Picturegoer – Apr 18th 1959
Bogarde starts to act his age
by Derek Hill
“I’VE not been kept alive by teenagers,” Dirk Bogarde assured me. “I’ve always appealed to the family audience.” That’s one reason why he has no qualms about acting his age in Libel, M-G-M’s production of Edward Wooll’s international stage hit. He plays a man passing forty.
“Pneumonia has left me with permanent bags under my eyes,” confessed Bogarde. “And at thirty-nine, there are some facial lines you can’t keep back. I can’t go on playing a boy of twenty-six for ever …
“I’m trying to get more adult parts. In The Doctor’s Dilemma, I play a boy. But a boy mature in outlook. It’ll help to bridge the gap. Now I’ll be my own age.”
If the golden boy of British films grows up, will he forfeit his younger fans? Not according to Bogarde.
“It’s the pop singers and gimmick boys who rely on their youth,” he said. “In fact, look at the success of Indiscreet with its middle-aged cast. Look at Cary Grant.”
Even if Bogarde thought that his film life might end at forty, he would still insist on growing up on the screen. “If I were ever offered a controversial part which I really wanted and knew it would cost me a lot of fans, I would still do it,” he said.
Acted Against Advice
“In fact, several times I’ve taken roles I was advised against – the small part of the whining coward in The Sea Shall Not Have Them, the vaguely homosexual character in Cast A Dark Shadow.
“I was even warned off ‘The Doctor’s Dilemma’ because the Rank people thought it couldn’t be a box office success. Yet it’s beating ‘The Inn Of The Sixth Happiness’ in the States.”
Bogarde’s next film, The Franz Liszt Story, is being shot in Hollywood for Columbia. Does this mean that relations between the star and his Rank Organization bosses are strained?
“Not a bit of it,” he insisted. “I’ve had twelve years with Rank. Since Doctor In The House, I’ve been among the top five box office stars. I’m the only Rank contract artist with the right to veto scripts and I’ve never been suspended for turning down a story.
“They’re a fine company to work for – more like having a father than an employer. I’ve absolutely nothing to complain of.”
After he returns from Hollywood, Bogarde is set to star in The Passionate City, a romance about a teacher of English in Rome before and during the war. The future is still crowded with commitments for the man who once said that the lifetime of a British star was seven years.
The Right Chemistry
“It’s a matter of finding films with the right chemistry,” he explained. “Look at The Wind Cannot Read. That had marvellous chemistry. It had a Japanese girl, a prisoner-of-war the Taj Mahal, too!”
Bogarde has only twice been acidly treated by columnists who’ve met him. And one of those was drunk and was banned from Rank sets for a year. “I fight back, you know,” he said.
He admits he’s kept back the best stories of his private life, particularly of his childhood and his wartime experiences. “I’m writing a book about my early life. Dear knows when it’ll be finished, though. I might use a ghost writer, but I’d prefer to try and do it in my own style.”
Bogarde’s getting older and now he admits: “I once said I wanted to be the best-loved star. Today I’d change that to the best-liked star. It sounds friendlier.”
Can the family friend replace the teenage idol? Or is Bogarde right in thinking he’s always been a family attraction? Libel should give picturegoers the answer.
