Picturegoer – Mar 19 1955
I’m taken for a Real Doctor
Dirk Bogarde writes his own personal diary of what he calls an actor’s dream location – to the Mediterranean for “Doctor At Sea”
SATURDAY:
Arrive Paris 8.30a.m. Car (Cadillac!) to take
me to one of the top hotels.
Wash, shave, change, photographed for a magazine.
Press reception, then lunch
(caviare, vodka) at a
Russian restaurant with the
Akim Tamiroffs and Lewis
Milestones. Then the St. Maurice studios to meet
Brigitte Bardot (my leading
lady). Wait an hour for her – she’s
taking a bath. Worth
waiting for. She’s captivating.
Catch Orient Express
for Venice. Brigitte not coming
on location. Shame.
SUNDAY:
Arrive Venice midday – met
by a gondola this time. Warm
sun. Wonderful trip.
MONDAY:
Venice is empty of
tourists and full of pigeons.
Marvellous silk shirts in the
shops at £3 10s. Try my
hand at poling (or punting?)
a gondola. The gondolier is
justifiably alarmed. Canal
traffic in dire peril. Spend
my time eating and sightseeing – and avoiding those
pigeons.
TUESDAY:
Join Brenda
de Banzie.
James Robertson Justice,
Geoffrey Keen, Maurice Denham, Michael Medwin, Hubert Gregg and rest of unit aboard
the Greek liner “Achilles.”
Much needed early night.
WEDNESDAY:
Out in Mediterranean.
Blazing sunshine,
blue skies, but not much
time to enjoy it. First shot
in the can by 9 a.m. Some
non-working passengers
aboard, mostly Greeks. One
lady mistakes Maurice Denham who plays my medical
orderly, for a steward. So
Maurice hangs a label
around his neck. It reads:
“Acting – do not disturb.”
THURSDAY:
We sail through
Corinth Canal. Arrive Athens
at night. Gleaming cars,
glittering lights, busy city.
People stop me in the street,
which surprises me. Didn’t
know our films were well known here. See Royal Palace,
the Evzones (Palace guards),
imbibe some retsina, local wine
of great potency.
FRIDAY:
Set sail early
for Alexandria.
Work, work, work. Dead
calm and sunny. James Kenney, rehearsing seasickness
scene, overwhelmed
by sympathetic passengers
with sure-fire cures.
SATURDAY:
At Alex., Maurace
Denham joins a gang of
hawkers on the quayside and
shouts, “You buy, pliss, half
price, nice goods, rill leather.”
Nearly has the union on his
neck! Eighty degrees in the
shade, camels, palms, incredible sunset. Tremendous
gathering at home of millionaire pasha.
SUNDAY:
More filming at sea on
return trip to Athens. Wearing
stethoscope, am mistaken
for doctor by a
woman passenger with a
screaming child. I pat
child’s head and escape. At
hotel find I have the suite
normally used by King
Paul of the Hellenes.
MONDAY:
Brenda de Banzie and Jill Adams seem to be the only
blondes here. People just stand
and stare. We give a reception
to the British Ambassador
and his wife, Sir Charles and
Lady Peake, and members of
the Embassy staff.
TUESDAY:
Two hundred extras aboard
for ship’s dance sequence – including,
at producer Betty
Box’s invitation, the ambassador and his party. An onlooker
shows me a picture
of a Hollywood star and
asks if I am he. I tell
her: “No, that’s my father,
Humphrey.” She’s delighted.
WEDNESDAY:
Pouring rain, so
no shooting. I visit the
Acropolis. Beautiful. Jill
Adams was there the other
day, wearing flowing Grecian
robes for publicity shots. Two
American tourists asked if she
was going to a fancy dress ball.
She looked at them stratght in
the eye and said: “I happen
to be a Greek goddess.”
THURSDAY:
Back to the ship for work. Character actor
Abe Barker says he starred
opposite my mother on the
West End stage in 1913.
She was only sixteen then.
Abe didn’t know I was her
son (her professional name
was Madge Niven), so he
got a surprise, too. Stranger
still, Abe’s father used to
act with my grandfather,
Forrest Niven.
FRIDAY:
During a break,I try to buy
ONE orange from a Greek
barrow boy. He starts to pile
oranges into a sack. “Nay,” I
say. More oranges, “Nay,
nay,” I say. He starts on a
second sack. My fault. The
Greek for NO is “ochi.” The
Greek for YES is “nay.”
SATURDAY:
Most of the unit returns home. I stay for an
extra day with Betty,
Ralph and Carmen Dillon,
set designer. We drive to
the temples of Daphni and
then along the coast to
Corinth. Lunch of octopus,
lobster, red mullet, black
olives and goat’s milk.
SUNDAY:
Leave Athens by air in glorious
sunshine. Arrive London
in thin drizzle. HOME!
