cast in Aspects of Love); he directed several episodes of The Saint (he enjoyed it but says he’s too lazy to do feature work, which I believe); he was involved as a film executive for the Brut company (who made A Touch of Class); Bernard Lee was a drunk; he tried to produce a version of Tai Pain. He disputes Cubby Broccoli’s claim in Broccoli’s memoirs that he was pushed out of playing Bond (he says it was mutual).

He’s engagingly up front about his flaws – the fact he very much works for the money not the art (an attitude which has perhaps stopped him from really stretching himself); has a non-confrontational attitude which led him to slink out of his various marriages; is a conservative who had nil problem making several films in South Africa during the 70s; an infantile sense of humour involving much playing of practical jokes (though bringing a dildo to bed for a sex scene with Grace Jones is funny).

There are a lot of stories about Moore escaping the attention of lecherous homosexuals – not uncommon amongst reminisces of young British actors of this time (Michael Caine and Bryan Forbes talked about this in their memoirs). There’s also a lot of stuff that feels sketchy – he was best mates with Jeffrey Hunter in the 50s, named a son after him – but doesn’t mention Hunter’s death (or indeed at all apart from two pages whereas there’s lots on David Niven); he talks a bit about his first wife, then mentions as an aside “oh she had a son by an earlier relationship – he lived with her parents”. But great fun.

NB In the acknowledgements section, Moore thanks several of his doctors. How cute is that!

Book review – “Pieces of My Heart” by Robert Wagner

It is fitting that Robert Wagner’s memoirs came out around the same time as Roger Moore’s because they are two actors with a lot in common: smooth types who are greatly liked and respected within the industry, don’t enjoy reputation as great actors, thrived under contract for studios, had active love lives, had a career which went into several phases, enjoyed great success on the small screen, turned producer and thrived. Wagner never had a role in his career like James Bond or Simon Templar (although he could have played either role; indeed he says Broccoli approached him about Bond in the immediate post-Lazenby years but he begged off), but he was a bigger star than Moore in the 50s. The two men were friends – both close to David Niven.

This is even better than Moore’s book, not as funny but far better written (Scott Eyman co-wrote). I was familiar with a fair bit of Wagner’s life from an excellent unpretentious paperback bio Natalie and Rj but this adds a lot.

Wagner was born into a wealthy family who lived in Bel Air – his father was mates with Bill Wellman and he used to caddy for Clark Gable. Although Dad wanted RJ (as he is best known) to go into the family business, he wanted to act. Wagner wasn’t blessed with great natural talent but he was very good looking and Fox put him under contract as a sort of back up to Tyrone Power (like Jeffrey Hunter). Like David Niven, he had a great knack for being likeable and getting people to take him under their wing; he worked hard and was very keen and pro-active – he wasn’t his father’s son for nothing – and started to get little roles. A small scene as a soldier in With a Song in My Heart saw him become a bobby sox idol, up there with Tony Curtis, Rock Hudson, Tab Hunter and Rory Calhoun. Like many of them, his agent was Henry Wilson.

Wagner never reached the heights of Curtis or Hudson but he did reasonably well for himself. Fox gave him plenty of chances, and he definitely reached the second tier of stardom, playing juvenile leads to older stars in films like Broken Lance. But he never broke through to the top, even when given a chance. For instance Prince Valiant did well but Wagner had a tremendously silly haircut which made him something of a joke for a while; ditto Beneath the 12-Mile Reef, which became a hit off the back of CinemaScope but in which Wagner wore a golliwog wig; or in The Mountain in which he was absurdly cast as Spencer Tracy’s brother. 

Marriage to Natalie Wood gave him a few more years near the top, but when the tide ran out it ran out fast. It wasn’t entirely his fault – Hollywood was changing and Wagner was too associated with old school Hollywood. This turned to his advantage, however, when he became a television star. There were two semi hits, then a big one with Hart to Hart. His remarriage to Wood was one of Hollywood’s greatest love stories; her death from drowning one of its greatest tragedies.

I always figured Wagner was a ladies’ man, but also thought that he was the kind who wouldn’t kiss and tell. Well, I was wrong: we hear about flings with Joan Crawford (they went for a swim – she came out naked and dived into the pool which is kind of hot; apparently she was a domineering and yielding lover), Yvonne de Carlo, Anita Ekberg, Elizabeth Taylor (which surprised me), Joan Collins, chaste dating with Debbie Reynolds, plus a four year relationship with Barbara Stanwyck (a fire cracker in the sack apparently). He knocked back Bella Darvi and Noel Coward (he seems to have had many gay friends throughout his life – but then Natalie Wood was a big time fag hag star).

Wagner is one of those stars who seem to get along with everyone – he was particularly close to David Niven and Spencer Tracy; he even hit it off with Peter Sellers. Errol Flynn gave him a lift when he was a hitchhiker, which is nice of Errol; he later tells about walking in on Errol’s dressing room during the filming of Too Much Too Soon to find the swashbuckler getting a blow job from a blonde – Beverly Aadland?

Wagner was going to make a film with Flynn, Clifton Webb and Joan Collins in the late 50s for Fox called Lord Vanity (off the back of Flynn’s success for Fox in The Sun Also Rises) but Flynn died before it could get going. He was also going to make an interesting-sounded project with Dick Powell, Solo, about a jazz musician with a score by Andre Previn that was unfortunately watered down then cancelled; he turned down the second male lead in Flaming Star for fear it would hurt his career – I think that was a mistake; admittedly the film wouldn’t have done anything for his career, but it was a decent role and is one of Elvis Presley’s best films. He says Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was “dangled in front of him” for a bit – he would have been fine if not magical; he would have been very good as the husband in Rosemary’s Baby which he was apparently all set to do but he couldn’t get released from It Takes a Thief.

Wagner did clash with some people – Frank Tashlin, Maximillian Schell, Lesley Anne Downe, Stanley Donen… actually come to think of it that's a lot (I didn't know Charlie Brackett was gay.) Wagner also gets a bit grumpy at times about things – law suits, the population explosion in LA – and while he tells a good anecdote, he’s maybe a bit too worshipful of older Hollywood stars (maybe because they were his elders rather than his contemporaries eg Spencer Tracey, Fred Astaire, Bette Davis – I mean, what’s there is enjoyable anecdotes but the characters never feel as fleshed out as say in David Niven’s memoirs; it feels as though Wagner is overly deferential). Still a highly enjoyable book; at times very moving, and full of sensible advice for actors, both in terms of craft and career.

Radio review – Lux#136 – “British Agent” (1936) **

Errol Flynn steps into the shoes of Leslie Howard in this adaptation of the 1934 thriller about life of a British agent during the Russian Revolution. It’s interesting to hear Errol in a role he didn’t essay on the screen; the main flaw of this isn’t his fault – it’s about a person who doesn’t really do much apart from sit around during the Revolution, and when he does do something (try to stop Russia quitting the war, kill Lenin) he fails. We’re used to Errol kicking more arse than this.

But it is interesting, especially the take on Russia – and Frances Farmer plays the Russian commie agent who falls for him. Her performance is mostly an accent, but Frances Farmer and Errol Flynn together is easily interesting enough to carry it through the hour.

In the chat at the end Flynn talks about his injury in the Spanish Civil War and Farmer talk about going back to the stage. De Mille also announces the death of Jean Harlow.

Book review – “Incurable” by John Marsden

Did John Marsden need a bit of extra cash to help run his school or something? There was no need for him to write this book. I wasn’t mad keen on The Ellie Chronicles to begin with but at least the first book had real emotional wallop and a decent story and dealt with an interesting subject matter (a dodgy peace). This one is just tap dancing. It’s built around three set pieces, all admittedly very well written which show Marsden has lost none of his flair for action: a raid over the border, a hiking accident, and a fight in town with someone trying to kill Gavin. But so what? There’s no complexity, no point to it unless it’s setting up for book three. We find out a bit of Gavin’s back story – big deal.

Book review – Hannay #3 - “Mr Standfast” by John Buchan

By now Hannay is a brigadier yet Sir Walter thinks he can still go undercover as a pacifist. He winds up on the run in Scotland again, although this isn’t as fun as The 39 Steps. This is the book where confirmed bachelor Hannay falls in love, with a sensible, spirited girl who is young enough to be his daughter.

The choppy structure (i.e. on the mission, then back to the front, then back to the mission again) is less noticeable as a book than it was as radio adaptation but it’s still a stop-start tale. There are some additions to the Hannay gang – the chipper idiot Archie Roylance, love interest Mary (who is OK, pretty and overly sensible – I kept imagining Pat Roc or Phyllis Calvert). We lose Pieter Pienaar, and gain then lose one of Buchan’s most interesting characters, a brave conscientious objector Wake. There’s a fun scene where Hannay interrupts the action of a war movie, which Hitchcock would have loved.

As long as this moves fast it’s alright but when it stops and bogs down it becomes dreary – lots of characters crapping about Americans, and pacifists, and women. Dull opinions expressed in uninteresting fashion, and Dick Hannay becomes increasingly irritating. (A thought – is the reason they send him on this mission even though he’s a general because he’s a crappy general and they want to get him off the front).

But just when I was about to fling the book across the room the last section of it picks up. It’s a weird mash of Buchan thriller, and more outlandish melodrama (super villain falls in love with heroine, chains up hero in dungeon and tells him of plans for world domination) and descriptions of battles – this book is four genres in one (the fourth is the crappy-Buchan-take-on-life genre). But at least it’s lively.