My Sentiments Exactly by Keith Baxter Oberon Books 198pp, £15.99 in UK
Who is Keith Baxter, the author of this book of theatrical reminiscences? He has worked for over forty years, primarily in the theatre - as an actor, director and playwright - with the occasional roles in feature films and on television. I had never heard of him and had no great expectations for this book. How wrong I was. After a standard and brief recital of his childhood and youth, the book takes wing, describing the seven months he worked on Orson Welles's now highly regarded film, Chimes at Midnight, playing Prince Hal to Welles's Falstaff. Baxter's portrait is well-written, perceptive, and amusing, and his assessment of Welles coincides with mine.
I first saw Welles in 1946. He was lying on the floor of my father's office with his head resting on a wastepaper basket, spinning out ideas of how he was going to write, direct, and appear in a musical stage version of Around the World in 80 Days. My father had spent $40,000 (maybe a million today) on pre-production and was demanding a script. Welles said: "Don't worry, Mike. I've got it all up here," pointing to his head. "That's great," my father said, "but I want it on paper." My father cut his losses and pulled out.
Welles later raised the money himself, and the show flopped on Broadway. Twenty-one years later I hired Welles to do the narration for a television documentary on my father that I wrote and produced. Welles was editing a film in Germany and insisted we shoot in Munich. My partner, who was directing the documentary, rented two rooms in mad King Ludwig's castle to be Welles's office. While my partner was setting up, Welles, with me at his feet, breezed through the script in fifteen minutes, making various changes in the narration - all of which were improvements. The rehearsal with Welles of the complicated opening tracking shot was a mess. Welles immediately made a series of suggestions - and the first take was perfect.
Baxter's lively account of the great man's unique and brilliant directing style, as well as his conniving to get the participation of bigname stars, and, more crucially, the financing to complete the film, is beautifully written. Another big chunk of the book relates Baxter's close friendship with Tennessee Williams. Baxter directed and played the lead in the Vienna and London stage productions of The Red Devil Battery Sign, one of a string of flops that came late in Williams's career. The friendship continued and deepened with encounters in London and New York and poignant visits to Williams's sanctuary in Key West. The section describing Williams's relationship with his lobotomised sister Rose could have come straight out of an early Williams play. There is a lyrical scene of the three of them sitting on a wall by the ocean watching a 4th of July fireworks display.
Baxter appeared in London in two plays with Ralph Richardson, Shaw's You never Can Tell and Sheridan's The Rivals. Baxter gave up two lucrative movie offers to do the Shaw play with Richardson, only to find out Tom Courtenay was also being considered for the role. To land it, Baxter had to be interviewed by Richardson at his home. "He showed me the workings of a clock, his pet ferret, a hat he had bought in Northumbria, and he asked if I would like some gin or a spin on his motorcycle? He never uttered one word about You Never Can Tell." Baxter attributes the source of Richardson's quirky behaviour to his intense shyness.
Over the years Baxter frequently encountered John Gielgud and Noel Coward; all the anecdotes about them are fresh and not the hoary old stories that have appeared elsewhere many times. There are also sketches of E.M. Forster, Terence Rattigan, MacLiammoir, Nureyev, Olivier, Margaret Rutherford, and others.
In 1973, Baxter appeared with Elizabeth Taylor in a forgettable film, Ash Wednesday. Richard Burton wasn't in the film and was grumpily hanging around waiting for its completion. He ridiculed and verbally abused Elizabeth. As far as it goes, Baxer's assessment of Richard and Elizabeth is sound. He certainly caught the tenor of their relationship then. A few months later my wife and I spent an afternoon with Richard and Elizabeth at their lawyer's house on Long Island. Two days later Richard took off, leaving an extremely abusive note in Elizabeth's handbag. This was the beginning of their first divorce.
Baxter reads characters well, and I enjoyed reading his book.
Michael Todd, Jnr, is a writer and a theatrical producer