Elstree Calling

 

Raymond Austin. Photo: © Raymond Austin 

 

 

I won't go into it now, as it is too long a story, but I did make the decision to become a stunt man in Hollywood - thanks to Bobby Hoy, Paul Stader and Davey Sharp.

 

I then met the actor Cary Grant, and went to work for him as his driver. That took me backwards and forwards to England.

 

At this point Paddy Ryan came into my life and I will say no more. At one stage, without Paddy, I would have come to a stand still and would have always been a stunt man. That wouldn't have been bad as I was good at the stunts I undertook. All but two! But wait a minute, remember Tom Jones? I doubled for Finney in that film and was the stunt co-ordinator - but that's another story!

 

I think the film Indiscreet was made in 1957 or 1958 at Elstree Studios then known as ABPC Elstree Studios. I loved those studios. I used to get there very early so I could go to the cafe across the road for a bacon sandwich.

 

At nine thirty the tea trolley with the sausage roles would come onto the stage (those who worked there will still remember the bread and dripping!). Never in Hollywood! Sorry, I am getting side-tracked - it's the thought of that bread and dripping! Anyway, I would sit on the set of Indiscreet and watch Freddy Young lighting the sets. I wanted to get inside his head and find out what it was all about. At this point I was at a disadvantage, I worked for Cary, and he was not paying me to drive the cameraman mad!

 

I always remember Freddy lighting the billiard room set. Boy, it was a super set, very rich, with the actors all in dinner suits. I love dinner suit scenes! Well, what I would do was to see if I could guess where Freddy would put his first light. Jimmy Devis the cameraman told me that he used to do this when he was a camera operator. Well, I was never right but it made me aware of everything that was going on around that camera.

 

Shortly after this I went home to Los Angeles and Cary started on North by Northwest. The cameraman on the film was Robert Burks. Again, Cary was paying my salary so I had to take a back seat. Then my luck changed and I got onto the stunt team of the film thanks to Paul Stader.

 

I got talking to Robert Burks, not in a big way like: Hi, Ray Austin, tell me all you can because I am going to be a director. No, more like: "Can I get you a coffee, Bob?

 

The most important thing at that moment in my life was that I had started to learn. Towards the end of the film we were 'shooting' in the Plaza Hotel in New York, and I was sitting on the steps next to Hitchcock. We had talked a few times about London, and had some laughs about the cockney rhyming slang. Cary, Hitch and I would talk to each other in rhyming slang every so often and the American crew would love it. Then James Mason would join in so this gave me a bit of an "in" with Hitchcock, and I started to ask him questions about directing. Anyway, on this particular day he said to me: "What do you want to do, Raymond?" Are you going to stay with Cary? Or keep doing stunts?" I looked up at him and said: "I want my name on my chair," and I pointed at the back of his chair, "and above it I want the word Director". Hitch smiled and said: "Good you want it bad enough, you'll get it." Then he got up and went back to the set. That was the first time that I noticed that on his chair it only said Alfred Hitchcock. Everyone knew he was the director! I had a long way to go!

 

By now I was in my mid twenties and still not a director. God, time was running out, I was getting so old!

 

For the next few years I worked on most of the TV shows in Hollywood and England. Again, I am not going into all that, if I did I would be writing a book! I may get to that one day!

 

Thinking back over everything, I guess most of my learning came when I moved to ATV at Borehamwood, as the resident stunt arranger for all the TV shows that the late Lew Grade (Lord Lew Grade) made. I worked with the best on those TV shows and for the first time I selected the camera positions for fights and car stunts. Most of the directors at ATV didn't know much about action in the early days of the three camera shows and would leave it to me to find the shots. I picked up a lot in my ATV days. The shows were all three camera shoots in the studio, but the action and exteriors were shot on film and mixed in on telecine. So, I would get to work with the second unit on the car stunts and was always asked: "Where do you want the camera?" Not because I knew that much, but the director and the cameraman didn't want to see the camera go up in the air if one of my stunt men lost control of the car coming around the corner. Much loved Ernie Steward, and director Sydney Hayers, could have told you some stories about that! Ernie was always goo to me as a stunt man. Later, when I was directing, he was one of the best to work with. I will always think of him fondly.

 

On the other hand I remember doing a stunt on a film where the cameraman was Otto Hellier. I was doubling Vincent Ball in a fight scene with two good stuntmen: Nosher Powell and Deny Powell. In this fight the operator saw my face clearly. This he can't do as I am obviously doubling the actor. After three takes I said to Otto: "Why not track with me and overtake me halfway? That way you will be 'shooting' on my back". Otto gave me his opinion on my input: "F**k off".

 

Paul Beeson: He was a big help to me and always took the time to explain things to me, even when I was still a stunt man. I like Paul. We have worked together quite a few times since I became a director. You can always learn - especially from a cameraman!

 

Alan Hume: Now there's a cameraman. I like to watch him feel his way around a new set. I worked with Alan for a long time on The Avengers as both a stuntman and later a director. Alan is a lot of fun. Just stand back and watch him go to his next set. He won't say a lot, but you can see it all going on in his head. Alan was another cameraman who I would try to out guess on his first light on a new set. I was right, sometimes.

 

I have learnt a lot since the days of Indiscreet, when I first watched Freddy Young work. I think Alan Hume, Robin Brown, Jack Hildyard and Brian West helped me along the road to where I am now. And Gerry Crampton became my stunt co-ordinator and was always tops for me. Like the Powell's and all the other stunt men of the time, Cooper, Fisher, Taylor, Stacy, York, Richards, Plummer and Peter Brace. They never let me down, ever. Yes I made the right choices long ago.

 

My years at Elstree when Neil Binney, the camera operator, and I stood on a cold location at six or seven o'clock in the morning, stamping our feet, and talking about the first or the next shot, was when I was stealing his ideas - thanks Neil! Derek Brown the same and Mike Frift, what can I tell you, the best. Michael Vinson, I stole every idea he ever had, a good operator. Tony White, a mine of knowledge. He taught me one hell of a lot about lenses when we were together at ABPC Elstree. Nice man. David Worley. Another good operator. I could go on forever! As you can guess I love the camera department. If I had not made it as a director then I know I would have opted for operator. I like directing through the lens.