Garson Kanin

Interviewed by David Shipman, 7 April 1972, National Film Theatre

These are some examples of Carol Reed-related resources available in the bfi National Library's Audio Collection. These interview clips are excerpts from tapes held in the library. These tapes are available for listening, in the Reading Room. Please ask for them by name of the speaker.

Towards the end of the interview Kanin discusses True Glory (1945), a film he co-directed with Carol Reed at the end of the Second World War. He begins by outlining the events leading up to the British-American collaboration, whereby the two directors were selected by the Joint Anglo-American Film Committee. The brief was to make a film of the preparation and realization of 'Operation Overlord' for a public audience.

Reacting against the practice of 'faking' war footage, (using an example of cameramen being instructed to shake the cameras while filming to make it look more real), Kanin describes how he and Reed sought to make a film report of the operation without any faking or staging, simply working with the actual footage captured.

"So there were about 450 cameramen and eventually they came up with close to 10 million feet of film, and we had different departments and staffs of people who would look at the film. A lot of it was, you know, nothing, but some of it was very impressive. And it took us almost two years to compile all of this film and then we had the idea of having the story told not by a single voiceover, but by soldiers and sailors, and airmen, nurses, all talking on how they saw things."