Stephen Pickard: Chapter Two - MGM

Last month I posted the facinating recollections of Stephen Pickard, who was a projectionist at the Southend Odeon Cinema in the 60's. That post dealt exclusivly with his memories of Southend Cinemas, but was so well received, that I cheekily asked if we could maybe find out a little more about his life in film. Stephen very kindly agreed, and below is his next installment. This post covers his move from showing films to making them, concentrating on his time spent working for MGM.

I was interested in films and the cinema as far back as I can remember - It came from my Mother's side of the family. My Mother's aunt and her sisters went to the cinema regularly and also her elder sister and Aunt used to send away to Hollywood for film star pictures. Unfortunately the collection never survived and was probably destroyed or even stolen during the second world war bombings in London.

My recollections of going to the cinema in the early fifties are not very clear, but I do remember my Grandmother regularly taking me to the cinema in Muswell Hill, North London, and I clearly remember going there with my family to see "A Night To Remember". For some reason my memory is clearer once I moved to Eastwood, Essex in January, 1959. Maybe it was the change in the quality of the air from coal-smokey London to the crisp sea air of the coast of Essex!

My best subject in school was English and my Father had ideas that I might get into Journalism, or as I liked to draw, something in that direction, however I wanted to somehow be involved with films. My Father wasn't too keen on the idea, and had designs on me going to college when I left school. It was the experience of seeing "Lawrence of Arabia" in 70mm in London that finally did it. David Lean became my favorite director and I lived and breathed movies day and night (as one or two of my old friends will tell you!). However I had no idea how to get into the Industry, as unless you had a relative working in the business it was next to impossible to break in as it was a 'closed shop', due to the stringent rules laid down by the powerful entertainment union ACTT (Association of Cinematograph, Television & Allied Technicians). I thought that television might be a good starting point, but that idea didn't appeal after an interview with the BBC. Somebody else suggested that a way to get into the business was to train as a cinema projectionist. My Father didn't take to this idea at first but soon adapted when he learnt that I would have to spend one day a week attending a training course in Electronics, Mathematics, Cinema Engineering and Physics at Wandsworth Technical College in South London.

So in January, 1964 I started work at Granada Theatres at the Century Cinema in Pitsea, Essex. In September I went to work at the Odeon Cinema in Southend and by this time I had a good idea how a projection booth was operated. See Stephen's previous post for the full story of this part of his career.

In April, 1968 I left cinema projection. I was now a member of the cinema projectionists' union NATTKE, and I was able to transfer directly to the film studios in a projection-related capacity. I went to MGM-British Studios in Borehamwood for an interview with Tom Howard, who was a special effects cinematographer. As some of you may know, Tom Howard's career goes back to the days of Alexander Korda, and he worked on many British-based MGM films in the forties, fifties and sixties; "Village of the Damned", "The Haunting", "Gorgo", "2001" to name just a few. MGM moved into the lot in Borehamwood (Amalgamated) after the war and would remain there until 1969. Besides MGM, Fox and the Mirisch Corporation also shot some British productions there.

Tom Howard had an office in the MGM Laboratories. His department not only covered the field of photographic visual effects but also the process projection department which dealt with projecting specially filmed backgrounds known as plates that were projected on a screen behind actors in the safe location of a studio stage. I got the job and re-located to Borehamwood.

As MGM was the first studio I worked for, I found it was quite overwhelming. At every opportunity, I would walk around the studio. On the backlot there were the remains of exterior sets of "Quatermass and the Pit", and "The Dirty Dozen", and a satellite dish - which was part of the Discovery in "2001" - all sat rotting away. I met many veterans of MGM who had worked there for many years. One person in particular was a carpenter called Reg, and he described to me how he achieved and executed the effect of the 'bending door' in "The Haunting". I also recall visitng the property department and sitting high on a shelf at the back was Gorgo's head! (I regret not claiming it when I left, as it probably finished up in the trash when the studio closed).
At this time there was little work for us, but within a week or two Tom Howard came to us with some news that we would be starting on a production in June, called "Where Eagles Dare".

During the slow times we would have to service the projection equipment. Unlike regular cinema projectors, which were equipped with an intermittent sprocket beneath the picture gate, they were installed with a 'Mitchell movement'. This was probably the most successful method of moving film through the gate at an extremely steady rate. It was designed by the Mitchell Corporation in the US, many years before for the 35mm motion picture camera and was the standard throughout the film industry for many years. The film we used, which was known as 'plates', was specially photographed by a unit on the production, or from a library of moving backgrounds photographed at various angles, which were projected behind actors in various set-ups, boats, planes, cars etc. These 35mm standard four-perf plates were specially color graded and utilised the complete negative area.

When the main "Where Eagles Dare" unit arrived from Switzerland and Austria they immediately started filming on existing sets that were constructed on the various large sound stages, of which MGM had many. From memory, Stage 10 housed the 'Gold Room' where Burton and Eastwood confront the Germans during a meeting. On another stage there was the interior of the cable car station which was located at the top of the castle. The station itself was built high up on the stage as several feet were needed for an approach and departure for two 'practical' (i.e. working) cable cars. The cables themselves ran several feet to the bottom of the stage. The scenes that we were to prepare for were backgrounds for the plane on it's approach and escape from the airfield, the bus, the motorcycle, the cable cars and for odd close ups of actors. Our very first set up was a shot of Richard Burton in the cable car unscrewing a light bulb while instructing on the timing of the explosives.

On the many occasions where we utilised actors, we would have to wait, sometimes hours, fo them to become available from the main unit. On the cable car scenes, we utilised a front projection rig. This front projection rig was specially designed for Stanley Kubrick on "2001". It consisted of a method of projecting a static 10x8 positive/negative plate which was projected through a special 50/50 transmission/reflection glass plate mounted at 45 degrees onto a large glass bead coated screen, developed by the 3M company (now widely used). The image on the screen was amplified in light level by many times, reflected straight back into the mirror and reflected at a right angle into the lens of the camera which was attached to the same rig as the projector. The main benefit of this process was to pour more light onto the background image resulting in a more realistic illusion of the foreground subject being in the same location as the background - a problem which has beset rear-projection set-ups for many years. Kubrick was so sold on the idea that 3M had developed, that he planned to use it extensively on his next project which was to be "Napoleon". On one of my many visits to Tom Howard's office, he showed me a rough plan of how he and Kubrick planned to apply this material.

Tom Howard was one of the 'old school' gentleman, and very much a father figure to me. (I was only 20 at the time). He knew I was genuinely interested in what he did and was always eager to share it with me. The last time I saw him was at ABPC around 1977, almost eight years after MGM closed, and he told me of his plan to write a book called "From Korda To Kubrick" which I don't believe was ever published.

The front projection rig was only used for background shots behind exteriors and interiors of the cable cars, when leading actors can be seen clearly. I do not want to discredit the incredible work of the stuntmen headed by the legendary Yakima 'Yak' Canutt and his team. Unfortunately, I did not meet Canutt at the studio as I think he left after the location work was completed. However, I did befriend Alf Joint who doubled for Burton. The rear projection work on the bus was utilised by a method called 'triple head' projection. Looking toward the rear and the front of the bus three simultaneous images were required, one facing at the rear and one on each side. Three interlocked projectors were used. The shutters had to be phased with each other as well as the camera and each image was projected onto individual translucent screens. The motorcycle, airplane and car-crash sequences utilised the traditional single projector set-up. With rear projection, being located on the other side of the translucent screen to the camera and actors and crew, you couldn't observe the action being filmed. All you could hear was the director shouting instructions to the actors and the actors performing their lines and sometimes firing weapons, which were often extremely loud.

As I have already mentioned, we would set-up the equipment and then sometimes sit around for a long time for the main unit to come over to the stage. If the set-ups involved using main actors, the main first unit would come to the stage, and I had the opportunity to get to know most of the crew. Brian G. Hutton, the director, was very friendly toward me. His background was as a Hollywood actor. He played 'bad' roles in "Gunfight at the OK Corral" and "King Creole".

Where the rear projection set-ups only used a portion of the stage, the art department built several sets. I had the oppportunity to watch them being filmed. Among the scenes I recall was a brief scene shot between Ingrid Pitt and Mary Ure in her bedroom. The underside of the bridge was constructed for the scene of Eastwood and Burton rigging it with explosives. On this occasion Liz Taylor came to visit the set one evening. We did a front projection set up with Richard Burton retrieving his parachute. I recall the camera operator requesting Burton's hood not to be pulled too far forward over his face, immediately Burton snapped back that audiences would know who it was!

There was a mock-up of the snow covered roof of the cable car station. This was used for an insert of two gloved hands, where Burton reaches out to prevent Eastwood from sliding off the roof. Obviously, the actors were not needed for this shot, just two stand-ins with jackets and gloves. After watching the first hour or so of the film last night, I was reminded of the contribution of the matte artist, Douglas Adamson, an MGM employee. I visited his department on one occasion where he and his lovely assistant Anne were painting on glass a long shot of the 'Castle of the Eagle' with the surrounding mountains. A large miniature was also constructed on the back lot. The painting can be seen when Derren Nesbitt accompanies Mary Ure and Ingrid Pitt in the cable car at night. The scene is made up of location, (the cable car station - at the bottom - when the cable car leaves) the POV's of the Castle which are the matte painting and / or miniature and interior studio when they reach the cable car station. Similarly, the sequence where Eastwood and Burton travel on the roof of the cable car, is a mixture of location with stuntmen, studio with actors and front projection set-up.

When filming was completed on the cable car station, the set was struck with the exception of the cables and the two cable cars. This was left for the shot where Burton leaps from one cable car to another after rigging it with explosives. The jump was done by Alf Joint. On the morning, I managed to go down to the stage to watch. Alf did it in one take successfully, but in the process he landed on the cable car and caught his mouth on the rail, which ran around the rim on top of the car, cutting himself badly.

During the filming of the interior of the plane sequences, the costume or props department asked if I would be willing to put on Mary Ure's parachute, as at that age I was approximately her height, so they could check to see how it would fit and make necessary adjustments before she arrived on the stage. I also recall that day several actors, such as Patrick Wymark and Peter Barkworth, relaxing and reading whilst sitting in special prop chairs. One of my supervisors was always grumbling and complaining and on that day he raised his voice to me and I will never forget Wymark's expression when he looked up and frowned at him!

One morning when the crew were walking toward Stage 10 to film on the 'Gold Room' set, I noticed Derren Nesbitt in costume and a bandage over his eye. I did not realize until that evening or the next day, when I read in the newspaper, that Nesbitt's eye was injured. Apparently a squid effect of him being shot by the squid somehow misfired and part of it went into his eye.

During the completion time of "Where Eagles Dare", the new James Bond film "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" was readying to go into production. The climax to the new Bond Adventure was a fight between Bond and Blofeld on the roof of a cable car. When the Bond Producers heard of the fights aboard the cable car in "Where Eagles Dare" they rewrote the end of their screenplay to a fight on a toboggan run instead. I spent nine months in the projection department. I projected dailies for the productions based at the studio. I also helped out in the dubbing stages where the soundtracks were mixed. Among the productions I was involved with at the time were "OHMSS", "Strange Report" TV series, "Dracula Has Risen from the Grave" "Carry On Up the Khyber" and "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie".

In late July early August 1968 filming was completed and, with no immediate work in sight, I decided to take a projectionist's position at Pinewood Studios. It was just a year later after the completion of productions such as "Captain Nemo", "Goodye, Mr. Chips" and "Alfred the Great" that MGM Studios were closed permanently.

MGM continued to be represented in England for a few years, by name only when they collaborated with the Associated British Picture Corporation and became MGM/Elstree Studios. One victim of the closure of MGM was Fred Zinnemann's production of "A Man's Fate", of which much money had been spent including extensive exterior set construction on the back-lot.

A very big thank you to Stephen for taking the time and trouble to share these memories with us, it's much appreciated.

Piley