half
hour documentary of Jack
Cardiff as an
introductory of him being
honored as the star
celebrity of the month.
He
also spoke of Errol, but no mentioning
of the ill-fated
movie of
William
Tell. He was the cinematographer
for 'The Master of
Ballantrae
1953' and 'Crossed Swords 1954', it
must have been during
this
time
that
they became friends as
later
Errol chose him to be his
director
for 'William
Tell', with which
Errol would have given
him
his
first
chance
to direct a movie and
with his
most fabulous cinematography
expertise it
would have been a fantastic
movie. Apparently
and as stated in
the documentary Jack
Cardiff
was
very interested to
direct
movies and as it
looks like Errol maybe saw
the talent in
his
capacity and
wanted
for Jack a start
of
a 'dream
come true'. What a great
pity that it
didn't
fly! Jack, although
went
into directing
from 1960 to 1974 and directed
eight
movies and
was
behind
the camera from
1936 to 2000. He speaks of Errol collapsing
on the set
during
the filming
of 'Crossed Swords' at which
time
the doctors told
him
his
liver is
gone and
he is on his
way
out or so to say. Not Errol –
he came back
with a tumbler
full of Vodka in
his
hand.
We all
have
read
that
Errol was hospitalized in
Naples
for that liver
problem, but
not during what
movie, now we know – it
was
'Crossed Swords'.
Taken from the Jack Cardiff website – Errol resting during 'Crossed Swords'
Jack'
s movie credits as a cinematographer are incredible!
He worked with
Marlene
Dietrich,
Marilyn
Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, Katherine
Hepburn,
Deborah Kerr, Sophia Loren, Ingrid
Bergman, David
Niven,
Humphrey
Bogart,
Kirk Douglas,
Charlton
Heston, James Mason just
to name a few
and of course with our Errol!
Jack
Cardiff
was
quite a man and
to be
admired for his
great contribution
to the movie industry
(if
you are
interested read all about
him jackcardiff.com
and therefore it is
not surprising
that
Hollywood gave him
an honorary Oscar
for his accomplishments. As
we
all know they are quite
stingy
with
them. Apparently and
please correct me if I am
wrong, I am
not up to par with
Oscars, cinematography is
not one of the Oscar
awarding
category
or was not in
his
time.
Whatever
the case he received
one, although late in
his
life,
for serving the movie industry a
lifetime
most outstandingly!
Errol,
would he have lived
to see it
would have been very pleased about it!
— Tina