Ken Annakin: 1914-2009 -- An Appreciation

Director Ken Annakin.

I knew there was something familiar about the name when I read it: "Deborah Annakin-Peters." I had been corresponding with Debby via email for nearly a year after she had started working for Home Video Publicity at Paramount, and handled all my DVD requests. Then one day it struck me. I wrote her a quick email: "Are you, by chance, related to the director Ken Annakin?" I got a quick reply "Sure am. He's my dad!" It just happened that Annakin's most famous film, "The Longest Day," was getting a special edition DVD release from 20th Century Fox in a few weeks. I asked Debby if her father, then in his early 90s, was up to doing an interview. The answer to that question lies in the conversation below.

I was lucky enough to get to know Ken Annakin quite well over the next year or so when my producing partner, Chris Ranta, and I optioned Ken's final script: a corker about what really happened to famed aviatrix Amelia Earhart after her fateful "final flight" in 1937. During that time, we learned Ken Annakin was both a gentleman and a gentle man. He remained physically and intellectually active right to the end, still hustling to get his projects made from the office in his Beverly Hills home, decorated with framed one-sheets from his disparate body of work, as well as paintings by his devoted wife of 50 years, Pauline. As great a storyteller in person as he was on film, Ken would regale people with stories of his life in pre and post-war Britain, as well as colorful anecdotes, some best kept off the record, about his experiences with show business' most legendary names. Even if the story was a bit less-than-flattering, Ken always told it with that wonderful smile on his face. There was nary a hint of malice behind those twinkling eyes.

After suffering a heart attack and stroke within a day of each other back in February, Ken Annakin's health began to slowly decline. He passed on Wednesday, April 22 at home.

God speed, Ken, and thank you.


KEN ANNAKIN GETS HIS DAY
By
Alex Simon

Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared in the May, 2006 issue of Venice Magazine.

Ken Annakin is one of the legends of British cinema. Born August 10, 1914 in Beverley, Yorkshire, England, Annakin initially cut his teeth working on WW II propaganda documentaries, moving into features after the war ended. Having directed close to 50 feature films to date, some of Annakin’s most celebrated titles include Quartet (1948), Trio (1950), The Adventures of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men (1952), and The Sword and the Rose (1953). Annakin has four bonafide classics to his name, as well: he directed the British and French sequences of Darryl F. Zanuck’s legendary WW II epic The Longest Day (1962), the Disney classic Swiss Family Robinson (1960), the hit comedy Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965), and the brilliant Across the Bridge (1957), starring Rod Steiger as a larcenous businessman who steals the identity of a man he kills aboard a train. It is rightfully regarded as one of the best British films of the 50s.

The Longest Day is being released on a new DVD edition this month in honor of Memorial Day, complete with feature commentary and interviews with Mr. Annakin. He sat down in the living room of his Beverly Hills home recently to discuss his remarkable career.

It’s been 44 years since The Longest Day was released. What was it like for you seeing it again after all these years?
Ken Annakin: The new DVD has two sections: one where I talk for about 25 minutes, then another section where I’m sitting and watching the film, making comments. I’ll be very honest with you: as you know I’m the only one of the four directors who’s still alive! (laughs) I’m very happy with what’s been going on with The Longest Day, because it seems like I’m the one solely responsible for making this fantastic war picture—which it is! But the truth is, there were long sections on which I couldn’t comment, because I only directed ¼ of the film. But I think it’s probably the truest war picture of its time, because Zanuck made sure that there was an expert there to advise the filmmakers for ever part of the picture who had taken part in the actual operations. For the Arne River bridge, that was even better for me, because I had the actor Richard Todd playing a British commander, and Richard had actually been one of the soldiers who took the Arne River Bridge during D-Day. So I couldn’t get more accurate help than that. Then Lord Lovett showed up, who was one of the commanding officers during the operation, and he was a great help, as well.

Ken Annakin with actor Kenneth Moore on the set of The Longest Day.

You worked with some legendary actors in the British sequence, most notably Richard Burton and Peter Lawford. Tell us about them.
Richard Burton was very, very willing to help in every way. I only did two shots with Burton, and Lawford was the one playing Lord Lovett, and I must say as the real Lord Lovett watched him lead the commandoes across the bridge, Lovett said “I never walked like that! He has a walk that isn’t mine!” (laughs) They all cooperated. They all seemed as though they wanted to make a true picture, which is what Zanuck wanted. On a lot of the work, Zanuck came and watched over your shoulder. He soon learned it was best not to watch over my shoulder, because I’ve never liked that, and Walt Disney also very quickly discovered that, and dropped the idea! I think if you’re working for a producer who knows exactly what he’s wanting, you’ve got to say ‘Leave it to me,’ then watch the rushes. That’s certainly what happened on The Longest Day. I remember Zanuck coming down to the beach landing and saying “You know Ken, I’ve got 3,000 troops for you on this beach, and I want to see all of them!”

And you did see them all! You’re also responsible for what most people feel is the best sequence of the film: the battle of Casino, which has that amazing helicopter shot.
That was the best shot I’ve ever done in my life. That shot they’d tried with a French director who left soon after that, and it was my introduction to the helicopter pilot who I used many times after that picture, particularly on Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines. He was a great guy, and had a sense of placing his helicopter in just the right place, like it was a camera itself. He was a joy to work with. I must say I’m very proud of that Casino shot, and pleased I had an opportunity to do it. I think the sequence was quite accurate, although it came at a slightly different part of the war than Zanuck had it, although it was right with (Cornelius Ryan’s) book.


Trailer for The Longest Day.

Sometimes you have to take artistic license, for the sake of the film.
That’s right. For example, with Lord Lovett, when he approached the bridge, I had him coming from the right, because it was a better shot and we could see them all more clearly. Lovett protested, saying that they marched straight down, but Zanuck backed me up, seeing that for the sake of the shot, I was right. You have to use your head.

Sam Fuller said that Zanuck was the only studio executive who respected filmmakers, because he really was a filmmaker himself. Did you find that?
Yes. At the end of the shoot, when all the exteriors were done, he said “Ken, I’d like you to come shoot all the studio stuff, as well. I shall be upstairs with my four secretaries, but whenever I could be free, I’d like you to do the set up, then have someone get me, so I can say “Roll ‘em!” and “Cut!” I said to my wife, who was with me ‘I don’t know why I should do that!’ She said “Don’t be stupid! Think of the time you’ve had on this picture. What harm would it do you at all?” So in all, he came down twice and did that, but left me alone for the rest, so that shows how he really wanted to have been doing it all himself. You know how he managed to put together that amazing cast: he had those four secretaries going 24 hours a day, seven days a week, working in shifts, keeping in touch with every film that was being made around the world that had actors that he wanted, asking when they could be free for two days, three days, and so on. That was very clever, and I don’t think it has been done much nowadays.

No, it hasn’t. It was also very clever to have all that stuff being shot simultaneously by four different directors.
That’s why we miss the Darryl Zanucks, the people who loved film so much that they’ll do almost anything, using their brains, to achieve what it is they really want.

I think we have people like Spielberg today who have kept that spirit alive, but they’re few and far between.
Yes, I think Spielberg has worked very hard in that way, as has George Lucas, worked very hard for things to be right. Then, you take something like The Da Vinci Code. I think Ron Howard is a damn good director, but he fell short of reality this time out. He made his two main characters, Hanks and the girl, afraid to build any sort of real relationship. They had one tiny kiss at the end, but it didn’t mean a thing. Either you do or you don’t! The film is much too long, plus you never want a picture where some of the characters are almost reading out of the book to tell you what happened, and the main characters are just listening. It’s just ridiculous!

A youthful Ken Annakin in England, circa early 1950s.

Speaking of George Lucas, how did you feel when he named the character of Anakin Skywalker after you?
(laughs) Well, I asked him about that, but I’ll tell you: he never asked me. He never invited me to the first showing (of Episode One). Apparently it happened through Alec Guinness, who was working at Pinewood Studios on the first Star Wars and every day, would pass by my office door, which had my name on it. So it was Alec who suggested it to George. They dropped one ‘n’ from the spelling, and there it is. I didn’t mind it so much when Anakin was a good character, but now that he’s a bad character, I’m not so keen on it! (laughs)

You reached mainstream audiences on this side of the pond for the first time when you worked with Walt Disney on some very memorable films. Tell us about “Uncle” Walt, who’s become something of a controversial character posthumously.
Well, the final film I did for him, The Swiss Family Robinson, was the greatest adventure I’d ever had in my life. My wife, daughter and I were in the island of Tobago for eight months, and I really was able to use the landscape and these animals that we took to the island, to great use. But I had a very pleasant experience with Walt, overall. Although I still have the press clipping, the headline of which said “Annakin’s Ark Leaves for Tobago.” Reportedly Walt said “’Annakin’s Ark’?! Who the hell do they think paid for this picture?!” (laughs) But Walt was a great guy to work with, a great creator. As we now know with the books that have been written about him, right from the first he didn’t regard himself as the greatest artist, but he could get other artists to produce ideas that he had. That’s how he got started, and that’s how he carried on once he had his studio and had his team around him. I learned this whole business of making sketches for movies through Walt. Swiss Family was so sketched out in advance, that Walt said “Think of anything you’d like to happen to your family if you had all these things around you. I’ve got the best sketch artist in the business to sit down with you, and make drawings based on your ideas.” And that’s how we conceived the tree house, and nearly every other element of the picture over a period of about two months. Walt never did come out to the location, but we kept to the idea of all the sketches which he approved.

Annakin with actor Sessue Hayakawa on the set of Swiss Family Robinson.

That’s a film that’s held up beautifully over the years. It was my favorite as a boy.
Well, I think it gives young people a taste of adventure, which most of them have naturally. And if they want something sufficiently, maybe they can get it. Therefore that’s a very good thing for young audiences. I think the DVD still attracts a lot of young people. With all these films being re-released on DVD, I think the studios should give them all more of a push, so they can have a second life, but that doesn’t always happen, unfortunately. The Disney Studios have announced that they’re allowing another Swiss Family to be made in Australia this year. So that should be interesting to see what they do with that story today, but they won’t have the same set up that we had. My wife and I enjoyed life on that island so much, we stayed for a week even after the production had wrapped! It was really paradise.

Let’s talk about Across the Bridge.
Across the Bridge is my favorite of all my films. It was a Graham Greene story. He told the story from the bridge on, but hadn’t told the story of the first half. So Guy Elmes and I and an English producer called John Stafford, got together to see if we could tell the story of what led up to the Rod Steiger character crossing the bridge. I worked with Graham on the script until we got it right, then I got Steiger, who was a different experience from anyone I’d ever worked with. He was a Method actor to the core, and it was his own Method! I eventually was so impressed, however, with what he did that I just sort of let him go, as long as I could find something to cut away to, if he went on too long. I was able to let him cry and shriek and do all the things that he did. It’s an unusual picture, particularly for me, and it did very, very well in England and gave me a very good reputation there, and I enjoyed making it very much. It was created from the reality of the situation with the actor being put into positions by me, but then creating a complete character on his own. But also, without the dog Dolores, the picture wouldn’t have worked, either. In actual fact, Rod Steiger wasn’t very keen on dogs, but accepted that the dog was important to the story, and eventually became very attached to the dog, just as his character did.

Rod Steiger in Across the Bridge, Annakin's favorite of his films.

I love the fact that it’s such an uncompromising film, both in terms of how dark it is throughout and the fact that you had such an inherently unlikable protagonist that you still rooted for.
I was at that stage where I felt I could go in this free way, and I think since it was such a collaborative effort by all involved, that’s the reason the picture works so well.

Ken Annakin, circa late 1950s.

After watching it, I was wondering if Antonioni was a fan, because of how much The Passenger seems to have been influenced by Across the Bridge.
That’s right. I think he may have seen it! (laughs) I remember being in Malibu and running into Rod Steiger about three weeks before he died. We were both in the market, and he grabbed my hand and he said “Ken, really and truly, despite all the other pictures and things I’ve said, I feel that Across the Bridge was the best picture I’ve ever made, and it would be wonderful if we were able to do another picture like that.” And three weeks later he died. But it is very nice to know that one has achieved something like that.

Annakin and Stuart Whitman on the set of Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines.

Let’s talk about Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines.
I actually decided to make a picture about the early days of aviation because I’d been very excited about Alexander Korda, who’d been wanting me to make the story about the first crossing of the Atlantic by airplane. And we had it all set up, and then he went broke two days before we were due to start shooting. But I’d gotten so interested in airplanes, that I talked to my writing partner Jack Davies, and said ‘Let’s see if we can make a picture about early aviation,’ and we commissioned a girl who worked on a magazine called The Aviator, in England, to dig out all the things that had happened in the early days. And she turned up with 100 pages for us. So we used all those things to develop our story, so all these things had really happened in some way. That’s what makes the picture somewhat unique, and very true to the early days of flying. Here again, I was given a pretty free hand by Zanuck, solely because I’d done Longest Day with him. As long as I had his girlfriend, Irina Demick, in the picture, he got behind it 100%. (laughs) But it turned out to be my most successful picture.

Henry Fonda and Robert Ryan in Battle of the Bulge.

In Battle of the Bulge you worked with three of my favorite actors: Henry Fonda, Robert Shaw and Robert Ryan.
They were fine people to work with, and Hank Fonda of course, if I was asked what actor had I enjoyed working with at every moment and also respected so much, it would be Hank Fonda. I remember in that picture we were in Spain and we were shooting the tanks, I had 80 tanks under my command, and Hank was due to get into the shot where he jumps onto the tank and sees inside. I said ‘Where in the hell is Hank?’ My assistant said “Oh my god! I left him down there, and he said he’d wait for his call.” I went down a mile and a half, and there was Hank standing outside, flapping his arms, trying to stay warm. I said ‘This is an absolute disgrace this happened to you.’ He said “These things happen on films. Just get me up there and let me do it.” He was a generous, wonderful actor. And of course, he was able to make things very believable in the way that he acted. Ryan I liked working with very much. He seemed like a natural commander. Shaw, of course, was very a very fine actor, but at that time I’m afraid he was drinking very heavily and had to be supported by Bob Ryan whenever they walked out of places. So he did a good job, but he just got pissed too much.

Robert Shaw in Battle of the Bulge.

It’s interesting, when you look at so many of the actors of that generation, they either died of cirrhosis or lung cancer.
That’s right. And they all died comparatively young. Shaw was still in his 50s when he died. Shaw was a fine actor. Liked his own way, but could be talked into things if you had a very good reason behind it. But of course, when the producer’s girlfriend was introduced in that, he refused to act with her. I had to shape it in such a way without him knowing it. Her service to the picture was when the picture was shown, she marched down Hollywood Boulevard ahead of 400 soldiers!

"So You Wanna Be a Director," Annakin's autobiography.

You’re about to turn 92, and you’re still working: you just finished a script about Amelia Earhart. What’s the secret to your longevity?
Well, since I was paralyzed during a shoot in South Africa in the 50s, I’ve followed a strict regimen of homeopathy. I found a wonderful homeopathic doctor and I’ve stayed on it since. Also, being in love with a wonderful woman helps a great deal. My wife and I have been together for over 40 years, and she’s my best friend and confidant. And staying busy is the healthiest thing in the world. I still write and still have ideas that I’d like to see on the screen, although I don’t know that I’ll be able to direct anymore. I just don’t have the same kind of energy I did when I was 82! (laughs)