• INTERVIEW •

The 'brutalization' of Your Ticket Is No Longer Valid

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l:. .~ rla{fiS .. · d RiCnar d \}a1id lea \..onger 1.c.... e \ I s tlo • ,{our \ _ r, an producer Stephen Roth

Richard Harris responds to Robert Lantos

Cinema Canada: Let's start with the falsifications. I consulted a lawyer to see Richard Harris: I was in Toronto doing by Tom Perlmutter Robert Lantos interview that upset you about the pos$ibility of suing because it a picture called High Point. I got a so much. How did you come across it? ·was exceedingly damaging. A producer phone call from my agent at the time, Richard Harris: It was sent to me by a may have an opinion of an actor and an Marty Baum. Marty Baurn plays a very During a recent Canadian tour of a Canadian producer. actor's performance. He is entitled to leading role in Mr Lantos' manipulation theatrical production of Camelot, that But Robert Lantos went far in ex­ of the whole project. Marty was a very British actor Richard Harris learned of cess of that. He made statements that I successful independent agent. Then he remarks made about his role in the Cinema Canada: Was there a note at­ deliberately destroyed his picture. He was head of ABC films , where he made Canadian film Your Ticket Is No tached to it? made statements to the effect that I some very successful films. He then be­ Longer Valid (1980) that appeared in Richard Harris: Yes. The producer never read the script; that I only read came an independent producer and Cinema Canada's interview with pro­ suggested I read certain sections of it. I the script on transit to location and, hat­ then went back to being an agent He is ducer Robert Lantos in issue no. 123 contacted him and he said he thought it ing the script, set about to destroy the regarded as being one of the most reli­ last October. At Richard Harris' re­ was exceedingly damaging. He believed picture; that I only did the picture for able agents in the business. He is also quest, the fOllowing interview in To­ the article hadn't done me any good money. I found his comments exceed­ one of the most honest and tasteful. ronto with Cinema Canada allowed whatsoever in Canada. ingly offensive and unworthy, even for He's a wonderful reader of scripts. Lan­ Harris to respond to the allegations Robert Lantos. Mr. Lantos was quite tos and Roth had contacted him and he contained in the Lantos interview. aware of the extensive preparations I put them in touch with me. They left Cinema Canada: What was your first had done for the picture in terms of me the script which I immediately read. reaction when you read Lantos' com­ script and character analysis. I asked for a copy of the book on which Formerly Cinema Canada's Toronto re­ ments? the sCript was based. They didn't have a porter, Tom Perlmutter is a freelance Richard Harris: I was horrified, abso­ Cinema Canada: How did you get in­ copy. After a lot of pain and search I journalist and playwright. lutely horrified by the inaccuracy and volved in the project in the first place? found a copy of the book and read it. I

February 1986 - Cinema Canada /17 • INTERVIEW • found the script exceedingly interesting lantos'S statement absolutely immoral. der to direct the picture. And I walked Cinema Canada: Did you feel that but in certain aspects it was inexplicit. I And he knew because I produced my to my caravan. with Robert Lantos you were working then had meetings with Lantos, Roth notes. Lantos speedily came down to the set. with someone who was highly crea­ and the director, George Kaczender. I I told him he had lied to me. He sat tive? met George for the first time. They told Cinema Canada: Were y ou meeting there very, very quiet. I said, however, Richard Harris: Not at all. What trans­ me what he had done. I made, for me, with the SCriptwriter at the point where that's a f ait accompli. What you do in· pired during the making of the picture the usual inquiry into his abilities as a your ideas about the man were being your private life is your own business, was very interesting. I had this wonder­ director. I got a copy of a film that he discussed and accepted? but I don't wart it interfering with the ful idea about the end of the picture. At had directed, In Praise of Older Richard Harris: No, we never met. picture. I had very high hopes fot this the end, my character decides to com­ Women. I found it an interesting pic­ This is another strange behaviour on picture. mit suicide. Before he does so he takes ture but very sloppy. It appeared to me their part. They stopped meeting me to­ From then on, they made rewrites. off a hairpiece and he looks like a to have fragments of such cohesion and gether. They came one at a time. I was The director was coming to me with grotesque caricature of a human being­ then of such sloppiness. I had to. put it meeting either with the director or one ideas for rewrites as we went along. I little band-aids that kept the hairpiece down to editing problems. It's impossi­ of the two producers. never forced a rewrite on anybody in in place. At a pre-ordained strike of a ble for a director to have that kind of the picture. Prior to the starting of the clock, as he walks to his death, his left style and for it to go out of style every Cinema Canada: Had you agreed by picture I did. I asked for rewrites but shoe falls off and we discover he's limp­ now an

18/Cinema Canada - February 1986 • INTERVIEW • Lantos' motives for the picture were was not unfaithful and the audience his father on him, how demoralized he cut. I offered to fly to Montreal at no purely and simply to establish Miss Dale would think she was. And we musn't has become with the new world. Jen­ cost and that I would pay for the cost of as a major international motion-picture have the audience believe for a moment nifer doesn't come in for 35 minutes. the editing if they gave me the opportu­ star. Lantos approached my agent to ask that Dale's character is responsible for When we got to Montreal for the public nity to assemble the picture that we saw if he would represent her. Having some­ this man falling in love or becoming screening, she is in right at the begin­ in its original form, and I could sQll take one like me, who at that time had acces­ sexually attracted to a male. The whole ning of the picture. Everything prior to 15-20 minutes out of it. sibility in terms of distribution and my issue of possible homosexuality was of­ it is taken out of the picture and my per­ After three-four months Stephen name in America would somewhat fensive. It w as an extraordinary situa­ formance is indeed, erratic and, in Roth finally called me in the Bahamas. guarantee an American release and she tion to be in. places, ludicrous. If you take the ghost He said,'we'll take you up on your offer.' would be the somewhat star of the pic­ Lantos accuses me of terrorizing the out of Hamlet you are left w ith a Ham­ They were now destitute. People had ture with me and so forth. set and playing the part like Julius let which is a raving lunatic. If you cut seen it. It was a joke, a shambling joke. I was now faced with a producer who Caesar. I don't know' what that means. the handkerchief from Othello, you are I fl ew to Montreal. I went to the edit­ is offering me objections to a script There is one moment in the picture, in left with a perfect example of a ing room and met the editor. I asked two-thirds through the picture for the fact, when the character has a pain in paranoid. They brutalized the film. him what had gone wrong. He said that ilimsiest of reasons that it would denig­ his groin. He gets out of the bed, takes When I saw Kaczender he told me Robert Lantos had stood over his shoul­ rate the actress playing the part. To me the sheets off and walks out of the room that the picture had been taken out of der bullying, screaming and intimidat­ it is absolutely meaningless. into another room and sits in a chair his hands by Lantos. Lantos destroyed ing. He wanted to cut as much of the draped in this white sheet that looked the picture. There is a scene in the pic­ homosexual thing because of Jennifer. Cinema Canada: Did you feel there like a toga. And because I have a Roman ture to which I referred earlier. She is We finished the work in a day or two. I was any point in carrying on? At that face or a Roman nose, I suppose Lantos having a bath and I walk in and look at showed it to Stephen Roth that night. point didn't you just want to finish got an image of Julius Caesar. It's in­ her nose. Lantos wanted that out of the He stood up and threw his hands and get out as quickly as you could? comprehensible that this man couldn't _ picture because Jennifer's nose was per­ around me and said, 'you saved it. Richard Harris: No, not at all. I don't see beyond that or was incapable of se­ fectly straight but he left in th~ bath se­ Thank you so much.' suppose I ever worked so hard on a eing beyond that. quence without me so you see her hav- Nevertheless what they released was film. I worked 18 hours a day, well into not what Roth and I saw when we re­ the night with only four-five hours edited the film. Apparently while I was sleep and back into the shoot again. in Montreal, Robert Lantos was in Paris making ,a deal. That's why they let me Cinema Canada: Despite all the sud­ come in. When he came back, he appa­ den revelations of objections from the rently went beserk and demanded that producer, you still had faith that the director had some control over the film? Richard Harris: Yes, my relationship with the director was fine. I remember he came to me one day, pale and shak­ ing. Lantos had accused him the night before of betraying Jennifer Dale and favouring Richard Harris in the film. Kaczender said he was on the verge of collapse with the aggravation. Let me give you an example of how Lantos was behaving. He came to my room one day to talk about the script. I was at the time sepa­ rated from my wife Ann, but she'd come to see me for the week-end. The hotel­ room had winding oak stairs to the bed­ • On the Your Ticket shoot: Harris and Kacz ender, room. Lantos heard the noise from the above; Harris and co-star Dale, right bedroom and he accused me of having somebody up there listening to· our conversation. I told him there was a lady up there. He said that I had some­ I'll tell you something else. When the ing a bath with her tits bare, because Mr the picture be returned to its disastrous body up there listening to our conver­ picture was finished, we came to see Lantos has a tendency towards pornog­ state. That is the extent of his vindic­ sation for evidence. I asked him for the first assemblage. Marty Baum flew in raphy in his past movies. In the original tiveness. what evidence. He then accused me of from Los Angeles and a man called John scene, there is a camera down on the What about the investors? Were they tape-recording the conversation. He Van Eyssan who was once the head of floor shooting her in the bubble bath. told that we offered the six million dol­ said that the atmosphere wasn't conge­ Columbia Pictures in London and has You see my legs walking across the lars to get out of it clean, get their nial to a discussion about the script be­ been a friend of mine and somewhat ar­ camera before she looks up. The camera money back while we would take the cause of that. I shouted up to Ann, and tistic advisor to me for years. One of the goes up and sees me looking at her. risk? Were they told that? she eventually came out, and intro­ most tasteful and weB-read men I have They left in the legs crOSSing the cam­ Let me ask you something else. If I duced him to my wife. It was an alarm­ ever met. We sat in Montreal and saw era. All of a sudden, Jennifer is in one had behaved, as Lantos says I behaved, ing outburst. two hours of the fllm. Afterwards, Marty spot doing something, the next moment why, therefore, six months later, did his Let me give you another example. Baum got up and said, ''You are going to she's in the bath and the next moment partner Stephen Roth ask me to meet Kaczender and I came up with a won­ win the Academy Award. It is stunning. she's back in the pre-bath scene. him in New York and offer me another derful scene. My character comes to I have never seen a performance in In contradiction to Lantos's remarks picture? look for the young lady one day. He sees depth or detail like that." John threw his that I didn't care for the film, Marty Mr. Lantos has the right, absolutely, white roses on the table and is con­ arms around me-he knew some of the Baum and I tried to buy it back. I asked the absolute categoric right to say that vinced that she is having an affair with heartbreak I was going through making Mr Roth how much the picture cost. He he didn't like my performance in the somebody else. He goes in where she is it-~d said,"It's an incredible picture." said, six million. Marty said he could picture. That's his right. I wouldn't deny having a bath. He looks at her face. He That evening, when we all went to our raise the money. I said: 'Let us buy the him that right. He doesn't have the right knows he's going to die but she doesn't. rooms, Lantos rang Marty Baum and picture back, every bit of footage, to go further than that and to say that I He looks at her and touches her nose asked him to represent Jennifer. sound-track, continuity sheets, every­ sabotaged his picture. It wasn't true at and says, I invented this line, ''You Three months later, there was a pub­ thing. I know we have masterpiece.' all. In fact, the contrary is true. I did ev­ know, for the first time I've noticed that lic showing in Montreal. We all came Marty said we could probably raise five erything in my life to save it. I put my your nose is not straight." He walks out back to see it again. I sat in horror in the million. I said to him I'll put back my money where my mouth was, where my the door, sees the flowers and can't help cinema in total embarrassment. They million-dollar salary to make it up to instincts were. feel rage. He charges down and frags the had taken 50-60 minutes out of the film. six. Mary called Roth, with the offer. flowers. That scene was taken out of the They had restructured it totally. Would they be prepared to sell the piC­ Cinema Canada: Would y ou still be picture. In our script, the script submitted to ture back for the negative cost? He was willing to buy back the original pic­ Lantos said Jennifer Dale's nose is not Richard Harris to perform in, Jennifer turned down. Mr. Lantos said he had a ture? crooked, it's a perfect nose! How can Dale doesn't come into the film for the perfect belief in the film. Richard Harris: It's too late now. It's you do this? He also objected to the first 30 minutes. He talks about her but At this stage I was absolutely desti­ into cassettes so some of the ancillary scene after it was shot because it re­ you don't see her. It's all to do with this tute. I rang them time and time again, rights are gone. Where are we going to duced the character ofJennifer. Jennifer man's coUapsing empire, the effect of begging them to go back to the other get back our investment? •

February 1986 - Cinema Canada /19