This blog first appeared as a review in The Andersonstown News
Hands up who remembers Alec Guinness? OK, as I expected – everyone. Devoid of the preening personality of his contemporaries such as Laurence Olivier, Richard Burton and, yes, Richard Harris, Alec Guinness was self-effacing and almost shy off-camera.
In TALKING PICTURES – Alec Guinness (BBC2), Guinness was shown talking at length to interviewers such as Barry Norman. Talking about why he acted (“Insecurity”), and how he learnt his trade. Remember that stilted walk of his, after he emerged from confinement in ‘The Oven’, in Bridge on the River Kwai? That was based on his ten-year-old son who was recovering from polio at the time. Guinness also confessed to a fondness for animals as a source of inspiration. He studied them in the zoo – the way they stood, the way they looked back at human gawkers, their sudden twitches. ‘I’m very devoted to animals. At present I’ve cut back – I’ve just got a dog and a cat and three goats”.
When he met James Dean in Hollywood, Dean took him outside to show off his new superfast car, which had just arrived, sheathed in cellophane and tied with a large pink bow. For reasons he doesn’t understand, Guinness begged Dean not to get into that car, because if he did, he’d be dead inside a week. Dean ignored his warning and sure enough, a week later he was dead. Guinness doesn’t know why he warned the young Dean, but he did, although his words were wasted.
The movie that really made Guinness financially was Star Wars. As part of his contract, he was offered two-and-a-half per cent of takings. Later, when he asked them if they wouldn’t mind maybe putting that in writing, the two-and-a-half per cent, the contract guy said “Oh yeah, sure, gotta get that two-and-a-quarter per cent in writing”, and so it was. Even with the nibble-back, Guinness was financially made for life.
As he talks, Guinness’s face is strikingly smooth, unfurrowed, his voice as smooth as expensive olive oil. His first film role, while still in his twenties, was Fagan in Great Expectations. The clip showed a virtually unrecognisable Guinness smothered in make-up with a huge artificial nose, his talent immediately clear. In an interview with Michael Parkinson he talks about his role in The Lavender Hill Mob, and how he went to the zoo and studied “small rodents” to help him integrate with his character.
Throughout all his decades in films, he always took time to do some theatre work, because in face-to-face performances, “you’re your own boss in ways not possible in film”.
TALKING PICTURES has a very basic format: show clips from chat-show interviews with the movie star, clips from films featuring the movie star, and add a voice-over. That’s all. But when the subject is the slightly-shy but superb Alec Guinness, it works like a dream.
Oliver Twist, The Lavender Hill Mob, Bridge on the River Quay, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy: he raised every film he appeared in to a new level.
And would it be sectarian if I told you he was a Catholic?
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