Props

Roger Moore

The idea that I would be passing... That I would be getting into a gondola at that point... ...and be going down this particular canal... ...and the funeral... ... the hearse, the floating hearse, would come by.... Well, it is Bond. And it is ridiculous. Actually, when we were setting it up... ...and they had one area in front of the church where all the flowers were... ...and Props were busy picking up flowers, and a priest came up... ...and went absolutely berserk because he was taking real... The Props were taking a real funeral's flowers.

38:05 · jump to transcript →

Roger Moore

Now, this sequence... ...I was called for 8:30 in the morning and this was the back... This was before the La Fenice theater burnt down... ...and this was shooting just across from the back of the theater. In fact, that's the stage door over behind us. And... ...I was ready at 8:30, and came on the set, and we were all standing there... ...ready to go, and there were adjustments being made... ...and, you know, I have a cup of coffee and this went on. And I finally said, "Lewis, why can't we get on with this? You know, we must do this shot." And he said, "Well, it's a little embarrassing." You see, it was the time of the high tide of the equinox... ...and the boat that had all the props on it... ... had been tied up with the tide very high... ...and then when the tide started to drop, one of those numerous poles... ... that are in the water in Venice was underneath the boat. And as the tide went down... ...the pole came up through the bottom of the boat. Then the boat went up again and the water rushed in... ...and the prop boat sank. And on the prop boat, apart from all my wonderful Ferragamo luggage... ... that I was looking forward to stealing... ...Was a prop that was essential in this scene. ...Was a prop that was essential in this scene. And they had to get somebody to dive down and find it. Now, this shot of the Concorde landing... ... has a bit of a story for me. We had been ready to leave Paris to come to Rio... ...to shoot our sequences there. And Lewis Gilbert and Ken Adam and Letizia... ...and my then wife, Luisa, we were... ...at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, all ready to leave. We got on to the Concorde, and then they said there was a slight problem... ...and we would have to disembark and wait in the lounge. They then said, well, there'd be a little time... ...so we could go into any one of the five restaurants in the terminal... ...and have lunch. So off we went. We had something. I wasn't feeling that good, and I sort of just picked at something. And then before we finished, I said, "Lewis, I really don't feel good at all. Would you come with me to the pharmacy? I think I'm beginning to have a Renal colic." Meaning that-- Something that had happened to me... ...before with kidney stones. And they're extremely painful when they start on the move. And really pethidine or morphine... ... is necessary to stop you falling on the floor... ...with your knees underneath your chin and start screaming. So I went to the pharmacy in the airport, and they said: "No, I'm afraid we can't." And I said... They could tell that I was very ill and in great pain. But they did suggest that there was a doctor in the airport. You know, a surgery. So I went to see him. He took one look at me... ...and pulled a syringe out and started drawing off painkiller. Lewis never liked needles... ...and started shuffling sideways... ...With the "Lewis Gilbert shuffle," I call it. And he said, "Well, I think I'd better tell the others what is going on." And that was the last I saw of Lewis.

54:35 · jump to transcript →

Roger Moore

And he said, while in between takes one day: "You know, my mother likes you." I said, "Well, that's really nice." This fellow. He said, "My mother likes you." I said, "Well..." You know, I tried to be... Because a lot of people told me their mothers and grandmothers liked me... ...and their aunts and.... I said, "Why, thank you. That's very nice of you." He said, "She'd like you to have dinner one night." And I-- "Oh, dear." And the next day he said, "I don't think you know who my mother is. It's Michele Morgan." Wonderful, wonderful, beautiful, beauteous French actress. And I did have dinner with her. Most beautiful eyes. Colonel Scott is the character he played. His name is Michael Marshall. Father was George Marshall, a very well-known director. I think when we were shooting one of these sequences up the corridor... ...our prop man got dressed up as a creature from space... ...with antennae on his head, and came up outside the window. I think there's an outtake of it somewhere. In fact, in the documentary... ...that accompanies this DVD, there is that outtake.

1:43:43 · jump to transcript →

Francis Ford Coppola

and shoot this supposed screen test, which was, in Marlon's mind, a little makeup test. I said, let's just go, and no one talk ever. We'll just kind of make gestures. And we got to his house very early, and we set up our little lights. And I had brought a bunch of provolone cheese and little Italian cigars and little, like, props, and just to kind of put around. So I set up, and we were very quiet.

1:35:21 · jump to transcript →

Francis Ford Coppola

He walked out, and he put on a jacket, and he started mumbling, you know. Remember, he went through great effort to bend the tip of his collar, and he said, so, like, oh, does Italian guys always have the collar bent like that? And he picked up a cigar, and he started to gesture with it and use it as a prop, and he nibbled on a little bit of provolone cheese, and he just started to gesture, and he rolled up the ponytail, and he kind of pinned it up, and he...

1:36:10 · jump to transcript →

Francis Ford Coppola

This is the solid gold IT&T telephone. I still have that prop. Come to Niebaum-Coppola Winery and see it there, along with the Godfather's desk.

1:19:31 · jump to transcript →

Francis Ford Coppola

I love the way this actor, Fanucci, Gastone Moschin, stirred the coffee and the way he works with props. Everything is so precise. The difference between Italian actors, really from Italy, and American actors, Italian actors come with it all worked out. They have this whole thing they invent and they do it

1:57:52 · jump to transcript →

The dressing of these sets. Now, that's not actually not a set because that's a real train going by, but that's probably shot in Brooklyn in and around, you know, what is now known as the Transit Museum. But again, all of the textures, all of the props, even the wardrobe, everything seems old and used, which...

20:28 · jump to transcript →

I guess when they were rehearsing the scene beforehand, I guess Shaw accidentally banged his toe, kind of stubbed it, and the spark shot out of it. Apparently it just scared the crap out of him. So it's funny to imagine Robert Shaw being terrified by one of his props is an amusing idea. But yeah, apparently he didn't realize exactly what that shoe was going to do. Oh, sure. Yeah, but it's still a funny story. This got a huge laugh. And then...

1:35:49 · jump to transcript →

I mean, all these ideas were wonderful, these props and presents. It was glorious. I find it wonderful just to watch it all happening.

40:09 · jump to transcript →

How the familiar is different anyways. Obviously can't keep his food down either. Egg white, was it? We had a very enthusiastic prop man, Tommy Rayburn. That's right, Tommy Rayburn. Enjoyed all the foulness and the phlegm. Any phlegm required today, governor?

28:42 · jump to transcript →

In Angus, it actually starred for me in Jim the World's Greatest. Under a different name, Lawrence Rory Guy, he played the key protagonist of the father in that film. One thing here I'd like to point out about Bill's acting, the layperson doesn't always understand how difficult it is for an actor. Here, Bill's got to tell two full pages of dialogue, and at the same time, he's got to work all these props. He started with the shotgun, took the gun out, got to do all the stuff and synchronize it so it ends

44:18 · jump to transcript →