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Charles Laughton Documentary
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00:16He was at once wonderful and at once impossible and destructive, would embrace you almost
00:27out of your life. It was all enormous.
00:35Am I the king or a breeding bull?
00:39There has never, never, never been anybody that came even close, albeit very fine actors.
00:46But there's just that mysterious extra in him that made him so superb, comedian, classic,
00:57I don't know, there was a fascination, a kind of a magnetism, something totally riveting,
01:05a Rasputin, if you want.
01:07I admired him, you know, and looked up to him, and of course he was such a nice character.
01:14He wasn't, well, he was kind, always kind, always kind, and gentle.
01:22A delight to work with him.
01:25Someone said they would work for Griffith for sandwiches, and you felt that about Mr. Lawton.
01:32There are those whose opinions must be respected who regard Charles Lawton as possibly the finest
01:37film actor there's ever been. There were times when Lawton himself would have agreed with
01:40them, and other times when he would have felt that they were only saying that as a kind of
01:44cruel joke directed against himself. He was a remarkably complex man who suffered, according
01:49to his mood, either from insecurity and a total lack of self-confidence, or by contrast,
01:54from overweening arrogance. He was a man who could tell Bertolt Brecht that I act because
01:59I can show people how they tick, but who throughout his life was appalled by what he regarded as
02:05his own grotesque ugliness. He was a perfectionist who was never fully satisfied with his portrayal
02:10of any role, but who at the same time could appear in quite worthless films simply for the
02:14money. He was a man who could weep over the beauty of a flower, but who could also treat
02:19other human beings with relentless cruelty. He was married for more than 30 years to one
02:25woman, Elsa Lanchester, but throughout that time he was a practicing, one might almost
02:29say accomplished homosexual, indulging in a series of sordid and often extremely belittling
02:34affairs.
02:35He went to a famous analyst called Ernest Jones, very, very famous, but after three times
02:45the nurse called up and said, well, where's Charles Thornton? He's not here. So he withdrew
02:50from that, and when I asked him about it, he said, because this was only to purge himself
02:56of any guilt he might have. Ernest Jones told him he knew more about himself than Ernest Jones
03:03could ever tell him. This was a kind of vanity, a kind of actors. I know character. I know
03:10people, you know, and no one can tell me by plunging into my past what I am.
03:18Charles Lawton was born here at the Victoria Hotel, just opposite the railway station at
03:23Scarborough on July 1st, 1899. His parents, Robert and Eliza Lawton, had bought the hotel
03:28two years before Charles, their eldest son, was born, and cashing in on the growing popularity
03:33of Scarborough as a resort and a health spa had turned the place into a thriving little
03:36business. Well, later on the Lawtons had two more sons, Tom and Frank, and the boys were
03:41brought up like their mother as Roman Catholics, though Charles was later to renounce the faith
03:45before finally returning to it at the very end of his life. The dominant figure in the
03:50household was the mother, Eliza, a small, highly ambitious woman who ruled both the hotel and
03:55her family like a matriarch. He's very fond of his mother. She's a strong woman, and his father
04:02died when he was, I think, in his teens sometime, because he never talked about him, except with
04:07great affection, but he was the softer side of the family and liked wildflowers and things
04:12like that. He had a sort of handicap. He was a fat child, and he was a fat boy. He
04:18was a
04:18fat boy at school, but he was a marvellous elder brother, a sort of leader, you know. He didn't
04:25lead in the usual directions. I mean, he was keen on books and art and absolutely mad about
04:34the theatre from being very young.
04:39Lawton was educated at Stonyhurst College, a stern Jesuit establishment where he was unhappy, as homely fat boys usually are
04:45at public schools.
04:46He was clever enough and won prizes, but he was hopeless at games. In 1918, enlisting as a private in
04:52the Royal Huntingdonshire Regiment, he served in France and was gassed.
04:55His experiences at school and in the army gave him a lifelong distaste for authority. Demobbed after the armistice, he
05:02returned to Scarborough and the family hotel.
05:04He didn't like the hotel business. You see, he was trained at carriages, and he escaped from there as much
05:14as he could. He spent all his time and as much time as he could in the cheap seats in
05:19the theatres, you know.
05:20When he came back home, he talked about nothing else. We didn't talk about the hotel, he just talked about
05:24the theatre. And then when he came back home, he looked upon the hotel as a production, which of course,
05:33so it should be.
05:35He had a great effect on it, the decor, and he introduced music. But he didn't like the chores. And
05:45the guests, he found them fascinating as a study, but I don't think he was very good at looking after
05:53them.
05:53In 1923, Lawton went to London to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where he won the gold
05:59medal as best actor of his year.
06:00Success on the professional stage followed swiftly, and in 1927, he was given the star role in Arnold Bennett's Mr.
06:07Prohack.
06:08The part of Prohack's secretary was played by Elsa Lanchester, and she and Lawton soon discovered a mutual attraction and
06:14mutual interests, a love of nature, of art, of the countryside. By the time the play closed, they were living
06:19together.
06:20People were sort of saying, that's Charles Lawton's girl. Did you know that's his girl? And whether they said, I
06:27was living with him, I don't know.
06:29But what was his mother, the very, very conservative, trade mother? You see, he came from what's called a trade
06:37background.
06:38And the pressures from such a background to Charles himself, but not to me, because I had a very socialist,
06:49totally socialist background.
06:52And I think he really felt the pressures, he really wanted to get married, because I think of what other
06:59people think.
07:00They were married on February the 9th, 1929, in the London Registry Office, and for two years their life together
07:06was happy and normal enough.
07:07But then when Lawton was rehearsing the role of the murderer in Payment Deferred, with Elsa again in the cast,
07:12there came the first revelation of his homosexuality.
07:15A boy, a male prostitute, turned up at the Lawton's flat demanding money.
07:19The police were called, and both Lawton and the boy were taken for questioning.
07:22This was, of course, a horrifying shock when he, after this, not exactly an arrest, but certainly an accusation, which
07:31would probably be followed by an arrest, and certainly by hearing of the boy's case and his case.
07:37He went up to the room, and he told Elsa this, and, of course, as he did so, he burst
07:45into tears.
07:46He told her the truth of what had happened, and, in fact, went all the way and told her that
07:51it had taken place on the sofa they had brought together to establish part of their furniture for their very
07:56humble, simple married life.
07:59And she, as a result, was stricken with psychosomatic deafness.
08:05And, of course, he broke down, but I said, don't think any more about it.
08:09It's all right.
08:09It's perfectly all right.
08:10But, of course, a thing like that, since I didn't know, since he didn't tell me, the feeling that you've
08:16been deceived, I think, starts to eat in, it boomeranged years later.
08:24I gradually felt, I think that every woman probably feels that the father of children should be the right father
08:33for children.
08:34I didn't, I was never conscious of it, but I gradually know I didn't want to have children.
08:39The case, indeed, came to court, but there it was dropped, Lawton, to his vast relief, merely being warned by
08:45an extremely naive magistrate about his misguided generosity to the boy.
08:49Payment deferred duly opened to great acclaim in London and later in New York, and its success on Broadway led
08:55to Lawton being signed by Paramount Pictures.
08:57His early Hollywood career in films like The Devil and the Deep with Gary Cooper, The Sign of the Cross
09:02for Cecil B. DeMille, and Island of Lost Souls, in which he played Dr. Moreau, was not particularly distinguished.
09:08But in 1933, Alexander Corder brought him back to England to play the title role in The Private Life of
09:13Henry VIII.
09:14Elsa was also in the cast, playing Anne of Cleves.
09:27Charles, when he took on a thing, he didn't know what Henry VIII really was, and so he created this
09:35larger-than-life character.
09:38But the research started, it started simple, it started realistic.
09:42Didn't they give you enough to eat, madam?
09:44Don't shout at me just because I'm your wife.
09:48My wife.
09:49He was very meticulous about things being right-weight, like the hat.
09:53They brought him one from the costume designers, which was heavy as lead.
09:59The pearls were as big as my thumb.
10:01Great, huge pearls and a feather going...
10:04And he said, no, it's too heavy. He can't put it on or wear it.
10:11It was lumpy, and Henry VIII would have had real pearls on his hat.
10:15So he went to Miss Worth of Bond Street, and had one made.
10:19And it was light, and the feather was graceful, and it had, what, the nearest thing to real pearls on
10:24it.
10:25And it was... but it was made by Miss Worth.
10:30Refinement's a thing of the past.
10:40Millers are dead!
10:48In retrospect, it seems incredible that Corder had the utmost difficulty in persuading anyone to distribute Henry VIII.
10:54The film sat on the shelf for months before United Artists finally agreed to take it.
10:58But when at last it did open, it was an immediate success.
11:01Yes, Lawton's huge bravura performance established him not only as an international star, but as a film actor of exceptional
11:08ability.
11:08All the acclaim that was lavished upon him, together with the Oscar that was thrust into his pudgy hands in
11:141933, would have been enough to satisfy most actors.
11:17But Lawton, being Lawton, viewed all this success with deep suspicion.
11:21In his own opinion, he'd missed some vital element in Henry's personality.
11:26So that, no matter what anybody else said, the portrayal was a failure.
11:30He was always a difficult man to please, Lawton.
11:32He had contempt for the critics who praised him, and an even greater contempt for himself.
11:36And what made things even worse was the fact that this new international fame made him a widely recognised and
11:42widely imitated character.
11:44Every comedian and every saloon bar wit could do Charles Lawton.
11:47Well, again, most people would have looked upon this as some kind of a compliment.
11:51But to a man who, from childhood on, had been appalled by his own appearance, who regarded himself as virtually
11:57the inventor of physical ugliness, as a cruel joke of nature, gross caricature of a human being, that sort of
12:04recognition was intensely painful.
12:06He was really better-looking than a lot of good-looking people that are so good-looking he could throw
12:12up.
12:13Do you know what I mean? I never liked good-looking people, physically or mentally.
12:18Did Charles feel like that about his own looks?
12:21Well, I tried to make him feel that he was attractive and good-looking, and overcame anything that other people
12:29might say.
12:29He was terrified of people with looks.
12:32And, of course, it became really painful in Mutiny on the Bounty, because not only was Clark Gable good-looking
12:39and Charles wasn't, but Clark Gable was 100% a man, a masculine man, and Charles wasn't.
12:46And this made Charles suffer horribly.
12:48And he was constantly watching his walk, his hands, his gestures, his face, to see if he gave himself away.
12:56His being as unattractive as he was gave him enormous complexes, because he would do peculiar things out of that.
13:06And there would be times that he wouldn't want to be seen, and things of that kind, you know.
13:14And yet, I've seen him, and he was absolutely radiantly beautiful.
13:18And I told him that one time. We were in Omaha, I believe, and he'd done a show.
13:24And he was absolutely, he'd been hateful before, absolutely hateful.
13:28And he'd gone on stage, and really was, I'd never seen anything as beautiful as Lawton was in that performance.
13:38He just transcended everything.
13:40He wasn't really at all a vain man in the larger way.
13:48I mean, he might have had his little vanities, but he was very, very insecure.
13:53And rightly, I mean, as an artist, one should be, one should keep testing the thing again and again, hammering
14:00it to see if it rings true or not.
14:02I think Charles' Henry VIII, and Charles' Captain Bly, and all his other great parts, Rembrandt, for instance,
14:09were ways that he could be somebody tremendously important and significant and major in the history of the world.
14:17Because he didn't feel what he was, but by coming these people, he could become somebody greater than himself and
14:23lose himself.
14:24But I don't think it led him to any deeper understanding of himself.
14:28In fact, I think, in a way, it increased his sense of inferiority.
14:32Because after he'd cast off the robes of Henry VIII, after he'd removed the great hat of Rembrandt and the
14:38easel and the paintbrush,
14:40he had to go home and be an ugly, unappetizing, unhappy man, pursuing men for money.
14:49Perhaps, who knows, because of his own feeling of personal ugliness, Lawton had a passion for beauty and other things.
14:54He had a fine collection of early Colombian art, and of paintings, in particular Renoir's The Judgment of Paris.
15:00And he had a love of flowers that he felt compelled to share with others.
15:03He would call me at 11.30 at night, he says,
15:05You must get in the car and come here right away at the house on Corson.
15:09He says, I have a plant which will open at midnight.
15:14And it only opens once a year, and you must see it.
15:18And there was just no way of saying, who the hell cares?
15:20You know, I've seen plants open and closed and no big deal.
15:24Oh, I had to be there.
15:25And he was sitting there, just absolutely drawn to that.
15:28So, we're not dealing with just a man, you know, who only surrounded himself with actors and always acting when
15:37he gave lessons as a teacher.
15:39No, he was a universally interested and fascinating man.
15:43Charles called me and said, I've seen a painting that I can barely live without.
15:47I don't know that I can...
15:49It's a great picture, and I just...
15:51It's the most important thing that's ever happened in my life.
15:54He said, do you mind if I spend our savings on it?
15:57I said, no, you earned it, you buy it.
15:59I have no feelings of that sort.
16:03Anyway, so we acquired the Renoir, and if he was going to act a part in a film, he would
16:10somehow or other get hold of that painting, and it really helped him.
16:14It's as if it came out and talked to him.
16:16You mustn't have frightened that I live with you.
16:20I'm not looking at you as a man looks.
16:28A painter.
16:31Painters have a different way of looking at things, you.
16:34You must imagine that I'm looking at you in the same way as the water with which you wash yourself,
16:39or the air you move in, or the light that shines on you.
16:44That's easier, you know, all the time, even when you're quite alone.
16:50You mustn't even know I'm looking at you.
16:53When you know a person very well, if you have to touch their hand, or take their arm, or talk
17:00to them, you know that, like a lot of actors, not always very good ones, they stare at the person
17:06that they're...
17:07You'll find a lot of actors, they look, and of course none of us.
17:10I'm looking at you now, but people don't, when they're talking, they look around.
17:15They don't, you know, do this.
17:17So Charles and I naturally didn't ever stare at each other.
17:20That made one natural thing.
17:22Touching each other, we didn't have to look down to see where his hand was, because we knew.
17:26You sort of, you have extra side vision, or top and bottom vision.
17:30And therefore there's a kind of a ease and naturalness, I found.
17:34We certainly never, never argued over how to do a part.
17:40He always started off a film in desperate unhappiness, because he didn't feel, especially the first, second take, you know,
17:50that he was anything near what he was aiming to be.
17:53In fact, he just said, I cannot go on with this film unless you shoot the first three days again.
17:59And to get him to go on with it, they had to say, yes, Charlie, yes, yes, yes, Charles, we'll
18:04shoot it again.
18:05But then the film went on, we'd see the rushes, and the film would be cut.
18:09He could never find those first three days.
18:12The director would say, shh, don't tell him.
18:16He says, now this scene, he would discuss it with me the day before.
18:20I could do it this way.
18:23I said, that's good.
18:25I could also do it this way.
18:27He says, that's better.
18:27And then came 20 versions.
18:30And I says, that's it.
18:31That's it.
18:32And next morning he would arrive.
18:33I thought of something.
18:35There's one other way, and that would be absolutely stupendous, you know.
18:38Thinks that, you know, there is no such thing that people say, you know, that a director can, you know,
18:45it has to be there to begin with.
18:48Everybody who's a perfectionist is thought to be difficult to work with, especially when they have to work with other
18:53people.
18:54He was a perfectionist, and I think he was difficult to work with, and especially if he had insensitive people
19:03around him that didn't understand him.
19:08The abortive attempt by Corder to film Robert Graves' novel I, Claudius, in 1936 was a horrendous experience for Lawton.
19:15For a long time he couldn't find a key to the character, he was confused by the constant changes in
19:20the script, and the intolerance of the director, Joseph von Sternberg, drove him quite literally to tears.
19:25When at last he did begin to feel his way into the part, inspired curiously enough by Edward VIII's abdication
19:30speech, the filming was abruptly cancelled, because his co-star Merle Oberon had been injured in a car crash.
19:36Lawton greeted this cancellation with some relief, although never again till the day of his death did he speak to
19:41von Sternberg.
19:42If Charles had followed the director exactly, he might have made the film, but what happens to the realism of
19:49Charles, the fantasy, the flamboyance, the painting, the larger-than-life thing?
20:03How wonderful to see you again, dear Uncle Claudius. I thought you were on your farm.
20:07I was all...
20:08You were all ordered to attend. I hear that you're teaching your pigs to read, is that true?
20:15My pigs, why?
20:16So as to have readers for all the Roman histories you write.
20:26As an aftermath of this fiasco, he decided to set up his own company, Mayflower Productions, so that he could
20:32control his work.
20:33In partnership with Eric Pommer, a refugee from Germany, and John Maxwell, the head of Associated British Pictures,
20:38he made three films, The Vessel of Roth, St Martin's Lane, and Jamaica Inn.
20:43But none of these films was at all successful, and Jamaica Inn was something of a disaster,
20:47quite the least satisfying film Hitchcock had ever directed.
20:50In addition to all that, Lawton continued his now well-established habit of arguing, disagreeing violently with his producers and
20:58directors.
20:58So one way and another, Mayflower Productions was something of a hefty failure.
21:02Charles was an actor. He turned out to be quite a good director, the one film he did direct.
21:08But on the other hand, he was essentially an actor. He wasn't fit to have financial responsibility, and he couldn't
21:16stand it.
21:17It took him all his time to worry about his performances, and that's as much as he could do.
21:25It could be difficult, there's no question, and I've seen him be less than gracious to other people sometimes, but...
21:35How did that manifest itself, that ungraciousness?
21:39Well, he was brusque, you know. Rather swept people's opinions away.
21:51It was a question of not suffering fools gladly.
21:54Yes, except that they weren't always fools, you know.
21:57He was cruel. And I don't think we have a right to be cruel to anybody.
22:03And he was cruel, not only to me, but to other people.
22:06There was a cruelty there that was frightening.
22:09Whatever the situation, he'd pit somebody against somebody to make turmoil.
22:13He just couldn't help it. He had to do this.
22:15But out of this garbage heap that he'd create, he would grow a rose.
22:21And a rose of an extraordinary blossom would come.
22:25The Hunchback of Notre Dame was Lawton's last great film performance of the 1930s, and indeed for many years.
22:31While he was making the picture, while he was in fact filming the famous Bell sequence,
22:35war broke out in Europe, and he thought of returning to England to enlist.
22:38But though he was criticised by the British press for not doing so, his age, he was by now 40,
22:44and obvious physical unfitness made the idea preposterous.
22:49He stayed in America, and like many other stars, did his bit by selling war bonds.
22:53He also made one of his few good films of the 40s, This Land Is Mine.
22:58The 40s were a bad period for Lawton.
23:00His film career at best marked time, and the satisfaction he gained from teaching a small group of young actors,
23:05among them Shelley Winters and Robert Mitcham, in the schoolroom of his home, was not total compensation.
23:11Then, too, there was the continuing strain of concealing his homosexuality.
23:14His younger brother Frank was also homosexual, but though the Lawton family knew about and supported Frank,
23:20none of them knew about Charles.
23:21I was never aware of it in any shape or form until Elsa told me.
23:28And I just was astounded.
23:33But I have no idea whether he was or he wasn't.
23:36If he was, what of it? He was a marvellous man.
23:39I was brought up to be so tolerant that, one, on principle, I wouldn't be shocked.
23:48Two, that was a built-in element of mine.
23:52It was years later.
23:54Not that I became more conventional, but after all, it did go on recurring in various forms.
24:04And it sort of separated us a little bit, but we never talked about it.
24:09We didn't sit and talk about it. I wish we had.
24:12Charles was aggressive as a homosexual. He wasn't a little worm in the wood, you know.
24:19And so there were always people popping up that he had brought along,
24:24that you suddenly discovered were on the bus following you, you know, and things of that kind.
24:29So it wasn't easy. And he made it more difficult for himself, too,
24:35because he wasn't satisfied just to have one.
24:37You know, he had to have a menage.
24:40For a long time, he lived as a heterosexual.
24:43That must affect someone, I think, you know, if you were denying your own instincts.
24:48And I wondered what it would have...
24:49Well, you know, it's the same thing. You're a Jew or something,
24:52and you put up with just so much, you know, and you think, yes, I suppose I'm a lower breed
24:59or something.
25:00And then suddenly you think, God damn it, I'm not a lower breed.
25:03I'm just as good, if not better, etc.
25:05You go over to the other extreme, you become aggressive.
25:08This is a perfectly simple pattern.
25:10And is it a pattern that he followed?
25:12We all follow it.
25:13Well, what sort of people were there that he had these relationships with?
25:16Clearly, they weren't his intellectual equals in any way.
25:19Of course not. They were the dregs.
25:22He had kind of a Higgins complex about being able to make them all into something.
25:27You know, he'd come to me and say,
25:28I've got this young man that's absolutely...
25:31He has star quality.
25:33And I'd say, well, bring him in, Charlie.
25:35And it would be some wretch that he'd met somewhere along the line.
25:41And he would have no star quality at all except a star to Charles.
25:47I was very glad that in later life he got fond of people,
25:52which is a very different story.
25:54You know, it's...
25:56That was safer and nicer.
25:59And I was quite a good friend of several of his.
26:03There weren't so many, but when you got fond of someone, it lasted, you see.
26:08It was quite pleasant, really.
26:12She coped with it, I think, because she and Charles had an enormous amount in common.
26:18In other words, they sort of said, as, you know, is said in the cocktail party of T.S. Eliot,
26:24let's take second best rather than nothing at all.
26:27In other words, if she had said,
26:29no, I can't tolerate living with a man who's having affairs with men,
26:32she would have lost Charles and he would have lost her.
26:34But they meant an enormous amount to each other because, for one thing,
26:38they enjoyed the same things together.
26:40We were very close.
26:41And to the outer world, we were very, very close.
26:45We wanted people to think and see that we were happy.
26:50So we showed the happy side.
26:52But underneath, of course, there were never...
26:55We didn't shout or row.
26:57I think I once hit him with a hairbrush.
27:00Elsa gave Charles a fixture in his life that he needed.
27:04See, he needed that fixture, that anchor.
27:08And as much as he needed it and he spit and clawed and kicked at it,
27:12he still needed it, see.
27:15And with Elsa, I think that...
27:18Because Elsa lived her life as far as I know.
27:21She had her life and lived it fully.
27:25But for Charles, that was the one thing of respectability that he liked.
27:34You know, he liked that.
27:36He liked having a Mrs. Lawton.
27:39The marriage wasn't by any means a front then?
27:41No.
27:42Oh, no, no.
27:43I was.
27:44You could call it that if you want to.
27:47It was a front people.
27:50I thought everybody knew.
27:58I'm off.
28:14I thought...
28:16I thought somebody knew.
28:19I thought you were all and I thought...
28:21that's good.
28:24But if you want to go with your truth...
28:25You don't have to be here.
28:26You're gone.
28:27You're gone.
28:28Please.
28:30You won't have to be here.
28:31Oh, you're gone.
28:32You're gone.
28:32You're gone, man.
28:33You're gone.
28:34I knew you.
28:35I knew you.
28:52THE END
29:131950 was a considerable turning point in Lawton's life.
29:16In that year, he and Elsa became American citizens
29:18and they also moved into this house on Curzon Avenue,
29:21their last Hollywood home.
29:23Indeed, Elsa Lanchester lives here still.
29:25But in 1950, Lawton was already 51
29:28and his career was starting to fade.
29:30In fact, he'd reached a point where he was beginning to prostitute
29:32his own enormous talents.
29:34He'd signed a contract for a mere $25,000
29:36to appear in a film called Abbott and Costello,
29:39meet Captain Kidd,
29:40which, living up to the full, rich promise of its title,
29:43turned out, to nobody's great surprise,
29:45to be an absolute stinker.
29:46But at this crucial and abysmal stage,
29:49Lawton was rescued from further decline by Paul Gregory,
29:51who set him off on one of the most remarkable phases of his career,
29:55his immensely successful reading tours of America,
29:57followed by the equally triumphant touring production
30:00of Don Juan in Hell.
30:02I don't think Charlie enjoyed the reading tours.
30:04I think that, as such, he loved it.
30:09When I'd call him and say,
30:10Charlie, we've got $250,000 worth of dates booked.
30:14Oh, how wonderful, you know, so on.
30:16But then as the time neared,
30:18he would think of all kinds of reasons
30:20to maybe not have to go on this tour.
30:22Couldn't we postpone the first week?
30:24And I'd say, no, you can't postpone the first week.
30:26We've got to go.
30:28These dates have been sold a year in advance,
30:31and so on, you know.
30:33And it would be like pulling a tooth
30:36to finally arrive at the time
30:39when that car headed out across the country
30:42to meet those commitments.
30:44Being back in touch with audiences again
30:49did him an awful lot of good.
30:51And I think he got a lot of gratification from it.
30:54It was the direct contact with his audiences.
30:57Because, you know,
30:59they were very fond of him in America,
31:01over a very wide field.
31:04Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonished
31:07and rose up in haste and said unto his counsellors,
31:10Did not we cast three men bound
31:13into the midst of the fire?
31:15They answered and said unto the king,
31:16True, O king.
31:17He answered and said,
31:18Lo, I see four men,
31:22loose,
31:23walking in the midst of the fire
31:26and they have no hurt
31:28and the form of the fourth
31:31is like the son of God.
31:34Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the mouth
31:36of the burning, fiery furnace
31:38and spoke and said,
31:40Shadrach,
31:42Meshach,
31:43and Abednego,
31:45ye servants of the most high God,
31:48come forth.
31:50In one way he loved an audience
31:52and in another way he despised the audience.
31:54He despised the imposition on his time
32:00if he didn't want to be there.
32:02But he loved doing what he could do so well,
32:06which was the reading.
32:08It was also with Paul Gregory's help
32:10that Lawton made his one appearance
32:11as a film director.
32:12The film made in 1955
32:14was The Night of the Hunter,
32:15starring Lillian Gish, Robert Mitchum,
32:17and Shelley Winters.
32:18Although poorly received at the time
32:19and dismissed by many critics as
32:21too arty,
32:22it has since acquired a cult following
32:24and is regarded as a classic of its kind.
32:26I thought it was wonderful
32:27he was coming to direct
32:29and, of course,
32:30all of us wanted to help
32:31any way we could.
32:33And I remember coming to him
32:35with some idea of a scene
32:37and he said,
32:37Oh, I'm not doing it right.
32:40You don't think what I'm doing
32:42is the right thing?
32:44Well, I certainly did,
32:46but I just thought
32:47this would help it a little.
32:49And everyone else found
32:52that they had the same reaction from him.
32:54And we stopped giving ideas
32:56and just said everything was perfect
32:58because he was so unsure of himself.
33:01The United Artists weren't mad
33:03to have Lawton direct.
33:04They wanted someone else.
33:05They wanted a director
33:06that they knew to direct.
33:08I gave up all my sides
33:09so that Lawton could direct that picture
33:11because it had nothing to do with money.
33:13It had to do with
33:15getting him afloat
33:17as a director.
33:19And Lord knows
33:19he was a wonderful one.
33:21And it was a glorious experience.
33:24Like, for instance,
33:24Bob Mitchum has a difficult reputation
33:27and he couldn't wait
33:28to get to the set.
33:29I never had a feeling
33:30I was working.
33:32I didn't want it to be over.
33:33I would always want to do it again.
33:35And Lawton said,
33:36Well, we've got it, you know.
33:37But it was such joy
33:38in the creation of it.
33:40And he knew how to get
33:41the performance out of the actor
33:42rather than imposing
33:43the performance on him.
33:45He said,
33:48When I started going to films,
33:50the audience sat like this
33:53and leaning forward.
33:54He said,
33:55Now I go to see films
33:57and they're back here
33:58half asleep.
33:59He said,
34:00I want to sit them
34:00up in their chairs again.
34:03Lawton also wanted to direct
34:04Norman Mailer's
34:05The Naked and the Dead
34:06but his extravagance
34:07with the pre-production budget
34:08lost him the job
34:09and he never directed
34:10a film again.
34:11But in the late 50s
34:12his acting career thrived
34:13with Hobson's Choice
34:14and Witness for the Prosecution
34:16for which he and Elsa
34:17gained Oscar nominations.
34:18Billy Wilder,
34:19the director,
34:20remembers when he was filming
34:21the jury's reactions
34:22in Witness for the Prosecution
34:23and Lawton volunteered
34:25for the tedious chore
34:26of reading all the lines
34:27off camera.
34:28He grabbed my hand
34:29and he says,
34:30Let me do it.
34:32He says,
34:32Charles,
34:32this is wearisome.
34:33This is,
34:34you know,
34:34we're not photographing.
34:35He says,
34:36I must do it.
34:38And there he came
34:38in that Hawaiian shirt out,
34:40you know,
34:40and unshaven,
34:41you know,
34:41and the head tasseled
34:42and you could still see
34:44his breakfast,
34:45you know.
34:45and now he played
34:49all the parts
34:50and it was one
34:52of the most stunning
34:56display of a universal talent.
34:58He played Dietrich
34:59better than Dietrich
35:00ever was.
35:01He played type,
35:02power better.
35:03It was just fabulous,
35:05absolutely fabulous.
35:06I was in awe.
35:08Lawton's lifelong ambition
35:09as an actor
35:10was to play King Lear,
35:11a character with whom
35:12he felt a great affinity,
35:13a shared sense
35:14of having been persecuted
35:15by others of smaller stature
35:17than himself.
35:17This ambition,
35:18an obsession almost,
35:20was finally realized
35:20in 1959
35:21when he was invited
35:22to play the part
35:23on stage
35:24at Stratford-on-Avon.
35:25The audiences
35:26were enthusiastic
35:26but the generally
35:27unfavorable response
35:29of the critics
35:29caused him great distress.
35:31He'd spent the best part
35:32of a year
35:32preparing for the play
35:33and discussing it
35:34at his Hollywood home
35:35with Christopher Isherwood.
35:37I used to sit
35:38in that little room
35:39in back there,
35:40what they call
35:40the school room
35:41and when I see
35:44the scene
35:45sort of impressionistically,
35:47it was like sitting
35:49all alone
35:50in the front row
35:52of a gigantic movie theater
35:55where a vast face
35:59dozens of times
36:00larger than life
36:01is hanging right over you
36:03and saying things like,
36:05when we are born,
36:07we cry
36:09that we are come
36:10to this great stage
36:11of fools,
36:12this kind of thing.
36:13And I just wept,
36:15you know,
36:15and I was transfixed.
36:17I thought I knew Lear
36:18in a kind of way.
36:20But when Charles
36:21had given me
36:22a couple of these sessions,
36:23I couldn't think
36:23of anything but Lear
36:24and I always had a copy
36:25in the car
36:26and kept looking at it.
36:26that last season
36:29at Stratford,
36:30his illness
36:31had started.
36:32I think he was
36:34disappointing
36:36because Lear
36:37was one of his
36:38obsessions
36:39and I think it must have
36:40been a disappointment
36:41to him.
36:42But the really
36:44awful thing was,
36:45you know,
36:45at the end
36:46of the season,
36:49the season
36:50was closed down
36:51by a speech
36:52from the stage
36:53by Laurence Olivier
36:55who was speaking,
36:56I suppose,
36:56as one of the directors
36:57or something.
36:58And he referred
36:59to the two,
37:00our two foreign actors,
37:03Charles Lawton
37:04and Paul Robeson.
37:05I must say
37:07that,
37:07that hurt.
37:12Foreigner or not,
37:14Lawton,
37:14the American citizen,
37:15was still enough
37:16of an Englishman
37:16and more especially
37:17a North Countryman
37:18to have been
37:19ideal casting
37:20for the role
37:20of the father
37:21in Hobson's choice.
37:23Ooh,
37:24it's an action
37:25for trespass
37:25and damages,
37:26I see.
37:26It's a stab
37:27in the back.
37:28It's an unfair,
37:30un-English way
37:30of taking a mean
37:31advantage
37:32of a casual accident.
37:35Did you trespass?
37:37My dear,
37:37I had an accident.
37:39I don't deny it.
37:40I'd been at Moonraker's,
37:41I'd stayed too long,
37:43I fell in that cellar,
37:45I slept in that cellar
37:46and I awoke
37:46to this catastrophe.
37:48Lawyers,
37:49law costs,
37:50publicity,
37:51ruin and bankruptcy.
37:54I've hated lawyers
37:55all my life
37:56and they've got me
37:57in the end.
37:58I'm in the grip
38:00at last
38:00and squeeze me dry
38:02for it.
38:03My word,
38:04and that's
38:05somewhat like
38:05a squeeze and all.
38:07I can see it's serious.
38:09I shouldn't have
38:09wondered if you
38:10didn't lose some trade
38:11through this.
38:11Wonder?
38:12It's as certain
38:12as Christmas.
38:14My good-class customers
38:15are not going to
38:15buy their boots
38:16from a man
38:16who stood up
38:17in open court
38:18and had to acknowledge
38:19he was overcome
38:22in the public street.
38:23Do you think
38:24it'll get in
38:24baby, Maggie?
38:26Ah, you'll see your name
38:27in Salford Reporter,
38:28Father.
38:28Salford Reporter?
38:31When ruin and disaster
38:32overwhelm a man
38:33of my importance,
38:34it's reported
38:34in Manchester Guardian.
38:36In the last few years
38:38of his life,
38:39Lawton's health
38:39deteriorated steadily
38:40and during much
38:41of 1962,
38:42he was gravely ill.
38:43He faced illness
38:44bravely,
38:45but not death
38:45because death
38:46he wouldn't face
38:46at all.
38:47Billy Wilder
38:48wanted him
38:48to play moustache
38:49in the film
38:50of Irma La Douce,
38:51but knowing
38:51Lawton was dying
38:52was preparing
38:53to recast the role
38:54when one day
38:55he was summoned
38:55to Lawton's home.
38:56He had his
38:58male nurse dress him,
39:01comb his hair,
39:02shave him,
39:04maybe even
39:04put a little
39:05make-up on him.
39:07And he was sitting
39:08in a chair
39:10at the swimming pool
39:11of his little house
39:12in Hollywood.
39:13And he says,
39:14now look at me.
39:15Do I look like
39:16somebody that's
39:17going to die?
39:18And he cut himself
39:19out of the chair
39:20and he walked
39:20around the pool
39:21two times.
39:22It must have been
39:23in tremendous pain,
39:25but he just wanted
39:26to prove to me,
39:27wait,
39:28it was just
39:29one of the fine
39:30performances,
39:30I tell you.
39:32He would never admit
39:33that he had cancer
39:34to me.
39:35I think he did
39:36to one or two people.
39:37He didn't want
39:38to see any
39:39past man-friend
39:41at all.
39:42He wouldn't even
39:42open a letter,
39:44he offered to open
39:45his letters
39:45because he was there.
39:46But he wouldn't,
39:48he wouldn't.
39:49One nurse told me
39:50that he said,
39:51I wonder what it's
39:51like to die.
39:54Little clues
39:55like that.
39:56But he was not
39:57a person that
39:58the doctors
39:58would not have
39:59recommended
40:00that they tell him.
40:01Some patients
40:02they do
40:03and some
40:03they don't.
40:04But I suppose
40:06he knew.
40:07But talking about it
40:09seemed to bring it
40:09nearer.
40:11It was very painful.
40:14Very painful.
40:15I was with him
40:15quite a bit
40:16and we talked
40:17about it.
40:20He...
40:24he didn't want
40:25to, of course.
40:26I mean,
40:26he felt he had
40:27a lot more
40:29in him,
40:30a lot more work
40:31he wanted to do.
40:34And he felt
40:35that he was
40:36kind of struck down
40:37in his prime,
40:38I think.
40:42Afterwards,
40:44he seemed
40:45to get
40:45a certain
40:48reassurance
40:49and I think
40:50he saw
40:50a priest.
40:52I had found
40:53a dear old
40:54Italian priest,
40:55a simple priest
40:56who was in the church
40:57not very far
40:58from their home.
41:01And eventually,
41:02because he had
41:03terrible suffering
41:04and he was
41:06very distressed
41:07and my younger
41:08brother,
41:09my brother Frank,
41:10my younger brother
41:10had followed me
41:12and he asked him,
41:13would you like
41:13to see a priest?
41:14He said, yes,
41:14I would.
41:15And he saw
41:16the priest
41:17and the priest
41:17after that
41:18went to see
41:20him every day
41:21and he was
41:22received back
41:22from the church.
41:24Charles Lawton
41:25was an actor
41:25of phenomenal
41:26range,
41:26intelligence
41:27and sensitivity,
41:28an actor
41:28of genuine
41:29greatness
41:29to restore
41:30a little
41:30of its true
41:31meaning
41:31to that
41:31much abused
41:32word.
41:32If his
41:33performances
41:33always looked
41:34to be over
41:35the top,
41:35that was because
41:36of an unkind
41:36twist of fate.
41:38Lawton's very
41:38appearance was
41:39over the top.
41:40As Peter
41:40Ustinov once
41:41said,
41:41even when he
41:42was sitting
41:42still in total
41:43repose,
41:44he was already
41:45doing too much.
41:46But if you
41:47looked beneath
41:47the surface
41:48and beyond
41:48that great
41:49strange
41:49grimacing face,
41:51Lawton's acting
41:51was full of
41:52subtlety and
41:53slyness.
41:53His film career
41:54was a thing
41:55of ups and
41:55downs,
41:56mostly consisting
41:57of splendid
41:57performances and
41:58unworthy vehicles.
41:59But at its best,
42:01his work was
42:01superb by any
42:02standards,
42:03and much of that
42:04excellence can be
42:04seen in his last
42:05film, Advise and
42:06Consent, in which
42:07he played a corrupt
42:08southern senator whose
42:09bigotry and hatred
42:10of homosexuality represented
42:13just about everything
42:13that Lawton himself
42:14detested.
42:15By making the
42:16character a soft,
42:17persuasive monster,
42:18he cleverly exposed
42:19all that bigotry and
42:21all that intolerance.
42:22Charles Lawton died
42:24here in what he
42:25called the schoolroom
42:26of his home in
42:27Hollywood on December
42:28the 15th, 1962.
42:29He died of cancer.
42:31He was 63 years old
42:32and he was still
42:33trying to convince
42:33himself and everybody
42:35else that one day
42:36he'll be well enough
42:37to work again.
42:47Was he a lovable man?
42:51It was possible to love
42:53him.
42:55No, I think many,
42:56many people quite
42:57misunderstood him,
42:58you know, or, or,
42:59or didn't, didn't see
43:01that side of him.
43:04I rather loved him, yes.
43:08I wish he'd been
43:09a happier man.
43:10I know that I've
43:12become a more
43:14alive, complete
43:15person since he
43:17died, but if I
43:18died first, I would
43:20say that Charles
43:21would be a more
43:24than tortured man
43:25because we all think
43:27of what we might
43:27have done.
43:29and, uh, I know
43:30he would suffer
43:31deeply for what
43:32he might have
43:33done.
43:35Hal جا
43:36what
43:40he
43:40was
43:40and
43:43he
43:44had
43:44he
43:44got
44:00¶¶
44:15¶¶
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