Quotes

Most directors who have been around for a while, acquire a gaunt, soul-scarred look associated with fighter pilots who have survived a war.

The films that I am most proud of - the film, for instance, that I made under great difficulty, Sons and Lovers (1960), I wanted to make it into a good film because the book is marvellous, and I didn't want to let the author down.

[on photographing Humphrey Bogart during the making of The African Queen (1951) on location in the Congo] Bogie didn't care much about the way he looked in front of a camera, but you had to watch his toupee. It had to be fitted properly, and the lights had to be placed so that they didn't show up the gauze upon which the fake hair was stuck.

[on the premiere of 'Scent of Mystery' in 1960, the only feature produced in "Smell-o-Vision"] Most of the audience were trade people. On the back of each seat a tiny pipe was fitted with a spray to project smells to the viewer seated behind. The pipes ran under the floor where an enormous dispensing machine had been installed, acting as a 'small brain', having stored every aroma to be projected during the film. In addition to the eight tracks on our 70mm film, there was an extra track carrying the smell signal. As the film traveled through the projector an electric signal triggered a mechanism which projected a small quantity of aroma-laden air on-cue to every seat in the audience. Well, the magnificent machinery worked wonderfully. The only trouble was, the smells that were projected towards the eager nostrils were exactly like cheap eau-de-cologne. The film was released in New York where the critics all had wrinkled noses and acerbic tongues.