The Richard Burton Diaries (50 page)

Franco Zeffirelli called in to discuss some cutting and stayed to have a drink. [...] E became sentimental and asked Franco to find another film for them to do together as she trusted his taste implicitly.

[...] Pasta for supper and having written this entry I will continue to read a book called
The Fixer
by Bernard Malamud.
¹⁵⁴
Highly praised. So let's see.

Wednesday 28th
7.15 in the morning. Bright sun. A train passes on to Rome. Sound of traffic on the Raccordo Annulare. A motor horn. I have opened the French window of the ‘den’ and the dogs are out chasing each other. Birds cheeping. It's difficult to compensate in Britain for instance for the joys of a lovely climate. I doubt if we've had a week's bad weather all told since we arrived in March. Another train passes. And another. I love the sound of trains
and hate the sound of jets, that awful high-pitched keening whistling whine. Off to work in 5 minutes. [...]

Franco says [...] that Fellini has run out of instant inspiration.
¹⁵⁵
He woke up one morning [...] and found that he couldn't shoot off the cuff anymore. He must prepare a film like other directors. Ah the woolly little genius. Hence the Dino De Laurentiis suit against Fellini.
¹⁵⁶
There is a huge set on the back lot which may now be unusable. Dino will figure out a way to come out smiling. Betcha.

3pm. Just had lunch with P. Glenville. [...] Lots of gossip [...] about Tony Richardson, Jeanne Moreau and a Greek gigolo. Apparently Tony R thought he was in love with Moreau and assumed she was in love with him, left his wife Vanessa Redgrave for that reason.
¹⁵⁷
In the meantime Tony Hartley (Tony R's producer, assistant and procureur) had produced a very handsome Greek boy as off-duty entertainment.
¹⁵⁸
Glenville then re-enacts the scene of the boy's first appearance on the set: Mouth pursed, eyes narrowed, Moreau says to herself: ‘I want that.’ And with ten days free from the picture takes the boy to Greece and later announces she will marry him.
¹⁵⁹
Peter says. ‘Tony R of course doesn't know which way to be jealous or which way turn if you'll pardon l'expression.’ He tends to lard his talk with foreign expressions. ‘And that Richard is the pozizzioni’ etc.
¹⁶⁰
Oh prenez garde.

Have also heard that Fellini has found another backer. He will make the film at De L. Studios but as an outsider. I betcha and I was righta!

Finished scenes with three students, Hugh Williams, Gwydion Thomas and Richard Heffer in the morning and began ‘was this the face that launched’ etc. with E afterwards.
¹⁶¹
We shall finish it tomorrow – I mean the scene.

Saw F. Zeffirelli (and earlier Sheila Pickles his secretary) at the end of the day.
¹⁶²
He is so camp we'll have to peg him down.

1 a.m. the morning of Thursday 29th
Sitting in my dressing room unable to sleep. [...] I left the bedroom because my restlessness was obviously disturbing E though no complaint.

Liza did her homework tonight in our bedroom [...] I asked what it was [...] She had to illustrate [...] a poem. Teachers haven't changed much. [...] The poem is ‘Cargoes?’ ‘Quinquireme of Nineveh .....’ Masefield.
¹⁶³
Well that's one poem virtually ruined for her unless I can step in and save it.

Shall read a little and try another sleep later. Don't mind really as long as I don't have to lie there in the dark and chase after my mind.

Thursday 29th
Woke to lovely noise of thunder. [...] Did my exercises yesterday morning for the first time for a fortnight and feel stiff as a board this morning.

Finished ‘Was this the face.’ And went over to stage 1 for Pope scene. It's going to be alright I think. Shot ‘till six thirty. A very worried John Sullivan arrived from London. He is in a desperate position poor feller. Daliah is 9 weeks pregnant and they are to marry in three weeks. But that's only part of it. His script
Osmosis
has been turned down. [...] He is also costing me a bloody fortune. It's a lousy position for both of us. I'm to see Elmo Williams on 27th October and see if I can salvage something.
¹⁶⁴
Nick Young came home with us last night as he leaves for London tomorrow. E furious that I invited them.

[...] N. Young told me that Ruth Blackmore (Phil's niece) had written letters of passion to himself, to a Welsh boy called Williams whose Dad is a Socialist MP, and another boy.
¹⁶⁵
She had met them all when she stayed with us in Oxford earlier this year. [...] What is the little minx up to? Is she pulling their legs? Is she a potential nymphomaniac? Her mother would probably have a fit.

Friday 30th
[...] Franco Zeffirelli and Pickles came to lunch [they] said how much they adored Phil. Christian, Phil's friend, is not around much any more.
¹⁶⁶

Was interviewed by a Mr Lucas of the
Christian Science Monitor
.
¹⁶⁷
Might he say, he said quite seriously, that by example and by making healthy comic classics like
Shrew
and morality tales like
Faustus
, I was trying to compensate for the great evils that Films had introduced to the World? My eyes crossed. [...]

Read highly moving very interesting book called, believe it or not,
My Dog Tulip
. The only decent book on dogs I've ever read.
¹⁶⁸
[...]

OCTOBER

Saturday 1st
Glorious morning. Sea heavy and noisy. Sun in and out but lots of clouds promising lots more rain. [...] I cannot imagine what I'm going to do with myself in ten days time when
Faustus
and
Shrew
(extra shots) is over. I can learn
Comedians
.
¹⁶⁹
Later I can learn the songs etc. of
Mr. Chips
.
¹⁷⁰
Maybe I'll write something other than this diary. Maybe I'll just read and read and read. I have hardly had a drink for about two weeks. An occasional beer and twice I became mildly sloshed on a couple or three goops. Not only do I not miss it I actually feel as if I never want to booze again. Drink yes, booze no.

[...] Maria told Karen a story today: Once there were two tiny babies in a hospital and they were herself and Liza and they belonged to nobody. One day Richard (me) saw these two babies and decided to steal them. So he went away and came back at night in his car and stole them. He took them home and put them to bed and then went to Maria and said. ‘I've got a surprise for you.’ And there we were.

So there you are. If she's adopted Liza's adopted.

[...] The children L and M came to lunch today and watched me throw a pie in a friar's face – in the film of course – and managed to get themselves a ride on Pipo the Donkey.
¹⁷¹
[...] Steak and kidney pie with Jack Hildyard and wife (future) and drank Mouton 59–60.
¹⁷²
[...]

Sunday 2nd
We woke about 9.00, walked on the beach in a light rain and I, sans mac, became somewhat damp. Returned to rooms and changed into dry clothes. Sunday papers arrived per Gaston and I settled down for the day. E cooked splendid steak, quite the most succulent and delicious I've had for a long time. We had Mouton ‘59 with it.

The Times
has been bought by Lord Thomson of Fleet.
¹⁷³
I wonder if there'll be any more radical changes. The front page changed a few months ago. Now it has news like any other newspaper. The personal columns are on the inside cover.

What a smug little bastard Peregrine Worsthorne (
S. Telegraph
) is.
¹⁷⁴
He is so unctuously knowing I could knock his block off. Even when he's right I want him to be wrong.

We took another walk in the afternoon but were followed by a crowd of people who finally drove us to our rooms. We sneaked out later and walked the opposite way on the beach. [...] Soup for supper and bed about 11.30.

Last eight or nine days of
Faustus
coming up. Thank God.

Monday 3rd
Both E and I felt ghastly, lousy and dull all day long. She with the shivers, me with a headache – very rare for me, two perhaps in 10 years. Ron has the Roman roundabouts. Perhaps it was something we all ate or drank. Anyway we're home and the children are running about with all the decorum and grace of a riot.

We finished the devil-Pope scene. I wonder if it will work. I saw about
¹
/
₂
hour of
Faustus
this morning and I was disappointed. [...]

Tomorrow we go to Rome to accept Golden masks or Silver masks or whatever for being rich and infamous, I suppose.
¹⁷⁵
That's a splendid fracturing bore to look forward to.

Spent the afternoon browsing through
Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
. I looked up Robert Graves.
¹⁷⁶
He still only has one quote ‘Goodbye to all that.’ What do the compilers have against him? S. Spender has two. R.L. Stevenson about 6 columns, Voltaire 1
¹
/
₂
. Even Sam Goldwyn has one. One of the quotes accorded to RLS is ‘Pieces of Eight.’ Come on!
¹⁷⁷

Dahomey is 44,000 square miles, roughly same size as Cuba. (Wales is about 13,000 square miles.) So it's quite sizeable. We go there next year for Greene's
Comedians
. Alec Guinness and E co-stars. Glenville directing for MGM.
¹⁷⁸
I've never been to Black Africa. I shall be interested. I hated Egyptian and Arabian North Africa. Ah where were those noble sheiks. [...]

Listened to World News, News from Britain and Sports News from the BBC, London. I don't listen very often but when I do it gives me a peculiar feeling. The precise over-mellifluous accents, the static noise I love best which is as if the voices were being carried by lonely uncertain winds over the sea and farm and alp. The voice saying: ‘that was Sam Longpox talking from Washington,’ or ‘David Mogs-Vaughan from Bechuanaland.‘
¹⁷⁹
It is peculiar to me I think because I remember the 9.00pm news as a child and the remoteness of it. Franco has fallen. Dunkirk. Battle of Britain. One of our aircraft is
missing. This is Sandy MacPherson on the Theatre Organ at Blackpool.
¹⁸⁰
The Palm Court Orchestra at Bournemouth. ITMA. Munich.
¹⁸¹
Hunger Strikes. Jarrow.
¹⁸²
All remote. All beyond seeing. All too far away. Still far away but I know that if I picked up the phone I could be in London for late supper tonight and New York for tea and Los Angeles for dinner tomorrow. It is 8pm and we could, if we really tried have a 11.30 supper at D'Chez Eux, and drink a little, and be back for breakfast.
¹⁸³
It's a short way to Tipperary.
¹⁸⁴
But on the radio it still sounds impossibly far.

Tuesday 4th
Woke by alarum at seven. Opened shutters in the den and there was a lovely morning with a brilliant sun and wisps of ground mist. [...] We have already done the first shot 15 minutes ago. The War Tent shot, the start. It is now 9.50. I feel immensely better today. The Dodgers play Baltimore in the World Series. Everyone here, i.e. Yankees, very excited. Mostly all of them are Dodgers’ Fans. I hope quietly that Baltimore win because I've always liked the American League. We hope to listen to the play on Wednesday night at 9.30 if I can get a good reception. It should be fun.

Lunched with E in the dressing room. [...] E drank Fontana Candida (Frascati). I, nothing though I had a vodka and tonic with Nat and Louise White (Aaron's secretary) who are here for a few days.
¹⁸⁵
Nat wants me to join the Players Club in NY. I'm a most unclubbable man as the Good Doctor said of somebody but I may join.
¹⁸⁶
It's the thought of those horrible Piper Nights and Founders Nights etc. which give me a turn. Band of Hope and Urdd Gobaith Cymru and Concerts at the YMCA.
¹⁸⁷

Have done the bulk of the war tent scene. Now remains close-ups and one speech. It's about 4.40 so we may only have a couple of shots remaining tomorrow.

Prepared for the Mask of Silver awards. Will write about this later. What a provincial lot the Italians are. Even worse than the Americans or the English. E tells me to say how pretty she looked last night.

The award evening was monstrous. For about
³
/
₄
hour endless hard faced breastless models paraded before our bored eyes an extraordinary tasteless concourse of fashions. Then every performer in Italy, old clowns, Alberto Sordi, Marcello Mastroianni, Vittorio Gassman, Virna Lisi, Monica Vita, F. Zeffirelli, Rossana Podesta, TV comics, stage stars, great stage hands were awarded Masks of Silver.
¹⁸⁸
We were the last. [...]

After the awards we repaired to the Hassler (?) Hotel and talked and drank with Franco Zeffirelli and Sheila Pickles.
¹⁸⁹
E was telling us all about her operations when Pickles threw up. All over the carpet. It cleared the bar rather faster than a typhoon.

Eventually home.

Wednesday 5th
Did not go into work. Woke late and so ashamed that rather than be late would rather not turn up at all. So not going to turn up. E called and explained, lying like a trooper, that I was desperately ill. It must be the first day of work that I've ever wilfully missed. And I don't care. I have one disease that is incurable. That is, or, as they say in Italian, Cioè, that I am easily bored. I am fascinated by the
idea
of something but its execution bores me. That is why I think, for instance, that when I explain the particular genius of other actors I impersonate what I think they should have done rather than what they actually did do. I am the best apologist for Gielgud or Swinley, or Ainley or Olivier or Scofield or Brando than they.
¹⁹⁰
They are very good but in recollection, in my recollection of them, they are massive Gods.