It does seem pretty strange, a sex comedy starring someone who is 80-something. What’s the story behind that one?It was a nightmare. And it’s one of
It does seem pretty strange, a sex comedy starring someone who is 80-something. What’s the story behind that one?
It was a nightmare. And it’s one of a kind. There aren’t two or three movies like this. I’ll try to remember…. All right, so you know it was Mae West. I think she maintained that she was 80 or 81 years elderly or something. Lie—not true. She was way older. And my character was getting married to her.
She was such a legend in the 1930s, but then didn’t make films for decades. Why do you think she wanted to do this?
Because…I don’t know. If she’s starring in a movie and she has kidded everyone, saying she’s in her early 80s when in fact she’s [almost] in her 90s, it’s like a rebirth, a coming back. To be a star again.
What was she like to be around?
She was pleasant enough, absolutely. But she was elderly and found certain things challenging.
I read that she eventually had to have her lines fed to her through an earpiece.
We had the scene where we’re coming back for the honeymoon evening. So we come down the corridor of this posh hotel and I have to show her into the bedroom. We must have tried 20 or more times. She couldn’t remember the line. It was always: “Cut…” [Sigh.] “Cut…” [Sigh.] “Cut…” [Hangs head.] And she was getting quite pissed off. She couldn’t hit the line.
Sounds frustrating for everyone.
She got ailing and tired of all that. I say, “Darling, I feel like the first man who landed on the moon.” And she threw everything that had been written to the wind, and said, “Well, honey, in a minute you’re going to feel like the first man to land on Venus.” [Shrugs, shakes head.] That she made up, and we moved on.
Did you regret it from the start?
If you’re capable of laughing at it, it can’t be an entire regret. But yes, I’d prefer I hadn’t done it.
How did you get roped into it?
It was offered, and I hadn’t made a movie in America. I’d done TV. I was doing a Western called Centennial at the time because I wanted to play a part on horseback and have a gun, because I’d grown up watching Wagon Train. I wanted to do it at least once.
Now you’re doing 1923. But you ride in a Model T, not a horse.
I think I might like to do Have Gun—Will Travel. It’s just that I’ve been watching them. They remind me of being a child all over again.
That’s the connection many of us have to your movies, like The Rocketeer. Your Neville Sinclair was this dashing Hollywood movie star who turned out to be a secret Nazi agent.
There were rumors that Errol Flynn was a German spy, which I doubt was true, but that was something that was being said at the time. You can’t give any of that much credence. I just thought if you’re going to model yourself on anybody, Errol Flynn’s the one.
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