Picturegoer – Sept 28th 1957
What a great lover he could be!
Dirk Bogarde is too handsome and sensitive to be tied down to war stories and comedies. Why doesn’t Pinewood give him what his dark good looks deserve – a really first-rate romantic rôle? – J. Green (Miss), Birmingham
There’s romance blowing up for him. After A Tale of Two Cities, he’s scheduled for The Wind Cannot Read, story of the love of a British office for a Japanese girl in wartime India.
Four Steps Down
by Dirk Bogarde
NO, the headline isn’t the title of some new Pinewood thriller. Although, on second thoughts, it’s not a bad guess. The story of those “four steps down” is a long-running suspense drama.
The setting: the Pinewood Studio restaurant. The star cast alone would turn Mike Todd green with envy – Marilyn Monroe, Gregory Peck, Alan Ladd, Jean Simmons, Marlene Dietrich. . .
There’s one complete programme almost every day from 12.30 p.m. to 2 p.m. Every performance is different from the last. The restaurant is a large, lofty, panelled room, which looks as vast as the Albert Hall when you first enter it.
To enter you open a door and find yourself on what seems like a small stage, just four steps above the restaurant. You look out over the acres of faces – directors, producers, stars, writers, top executives of the Rank Organization, eating their way through the menu: and the acres of faces look back at you.
It is, in fact, a physical impossibility to sneak into the Pinewood restaurant.
Norman Wisdom usually takes those four steps in his stride and ends up flat on his face.
When Bob Hope was here for The Iron Petticoat he’d keep up a running stream of wisecracks in the restaurant. Like many comedians when he’s in public, I think he feels he must give a public performance. Which, as you can imagine, is vastly entertaining for everyone.
We’ve had our quota of romances. too. There was the time when Jean Simmons and Jimmy Granger were the chief topic of conversation. Jean was Pinewood’s big hope and everyone took an interest in whether or not she’d be become Mrs. Granger.
Recently, Jill Ireland and David McCallum fell in love between the soup and dessert and got married while they were making “Robbery Under Arms.”
One of my happiest moments was to see Jean Kent returning to Pinewood for The Prince And The Showgirl after several years away from the studio where she’d once reigned.
Then there are the new young actors, like Paul Guers, getting their first glimpse of Pinewood. Nervous, unsure of themselves; I know just how they feel. Paul came over from France to test for the part of Charles Damay in A Tale Of Two Cities.
His wife sat with him in the restaurant afterwards. “This is the last time you’ll see us here,” she said. How wrong she was! Paul got the part and eats here pretty nearly every day.
Which star has made the biggest impact on the lunchers in the restaurant? Without a doubt, Marilyn Monroe. I WAS there at the time.
Usually, during the filming of The Prince And The Showgirl, she ate in her dressing-room. But this day she very shyly came into the restaurant with her make-up man. A hush fell over the room: all but one pair of eyes were riveted on her.
She walked over to the long bar, where quick grills are served. It runs down the length of the restaurant. She sat down next to the young man who hadn’t noticed her entrance.
As she politely gave her order, he brusquely turned on her and said: “Hey, you. Wait your turn.” Then he took one long look and earnestly prayed for the floor to open and swallow him up.
How do I know all this? The young man was my stand-in, John Adderley.
