my life in films

1972
FRENZY…Director…Alfred Hitchcock…I am now working with the Master of filming.Where I was born in Islington London, there was a huge warehouse type building on the corner of the Grand Union Canal in New North Road. (Very near the North Pole Pub)It was in fact a film studio. As a kid in the forties I used to swim in the canal as it cost nothing entrance fee. (You had to watch out for the large Mocking birds floating on top of the water)I think the studio was called Gainsborough and as a kid I remember strangely dressed people popping into the pub on the corner of New North Road and Elizabeth Avenue. (Supporting Artists of the past)Anyway, that’s where Alfred Hitchcock made many of his films.(I could have bumped into him while I was going swimming and he was popping in for a swift half. It’s a small world)ONTO THE FILM…I was now the not so proud owner of an old Bedford van and was booked by the 2nd A.D. on Frenzy to report to Covent Garden fruit market for the start of a weeks work...There must have been fifty supporting artists working that week as market porters.It was thirty years ago but some people still come to mind, like Big Mo Dunster who was stand/in on films for Donald Sutherland. Jimmy (the crow) Hammilton, Eddie Dillon And Bill (the body) Hemmings.I remember the day that Donald Sutherland came down to speak to Mo about a private matter and got into one of the shots.(Everyone wants to be in a Hitchcock movie)Mo has done well for himself and now lives in the U.S.A. looking after the Sutherland clan. Best wishes Mo, love Boysie.Mr. Hitchcock was not very well while he was directing this film and would line up all the shots he wanted and leave the running around to his 1st A.D. (Colin Brewer, I think)We filmed all around the market for the next week or so loading vans and unloading vans (Including my old Bedford) but I was more interested in watching the Master at work. Then near the end of the shoot in the market it happened.The Master looked at me then at the 1st A.D. and said…‘’Tell that man to climb up on that lorry and start unloading it’’(‘’That man’’) he said my name, I was being directed by the great man himself.We shot a lot of the inside of the film at Pinewood. Then some stuff with the Bedford Following a potato lorry up and down major roads and that was it.I was sorry to see the end of the filming but it’s one film I will never forget.If you’re looking down from that great studio in the sky Mr. Hitchcock ‘’That Man’’ will say hello when he gets there.Aitch,