Nominate a Biography: Behind the scenes quotes
Betty Box
"Needless to say, I didn't let the powers that be know how I felt, and when I discovered that my producing fees were lower than those of the male producers, I called on Sir John Davis and asked to have the figures adjusted. 'What do you need more money for? Another mink coat?' he asked. 'You have a rich husband - you don't need a rise.' I told him I'd have to tell my male colleagues I was being paid less than they, so no wonder I made more movies. My request was amicably granted.
Usually, one of my films was showing at the Rank Odeon houses through all bank holiday weeks, and my husband's Carry On films were put on in competition to mine at all the ABC Theatres, usually across the road from the Odeons. Driving home from the coast on bank holiday evenings in those days there were queues outside most of the cinemas we passed and we both laughed and said, 'Let's not look to see who has the longest queues. Let's just be glad both films are doing well.' I think it must be the only time in the history of films when husband and wife had movies playing in opposition nationwide." p.215
Lifting the lid: the autobiography of film producer Betty Box, OBE, by Betty Box, 2000.
John Barry
"'The James Bond Theme', as recorded by The John Barry Seven and Orchestra was released as a single on Columbia in September 1962 to coincide with the release of the film. It entered the Top Forty straight away, and spent nearly three months in the charts. As much as the public loved the film, they loved the 'Theme' too. And this was not only good news for John and the Seven, it was also to have a lasting effect on the film industry. Suddenly film music was news. As John Burgess recalls: 'Up to that time, film companies didn't see music as very important. They weren't used to spending time or money on it. So the success of "The James Bond Theme" really helped to change all that.' And as film music became more important over the next few years, so would the composers." p.99
John Barry: a sixties theme, by Eddi Fiegel, 1998.
Emeric Pressburger
"The finest compliment came a few years later. In 1947, while on a trip to Hollywood, Emeric visited his old friend Anatole Litvak at Paramount. Having lunch in the studio restaurant Emeric was introduced to the head of the script department. Paramount, he said, owned its very own print of IKWIG [I Know Where I'm Going]. Whenever his writers were stuck for inspiration, or needed a lesson in screenwriting, he ran them the film, as an example of the perfect screenplay. He had already screened it a dozen times." p.249
Emeric Pressburger: the life and death of a screenwriter, by Kevin Macdonald, 1994.
Freddie Young
"The weather was dreadful, the wettest May for years with only two sunny days in three weeks, but we managed to adapt. A British cameraman has to become something of an expert on weather. On a cloudy day you need to be able to read the sky so you can say to the director, 'In five minutes the sun will come out and we'll have two minutes to get the shot in', and in this way take full advantage of the brief periods of sunshine available. There is a shot in The 7 th Dawn in Malaysia, when Bill Holden walks across the street to Susannah York's sports car and at the very moment he opens the car door the heavens open and torrential rain pours down. At the end of the shot Bill said, 'That's amazing, Freddie. How did you do it?' Bill had made most of his films in the semi-desert climate of Hollywood. In England you get plenty of opportunity to acquire this sense of timing." p.149
Seventy light years: a life in the movies, by Freddie Young, 1999.
Ian Jacob
"He would cite the effect of cuts on operations, such as the abandonment of broadcasting to certain large areas of the world, for example North and South America, and the restriction of broadcasting to Europe to the period from 1600 to 2400 hours GMT. Moreover, he would argue, such cuts would also be very damaging to the relevant staffs of the BBC, who would assume that the value of their work was not appreciated, and would look for employment elsewhere. Broadcasting was not something that could be turned on and off like a tap. In the ten years leading up to 1949, their operations had won great prestige and a remarkable standing for the BBC - their programmes were rebroadcast in 65 countries, and their news bulletins had won an unequalled reputation in the world. The BBC's world-wide audience and its reputation for truth and quality had been built up slowly and laboriously: once sacrificed, they would be very hard to restore." p.224-5
From Churchill's secret circle to the BBC: the biography of Lieutenant General Sir Ian Jacob, by Charles Richardson, 1991.
