In the early 1950s, the Disney Studio set about making
a series of films in Great Britain. The first, of course, was Walts
first exclusively live-action film, "Treasure Island."
When that was completed, he set about work on a second British film,
"The Story of Robin Hood." This was a particularly daring
choice, given the inevitable comparisons with the earlier version
of that story starring Errol Flynn. To undertake this daunting task,
Walt hired director Ken Annakin.
Thus began a long-lasting relationship. Walt liked Kens work
so much that he hired him to direct several more films, including
"The Sword and the Rose," "Third Man on the Mountain,"
and particularly "Swiss Family Robinson" [See the Video].
Ken is a candid, charming, and witty man, and it seemed only fitting
in this, the fiftieth anniversary year of the release of "Robin Hood,"
to share some excerpts of a conversation with him.
Q. Were there
any concerns for you about indirectly competing with the great Errol
Flynn version of "Robin Hood"?
A. No, because in the planning of our picture they were very,
very determined that ours should be very, very true. We went up
to Sherwood Forest; we went up to Nottingham and the script was
written as accurately as it could be there, from all the records.
And so I thought we were probably making a truer picture than had
been made before. Now we didn't have Errol Flynn but all the things
that we had in the picture were very British and very true. Walt
was making his picture, his version.
Q. Though Walt
had clearly sketched out the story line, he wasnt actually
in England for the filming, was he?
A. He didn't stay very long on "Robin." He trusted Perce Pearce
as the producer. He came to trust me as the director and I must
say, I have never had Walt looking over my shoulder at anything.
He visited the set maybe half a dozen times, stayed probably two
or three hours maybe while we were shooting. And I remember that
he used to go off to a place very near Denham where we were shooting,
he used to go off to Beaconsfield and spend hours with a guy who
had the best model railway, I think, in the world.
Q. But his
influence on the picture was still enormous, wasnt it?
A. I realized quite quickly, especially on "Sword and the
Rose," that Walt's decisions were pretty wonderful. He was a
genius in making scenes, or in helping you to make scenes. He had
the audience, an overall family audience, in mind and he knew what
he was making for them. That was Walt's greatest genius.
.
Q. What was
it like, working in Technicolor?
A. In those days the lighting was very complicated. I mean, you
had to have much more light. I mean up on the gantries, I should
think we had 60 brutes, which is really quite something. And
the, Guy's lighting was brilliant. He's the only cameraman who really
ever worked with a key light that the whole, if you were shooting
in a forest in the studio, that key light had to be where the sun
was, with very little addition. And he would take probably an hour
or so to get that key light absolutely right.
Q. You came
into "Robin Hood" after Walt had already worked out the
story. But what was your involvement in "The Sword and the
Rose"?
A. I was deeply involved in the sketching of every sequence. This
is something I learned a great deal about from Walt. You would do
your sketches and he would come round and check them. And then you
were not, you were not as a director forced into keeping exactly
to that. But you were forced to keep exactly to the spirit of that.
And if you started diverting, you would get a question from him,
why are you doing this way? I can remember once I started [cutting
from] a sequence and Walt said, "Well, why didn't you shoot
exactly to what we'd agreed?" And I said, "Well, I was
told we were going over budget and I was trying to save a little."
He said, "Have I ever queried the budget? Have I ever asked
you to cut? Let's keep to what we agreed."
Q. Tell us
about the use of storyboards for plotting films with Walt.
A. The story was written on storyboards and then the writer added
the dialogue to the storyboards. I'd never experienced that elsewhere.
But it meant that you made that picture visually and Walt certainly
had a great feeling that pictures were a visual medium and that
you really made your point visually.
Q. Tell us
about that process for "Swiss Family Robinson."
A. In "Swiss Family" we diverted completely from the book. Walt
just said, "The book is fine, it tells of a family who are
shipwrecked, who leave Europe and who are shipwrecked on an island
and they land on the island. And they could have anything they want
there. Let's just all think of what you would like if you were with
your family there and you would like to have adventures."
And Walt would come in in the morning and say, "I just had
an idea last night. Why don't we have this and this, why don't we
have them going to, finding an elephant or finding a tiger?"
And you would say, "Well, what country is this?" He says,
"Well it doesn't matter, we can always say there was a land
bridge." And so that's why we were able to mix a few different
animals in that picture.

Ken Annakin directs James MacArthur (Fritz)
in the 1960 picture "Swiss Family Robinson"
Q. What if
you disagreed with Walts thoughts?
A. You found that if Walt really had a strong idea, and you opposed
it, then you might be in a certain amount of trouble. He would then
really stick to his idea. But if you played around it and threw
in other suggestions, then he was very, very malleable to those
suggestions. But eventually it had to go through this brain and
fit his idea of a picture.
Q. Can you
remember a time when you didnt want to go down Walts
path?
A. Well, I can certainly tell you one. In "Swiss Family" he wanted
the tiger and he wanted the tiger to be quite active. In fact he
wanted, when the dogs attack, he insisted that the dogs actually
hit the tiger, touched him. And I just said, "Well Walt, I've
been shooting in South Africa and I had a lion. And a tiger is much
less trainable than a lion, and we always had a guy with a gun there,
that if we'd had trouble, it would have been shot."
And Walt suddenly said, "Ken's afraid of a tiger." And
that thing went through the whole time. Every time we came to the
tiger, he said, "Well of course, we know Ken's afraid of the
tiger, but do you think you can possibly shoot it this way?"
And that became a gag all the way through. But because I had suggested
that there were difficulties in shooting, Walt would say, would
say, "Well I can always find somebody else to shoot the tiger
in this way."
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