THE DIGITAL CINEMA

Presents

An Interview with

Producer

ILYA SALKIND

Ilya Salkind (Right) poses with Oliver Reed (Left) for the cameras

on the set THE MUSKETEERS, circa 1972

THE THREE MUSKETEERS & THE FOUR MUSKETEERS

Conducted by Scott Michael Bosco

SMB

Why THE MUSKETEERS?

Well we did bounce different ideas. There was actually a friend of mine, a girl, and she said how about something with gladiators? Then I said how about THE MUSKETEERS?? My father thought that was interesting, and liked it. But I went further and then said we should use THE BEATLES.. We had other ideas at the time as well, like using comics such as Jerry Lewis. Finally I realized perhaps we should do it in the vein of TOM JONES. Now, at the time TOM JONES was very, very successful. It was then we knew we had the right idea, the right way, to treat the story. THE MUSKETTERS came after BLUEBEARD, with Richard Burton. We (my father and I) were on a holiday, and we started to consider what would be our next project. It was a good time because BLUEBEARD had gotten good reviews and was performing well in the States. It was also the first Salkind film that had made real “box office” in a general release..

SMB

How about in the rest of the world?

Oh, yes. In Europe it was also having its share of success. So it was while we (my father and I) were in the South of France, at dinner I had suggested we do THE MUSKETEERS..

SMB

The next step I suppose was to find a director who would make your film work?

Yes, the first one we had didn’t work out. He basically wanted to make a very intellectual, very depressing movie that dealt with the decline of THE MUSKETEERS. ….absolutely NOT the film we wanted to do. From there on we looked into other directors, including

Roman Polansky. However, Roman turned it down. We had a very nice conversation on the phone, but he said, “No I don’t think it’s for me.”

SMB

I don’t think a lot of people would now understand you choosing him due to his current status as a serious filmmaker of dramaticelements. A lot of people now may not know of his film, THE FEARLESS VAMPIRE KILLERS.

That’s exactly right, and that’s why we did want him. So after that I’d say we approached at least 3 to 4 more directors. I seem to remember

Sy Enfield.

SMB

… of ZULU fame.

Yes.

SMB

So how did you finally choose Richard Lester?

Ilya Salkind with director Richard Lester

I remember looking at a long list and came upon Lester and decided to view all his films. After that I convinced my father that he was our man.

Lester came to Canes, we had a fantastic meeting. He had read the book, which I suggest he read – and that was the beginning.

SMB

Next came the casting…

Left to Right: Gitty Djamal, Jean Pierre Cassel, Ilya Salkind

Yes, that was done in England. It went well, except with 3 roles which we had some problems. One was a major problem. It was with the character of Porthos. In the book the character is described as being 6’4”, a giant, especially for that era. We could not find an actor to fill that demand. Not to mention have the quality the character required. We considered John Gavin but both Lester and I didn’t feel right about it. Rock Hudson wouldn’t have done it. Rod Taylor said no too. Also at the time we felt we wanted Brits to be the MUSKETEERS and have Americans in the other roles for the most part. We tried to get across the characters by way of accent to represent a kind of class in the story structure. Do you understand?

SMB

… yes, like Romans in biblical films portrayed with British accents.

Exactly!

By the way, (Richard) Lester wanted Malcom Macdowell from A CLOCKWORK ORANGE for D’Artagnan. I wanted (Michael) York. In the end it was Lester who wanted Frank Finlay for Porthos. Now Frank is a wonderful actor, and proved it in the film, but he isn’t the literary representation of the character. He’s not the tallest of men. So we padded him and gave him boots to help him, and I have to say he came across larger due to his portrayal, and it worked. Still, in comparing him physically to the Porthos in the book he isn’t correct. Interestingly neither is Heston who portrayed Richelieu. Now in his younger days Heston would have made the perfect Porthos. He had the size, yet he was able to pull off Richelieu who was an extremely short man – even for that day, of Louis the XIII. Somehow he made it work.

SMB

… you casted the MUSKETEERS first?

At one point we offered (Charlton) Heston Athos but he came back, I believe after conversations with Lester, with the idea to instead play Richelieu. So we needed an Athos, which of course went to Oliver Reed. Next came the ladies. It’s been said many times that all the actors wanted to work with Richard Lester. They all came very quickly. Something most people don’t know is that an offer was made to the actor Christopher Casnor to play Duke of Buckingham, and at the same an offer was made to Simon Ward for the same role. At the last minute Simon decided to make the film, Casnor was already signed and paid. Casnor was sitting in my office, in Madrid, when I got the news we had to go with Simon Ward. The financiers pushed me into accepting Ward because he was a bigger name. Although Simon was perfect for the part it was still an uncomfortable thing to have happen. These are the sort of things that can come up in the business.

SMB

With such a high profile cast, and huge production, there must have been some problems or challenges as well.

Well, at one point Raquel (Welch) had a conversation with Lester one night and they disagreed about the costumes. Richard was either upset or tired, or both – in any case he was a bit aggressive, perhaps unpleasant. So the next day I got a cable saying Raquel wasn’t going to make the film. That was a major happening. They were in Spain at the time and ready to start in 2 weeks. With time not on our side we went ahead and tried Julie Christy, who Richard (Lester) knew very well. That didn’t work out so we finally had to send one of our production executives to sit with the lawyers to hammer out a new deal where no one could address her (Raquel) directly without her being addressed first as Miss Welsh. And, more than anything I ,as main producer, would have to sit in her trailer, in the morning, and escort her to the set everyday to make her feel protected; or at ease from anyone on the set who might disturb her – mainly meaning Lester. So, in the end a few days prior to shooting she and I had met, to break the ice, and it was nice meeting. Everybody was charming. Then about 2 days on the set, I was there at 7 in the morning before she arrived from make-up. I was in her trailer waiting to escort her to the set. When she came in she told me there was no problem and that was it, she dropped it all.

SMB

Is there anything amusing you can look back on?

Oh, sure there were…

SMB

Oliver Reed?

Many, many stories with Oliver Reed. Fist of all there was a story with me picking up Oliver Reed at the airport when he got into Madrid. We kind of got along. We went to the Hilton Hotel where some of the cast were staying. Oliver was staying there, so was Charlton Heston. Anyway, we got in there, I registered him, and he said, Iyla, lets have some juice. I said alright and we went to the bar. He immediately ordered a whole bottle of Whisky. Now, in those days I used to drink and in about a half an hour the bottle was about half gone and I was pretty drunk. Mean while, Oliver was scheduled to shoot the next day. We had started drinking at about 3 in the afternoon and ended up till about 11 p.m. in that bar. I don’t know how I got back to my house. The only thing I know is I somehow managed to get to the set around 11 a.m. – Oliver was there since fist call, 6 in the morning. He was incredibly resilient, and in perfect shooting shape. A professional. Another story was with Heston. I went to fetch Heston when he arrived for his part. When we got to the hotel I asked him if he wanted a drink. He said fine. So we went to the bar and guess who was sitting there?

SMB

Oliver Reed.

Exactly. He had known Chuck from somewhere so asked for Chuck and I to join him. It was relatively pleasant. Heston had a couple of Ports and of course Oliver had a bottle of Whisky. After a while though Oliver started to taunt Heston saying, “Chuck, Chuck, have another one! Come on, have another Port! Have a Wisky! A man like you should drink some heavy duty stuff!” He said it with a bit of a tone, you know what I mean?

SMB

Oh, yeah. Taunting.

Yes. Well, the tension started to rise, a bit at a time. I became extremely nervous. I was the producer with two of the main stars of the film. Well Heston stood and said, (Iyla deepens his voice) “No, I think I am going to go up now. I’ve had enough.” … but Oliver kept pushing. “Come on, have some more, have some more.” (Imitating Oliver with a gruff and gravelly tone.) Here I was between them, and it got to the point I was really starting to sweat. Then at that moment when Oliver was still pushing Heston, Heston suddenly turned around, his face changed becoming like…. like Ben-Hur.

(Both laugh)

You know like Ben-Hur when he’s getting whipped. He turned around and put his shoulders forward, becoming this huge man and being so imposing. Oliver just went back into his chair and said, “Oh, alright, alright Charlton.” Oliver was some character and at the same time he was a very generous man, and professional. There wasn’t another incident between he and Heston. I’ll always remember that day though.

SMB

There weren’t many who stood up to Oliver like that.

That’s why I was very impressed with Heston. I was always a great fan of Heston from THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, BEN-HER and EL CID so it was impressive to see the man become what I remembered and show that strength in front of me. Very impressive, very impressive.

SMB

Was Oliver ever inebriated any time while filming, as his character was?

Usually not. But he had a scene where he showed up inebriated. That’s the famous scene in the second film when the MUSKETEERS are in the fort having breakfast. He showed up drunk and literally incoherent and somehow he was able to shoot it – with tremendous tension. Another time in Paris we where at the opening, where everyone got medals, I remember Oliver was running after Michael (York) because he wanted to hit him.

SMB

Why was he going to hit Michael?

I’m don’t know. They had some sort of fight together, or a dispute, or something. I don’t know, maybe he wanted Michael to drink something. I don’t know.

(Scott laughs)

But we had to separate them. God rest his soul, he was a wonderful man, but they are funny stories. There was another time when we had a big party after the opening in Paris and my father decided he didn’t want any trouble at the party. So he hired 3 big body guards who were sitting in the entrance and Oliver walked in, saw the body guards and behaved absolutely perfectly. (Laughs) There wasn’t the slightest problem.

SMB

Well at least he knew when to draw the line.

Well in those days I also did my share of drinking, not as much as him… but yes, he did.

(Both laugh)

SMB

The locations were spectacular.

Yes they were. We had an agreement with the Goverment to use certain buildings, museums, and castles which were historical. It was extraordinary that we had access to the most beautiful locations in Spain.

SMB

Was Spain your fist choice?

Yes, from the beginning. But I do seem to remember we considered Hungry for while early on. But then we realized that the look wouldn’t work.

SMB

… but never France?

No.

SMB

That’s ironic.

Well, yes, but Spain was definitely cheaper than France. There was no comparison. We were terrifically supported by the Spanish Government. Also I think the atmosphere added to the feeling of the film.

SMB

Working with swords and fight scenes had to have caused some mishaps?

Oliver Reed had a sword go clear though his wrist. It happened while filming one of the fights in the second film. It went clean through.

The fights were absolutely ruthless. I’d like to add that Christopher Lee did an exceptional job with his sword fighting for a man of his age. We were very lucky there where no “major” accidents.

SMB

They really got into it…

Oliver, particularly, got into it. It was extremely rough and it shows in the movie.

SMB

A good director will do that.

Absolutely. You know, a lot of material was improvised by Richard (Lester.) He added lines of dialog. There were even bits added to the film, after the initial filming. He was a very quick director which was great but I remember I pushed for an exterior establishing shot of the castle for the big ball scene. He agreed to do it. Another scene when the MUSKETEERS are rushing to the rescue I wanted to stop them, to hold them up. So we added the bees. What’s extraordinary with Lester is he’s very quick to come up with a solution to a problem, in a creative way. That’s what makes it a Lester film. I think it has to do with the amount of energy, the intensity in the making of the film. It all shows in the finished product.

Left to Right: Ilya Salkind, Pierre Spengler, Richard Chamberlain

SMB

THE MUSKETEERS like BLUEBEARD, SUPERMAN, SUPERGIRL and SANTA CLAUS are all larger than life. Though two are more based in reality than the others there is a presence, a mythic quality about them.

Yes, you’re correct about that. There is. It’s something my father liked. THE MUSKETEERS are of course from classic literature and were in a sense the superheros of its day. I suppose there in something in what you’re saying.

SMB

Well, it’s the stuff of what makes movies, movies - larger than life.

Well I think you’re right which is why I’m about to tackle the most largest of legends next, THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN. Film is a very peculiar thing. It’s taking something unreal and making it convincing ... no making the audience “believe” it’s real.

… THE ADVENTURES CONTINUE.

Ilya Salkind today

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