Marie Colvin, Remi Ochlik, R.I.P.

Here at the Projector we try to keep out of political stories as others' opinions will differ, but sometimes one cannot ignore what is going on in the world (as with the tsunami in Japan last year) and one simply has to salute astounding courage and bravery. So it is with reporting the deaths of war correspondent Marie Colvin, 56, and French photographer Remi Ochlik, 28, who were covering the bombardment of Homs in Syria, where the regime there were determined to remove the foreign press.

I had been aware of Marie Colvin's by-line for years as one of the principal journalists of "The Sunday Times" as she reported from war zones all over the world, losing an eye in the process. Colvin worked for "The Sunday Times" for 20 years and twice won the British press award for Foreign Correspondent of the Year. Today's press reports the appalling danger they were in by still sending out news reports from Homs, as those determined to silence them could lock on to satellite signals and home in accordingly.... One can only salute their bravery and that of all the others following the recent changes in Egypt and Libya.

David Kelly, R.I.P.

David Kelly, best known for his role in seventies British sitcom FAWLTY TOWERS, passed away on Monday after a short illness at the age of 82. In his long career which spanned over 50 years, the Irish stage, film and TV actor has appeared in many memorable roles including Grandpa Joe in CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY, Rashers Tierney in STRUMPET CITY and his career defining role of the feckless incompetent builder Mr O'Reilly in FAWLTY TOWERS. "It was nine minutes on the screen of Fawlty Towers and I was signing autographs all over the world," he had said, The actor is also known for his naked bike ride in the 1998 comedy WAKING NED. "He was a hilarious man. He had an outlook on life that was slightly skewed and made you laugh all the time," his friend Niall Toibin as saying. Kelly's last role came in the 2007 British film STARDUST, where he played a wall guard. The actor received a lifetime achievement award at the 2005 Irish Film and Television Awards.

Whitney Houston, R.I.P.

Sometimes words are not needed ....

Ben Gazzara, R.I.P.

Ben Gazzara [1930-2012], that intense actor whose long career included playing Brick in the original CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF on Broadway, and had roles in influential films by John Cassavetes and worked with top Hollywood directors, has died aged 81.

He studied at the Actors Studio in Manhattan, which earned him regular work across half a century, not only onstage — but in dozens of movies and all sorts of television shows. His movies include THE STRANGE ONE, holding his own against James Stewart and George C Scott in Preminger's ANATOMY OF A MURDER in 1959 where he and Lee Remick are a very sexy couple. Perhaps his most important work was with John Cassavetes and Peter Falk (who died last year) in HUSBANDS in 1970 (though they barely knew each other then) and THE KILLING OF A CHINESE BOOKIE, and with Gena Rowlands in OPENING NIGHT in '77. He is good too as the uncomprehending father in that early Aids drama AN EARLY FROST (with Gena Rowlands again), 1985. He also got involved with Audrey Hepburn in the two films they appeared in, the dreadful all-star BLOODLINE and THEY ALL LAUGHED. Other films included A RAGE TO LIVE, SAINT JACK, and the Coen Brothers THE BIG LEBOWSKI, and several made in Italy, where he also kept a home. An individual talent indeed, and another survivor gone from that great era of new actors of the late 50s/early 60s and the experimental '70s. He also directed episodes of COLUMBO and RUN FOR YOUR LIFE, and published an autobiography in 2004. I last saw him (looking sadly aged) in I LOVE NEW YORK.

Nicol Williamson, R.I.P.

RIP indeed to one of the great acting talents of the British theatre and cinema. Nicol Williamson burst on the scene in the '60s - like the young David Warner he was a mesmerising Hamlet, he and Warner (whom I have been meaning to write about too, along with Alan Bates and Peter Finch) are together in the '68 drama THE BOFORS GUN, long unseen.
By all accounts a difficult man, as the respectful obituaries put it: "his prickly temperament helped derail what might have been one of the great theatrical careers" as he was "touched by genius" and "the greatest actor since Brando". Heady praise to live up to ...

He died aged 73 in December but his family have only released the information now. His 1968 HAMLET was filmed by Tony Richardson, with Marianne Faithfull as his Ophelia, and Richardson also directed him in his film of Nabokov's LAUGHTER IN THE DARK, where Williamson replaced another ailing hellraiser Richard Burton. This film is too little seen now, but I remember a tv showing if it ... His initial stage success was in John Osborne's INADMISSABLE EVIDENCE where his ranting solicitor (a rather more raging BUTLEY as played by Alan Bates) was a tour de force, he also played the role in the film. Other films included THE SEVEN PER CENT SOLUTION as Sherlock Holmes (above with Vanessa Redgrave), and as Little John with Connery and Audrey Hepburn in Richard Lester's smashing ROBIN AND MARIAN in 1976 - which also co-starred Robert Shaw - another of those actors like Stanley Baker, Laurence Harvey and Stephen Boyd who died too young. Williamson too had alcoholic problems, like Robert Stephens who also never became quite the star people thought he would and made too many dud movies, as did the hellraiser in chief Richard Burton. Peter O'Toole seems to have survived all that ... It seems now that a lot of the hellraisers of the 60s like Oliver Reed, Richard Harris, David Hemmings, Anthony Hopkins became, if they survived, old hams in dud movies. Nicol Williamson didn't quite go that route having got bored with acting eventually and turning to music. What a fascinating man. He is fun too in my favourite snake-on-the-loose-with-people-trapped-in-a-house-under-seige movie VENOM with his ex-lover Sarah Miles (review at Sarah Miles label), and then of course there was his Merlin in John Boorman's EXCALIBUR!

The actor, who was known as a straighforward, private man, leaves his son, Luke. "He was the most honest, funny and intelligent man I have ever had the pleasure of knowing," writes Luke on Williamson's official website. "He was my father and words cannot adequately express how proud I am of him."

Etta James, R.I.P.

Etta James (1938 - 2012) one of the great blues voices, and one of the most individual talents - up there with Aretha Franklin and Nina Simone - has died after battling long illnesses. What a talent. One of the early singles I bought was her "Losers Weepers" and her great "I'd Rather Go Blind" which has been covered by so many (like Chicken Shack). Then of course there was "Tell Mama", "I Just Want to Make Love To You" (which had a new life when part of a television commercial) and of course "At Last".

Etta's story is a key strand in the story of American music in the 20th century. She was singing in a group aged 14, then marketed as an R&B and doo wop singer, after being discovered by Johnny Otis the "godfather of rhythm & blues", who coincidentally died a few days before her. After signing with Chess Records in 1960, James broke through as a traditional pop-styled singer, covering jazz and pop music standards. James's voice deepened over the years, as she battled various demons, moving her musical style into the genres of soul and jazz. She went on to win 6 Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993. Legendary producer Jerry Wexler once called her "the greatest of all modern blues singers". Her music defied category, her legend can only grow, so when next having a drink let's toast Etta James.

Denise Darcel R.I.P.

Denise Darcel (1924-2012) who has died aged 87 was a voluptuous actress and singer who appeared in several films in the early 50s. She was one of several Continental imports whom Hollywood vainly hoped would equal the impact of the Garbos and Bergmans - others included Viveca Lindfors, Corinne Calvet, Micheline Presle, and those American-Italian sisters Pier Angeli and Marisa Pavan - perhaps only the likes of Lilli Palmer and Alida Valli and the later Romy Schneider and Claudia Cardinale really built their reputations as international stars following that raft of Italians like Mangano, Lollobridgida, Loren and Vitti; while Anita Ekberg cornered the sexbomb market!



Denise didn't make too many movies but was a well-known cabaret personality and singer in the 50s, perhaps her best movie was Aldrich's VERA CRUZ with Cooper (above) and Lancaster in '54. Her last film was a 20th Century Fox potboiler SEVEN WOMEN FROM HELL, circa 1961 where she was one of the 7 women (others were Patricia Owens and Yvonne Craig) escaping in the jungle from Japanese captors during WWII - Cesar Romero and John Kerr also popped up in this enjoyable farrago. Denise's torn blouse was prominently on display. It was an interesting career with spells as singer, cabaret artist and some enjoyable films.

Eve Arnold: first R.I.P. of 2012

Eve Arnold [1912-2012], one of the first woman photojournalists to join the prestigious Magnum Photography Agency in the 1950s and had traveled the world for her work, but was best known for her candid shots of Hollywood celebrities, has died at the remarkable aged of 99; she would have been 100 in April.



Starting in 1951, when career women were a rarity, Arnold navigated distant countries and cultures for unusual photographs ranging from horse trainers in Mongolia to factory workers in China. Her photo essays appeared in feature news magazines like LIFE and in the many books she compiled, in that great age of photo-journalism. She also photographed the leading politicians of that era, including Mrs Thatcher.


She was one of the photographers assigned to the shooting of THE MISFITS in Nevada in 1960 and became friends with Marilyn Monroe who she had photographed several times before in the 50s. This later led to several books on Monroe and the shooting of that complex film. Old-timers like Crawford and Dietrich also recognised a great photograher when they saw one, and Arnold was also on the sets of various favourite 60s films of mine like JUSTINE and MODESTY BLAISE. Her book "Film Journal" covers these in detail along with interesting stories and some terrific photos like Bogarde with Ingrid Bergman, Vanessa Redgrave and her daughters, Loren with Chaplin, Vitti and Stamp recording MODESTY BLAISE (above) and of course a selection of those Monroe shots. Marilyn certainly glows in Arnold's lenses.



Like that other great photographer Bob Willoughby its a great career to celebrate and any of her collections of photographs are cherishable. I love this 1956 shot of Silvana Mangano's great profile.

3 more legendary R.I.P.s ...

I could hardly ignore Vaclav Havel (1936-211): Czech playwright, essayist, poet, dissident and politician. He was the tenth and last president of Czechoslovakia (1989–92) and the first President of the Czech Republic (1993–2003).

Also Cesaria Evora (1941-2011: the "barefoot diva" from Cape Verde;

Author and journalist Christopher Hitchens (1949-2011) whose books, essays, and journalistic career spanned more than four decades. He was a columnist and literary critic for Vanity Fair among so many others, and of course a staple of talk shows and lecture circuits; whose trenchant opinions will be sadly missed as per the glowing tributes. Another defiant smoker too .....

Gilbert Adair, R.I.P.

Gilbert Adair (1944-2011), who died last week at the age of 66, was a novelist and well-regarded film critic. His movie reviews each week for the London "Independent" were pithy, often withering assessment of that week's most eye-catching release; incrementally, his reviews amounted to a defence of his beloved cinema, but may have been too elitist (or too highbrow for the mainstream) for some.

As he pronounced upon, damned and just occasionally approved of the week's offerings, he did so in a voice that deprecated its owner's undeniable cinephile authority. His fiction ranged from Agatha Christie pastiches to literary thrillers. Three of Adair's books themselves became films: LOVE AND DEATH ON LONG ISLAND (which I have been meaning to write about in connection with other "gay interest" titles), a comic recasting of "Death in Venice", where his stuffy professor wanders into the wrong cinema at the multiplex and becomes infatuated by the teen star on the screen; his somewhat autobiographical account of his days in 1968 Paris, "The Holy Innocents" (filmed as THE DREAMERS by Bertolucci); and "A Closed Book". There was also an impressive body of non-fiction, among which his quite personal history of the cinema, "Flickers", and "Movies", the anthology of film writing that he edited, are still rightly remembered. Adair was one of those very readable (even if one did not agree with him) critics like Pauline Kael or Alexander Walker.

Ken Russell, R.I.P.

It has just been announced that veteran English director Ken Russell ("the wild man of British cinema" as lazy journalists called him) has died, aged 84. More or less forgotten for the last couple of decades, though he kept working, he of course came into his own in the 60s with the films he made for the BBC (his film on Dante Gabriel Rossetti, DANTE'S INFERNO in 1967, with Oliver Reed exhuming his wife's coffin to retrieve some poems was unforgettable, in stunning black and white images) and his other television films on Delius, Elgar etc were innovative at the time and led to his career in cinema; there was also a highly regarded one on ISADORA DUNCAN, THE BIGGEST DANCER IN THE WORLD, with Vivien Pickles.

WOMEN IN LOVE, THE MUSIC LOVERS, THE DEVILS were all notorious in their time as Ken pushed the boundaries... later films on Liszt and Mahler certainly went over the top, and then there was TOMMY !, as well as THE BOYFRIEND, the long unseen SAVAGE MESSIAH and that interesting addition to the Harry Palmer films, BILLION DOLLAR BRAIN in '67 also with some stunning imagery (and Francoise Dorleac in her last film). THE BOYFRIEND is still a pleasure now, as a cast of Ken regulars [Christopher Gable, Max Adrian, Georgina Hale, Antonia Ellis, Murray Melvin, Vladek Sheybal] headed by the gauche Twiggy, Tommy Tune, and Glenda in a hilarious cameo, re-enact the 20s musical in a provincial theatre (in Portsmouth). That and THE DEVILS both in 1971 made it quite a year!

I recently got a new issue of THE MUSIC LOVERS, so it will be interesting to revisit it ... His later films like ALTERED STATES, CRIMES OF PASSION and THE LAIR OF THE WHITE WORM have their devotees too.

I loathed his VALENTINO in 1977 though, which trashed both Rudolfs - Valentino himself and Nureyev - and the rest of the cast. One would have thought Ken would have relished the excesses of '20s Hollywood but its mean-spirited view of Valentino, his wife Natacha, Nazimova (Leslie Caron) left a nasty taste, for me anyway - and Pauline Kael also loathed it! Perhaps we had enough of Ken's excesses by then .... I have been meaning to catch his first cinema feature FRENCH DRESSING in 1964 about a small town putting on a film festival which could be interesting now.

Ken was certainly a colorful character - I saw that famous interview on television when he hit critic Alexander Walker over the head with a rolled-up copy of the newspaper "The Evening Standard" containing Walker's dismissive review of his latest opus.
His early BBC work though is certainly worth investigating if one missed them first time round - like that imagery of the young Elgar riding his pony over the Malvern hills as the music blares out ...

Like Schlesinger, Losey, Lester and Roeg his best works are a testament to that innovative late '60s/early '70s era; I dare say the obits will now be referring to him as the grand old man of British Cinema. TOMMY was full of invention too, like Eric Clapton's Church of Saint Marilyn, not to mention Ann-Margret and those baked beans!. Oliver Reed, Glenda Jackson, Alan Bates, Vanessa Redgrave and her daughters all became part of his cast of players.
His first wife Shirley (who died in 2002) was a well regarded costume designer who did the costumes for Ken's major films as well as other prestige period movies like YANKS, REDS, HOPE AND GLORY etc.

More R.I.P.'s

Maureen Swanson, The Countess of Dudley (1932-2011). Maureen was a glamorous Rank Organisation starlet in the 50s - Dirk Bogarde's Spanish girlfriend in THE SPANISH GARDENER in 1956, and opposite Peter Finch in ROBBERY UNDER ARMS in '57. Other films included Huston's MOULIN ROUGE, A TOWN LIKE ALICE and KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE. She gave up show business on her marriage into the aristocracy in 1961.

Jonathan Cecil (1939-2011) could trace his ancestry back to Tudor times. Although rarely the star, he had more than four decades of constant employment in theatre, film and television. He excelled in Chekhov and Shakespeare, and four times played Sir Andrew Aguecheek in TWELFTH NIGHT. Other theatre successes include Peter Ustinov's HALFWAY UP THE TREE, Peter Barnes's THE RULING CLASS (in 1969), a new adaptation of Frank Wedekind's LULU (1971) and a revue, COWARDY CUSTARD (1972).

On film, Jonathan had a long and distinguished career that included appearances in Kubrick's BARRY LYNDON (1975), Mel Brooks's HISTORY OF THE WORLD PART ONE (1981), Fellini's AND THE SHIP SAILS ON (1983) and LITTLE DORRIT (1988). He starred opposite Peter Ustinov's Hercule Poirot in three television films, as Hastings, the Belgian detective's baffled foil. Jonathan was in constant demand whenever a comic toff or a bumbling cleric was called for on TV. He appeared in several PG Wodehouse adaptations and became a master of the audio book, recording more than 40 of Wodehouse's novels and stories. A Man of The Theatre indeed.

A Taste Of Honey - Shelagh Delaney, R.I.P.

I had been meaning to write about A TASTE OF HONEY, but the death of its writer Shelagh Delaney (1938-2011) has prompted this review. Delaney and Tony Richardson below:



The late '50s and early '60s saw the arrival of kitchen sink drama in England — gritty Northern industrial landscapes shot in moody black and white, which tied with the Nouvelle Vague in France and Italy's new wave too, those successful films, from plays and books, like Jack Clayton's ROOM AT THE TOP, Reisz's SATURDAY NIGHT AND SUNDAY MORNING, Tony Richardson's LOOK BACK IN ANGER. A TASTE OF HONEY too was a sensational play, both in London and Broadway (where Angela Lansbury played the feckless mother). The original play was written by 18-year-old Shelagh Delaney in 1958, as a riposte to the theate of the time, those plays by Terence Rattigan as she had seen some and thought she could do better, so A TASTE OF HONEY was like a breath of fresh air, and remains a much loved film.
The 1961 film was X-rated. Set in Salford, the tale of Jo(sephine), a lonely, neglected teenager, tackled teenage pregnancy, mixed-race relationships and feckless parenting (by Dora Bryan and her dodgy boyfriend Robert Stephens). The most sympathetic character is Jo’s gay friend, Geoff, at a time when homosexuality was criminal. Murray Melvin had worked his way up from tea boy at Joan Littlewood’s famous Theatre Workshop Company at London’s Stratford East Theatre to play the role of Geoff on stage, reprising it in the film. Similarly, Tushingham had joined the Liverpool Rep as a backstage odd job girl after writing many pestering letters.



Tushingham also starred in some cult favourites of mine like the Swinging London parody, SMASHING TIME, with her pal Lynn Redgrave (from THE GIRL WITH GREEN EYES), Richard Lester's THE KNACK and others and is still working as is Murray Melvin, who probably played the first smpathetic gay character most of us saw at the cinema. It is always a pleasure to see him in films like THE BOYFRIEND or BARRY LYNDON, below: he and Rita recently.

Tushingham (who has a great website covering her extensive career) says of the early ‘60s: ‘It was a welcoming time. There was an energy. We need to do more to encourage young people to discover what’s inside them. The consumerism is not the point… 50 years on we still have the same emotions as we did then, but we are being sold more.’



Dirk Bogarde's VICTIM was also a key movie that year of course, I particularly like A TASTE OF HONEY with its lyrical moments among the working class background of Salford - a vanished landscape now. Dora Bryan is marvellous as the mother with her constant moolight flits (leaving lodgings without paying rent) and who returns to look after Jo in her pregnancy because she has nowhere else to go, thus forcing out Geoff, the sad little gay boy who does not fit in. It is extremely touching. Richardson directs with a sure hand with that marvellous black and white photography by Walter Lassally, it is a perfect Woodfall film. John Schlesinger then provided two more Northern classics in A KIND OF LOVING in 1962 and BILLY LIAR in 1963 which really ushers in the new Swinging London era with Julie Christie heading off to London leaving dreamer Billy behind at the railway station .... I really want to re-see those again now too. Two Edna O'Brien adaptations by Desmond Davis continued the trend: Woodfall's THE GIRL WITH GREEN EYES, Tushingham with Peter Finch, in 1964 and I WAS HAPPY HERE with Sarah Miles in 1966, by which time Swinging London was all the rage.

Shelagh Delaney continued to write but never equalled her early success. She also scripted THE WHITE BUS for Lindsay Anderson, CHARLIE BUBBLES for Albert Finney among others.