INT: Did you ever have any resistance from Rod [Rod Steiger] for any direction? Would he ever argue with you or were you all in sync by the time you started shooting [ACROSS THE BRIDGE]?
KA: Safe by the time we started shooting. [INT: Okay what--] We never had--we never had any argument during the shooting. [INT: What about other cases with other Actors. Have you run into problems where they would resist what you--] Yes, especially with Tony Curtis. [INT: Well he was doing some drugs too, right?] Yes. [INT: Yeah, was that the cause of it do you think? Or was it just he was obstinate and he--] It was just, in his case, that he saw other Actors getting the certain laughs or in doing a piece of business that he wasn't doing and he just wanted to upset his. [INT: He wanted to?] He wanted to upset the theme. [INT: Like he would upstage someone?] That he would upstage someone or drive a car in the wrong direction or crash a car or--[INT: Wow.] He--I'd have to--shall we say, always, I've had enough experience with Actors that even if someone became difficult, you find some way of making it work with them. But he certainly was trying to be difficult. [INT: I see and Michael Caine--did you have problems with him at all? Michael Caine? Or Sean Connery? Well, Sean Connery worked with you on THE LONGEST DAY with you I believe, correct?] Sean Connery and Michael Caine. Yes, both of them.

KA: Sean Connery, I liked tremendously and would've liked very much to do a movie with him. In fact, we built up a situation to do one and almost did it but we didn't succeed in getting the American money. But the problem with Sean is that he was in the landing craft on THE LONGEST DAY and Zanuck [Darryl F. Zanuck] didn't like the way that he was playing or that he played several lines and he switched the lines to the other English guy. And so, because I hadn't been strong enough to make him be able to keep the lines he rather tended to avoid doing things with me. [INT: I see. So you chose your battles.] That's right. [INT: Yeah that's important for any Director to figure out who's the one to offend.] Yes, and you may make a mistake first time. [INT: Right.]

INT: How about cinematographers? How do you work with your cinematographer usually? You worked with Jack Cardiff and--
KA: Yes, well we--because I had come along with the camera--I mean I could use a camera just as well as they could. I got on--I always got on very, very well with my cameramen except for Waxman [Harry Waxman] who shot with me on--[PA: SWISS FAMILY [SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON].] On SWISS FAMILY. He didn't always agree--he didn't like the fact that I would know exactly what he was doing and he would take time to see exactly how long it would take to load the camera on this and--or how to change the focus on it. I knew it all too because I'd done it all and he liked to be the full boss--[INT: Expert. Right.]--of it. Unfortunately, he couldn't also because I had an operator called Dudley Lovell who--he, I think, did something like 20 movies with me. And so I didn't even ever bother--very often bother to go and look at how--where we'd finished with the camera there because I knew exactly--[INT: You trusted him.]--that he knew exactly what I wanted and that if there should be anything slightly wrong he would've told me.

INT: And what about did you ever pick up the camera yourself or operate yourself on any of your film just for shots because that was your background?
KA: No. [INT: No.] No, we didn't and basically, I discovered very, very early--very early in life that you should--making films is a cooperative business and you should have the crew who you know pretty well everybody of that crew and you should know that you should be on terms with them that even a Prop Man [Prop Master], if he wants, could come and say to you, “You know when you--with that shot, don't you think that it might be an idea that you did so and so and so and so.” I like everybody to be able to you know feel free that they could come and make a suggestion and that I can pick it up if I want it. I'm the boss anyway so I can pick it up if I want but I like the freedom of various people that I've had various Prop Men who I have been very, very close to and who have been very, very good contributors to things you can do and things you can't do. And special effects people. And I like I can--even now, on most pictures, I can remember what it was that they suggested. [INT: Really?] And what I picked out. [INT: Now, would they make suggestions outside of their domain--like would the Prop Man make suggestions about--] Yes. Watching something, I mean, when we'd been working on the mountain on THIRD MAN ON THE MOUNTAIN, the Prop Man could certainly--used to come up with an idea because we were moving very heavy equipment on mountainsides with the great--let's say, cuts in the hillside, which, we had to cope with ourselves and our guides and special effects and they might well come up with a good idea. [INT: For a shot or for--] For a shot. [INT: Oh really, that's interesting. How about--] [PA: And he was called the Smiling Tiger so he wasn't all that-always [INAUDIBLE] [INT: Your Prop Man was called the smiling--] [PA: No Ken was.][INT: Oh, you were called the Smiling Tiger?] [PA: Because he had a--] Well, basically because the tiger part, from those of my crew who knew me, it was one of my Assistants [Assistant Director] who named me the Smiling Tiger. They knew that, if I wanted to really get a shot which I was determined to get, I would be the smiling tiger because I would smile wherever it was necessary to get someone to help me to achieve that shot. [INT: What about would you ever lose your temper on a set and yell at people?] Lose my temper. Yes, but very quickly regain it. [INT: So you'd snap and then come back okay.] Because you don't get very far if you're working through temper. [INT: Right.]

INT: How about Production Designers? Can you think of any Production Designers that you worked with that really brought up something that was so unusual or a contribution that was really terrific to one of your projects? Like, I would think, for instance, SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON, that tree house was pretty amazing.
KA: Yes. Well, that was created by the sketch artist that Walt [Walt Disney] put me along with. [INT: And then you found a tree that looked like the sketch?] We found a tree and then we got the crew who was building all our stuff to build it. [INT: Okay. Now in terms of--] Just to say, I mean, one of the most difficult buildings was to build the wreck of the ship at a tipped angle and so we--[INT: On the rocks?]--we did build--we built a complete ship, which actually was--had rocks underneath it, but was allowing me to see the ship just lying on a tipped angle, but you didn't know there was a rock underneath it. [INT: Right, it was very realistic and today, that would probably be done with digitally.] Yes, I would think so. [INT: Right, yeah.] But, you know, we built nearly everything there on SWISS FAMILY. And the tree house was--we achieved that having stuff where we had the ladder and the Actors could go up there, but we also had built our own studio out of corrugated iron. But we built the whole of the tree house in that corrugated iron studio. [INT: Where the rain was coming down.] And sometimes--and it was built because we knew it was going to rain like mad in November. And when we did start rain we moved into the tree house set and certain other sets too. That caused something else to happen on SWISS FAMILY, which has never happened before. There was so much noise from the rain that very often I couldn't even hear what the Actor was saying. I could see what... and the sound people could eventually just hear, but as a result, we took the whole of the crew--of the cast of SWISS FAMILY to London, and at Pinewood Studios, we redubbed everybody's voice with our own voice for 28 days. With the result that the--you would hear the dialog, I mean, in that picture, better than, probably, any other picture I've ever made. [INT: But that's grueling work isn't it being--] Grueling work, but it was necessary and it really paid off. [INT: Because you could sometimes get the sync right but not the performance or visa versa, yes.] That's right. [INT: That's...] But it was all themselves though--[INT: Right.]--performing. And I would say that Tommy Kirk comes out much better in that than he would in real--when his voice was real. [INT: The production, right.]

INT: From a Production Designer standpoint as well, that one shot that I keep coming back to, that amazing eight minute shot [from THE LONGEST DAY]. That village that you were shooting in, was that pretty much left the way it was or did your Production Designer go in and try to make it look like it did when the actual war happened, because that--it was such a wide shot and the helicopters going around the village and all the people were running through and it is I don't know where you put your trucks, I don't know how you... [KA: Which?] The famous scene, the eight minute shot that you had with the helicopter. [KA: Oh yeah.] How did you make that wide a shot look like it was period? With no tourists, no cars, no--[KA: We took it over.] Yes, but I mean did your Production Designer come in and redo the town or did it look pretty much the way it did when it actually happened?
KA: The Production Designer went in and certainly with that metal bridge down below they put in years. The Production Designer, the Set Designer, did the more or less the whole of that. [INT: Yeah.] And where the Germans were with the holes and we see all the faces through there, all that was built. [INT: Right.]

INT: Now, in terms of costume design, I think probably, one of the movies that you did that had the most amazing costumes, was MAGNIFICENT MEN IN THEIR FLYING MACHINES. [KA: Yeah.] There was quite an array of costumes, you had thousands of extras in that movie. [KA: Yeah.] Do you recall how you approached the costume design? Did you have sketches made or how did they do that?
KA: Of course, I had sketches made. The whole picture was sketched out. Don't think that I hadn't worked with Disney [Walt Disney] without--[INT: So you adapted this--] I still have in this house the book of pictures of that. [INT: So your work at Disney, you took those techniques and--] Absolutely, I mean, I loved that storyboard technique on those Disney Pictures we've talked about, but I've used it most of the times since. [INT: Okay, great.] Even when I made PIPPI LONGSTOCKING [THE NEW ADVENTURES OF PIPPI LONGSTOCKING].

INT: Now Editors. Anne Coates. I know you worked with her. She's a wonderful Editor. How did you find--was she working--[KA: Anne Coates had worked with me--she was an Assistant when I made ROBIN HOOD [THE STORY OF ROBIN HOOD AND HIS MERRIE MEN] in--] With Disney [Walt Disney]? [KA:--Denham Studios. She was an Assistant there and we got on quite--I'd seen her and dealt with her quite often when we shot there. And then she turned up as an Editor and when I lost my Editor, who was in an accident, I was able to get her to take over.] [INT: Yeah, she was quite good. So when you're about to shoot the night before you shoot any movie what do you do? Do you go through the storyboards, do you go through the script; how do you approach the night before a shoot?]
KA: You don't really do it the night before. You try to do it at lunchtime on the day before. [INT: Okay. So you can tell people what they need to do.] Right. [INT: And have you ever--] But most of the time, you see, the people who are on visual situations they each have a copy of the storyboards. So they are able to see pretty well what their department might have to do as long as we let them know what shots we're going to do the next day, but let them know by lunchtime. So that they can be half prepared before they break up that night.

INT: In movies that were on location I'm sure you didn't see your dailies for several days?
KA: What happened with--on the Disney [Walt Disney] pictures, he managed to make it so we could see the rushes in four days, which was quite special services with air companies and everything else. [INT: I bet, yeah. So you had a projector on location?] Yes. [INT: So, you could keep up with it. Do you--in the years since that then did you ever work with Video Assist?] With? [INT: Video Assist, where you had the video tapes so you could look at the shot right after you shot it and look at it played back on video or did you always stick with seeing dailies several days later or the next day, you know?] Several days later. [INT: Yeah, you didn't use the Video Assist?] No. [INT: Yeah, because that's something that I think practically every Director today has a Video Assist on his camera and they can look at a shot and see if they got it. But--] I think when I did PIPPI LONGSTOCKING [THE NEW ADVENTURES OF PIPPI LONGSTOCKING], we were beginning to use it.

INT: Okay. Did you ever--after you finished a movie, did you ever go back and change a lot of it in post-production by moving things around or doing relooping or do you remember any pictures where you changed a lot of it in post-production? Or did you, mostly in your films, just shoot the script and it went out the way you originally had it in mind?
KA: I think the picture that I shot in Spain, BATTLE OF THE BULGE, I certainly went back on that several times because one of the Producers had--kept trying to recut some of the battle scenes. And I went back and did--and found where that was and recut them basically because I had--they were so short of money, I had had to go and get an Assistant and for three weeks cut the battle--the actual battle parts with the tanks on the--just missing each other on the open land. I'd had to cut that myself and the prod--and I kept hearing that the Producer was changing things and then I would have to go back and, “All right accept maybe this change but make sure I put this back in again.” [INT: And I'm sure they weren't paying you for that, right?] No. [INT: No, you did that on your own. But at least they gave you the Editor to work with?] Yes. [INT: That's good, because sometimes they won't even do that. Right?]

INT: Have you found differences between Hollywood and England, in regards to work? I mean how is Hollywood and England--how is it different working in those two places? Or is it the same? [KA: You mean shooting?] The crews and the actors--Have you found big differences between the Holly--
KA: I've gone to I--I can't say that a British crew is better than an American crew. I’ve always tended to perhaps lean upon or take with me two or three British people but I've had some very good crews here in America too. [INT: But the way they work is pretty similar all over the world then, you say?] Yes. But I would perhaps--I think an English crew, basically, would tend to keep not such strict timing on the job as an American crew would. [INT: Really?] In my experience of the American crew. [INT: Did you ever have a situation where you wanted the crew to keep working and you had to convince them?] Yes, I have had that situation. [INT: And did they? Or did they rebel sometimes?] They did keep working. [INT: That's because they liked you, right?] No. [INT: Okay.]

INT: Now you've directed so many type films, documentaries and comedies and big epic films?
KA: Yes, I did 14 documentaries and 49 movies. [INT: How did you avoid being typecast as one type of Director?] Basically, because I think I like--you know, I never really thought that I would get involved with war pictures, but a very good friend--when I was offered to come on THE LONGEST DAY. [PA: No, BATTLE OF THE BULGE.] BATTLE OF THE BULGE. A very good friend of mine said “You know, it's action and people want to see what happened in the war there and you can do it and it would be interesting to do. Don't turn it down because it's a war picture.” And you know, I've been involved in really three big--quite big war pictures. And I would've thought that I really, originally, everything thing that Somerset Maugham [W. Somerset Maugham] wrote I would like to have done. [INT: So it worked--] You know TRIO and QUARTET are the stories that I loved. [INT: And your favorite film you did was ACROSS THE BRIDGE?] Yes, I think so. Very much so because of working with Steiger [Rod Steiger]. [INT: What about your least favorite project? Do you have one that you'd really--] Least favorite film? [INT: Yeah?] Don't think so. [INT: Okay.] But I mean--[INT: There was something that you liked about each one of them?] There's something that--yes, something that saved it. It may not have turned out as big a success as you--as one wanted, but it was perhaps enjoyed the actual shooting of it.

INT: The movie that you did with Charlton Heston, GENGHIS KAHN, you finished shooting it and it's still in the can but--
KA: It's in the can--six hours of it is in the can, but the Italian company went broke and owed money in various places that whenever we've tried to raise the money to finish it something has cropped up that they've said, Oh, we can't be involved because of so and so and so and so.” [INT: That's too bad, because you have this--] It's too bad because we've got a very good picture, Heston--Chuck Heston is very good. I had 14 American Actors in it. 50--50 [PA: Russians.] Local Actors and 15 Chinese Actors. [INT: You know, with the digital technology today, I think you could get a small group of people to put that together and then maybe show it and raise the money after--by doing it that way, I would think. I mean, it's just a thought but you know there's a cheap way to do it--] Might be. [INT:--I mean you can digitize it, stick it in a final cut pro station, and have some volunteer Editor put it together and then have it to show and say hey let's--] Well, I said it's pretty well complete. [INT: Yeah.] We've got the special effects shots in and everything. [INT: Wow.] It's the revoicing that we haven't been able to do. [INT: Right.] And the music and the special effects. [INT: But it's on 35MM right?] Yes. [INT: Because, it might be good to have it on a DVD that you could maybe use to show to people and say, “Hey, let's get this thing off the ground.”] Probably, is an idea. [INT: Because it sounds like it's a classic that hasn't been seen you know.] The trouble is that I get involved with things like we're doing now. And then I forget that I was trying to do this with the--with that picture and--[INT: And your Amelia Earhart project too.] That's right. [INT: I read about that and it sounds amazing. I had no idea that she--actually people say that she lived and that she was a spy and all--this amazing story.] Yes, that's very true and unfortunately someone has announced that they are making it with Swank [Hilary Swank]. [INT: Oh, but that was your idea wasn't it to work with Swank?] Yes, but she's has--she's been picked up by another Director now. [INT: Oh, to do that project?] And they are--they've obviously taken quite a piece of my scripting, because I've got a fuller story and a more complete provable story than anybody could have made on Amelia Earhart. [INT: Wow.] She was an amazing character and amazing things happened to her.

INT: What is the worst part of directing? What would you say is the worst part of directing?
KA: What is the worst part of directing? [INT: Yes, what’s the thing that--this is for Directors to hear what you think is the worst part of being a Director. Like is it getting up early or dealing with Producers or?] It’s difficult to say now, because as I say it’s many--it’s quite a few years since I was directing and it’s very difficult to imagine it’s all sort of become the same sort of thing now. [INT: Right.] That you were eager to do this and--or eager to do that or “I’ve got to be careful with that Actor today.” You--those things were spread apart. Now, they’re all clammed into a memory that is remembering--is cutting down everything into a Director’s job. [INT: Well what about the best part of directing can you think about?] The best part? [INT: Yeah.] I love the preparation side of the storyboard side, that’s a very important part, as far as I was concerned. I enjoyed casting and sometimes I got to make pictures with pictures with people who I didn’t agree with. I mean for example in ROBIN HOOD AND HIS MERRY MEN [THE STORY OF ROBIN HOOD AND HIS MERRY MEN], Maid Marian--the girl who played Maid Marian was Walt’s [Walt Disney] choice not mine, and I couldn’t--I just didn’t go for her at all. Every time she walked across the stage she would trip over something. If it was a possibility of making an error, she would make one. But in the end I just worked with her, because she was there, and in the end I actually agree that Walt hadn’t chosen badly at all. [INT: After you finished the whole thing right?]

INT: Well, what advice would you give to somebody who--a young person who wants to become a Director today? What would you say to a young Director?
KA: I would say, if you want to be a Director you should--you must have a good feeling for Actors, you must understand what various people are trying to achieve or what they’re--why they’re trying to be an Actor and see if you can help them to advance that. I think you shouldn’t deal with a subject unless it’s something that appeals to you. When the picture is done you, will be quite happy to see it. I mean, I made a picture here--pictures in England on the River Thames, a rowing picture there, that didn’t seem like anything at all, but I loved every day of going down and trying to get the Actors to perform well on the moving water. [INT: Do you recommend that students who want to be Directors go out and live life a little bit like you did?] Yes. [INT: Be a bum, go around do things.] I really think that it’s very important to have more than a college or university background. I think it must be very, very difficult to deal with all the things that arise in a your making of almost any film unless you have had some experience you could be completely lost. [INT: So you recommend being a bum?] Yes. I really do. For a little while, I mean, maybe being--do something that takes you into a different background from what you’ve grown up in. [INT: Well, you certainly did that when you went to--] Yes I certainly did. [INT: It’s really great--] Without knowing that it would turn out that way. But you know, there again, my father was a--in his spare time, was a choirmaster. So, I mean I used to see him achieving results from sopranos or contraltos, tenors, and I was one of them when I was a kid. So really and truly, that must’ve been quite an effect on me being able to achieve things with other--with the talents of other people.

INT: Well it’s been great talking to you and reading your book and seeing your movies and it’s a privilege to have interviewed you today. Thank you so much.
KA: Thank you. [INT: Okay.] Thank you for spending the time.