Diane Cilento with her husband Anthony Schaffer – In their Queensland home Nr Mossman

(Excerpt from Australian Story interview, 2004)
DIANE CILENTO: Tony and I met in the early seventies I did a picture of his he wrote called ‘The Wicker Man’, which has become a sort of cult film now. I even had to sing in it, it was ridiculous. But- and to have a sort of Scottish accent (in brogue) like that. And when I finished the film he just sort of didn’t leave.
(End of excerpt)

BILLE BROWN, FRIEND: He was certainly immensely successful. The respect came from the fact that ‘Sleuth’ was a huge success financially. I met Diane and Tony at the beginning of their romance. It was an extraordinary and tempestuous friendship – a passionate friendship, I thought.

DIANE CILENTO: I did actually try to finish this. That’s why I came to Australia in 1975 – because Tony was married at that time and I wanted to get away. But I was at the Queensland Theatre Company and a taxicab drew up and it was boiling hot and this man with a trench coat and a hat pulled down and a suitcase got out and he said ‘Not so fast!’ I went up to direct a documentary in north Queensland and he came too. And that’s when I saw this extraordinary place and put a down payment straight away on this land between two waterfalls, backing onto national park

Interview 2012

GIOVANNA VOLPE, DAUGHTER: And she literally fell in love, and she just said ‘I’ve bought a farm, I’ve bought a farm in Queensland’. And I remember thinking ‘She’s gone mad. She’s gone completely mad’. Because when she pointed out where it was on the map, we all looked at each other and went ‘Where’s that?’

ABOVE – A couple of the pictures taken when I was lucky enough to visit this unique location inland of Mossman in the Rain Forest North of Cairns in Australia.

At that time the Theatre was not open but last year my daughter and her family went there to the Open Day.  She told me that there was still a lot of work to do – but they were making good progress.

A more recent view – ABOVE – and looking much better

JASON CONNERY, SON: Karnak was a spiritual retreat and not only for her but for many other people. She wanted to build a sort of sanctuary where there could be teachings. And I thought they were all mad, really, because they did meditation, which I didn’t really understand, and they had movement and they had various other practices.

GIOVANNA VOLPE, DAUGHTER: I think Tony used to call it ‘the great green hell of Whyanbeel’ when he first got up here because he couldn’t believe that people actually lived up here. You know, and this is this extremely cultured man. He’s always been a kind of international traveller. He did call this place home, though, and as he said, gradually he came to really love it and appreciate what he had here.

JASON CONNERY, SON: She created lawns and then houses and then she had the idea of building this theatre, this amphitheatre in the middle of the rainforest. The theatre was a real co-production between them. They had very much the idea that what they wanted to create was a place where people could go instead of going to just the pub at night.

(Excerpt from Australian Story interview, 2004)
DIANE CILENTO: If I think about having built such a thing, an open air theatre in a rainforest, obviously, it sounds a bit cracked. And I suppose people could say it’s a folly but I don’t think so. I see it as a sort of a return to what the theatre was at one time when it began.
(End of excerpt)

GIOVANNA VOLPE, DAUGHTER: Certainly right up till the end it was a very collaborative and creative marriage. She had finally got a partner who knew what she was talking about and understood her real love of drama.

(Excerpt from Australian Story interview, 2004)
DIANE CILENTO: But then what began to happen was that Tony got ill. He’d already had a brain tumour and he got very ill after a fall down the stairs. And then Tony had this terrible third operation to have half his intestines out and was sort of fitted with a colostomy bag – all this stuff – and then this lady was on the scene.
(End of excerpt)

GIOVANNA VOLPE, DAUGHTER: They’d had this flat in London for a very long time and often Tony would be there and then she’d just surprise him and just turn up.

(Excerpt from Australian Story interview, 2004)
DIANE CILENTO: And when I got to the flat I saw that there was a lot of luggage and sort of a lot of make up and stuff and that’s when I found out. Tony was mortified and he was standing like that (goes rigid) – looking very grey and very worried.
(End of excerpt)

JASON CONNERY, SON: It was very obvious that someone else was living at the apartment, ah, later to be known as Mrs Capece.

GIOVANNA VOLPE, DAUGHTER: I think she was very hurt by it, by the fact that there was somebody else, and she felt very divided about what do you do?

(Excerpt from Australian Story interview, 2004)
DIANE CILENTO: And I did say to him, you know ‘Well is that lady still there?’ and he said ‘No, no she’s wandered off’. And I said ‘Where? What do you mean she’s wandered off?’ He said ‘Over a cliff!’ But that’s how he used to talk. (laughs) But from then on he called me every day and I did say ‘I- look, I forgive you. I don’t want to… I do think that you must come and recuperate and get better’ but he never got there. I got a telephone call from his brother to say he’d had a heart attack and passed away. I couldn’t believe it, actually, and then I got a telephone call from this lady. When I said to her ‘Well I’m coming to England now straightaway and I’d like to stay at the apartment’, she said, ‘Oh no, I live here’ and she’s changed the locks and that was it. And I mean, I couldn’t believe it. It was a very, very bizarre feeling to be going to your own husband’s funeral that you’ve been with for- been married to for twenty years or something, with some other lady. She was sort of pushing against me at the thing and with a rose and sort of sobbing, you know? It was ridiculous and it was one of those… almost like a, a strange dream.
(End of excerpt)

GIOVANNA VOLPE, DAUGHTER: After Tony died in 2001, the housekeeper who had been looking after Tony, Mrs Capece, claimed that she and Tony had had a relationship and that he wanted to marry her. It became apparent that this other companion that Tony had was going to contest the will. And there are names for people like that… and they’re not complimentary. Unfortunately there was a legal battle about where Tony was domiciled. And of course if he’d been domiciled in England and she’d had a relationship with him, she could’ve claimed part of the estate.

(Excerpt from Australian Story interview, 2004)
DIANE CILENTO (to Giovanna, sitting by a stream): It’s looking pretty incredible, I think, this year we’ve had a very big wet. Because I gifted to him half of Karnak, Karnak was being thrown into the pot of his estate so therefore, if I’d lost the case, it would have gone too.
(End of excerpt)

GIOVANNA VOLPE, DAUGHTER: She had to then go to court and prove that she had this life with Tony, but she had to go and expose the intimate details of their life together and bring pictures and books and papers. It was a very bitter battle.

(Excerpt from Australian Story interview, 2004)
DIANE CLIENTO: The thing that upset me most when I went to England was that the whole of the other side was trying to sort of, denigrate everything that he’d done in Australia, which was write all these plays, live there, build a house, build a theatre, do all those things. It was just like ‘Oh no, he’d abandoned all that’. And all of that sort of thing was a bit shocking to me because I hadn’t expected people to actually try to… obliterate Tony’s life in Australia.
(End of excerpt)

GIOVANNA VOLPE, DAUGHTER: My mother prevailed. She actually created a precedent in law. And the court ruled that he was domiciled in Australia. And that meant that Mrs Capece, she couldn’t claim Death duties, which would have been due in England were not due. It also meant that the fact that mum had given Tony part of Karnak. In his will, he gave it back to my mother. All those things my mother believed that that had brought this whole issue to a close and she really thought that now that the court had ordered that the will be distributed and that there was no impediment, that it would be distributed. And she had great hope in that and unfortunately, she still doesn’t have what she was left by her own husband after 11 years. And she was constantly worried about it and constantly going to England and requesting that they finalise this will. They haven’t. And why is it still going? Jason and I don’t know. Why is it eleven years and not completed? Can’t tell you. Mum sold part of Karnak so that she had enough money to keep Karnak going. And we feel that my mother’s health really suffered from the stress of dealing with this interminable legal issue. The constant worry had led her to get a stomach ulcer, which had been treated and it had actually repaired. And then she started ringing me and saying ‘I’m not feeling very well, I’ve got a spider bite’. And of course the spider bite turned out to be actually breast cancer. And I said to her ‘You know, if you let the community know they would really rally’. And she said ‘I hate showing people that I’m weak’. She refused to have straightforward treatment; she wouldn’t have anything to do with it.

MICHAEL GOW, FRIEND: We just supported her as she became frailer and more incapable of getting around quite as much and then she went on this trip to Mexico, to this clinic, which she knew I was always very sceptical about. I called it her eye of newt and toe of frog cure but she got a lot out of it.

JASON CONNERY, SON: My mother felt extraordinary. Unfortunately upon her return to Australia – and this is very much my mum – she was told not to do any physical activity and to totally relax and not do anything. So she immediately went to far north Queensland and mowed two hundred acres of lawn on her tractor and unfortunately in doing that she ruptured her ulcer and then things went downhill very quickly from then.

GIOVANNA VOLPE, DAUGHTER: The surgeon rang me and said ‘It’s inoperable, there’s nothing we can do about it’. And so I flew up with my husband and a couple of other close friends and she died in Cairns Base Hospital with us. (Crying) We sang to her and she knew we were there. But I’m not unhappy at how she died, because she died with a- if you like, she died in the saddle. And I couldn’t stand the thought of her melting into a hospital bed. And I love her for her bravery.

(Tribute night – last month)

MICHAEL GOW, FRIEND: It seems extraordinary that it’s exactly a year ago today, October 6th, that Diane left us.

JANE RUTTER, FRIEND: When Diane died, there was a sense amongst close friends of Karnak and of Diane’s – ‘Oh my god, what’s going to happen to this place?’ It’s worth a fortune. And Jason has his own very significant career as a director based in the United States. Giovanna has got her life in Sydney. So it wasn’t as if either of those two were going to just uproot and come and run the place the way Diane had

GIOVANNA VOLPE, DAUGHTER: Jason and I came up after the funeral and looked around Karnak and then looked at each other and went ‘What are we gonna do? What on earth are we going to do?’ Because this was Tony and D’s magnificent obsession. We felt that the easy decision would’ve been just to sell Karnak. And- but Jason and I looked at each other and went ‘that would be a complete betrayal of everything mum had fought for and suffered for, and everything Tony had invested in’. And I remember ringing Jason and said ‘I’ve got it, I know exactly what we can do. We can- we can approach educational institutions and see if they’re interested in coming and using Karnak as a resource’.

GIOVANNA VOLPE, DAUGHTER (on stage): And so tonight we’re announcing the formation of the Diane Cilento Foundation and that we’re going to partner with a couple of Queensland Universities to make Karnak a centre of excellence for performing arts. Thanks very much. (applause)

JANE RUTTER, FRIEND: I’m thrilled to bits that the place is going to keep going. And I, you know, I really see that Diane’s vision can can actually blossom into something amazing in the future.

JASON CONNERY, SON: For me, the way I would like my mum remembered is that she was a person who did things her way. I mean, who builds a 600 seat amphitheatre with a restaurant and a bar in the middle of the tropical rainforest? But it’s very much my mum and I will always love her for that.

End of Interview

However despite the problems with Tony Shaffer’s estate Diane Cilento died without leaving a will. She was 78.

Her son and daughter say a formal investigation into Mr Shaffer’s estate is now underway in the UK.

Central Queensland University hopes to hold its first residential theatre course at Karnak next year.

‘Horrors Of The Black Museum’ with the late Michael Gough – who plays Edmund Bancroft, an eccentric writer and amateur crime expert, who irritates local police baffled at a spate of brutal and sensationalistic crimes, apparently without motive. He does know a lot more than the police suspect, and his meek protege Rick (Graham Curnow) is also involved.

Shirley Anne Field was in this one – saw her a couple of years ago in a thriller at the Theatre locally when she took part in a UK tour.

This Film was originally released in “Hypnovista” but the reason to watch it today is Michael Gough’s larger than life performance, and his inventive and imaginative murder methods. Very macabre.

The promotion announced that this film was released in “Hypnovista” which gives an idea of the story – it also gives an idea of the feeble attempts that were made to attract the paying customer to be persuaded that they must see this film.

A frustrated thriller writer wants accurate crimes for his next book so he hypnotises his assistant to make him commit the required crimes.

In “Hypnovista”

In “Hypnovista”

Scenes from the Film ABOVE – The Film was made in Colour

Diana Dors was – as usual – very good in this 1958 film drama about prostitution in London.  She had only gone into the business to earn enough money for plastic surgery to save her younger sister’s face from a previous acid attack by her vicious pimp (played by Herbert Lom) when her sister had previously refused to enter into the life.

However a hero comes on the scene in the shape of a London taxi driver – a Canadian war veteran played by Eddie Constantine and his Taxi Driver pals.

Herbert Lom continues his dirty dealings to attempt to implicate Eddie Constantine in ill deeds

Above – Diana Dors – a VERY good actress indeed

The Picturegoer Magazine of  March 29th 1958 had Two full pages really whetting our appetites for what we would shortly be able to see at our local Cinema.

A bit like ‘Coming Shortly’  in between the Big Picture and the Supporting one – when the film trailers came on – I used to love that.

One of those above was Chase a Crooked Shadow with Richard Todd, Anne Baxter and Herbert Lom. I remember seeing this film at the time – and again some time later. It had quite a twist at the end a very surprising one – but I wondered if. once you had seen it, the impact of the film would have gone. However thinking again, that can’t be true because The Mousetrap – that long running thriller – relies on a twist but I have been back to see it a number of times – in fact early this year at The St Martins Theatre in London’s West End was the last time.

As for The Moonraker with George Baker and Sylvia Sims, that was on Television recently and I watched a lot of it including the famous climax filmed at Durdle Door in Dorset – close to Lulworth Cove.

Some great films on offer here though – Ice Cold In Alex we all know well but I am not so familiar with Frankie Vaughan in Wonderful Things or HMS Ulysses.

Frankie Vaughan though had quite a film career – first with ‘These Danerous Years’ followed up with ‘The Heart of a Man’ which I remember seeing. Then he went to Hollywood to appear with Marilyn Monroe in Lets Make Love.

This film is  available on DVD . It gave us a look at Africa and the jungles in full Colour – Technicolor – which I have to say looked very good. Well it always did at that time.

It was a British Made adventure film of its day, much of it filmed in Africa with stock and studio sets of course. This below is a Studio set cut into location film – but this studio sets fascinates me – done at Elstree.

Towards the end of the film -These TWO pictures from the Elstree ‘Zambezi River’

Elstree Studios: 140 feet of the Zambezi River was built under an iron roof at Elstree Studios, bordered on one side by “jungle”. The water was heated to 70 degrees, and was kept moving by two 10 foot electric paddles at the end of the 150 ft tank.

Elstree Studios: The climatic Scene – David Farrar fights with Dana Andrews on the Banks of the Zambezi – at Elstree

ABOVE – Duel in The Jungle on release  at the Grand Cinema – not sure where though

We have featured this very lovely young actress before – who was spotted dining out with her family in London – and then offered the role of Juliet opposite Laurence Harvey in the 1954 film version of Romeo And Juliet

Susan Shentall loved her time in Italy making the film – and she was apparently very good indeed, but she walked away from being a Film Star.

Susan Shentall left her parents in Derbyshire and made the trip out to Italy to star as Juliet in this major international Technicolor Film – an expensive film at that. She stayed about 40 miles from the filming location in a small hotel at Simione near Lake Garda and travelled to the set by car each day always being ready to go by 9 am.

She had spent most of her spare moments writing letters back to England and seeing that she had an interest in journalism as a career, she would be able to that do very well.

She talked little about money and did not know the salary she was being paid for the film – her contract was with the Rank Organisation and had been overseen and signed by her Father who himself was a successful business man.

However most of the cast and crew who saw her at work as Juliet had no doubts that she could pull this off – and she did.

Incredibly, after what she described in one article as ‘my wonderful year as Juliet’ she turned her back on the film world when she returned to England – got married to Philip Worthington – and raised a family but did not move far away from her childhood area in Derbyshire

Susan Shentall was born on May 21, 1934 in England. Sadly she died quite young on October 18, 1996 in Market Harborough, Leicestershire, England.

In an answer in 2007 to a Daily Mail article – Whatever happened to Susan Shentall her own daughter wrotw:

Her Daughter wrote in 2007 :    My mother, Susan Worthington née Shentall, was ‘discovered’ while dining with her parents at the Caprice restaurant in London when she was 18.

She had never harboured any acting aspirations and regarded being cast as Juliet as a bit of fun.

Despite the success of the film and the many offers she received afterwards (including the chance to replace Grace Kelly when the star had to relinquish her MGM contract on marrying Prince Rainier), Susan decided to embrace the life of a country housewife.

She married Philip Worthington and had three children.

Sadly, she died in 1996, aged 62, after a long illness.

As far as I’m aware, the most recent public screening of the film was after the opening of the wonderful Electric Picture Palace in Southwold, Suffolk, five years ago, attended by several members of her family.

Susan Shantell samples a local meal – and looks amused but also looks to be enjoying it.

Lining up a Shot in the warm Italian sunshine

Above: A lovely picture of Susan Shentall – the Director Renato Castellania adjusts her head wear

Above: Susan Shentall listens as  Director Renato Castellania explains what he wants. Mind you heard that he always spoke in French to Susan Shentall. T  hat might be why she looks so serious !

Mervyn Johns on the set – makes a point to Director Renato Castellania

 True as a Turtle 1957 is a film that I am not too familiar with although I remember the name from the time of release.

Wendy Toye directed this Comedy – Here she is below on the Set of the Film.

This film was directed by Wendy Toye who was one of the few women directors of the era.  Featuring  actors John Gregson and June Thorburn,with support from Cecil Parker, Keith Michell and Avice Langdon.

Wendy Toye remembers  one particular scene that she was directing which involved quite a lot of film crew and actors on board a small boat.  John Gregson had to climb the mast of the boat.  This is he did and the shot was safely in the can – he climbed down – and no sooner had he done so  the mast cracked and came crashing down. Luckily no-one was hurt but John Gregson was very relieved as were the people on board who had all escaped any injury.

John Gregson, June Thorburn, Wendy Toye and Keith Michell ABOVE

“True as a Turtle” provides an enjoyable look back at sailing and society in post-war England.

The boats are beautiful, the sailing  fascinating, and the people delightful.

The Film is a real treat particularly for those who like to sail.

ABOVE – June Thorburn wrestles with the sail.

Another Action shot – as they set sail. Looks quite precarious

Christmas 1956  ABOVE

 ABOVE At Home with the Gregsons December 1956

Talking Pictures are running quite a number of John Gregson’s Films this week to commemorate 100 Years since he was born. He sadly died at a young age but leaves behind him a really great selection of Fifties films – and later – that he starred in very successfully

John Gregson takes Star Billing above Anthony Quayle and Peter Finch – The Battle of the River Plate 1956

One of the great things about going to the Cinema, was seeing the flickering shaft of light from the Projector above you, usually in those days, with Cigarette smoke drifting up through it.

I always think also of showing my old cine films which are 8 mm with the whirr of the projector as the film was shown – which in itself was exciting. I always loved the colour that these old cine films could get – to me that colour has never been bettered.

ABOVE: A film projector like my own – endless hours of pleasure from this

And BELOW – the 8 mm film we used to have delivered through the post – back from Kodak. There was then a scramble to set up the Projector and see what we had filmed – Great Days.

Above – A Magazine Advertisement for RCA sound equipment in the Cinema.

A few years ago I managed to make  phone contact  Elspeth – the Daughter of legendary Film Director Alex Bryce.   She was very pleasant and  shared some of  her memories of those days with her father while he was filming The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men at Denham Film Studios and nearby Burnham Beeches during the summer of 1951. Elspeth’s father was in charge of the Second Unit, which specialised in all the action shots and fight scenes of the film. These included the ambush of the royal coach, the rescue of Scathelock in the market square and Robin’s various battles with the Sheriff.

She was about sixteen years old at the time and remembers the filming very well.

“At the age of sixteen, Elspeth had the enviable experience of watching the filming of Robin Hood at not only Burnham Beeches but also the huge sound stages at Denham Studios. During that period she was living in a house approximately four miles from the studios. When Elspeth entered a fancy dress costume at that time, she was lucky enough to be allowed to borrow one of Richard Todd’s Robin Hood costumes. She won the contest-of course! And afterwards rode her horse all the way to the Denham Studios. The security men on the gate were apparently pre-warned of her arrival!

Elspeth Gill actually was on the set with her Father whilst filming  The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men. One thing that struck me was that she seemed to be so very fond of father and was with him much of the time he spent on those Walt Disney Films.

She told me that he suffered a stroke only a few years later while he was on the continent filming The Cockleshell Heroes in 1955.

She had been an extra on Rob Roy The Highland Rogue – and danced with Richard Todd in one scene. She also said that it was her father who had persuaded Walt Disney to employ Ken Annakin as the film director for Robin Hood so he was the one that set Ken on his way to becoming  an International Film Director.

Although it was over sixty years ago, she could vaguely remember meeting Walt Disney and described the Art Director, Carmen Dillon, as a formidable woman. Richard Todd she said “was such a lovely, lovely, man.” He became a friend of the family and Elspeth had fond memories of Scottish dancing with him during the making of the later movie, Rob Roy The Highland Rogue

Her father, she explained, loved making those live-action Disney movies.”

“Elspeth could also remember being somewhere high up during the filming of a scene in Nottingham Town Square. But she kept feeling something hitting her body and when she looked around, she realised it was Peter Finch (Sheriff of Nottingham) throwing pebbles at her!” It was a memorable experience for me to be able to talk to Elspeth about her fond memories of those golden days. She was a charming and remarkable woman.

One other thing also – I sent her a picture which had the caption ‘Mr and Mrs Perce Pearce’ and she immediately said ‘ That’s not Perce Pearce’s wife – it is Carmen Dillon.

ABOVE – Riding to Denham Film Studios – on Horseback.

She did go on to gain a Diploma in 1956 at RADA – so presumably following her father’s influence and, maybe the filming of The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men – she decided to try her hand in the acting profession/

She was right of course. One of the few people I thought were still around who had actually been there throughout – seems I was wrong as she sadly died in 2012 but what wonderful memories she had

As the New Year came in – 1957 The Picturegoer ran a few pages of advertisements for Films that we just had to see in those first few weeks of the New Year

The sheer Number of Films ready to go,  meant that film fans would be very regular visitors to their local Cinema

Above – The King and I – this was reprised last year on stage at the London Palladium

ABOVE – Elvis in his first film – where he was third-billed – don’t think that happened again.  Also there was Anastasia which again starred Yul Brynner and Ingrid Bergman in a film that had plenty of publicity at that time – but little heard of these days. .  Jayne Mansfield of course in The Girl Can’t Help It – and with The Platters, Gene Vincent, Fats Domino and Eddie Cochran – My Goodness those four in the same film – What a line up.  Pop stars of that magnitude would not be seen on the same bill – but here they are !!

ABOVE – We featured Quatermass 2 recently on here. Also an interesting one The King and Four Queens – now a largely forgotten Western. However one of the leading actors was Sara Shane – who a few years later played in Tarzans Greatest Adventure  with Gordon Scott as Tarzan and also starring Anthony Quayle and an unknown Sean Connery whose very next film was Dr. No.

Sara Shane retired from films and now lives in Queensland, Australia. She has written Books on Health Advice and has become quite famous in this field

Also the big one ABOVE  – Around the World in 80 Days – that Mike Todd extravaganza. 

Saint Joan starred Richard Todd, Jean Seberg and Richard Widmark –

The Good Companions above – typical English Film of the time

Here again above – TWO very typical English Films of the time – both good.  

At that time Brian Rix was doing this one – Dry Rot and other productions at the Whitehall Theatre – all of which were hugely popular