The anatomy of a thriller

Continued from Page 1 caped scot-free. This may be an accurate reflection of the Victorian society, where many times the criminals never got caught, although these robbers did eventually meet up with the law."

In the movie, the crooks have to duplicate four keys for two safes, but in the real robbery, there were actually six keys and three safes.

"I think that the Victorian era is an enormously interesting period. It was the start of real urbanization. At that time, London was the largest city in the world. Now, of course, many of us are living in large 'cities. To me, "The Great Train Robbery' was really a story of the industrial revolution, and the train symbolized that change. The locomotoive was an incredible machine that revolutionized everything."

The movie features a hilarious conversation between Connery and a banker's wife (he is trying to get

If he had pursued a career as a doctor, he said he would have either become a psychiatrist or a surgeon and 'sometimes I think both are the same.'

into her good graces). He speaks in double entendres to the woman who relishes each implication.

"In the book, this scene was essentially a long monolog instead of a conversation. Well, the producer John Foreman and I worked this out while ordering great cups of coffee at Claridge's Hotel in London. We had both just arrived from the States and were suffering from jet lag. What we were trying to suggest was that kind of hypocrisy that existed in converation. This is hard to do because in addition to being plausible, we wanted to be at least a little funny"

They succeeded.

Crichton was questioned about a statment attributed to him that he could teach anyone to direct in four hours

"Orson Welles was the one who said four hours. I said one day. What both of us actually meant was that you could teach someone what they needed to know in order to direct in that amount of time. The technical information you must have to make a film as a director is really rather limited, especially if you have someone to clean up for you

"For example, let me explain how easy it can be to direct a film. The producer generally does the casting. When you arrive to start shooting, the sets have been built. You say to the actors, ‘Okay, let's rehearse. Make it look natural.'

"Then the camerman will suggest to you, 'How about a long shot for this scene and then we'll pull in for a close up.' And you say, "That sounds great!" "You yell, 'Action!' and then 'Cut!"

"Now the film has been completed, and the editor takes it and edits it, and finally the composer adds the musical score and there

the film has been made and you've done nothing.”

Crichton admitted that he was somewhat simplifying the role of the director, but he always stresses that directing is an enormously collaborative and complicated process.

"To be honest, I don't remember what I did, what producer Foreman did and what the cast did. Connery made a tremendous contribution."

When watching "The Great Train Robbery," one is struck by the lighting, which lends a hazy look of an era gone by.

"There were two processes involved. First, the lighting camerman and I strove to simulate the look of coal gas by painting all the light sources, the light bulbs, a greenish color. Then we added a warm, yellow tinge in the lab. The sepia tone that the movie begins. and ends with was a post-production process."

Certain sequences proved harrowing. No doubles were used. There is a lot of footage with Connery himself on top of a train traveling at 55 miles an hour. Connery jumps from compartment to compartment, making it look effortless. Actually the scenes were quite dangerous. Connery once fell from the train.

"Shooting of the sequence took place from a helicopter flying overhead," Crichton explained. "The camerman operated from a little seat dangling from the plane. There was only room for him and the pilot in the helicopter. So I'd go up first and line up the shot, but I would have to travel on the train during the shooting.

"It was nerve-wracking, because I'd be sitting on the train wearing a top hat, and I might as well have been an extra. I couldn't look out

'Gigolo' role to Gere

HOLLYWOOD (PP) Richard Gere will play the title role of "American Gigolo" after John Travolta withdrew from the film for personal reasons.

in

Gere previously starred "Looking for Mr. Goodbar," "Days of Heaven," and "Bloodbrothers," and will be seen in the upcoming "Yanks."

the window ou I'd ruin the scene. I would hear all these thump and thug noises above me, but I couldn't see the scene until it had all been shot.

"One day I felt a pain in my head, and then there was a funny smell. I realized that my hair was on fire from the locomotive. As I was trying to get at my hair, I saw Sean's jacket flying to the ground. Then came Sean. He had fallen from the train. Fortunately, he was not seriously injured."

Another difficult scene was a tense 75-second interval when Donald Sutherland, as the master locksmith, had to duplicate two keys in the dispatcher's office of the train.

"There was a certain rhythm needed, and I think we probably shot that one scene for two solid weeks."

During the interview, the only change in Crichton's usually pleasant disposition occurred when a reporter asked him about the use of violence in one of the scenes. A nasty petty crook named Willie is strangled, not by Connery's character, as some viewers have mistakenly thought, but by another passing crook.

"I always imagined "The Great Train Robbery' to be a family picture, so I am amazed and a little angered at a question about its violence. Now I couldn't sit through a movie like 'Midnight Express' because of the homosexual scenes and the violent beatings. Don't get

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Filmmaker who studied to be a doctor

makes movie-goers' hearts beat faster

me wrong; it was a well done, gripping movie, but I don't know who wants to watch grueling beatings.

"So here I go and make this gentle, pleasant movie where there are no guns and no blood-baths, and I'm naturally surprised by a question about the film's violence. I'm just trying to make films similar to the ones I liked as a kid."

Movies he particuarly enjoyed as a youngster include the works of Akira Kurosawa, Alfred Hitchcock and Ingmar Bergman, although he said he liked the films of Bergman more as a teen-ager than he does

now.

If he had pursued a career as a doctor, he said he would have either become a psychiatrist or a surgeon and "sometimes I think both are the same."

Crichton said his medical background proved excellent training for directing in a couple of ways.

"For one, in medical school, you learn to acquire new skills very easily. You come to class and the professor says, "Today we will perform a lumbar puncture.' This repeatedly happens. So now when you become a director, naturally nothing seems intimidating. You just say to yourself, 'Okay' and you go and do it. It doesn't frighten you that you don't know what you're doing.

"Secondly, being a doctor, you become accustomed to being authoritative. You constantly tell på-

tients what to do, and you say things like, 'If you don't do this or that, you'll die.' This makes it easier to issue orders as a director."

Crichton maintains that he has always felt relatively pleased with his novels and his directing efforts, feeling that he has done as well as he could have. However, making a movie and writing a book are quite different processes.

"When you're writing, you can really have a sense that, for better or worse, it is totally yours. But with a movie, you can never have that sense. I feel as if I'm at the head of an army. There's a certain exhilaration to making a movie. There you are, zooming through

train tunnels at fast speeds, and you could all die. It's not like sitting alone for hours at the typewriter."

Crichton has finished several new novels, including a story set in modern Hawaii called "The Ash Horizon." His novel "Eaters of the Dead," a tale about Seventh Century Vikings becoming involved with the Byzantine Empire, willbe made into a movie, also to be produced by John Foreman.

Another of his books that he hopes to direct for the screen will be an adventure set in present-day Africa. "The title keeps changing. I can tell you today's title, it's called "Zinj.' But I don't think anyone will sit tight on that one.”

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