What a pity that they didn’t all sit down and work out what they wanted before the filming started. But then everything was excitement and optimism, and publicity. Serious thought was not encouraged. I understand why Mr Perceval was so grave, but he was the only one. SLO could claim that he’d scheduled rehearsals to be as well prepared as possible, but he and MM were both so on edge that a genuine dialogue was always unlikely. They should have had a quick affair together, and got onto each other’s wavelength, at least. There certainly isn’t going to be a ‘next time’. All that we can hope now is that we’ve produced a good film. At the moment it is impossible to tell.
MONDAY, 19 NOVEMBER
Surely this was the hardest day of all. After lengthy conferences on Sunday between Jack (editor) and Jack (cameraman), Milton, SLO and Tony, they decided to do two more shots of MM, one more shot with SLO, and, if possible, one shot of both of them together. We started with MM. Make-up, Hair and Wardrobe had all been called for a normal studio day. In a way they were pleased. It is so hard to change the habits you have acquired over 100 days of doing the same thing – we were like patients in a mental hospital when the front door has been left open. Carmen and Roger and Dario had been running round to find the right pieces of set. Jack had to match up the lighting, Elaine was at her strictest, scouring her notes and peering at frames of 35mm film through a magnifying glass. I wonder if anyone explained to MM that these shots are not to correct failures on her part, but to fill in gaps other people may have left. I doubt it, by her behaviour, but then it is pretty hard to explain anything by now. She turned up later than ever, fretted terribly and retreated again and again into her dressing room. All Jack (Harris) really needed were two shots of MM for insurance – one in her white dress against an out-of-focus purple room; and one in her dress and frilly coat in an equally out-of-focus hall. There is a piece of purple wall still existing (thanks to the foresight of Teddy Joseph), and many bits of hall, so that was all right. But MM behaved like a drugged prisoner of war. We did get both shots but goodness knows if they are remotely usable. I suppose they might be better than nothing. We will watch them in ‘rushes’ tomorrow – in the morning for a change so – theoretically – SLO can ask MM to do them again if necessary. We also filmed SLO going to a window in the purple room, and looking back at camera. None of this seemed to harmonise too well with the original stuff, at least to my eye. It will depend on the skill of the two Jacks.
When MM left the studio, she did so quickly and furtively. She is supposed to come back tomorrow but we all know she won’t. She didn’t say goodbye to anyone, not even her personal dresser, who has been so loyal and patient, or to Gordon, her hairdresser.
We knew we would never see her again and, sad to tell, it was an immense relief. Poor Milton is very depressed. He feels a failure, but he would have needed the strength of ten men to have succeeded in all his roles. He had been warned about what he was taking on by other producers of MM’s films. But her appeal is so great that he shrugged them off. Even MM is not to blame. The great engine of publicity that surrounds her is unstoppable. Like some awful curse of the gods, it stalks her every moment, and one day it will crush her.
TUESDAY, 20 NOVEMBER
Back at Pinewood for the last time.
Another shot of SLO, this time with the camera looking up at him from the floor – the point of view MM would have had when she slid to the ground after too much vodka. No one can find the ceiling piece, painted with cherubs, to which MM refers, so we had to go without it. SLO was stony-faced. He is not a happy man at the moment.
By lunchtime it was crystal clear that we wouldn’t see MM again.
Mr Perceval came in to supervise the winding down of the production. He has asked me to help him clear up in the London office for another 10 days, but he still has Vanessa, so he is just being kind. Then the production office will be closed and LOP will vanish, I suppose. SLO explained that he will start editing next week. To my great relief, he did make a definite date for me to come to see him in London at the end of January. ‘Don’t worry, Colin. We won’t let you starve. We’ll find something for you to do.’
This is just as well as I got no encouragement from David at all. He sees me as part of SLO’s team now – about to disappear with the rest of them. After lunch we did a shot of Dicky Wattis’s stand-in’s legs behind a screen – supposed to be in Elsie Marina’s digs, while Dicky is waiting for her to get ready to go to the Embassy. MM had had a struggle to get into that tight white dress at the best of times. On camera, and helped only by Daphne, it had proved impossible. We desperately needed the ‘cut-away’ to cover Bumble and the dresser going in to help sort it out. It was very sad not to see Dicky himself. He and Paul became great friends and I will miss them.
After the last shot was over, there was a great sense of let-down. Milton and David Maysles appeared and invited us all into the next studio, which is not in use. At one end there was a large trestle table covered with packages.
‘Men on the left, women on the right,’ they called. ‘A parting gift to each one of you – from Marilyn.’
Everyone pressed forward to look. At the men’s end the packages were obviously bottles – identically wrapped. At the other end were smaller objects which turned out to be identical leather purses. Each item had been labelled with the name of someone on the crew. People rummaged around, finding the present with their name on. Then one man, I didn’t see who, walked across the studio to one of the huge round rubbish bins. He stood there for a moment, and then he just threw his bottle in. Immediately one of the ladies followed and threw in her purse. There was a sort of rippling murmur of anger and assent, and then everyone followed suit. Quite soon the bin was literally overflowing with bottles and purses, still wrapped and labelled – ‘Thank you from Marilyn Monroe’ in David’s handwriting. For Milton that was too much; he shrugged and grinned and left. I had already said my goodbyes as I loaded up the car this morning. I expect we will all recover. But it’s going to take a long time.
POSTSCRIPT
We never saw Marilyn again, but we knew exactly what was going to happen. She would fall out completely with Milton Greene (she did, in 1957), and Marilyn Monroe Productions would never make another film (it didn’t). Her marriage to Arthur Miller would collapse and end in divorce (it did, in 1961). She would become unable to work at all, and would eventually commit suicide (she did, in 1962). Had we been told about conspiracy theories and Kennedy connections, we would simply have shrugged our shoulders. The pressure of just being Marilyn Monroe was already making each day a painful struggle for her, and the end of the story was inevitable.
While she was making The Prince and the Showgirl, Marilyn was often in great distress. Of course she was in an unfamiliar foreign country, but even those with whom she had chosen to surround herself were from a completely different world to her. Milton and Amy Greene, Lee and Paula Strasberg, Arthur Miller, Hedda Rosten, Arthur Jacobs and Irving Stein all came from a New York, Jewish, immigrant background which was the opposite of Marilyn’s unstructured Californian upbringing. Not for her the possessive mother in the warm Bronx kitchen, giving a child a sense of its own worth, and the future confidence that goes with it. And yet, when she was in front of a camera, Marilyn radiated a joy and a vitality which made everyone else pale by comparison. No wonder we cannot forget her.
It was clear that The Prince and the Showgirl was not destined to be a big success at the box office. It was too ‘stagy’ and too claustrophobic. Nor would the film make much impact on the career of either of its two stars. Paradoxically, it was Olivier’s performance that was most affected by the problems on the set. Despite his unprintable comments about her inexperience and unprofessionalism, Marilyn had appeared in virtually the same number of films as he had (The Prince and the Showgirl was her twenty-fifth to his twenty-eighth), and her relationship with the camera was more intimate than his — Dame Sybil was right. Watching the film today, Marilyn appears happy and natural, whi
le Olivier often looks stiff and awkward.
Marilyn’s next film role, in Some Like it Hot, brought her great critical acclaim, but no relief from the problems of production. Many years after it was made I met the director, Billy Wilder, at a Hollywood party. Stuck for something to say to this fierce old Austrian, I murmured that I too had worked with Miss Monroe. ‘Then you know the meaning of pure pain,’ he growled, and stalked away. Yes – but of pure magic too.
Laurence Olivier did not forget his promise to take me with him. He had found a play which would give him the new lease of life he had been looking for. The Entertainer by John Osborne opened at the Royal Court Theatre on 10 April 1957, and is still considered one of Olivier’s greatest performances. I became his personal assistant, and also the Assistant Stage Manager at the Court. We took the play on tour and then to the Palace Theatre in the West End. Halfway through the run Joan Plowright took over the role created by Dorothy Tutin, and Olivier’s marriage to Vivien Leigh finally collapsed. By this time I had accompanied Larry and Vivien on the Royal Shakespeare Theatre’s tour of Europe with Titus Andronicus, but that is the subject of a different diary.
I never worked on another feature film, and in the film world you are either in or out. Consequently I never saw David Orton or Mr Perceval again; but I owe them both a debt of gratitude. I continued my friendship with Tony and Anne Bushell, and I often visited Larry in his dressing room wherever he happened to be performing. Vivien I saw up until the last week of her life in July 1967.
After Olivier went to Hollywood to make Spartacus in 1959 I was offered a job by Sidney Bernstein, Chairman of Granada Television. Once more I had high hopes, but I soon found myself back where I had started, as a trainee Assistant Floor Manager. Eventually I did become a producer and director – of documentary films on ‘the Arts’, of which I made over a hundred. It has been a rewarding and enjoyable career, and I never forgot the lessons I learned on The Prince and the Showgirl.
INDEX
Acting coach. See Strasberg, Paula
Actor’s Studio
Addinsell, Richard
African Queen, The
Alexander, Gordon
Allan, Rupert
Angeli, Pier
Anna Karenina
Ascot Racecourse
Association of Cinematograph Technicians (ACT)
Audley, Maxine
Austin Princess
Back projection
Baronova, Irina
Battle of the River Plate, The
Beaton, Cecil
Bernstein, Sidney
Blonde, Hollywood
Bodyguard. See Smith, Roger
Bolshoi Ballet
Bond, Gordon
Bond Street
Brando, Marlon
Brothers Karamazov, The
Burnett, Al
Burton, Richard
Bus Stop
Bushell, Anne
about
in Clark/Pitt-Millward letter
description of
dislike for Monroe
Bushell, Ned
Bushell, Tony
about
in Clark/Pitt-Millward letter
Caesar and Cleopatra
Cardiff, Jack
about
affair with stand-in
Saltwood Castle visit
Carpathian Embassy, Belgrave
Carr, Joan
Cast list, The Prince and the Showgirl
Casting couch
Castle Arms
Celly. See Clark, Collette
Chappell, Billy
Cigarettes, named for Olivier
Clapperboard
Clark, Alan
Clark, Colin
Amy Greene and
Arthur Jacobs and
Arthur Miller and
as Assistant Stage Manager
bodyguard, hires
description of Monroe
Diana Dors and
dream to be a director
driver hired
farewell to Monroe
first day on set
flatmates of
Gene Kelly and
as gofer on set
house for Monroe and
Laurence Olivier and
meets Monroe
Milton Greene and
miscarriage, Monroe and
on Monroe without makeup
on Monroe’s acting skills
Monroe’s arrival in U.K.
Owen Morshead (Sir) and
Parkside House, Monroe and
pep talk, Monroe and
Pitt-Millward, letter to
relationship with Oliviers
at Saltwood with Cardiff
shopping with Monroe
Susan Strasberg and
as third assistant director
Wattis and Hardwick friendship
Windsor Castle, Monroe and
Clark, Collett (Celly)
Clark, Kenneth (Sir)
Closed set
Closed shop
Cockpit, The
Connell, Dr.
Constitution, Britain’s
Contracts, long-term
Costume designer. See Dawson Beatrice
Cotes-Preedy, Mr.
Coward, Nöel
Crimson Drawing Room, Windsor Castle
Cross-plot
Cukor, George
Daily Mirror, The
Dalcross airport
Damone
Dastagir, Sabu
Da Vinci, Leonardo
Davis, Bette
Dawson, Beatrice
Day, Vera
De Valois, Ninette
Devine, George
Dillon, Carmen
DiMaggio, Joe
Dors, Diana (aka Fluck)
Dressing room, Pinewood Studios
Driver. See Evans
Drugs, prescription, Monroe’s use of
Du Maurier, Gerald (Sir)
Dumb blonde
Edwards, Dennis
Electrician’s Union
Elwes, Dominic (Dommy)
Englefield Beige
Entertainer, The
Eton College
Eton High Street
Eugenie (Empress)
Evans (Monroe’s driver)
Evening Standard
Extras
Fath, Jacques
Film Artists Association (FAA)
Fonteyn, Margot
Furse, Roger
Gaiety Theater
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
George the Third (King)
Gilman (Olivier’s driver)
Giraudoux, Jean
Gone With the Wind
Grace (Monroe’s caretaker)
Green Drawing Room, Windsor Castle
Greene, Amy
Greene, Josh
Greene, Milton
affair with Monroe
arrival in U.K.
Clark, Parkside House and
in Clark/Pitt-Millward letter
dislike for Monroe
family arrives in U.K.
manipulation of Monroe
Marilyn Monroe Productions and
on Monroe romance
Pinewood Studios
Guilaroff, Sidney
Harlow, Jean
Harris, Jack
Heathrow Airport, Monroe’s arrival at
Helpmann, Robert
Henry V,
Henry the Sixth (King)
Henson, Gladys
Hepburn, Katharine
Hohenberg, Doctor
Holbein
Holden, William
Hollywood blonde
Hope, Bob
Hunt, Marita
Hyde, Johnny
In Which We Serve
Infidelity, Monroe’s
Inge, William
Insurance policy, on actors
Jacobs, Arthur P.
changing arrival plans
c
haracter of
house hunt
Jewish supporters of Monroe
John (King)
Joseph, Teddy
Karsavina
Kazan, Elia
Kelly, Gene
Kelly, Grace
Kennedy, Jacqueline
Kennedy, John F.
Kent, Allegra
Kent, Jean
Kiss, first, between Clark and Monroe
Knight, Esmond
Korda, Alexander
Laughton, Charles
Laurence Olivier Productions
Lawyer. See Stein, Irving
Lean, David
Leigh, Vivian
awards of
in Caesar and Cleopatra
in Clark/Pitt-Millward letter
Clark’s relationship with
hires Gilman as driver
meets Monroe at airport
as Scarlett O’Hara
as unstable
visit to set
Letter, Clark to Pitt-Millward
Life magazine
Lighting. See Cardiff, Jack
Logan, Josh
Lost Boys
Love, Monroe’s desire for