May 9, 2013

GLIMPSES: FINEST HOUR 144, AUTUMN 2009

BY PETER WILLES

Peter Willes (1913-1991) was an actor and producer whose acting career began with Call It a Day in 1937; in 1939 he played supporting roles in two Basil Rathbone films, The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Frank Capra (1897-1991) was a film director who produced numerous tours de force including It Happened One Night (1934), Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936), You Can’t Take It With You (1938), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) and It’s a Wonderful Life (1946).

==================

2024 International Churchill Conference

Join us for the 41st International Churchill Conference. London | October 2024

More

Daniel J. Mehta through Sir Martin Gilbert sends us this obscure reference to Churchill’s portrait painting, from Orton Diaries: The Joe Orton Memoirs, edited by John Lahr (London: Methuen; New York: Harper & Row, 1986, rep. 1989), 36. John Kinsley “Joe” Orton (1933-1967) was a playwright known for his “outrageously macabre black comedies.” In 1967 he was bludgeoned to death by his lover Kenneth Halliwell, who then committed suicide.

“Orton’s diaries are notorious (and, it has to be said, not for the faint-hearted),” writes Mr. Mehta, “though there seems to be little reason why he would fabricate this anecdote. Unfortunately this short entry is the beginning and the end of it.”

21ST DECEMBER 1966:

Peter Willes told me that when he was young in the Thirties he stayed for the weekend at a house where Churchill was a guest. During the visit Churchill suggested that he do a painting of Willes. Willes said he agreed reluctantly, because he thought it rather a bore. At the end of the visit Churchill presented him with some dreadful daub and Willes threw it out of the train going home. Now Churchill’s paintings sell for thousands of pounds. Willes is awfully cross.”

(Churchill didn’t often paint portraits, saying, “a tree doesn’t complain that I haven’t done it justice.” But neither did his wife, judging by his portrait of her launching HMS Indomitable in 1939. Painted from a photo, 1954, it was reproduced on the cover of Finest Hour 83, First Quarter, 1994.)

FRANK CAPRA

From The Name Above the Title: An Autobiography (New York: Macmillan, 1971). First reprinted in Finest Hour 26, Spring 1972.

1937:

For the luncheon, Alex [filmmaker Alexander Korda] had invited two other guests, both English, both wore the dark coats and wing collars that seemed to denote importance in Britain. But, as usual, I didn’t catch their names. One was a grayish, blandish man; not unlike one of the well-dressed, inconspicuous extras in Hollywood that directors choose—because of their low-key charisma—to back up stars in close-ups.

But no director in his right mind would ever use the other Englishman as a backdrop for stars, for he immediately caught your eye with his extraordinary vitality and boldness. Some call it presence; others prefer leadership, magnetism, personality, or what have you. Film directors describe this quality as one that “jumps right out of the screen at you.” It is a quality that one is born with. All great stars have it. In fact, all great leaders, be they heroes or villains, have it. I don’t know what “it” is exactly, but that John Bull character, sitting across the luncheon table, sure had it to spare.

His bulldog face with its jutting jaw was certainly familiar. At first I mentally put him down as some well known English character actor whose name wouldn’t come to me. He had the voice of an actor, too—like an organ, except for a slight lisp. But when he and Korda traded witticisms, Alex kept calling him “Winnie.” I knew of no British actor by the name of Winnie—at least not important enough to have lunch with Korda. So I decided the two English gentlemen were financial “prospects” being exposed to Korda’s glamour pitch.

The luncheon over, we stretched our legs before the film showing. Korda escorted me to the washroom, where I asked about his two English friends, especially the witty one who looked like John Bull. “At first,” I said, “I thought he was an actor, except that I couldn’t think of any actor by the name of Winnie.”

Alex leaned his head back and roared with laughter. “Oh, my God, Frank, you’re joking! Winnie! An actor?”

“All right, all right. But if he’s a pigeon you’re fattening up, he’s going to be a hard man to shave, I’ll tell you that.”

Korda let out a bigger roar. “Oh, I’ll tell him you think he’s a hard man to shave. He’ll love it. His name is