Shooting 007: And Other Celluloid Adventures (39 page)

Ken kept a straight face, convinced that I could be in with a chance. With the sudden realisation that he might be telling the truth, the other sounds on the stage suddenly became strangely muted and I switched off from the ape altogether. Still unsure what to make of Ken’s message, the dream I had once considered with little expectation that it would ever happen was suddenly on the verge of becoming reality. Over the years I had enjoyed every moment working with James Bond – five films as camera operator – but never did I consider myself as a potential 007 cinematographer. The adrenalin started to flow and Ken gave me a reassuring smile and said he had told Tom that I would do well. As he left, his parting words suggested that I could get a call that night.

Our sleeping giant.

So came the longest night
ever
! Silently I rehearsed my reply to the call, should it come, pleased of course, excited certainly, but not over-excited as I tried to remain professional. The phone was working but still no call came and with Suzy not around to calm my anxiety it was past midnight and well into the early hours before I finally fell asleep.

The next day I kept the news to myself, just in case the call did not come. The longest night would be followed by the longest day as I struggled through the day’s schedule. Ken dropped by to see if I had heard anything, though more likely it was to see if Cubby had taken his advice, but with no call from Pinewood it was back to concentrating on the saga of King Kong.

Returning to my apartment, I checked the phone, but still no messages, and I told myself that it was now too late back home for any news. It was long past midnight when the sweet purring sound of the instrument finally summoned me to pick up the receiver; it was Tom, confirming the offer to photograph the new James Bond film!

This was an emotional moment for me, where all my prepared thoughts and responses to Tom’s call suddenly came to nothing. I was lost for words; this had to be the most exciting time since I came into the film industry in 1946. Not surprisingly, I quickly accepted Cubby’s Broccoli’s generous invitation, punching the air as I thanked Tom. At least he cannot see the tears in my eyes even as I type this …

With all this going on in my head I barely slept that night, but at least it seemed that the plan was finally coming together – if a little late! Obviously this opportunity had come my way because Alan Hume was unavailable, but with other prominent cinematographers no doubt phoning their agents to remind them of their availability, the odds on me would have been long. I would even have betted against myself, but my particular dream had become reality: Alec Mills had finally been recognised as a cinematographer and would photograph
The Living Daylights
!

Lying awake that night, unable to sleep, I was reminded of John Glen’s promise to me in the Black Horse, asking me to come out of my so-called ‘retirement’ to operate the camera on
Octopussy
. His words still clearly echoed in my head: ‘Alec, do this for me and I promise you will not regret it!’

At the time, it never occurred to me that John was serious with this comment, but with Alan committed to another film John could now honour that pledge, which would leave me forever grateful to him.

We all need a little help and luck at times. Both came my way in abundance, although if I am really honest I still believe that fate played its hand in this. Now of course I could not get back to England quickly enough.

After receiving all the congratulations handed out on the
King Kong
set it was necessary to keep a level head and concentrate on the job in hand; with four weeks still to go, this was no time for cock-ups – sorry, mistakes! John Guillermin smiled and gave his best wishes, which again left me wondering who had put my name forward to go to Wilmington in the first place. Obviously it could only have been John himself, his conscience perhaps righting a wrong? Whether or not my trip to America was luck or predetermined, it was still another small part of Alec Mills’s imaginary journey.

Whatever one chooses to believe, there had been too many ‘coincidences’ in my life even before this bizarre series of events which, you may remember, all started with a strange phone call from America. Then I asked myself if all this nonsense was in my imagination and just one of my own daft fantasies. The answer was simple. I would stick with my daydreams where anything is possible with secret agent 007!

As age fast crept up, I realised that I had inherited a bad memory. It would seem that I had worked with John Glen before without realising it. This came to light when reading John’s autobiography
For My Eyes Only
, where I discovered that John was the sound editor on
A Cry from the Streets
, the same film on which I first met Lewis Gilbert and Peter Hunt, but as a busy clapper boy I would hardly have noticed such things. Many years and films would pass before we all met up with James Bond, where I had been the camera operator for Peter while filming
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
, later working with John in the bowels of a goldmine as second-unit cameraman on
Gold
. The last piece of our professional relationship finally slotted into place when John invited me to be his cinematographer on
The Living Daylights
, and the tree which I had struggled to climb finally bore fruit.

There was also a new James Bond. Timothy Dalton inherited the coveted role from Roger Moore, although, as it had for Alan and me, the opportunity had come his way by
force majeure
after Pierce Brosnan was forced to turn down the role – much to his reported annoyance – due to a previous commitment to the NBC television series
Remington Steele
. Tim is a fine actor and arrived on the scene bringing a harder-edged approach to the secret agent, reminiscent of the earlier Sean Connery era. However, when a new face replaces an established actor biased supporters take sides, making their opinions known about who they think is the best Bond – if not always fairly. Generally the public are inclined to favour the predecessor, which in this case was of course Roger Moore.

You can be sure that similar comparisons would be made between cinematographers, with Alan Hume and Alec Mills being judged in the same way. Alan was a hard act to follow, a fine cinematographer with a great deal of experience, but this would be my sixth mission with 007 so I had little reason to feel uncomfortable in such friendly surroundings. But – there is always a ‘but’ in my case – conscious of the self-inflicted pressure that I put on myself, I was also aware that the first day would be important – very important – as the contract had yet to arrive in the post.

Photographic tests were as helpful to me as they were for Timothy Dalton, who was working in the shadow of his predecessor. Timothy’s camera-friendly test was a normal procedure on Bond films to see how the new secret agent comes across on the screen photographically. It happened that Tim’s test would be shot on a kitchen set where a vicious fight takes place using the heavy cooking utensils to hand for one glorious Bond punch-up, and we also shot a more sensitive sequence written twenty years earlier from
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
.

Filming in Pinewood guarantees that the cinematographer enjoys the best facilities and projection that one could ask for, leaving little room for excuses should my efforts fail to impress. James Bond should look magnificent, unassailable, particularly with Cubby Broccoli and John Glen scrutinising the results in Theatre 7. It seemed that both were pleased with everything on the screen. Taking me aside, Cubby said, ‘Looks great, Alec!’ Even so, the pressure would stay with me for some time.

John Glen had proved his credentials as Cubby’s choice of director when working on earlier Bond films as editor and then second-unit director. Having directed the last three Bond films, he was also well aware of the daily routine on a film set. Directors and cinematographers are both aware of the rules regarding schedules and budgets, to which I would be no exception, but there are occasions when the cinematographer needs to make an adjustment to his lighting after a rehearsal, which would probably take a couple of minutes to correct. John’s face would drop as anticipated as he heaved a sigh: ‘A couple of minutes?’

His sigh suggested his frustration at my request, with which I would learn to live. John was not serious, of course, but at the same time it was a convenient reminder that I should not make a habit of this. Our lives are full of strategies and politics, and I would learn to handle these tricky situations without offending anyone. Even so, the mental demands I placed on myself would eat away inside me during the filming. I could not remember such pressure before, even on
Shaka Zulu
. However, I would quickly adjust to others’ problems, trusting that they would do the same for me.

The established 007 formula continued to please, this time with locations in Gibraltar, Austria and Morocco, where the customary action scenes would involve the camera crews working in dangerous situations alongside the stuntmen. Cameras are always positioned for maximum dramatic effect to capture that spectacular moment, which usually works well, but should anything go wrong it could leave both stuntmen and camera crews seriously injured. Fatalities are rare, although not unknown. I had my own close call at Ouarzazate airport.

One particular scene demanded my concentration to be fixed on what was happening in front of camera, so I was paying little attention to what was going on behind. In this case it was a Moroccan Air Force C130 Hercules aircraft which was fast closing on me. With the noise of the engines competing with the smoke and battle raging in front of the camera, I was unwittingly backing into the aircraft’s path. Apparently the pilot was trying to attract John’s attention to what was happening but, wearing ear defenders, I could not hear John’s warning as the battle raged on. The outcome remained in the balance until suddenly I found myself being pulled back from the closing propellers – a close call with my thanks going to John, who pulled me to safety.

With the exterior filming completed, we returned to Pinewood Studios, where the most expensive sets awaited our arrival and where the cinematographer could now enjoy complete control over his work. The major sequences included all of the location interiors as well as Bond’s fight with bad guy Necros (Andreas Wisniewski), which perfectly matched the exteriors filmed halfway around the world in Morocco and over the American desert. Another clever sleight of hand was to use reflections of children dressed as adults in the window of the Prater Park café set to give the impression of greater space.

On location in October 1986 with Timothy Dalton and director John Glen, while filming some of the earlier night sequences outside the Musikverein Concert Hall in Vienna for
The Living Daylights
. (© 1987 Danjaq, LLC and United Artists Corporation. All rights reserved)

During the filming we had an official visit by Prince Charles and Princess Diana, who came on the set where we were filming the sequences in Q’s workshop. Apparently both enjoyed their walk-about as flashbulbs captured every moment of the royal visit, during which the couple generously posed for a photograph of Diana breaking a sugar-glass bottle over Charles’s head. I was fortunate to be introduced in the line-up, if a little disappointed they didn’t ask for my autograph. I could not help but smile when Charles first spoke to John, saying, ‘And what do you do?’