We continue today with our interview
of comedian, radio, television and film star, Alan Young (born 1919),
originally conducted in 1995.
Any recollections of make-up
man Bill Tuttle?
I do.
(Laughs.) I do on Time Machine. I
think I had him on something else before Time Machine, but I've forgotten! But
I do have a remembrance of when he made me up to be my own father at the age of
80, or something like that. He put the makeup all over, and did the bald head
wig, and all of that sort of thing. And as I was about to leave, he gave me a
small bottle of glue. I asked him what it was for, and he said: "George
can't afford to have a makeup man on the set, so when the rubber begins to peel
off, stick it back on with this glue!"
I said, "Gosh! I'm stealing your work!" He said, "You're
welcome to it!"
I think
that later on, in the afternoon, we didn't start shooting my scenes until 4:00,
and my face was peeling off and I had to stick it all on again. I do remember
Mr. Tuttle.
Great story! The Time
Machine stands out from the science fiction films of that era because there is
an almost melancholy, bittersweet quality to the story. I guess that's best
embodied by the relationship between George and Filby. Was that in the script,
or did it come about in the playing?
To me it
was evident in the script, and to Rod also, and then the chemistry took over. I
felt such warmth towards him and compassion, and he felt the same for me. We
didn't know each other too well during the picture, and we didn't talk too much
because he was so busy, and I was busy looking around for other work. It really
wasn't until 30 years later when we made a little documentary on the film that
we got know each other, about five-six years ago, and the chemistry between the
two of us was still there.
We'll get to the
documentary in a moment, which is an interesting work. When you played David
Filby and his son Jamie as both a young and an old man, were you drawing on
your own father? How did you go about developing the characters?
I'm sure I
drew on my own father without really knowing it. He was such a gentle man, very
loving and very supportive. And that's what I thought Filby would be, very
supportive of his friend. The son, of course, would be, of course, English,
raised in England, and would be a very different type of person. The son would
be a very, "hail fellow, well met" sort of thing, and he would have a
certain empathy for his neighbor. I wanted there to be quite a difference
between the two, so I made the son more English.
That essential
kindness, though, is I think the core of the character. You're such a dear,
dear man in that film.
Well,
that's my father. He supported people. He was never much of a leader, but you
could count on him for anything. That's what I thought George should be for
Filby -- he's a torment for Filby, because that's what he puts him through, but
Filby supports him even though he doesn't understand anything he's doing.
Any memories of
working with Sebastian Cabot, Tom Helmore, or Whit Bissell?
I had met
Whit Bissell years before when I did my radio show. He did the commercial time.
I had no idea he was
an announcer!
Oh, yeah.
He wasn't an announcer, he was an actor and did the commercials for Bristol
Meyers. We worked together quite a few times and I got to know him. Tom Helmore I had never met before,
and I had never met Sebastian before, but we got rather friendly. He was a
great cricket buff.
How long did you work
on The Time Machine?
Not too
long! George couldn't afford it, and we shot my scenes in two and a half weeks.
He had to work fast and they put him under terrible time and budgetary
restraints.
Tell me about the
documentary on The Time Machine.
I was doing
a musical comedy down in San Diego, and they sent me the script. So I learned
it up in the car going back up to Los Angeles. We shot it in about two, two and
a half hours. That's why I said that when Rod and I saw each other again, the
chemistry was so good, we just picked up again after 30 years.
You both look as if
you're having a very good time.
Oh, we
enjoyed it! In fact, after that, we began to meet with the producer of the
documentary on the possibility of doing a Time Machine sequel.
Wow! For years George
Pal was talking of doing a sequel to The Time Machine!
Well, we
met here in my house many, many times. We'd draft out ideas and put them on
tape and send them out for writers to write, but we never got what the producer
wanted. I think there is finally a script that is pretty acceptable. I don't
know what he's doing with it. I think Rod lost a little interest in it because
nothing has happened with it. But we wanted to keep it just the way we thought
George Pal would want to do it.
The tenor of that type
of film has changed incredibly in the decades since The Time Machine.
Oh yes!
I think this sort of
fantastic film, like Tom Thumb or The Time Machine, are too good natured in
this current atmosphere of depressing, downbeat, hard-edged action pictures or
nasty-minded fantasy films.
Well,
that's what we thought! We tried to counteract it with ingenuity. We know it
had to stay close to George Pal's concept, and H.G. Wells' concept. The
Victorian base was a good one because it had a quietness and a gentleness, yet
it is a seething generation because it was just ready to burst forth into the
Twentieth Century. We kept at that, and then we found adventures that we
thought would make up for all the violence and the nastiness, and yet would
have a little moral to it. Just a hint of a moral, nothing shoved down anyone's
throat. I think we had a pretty good story worked out, and everybody else
seemed to think so. I don't know what happened with it. In this business, you
learn to just sit and wait.
I wish you luck. I'd love
to see a Time Machine sequel, and a return to that kind of thoughtful,
responsible, and fun fantasy film.
I would,
too!
More Alan Young tomorrow!
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