Jack Cardiff Q&A

In a rare interview, the legendary 93-year-old cinematographer discussses his remarkable career.

Nov 10 2006

When did you first meet John Huston?

It was in a luxury suite at Claridges in February 1950, I believe. He'd liked what I'd done with Michael Powell on 'Black Narcissus' and 'The Red Shoes' so we met – he, the producer Sam Spiegel and I – and we discussed how we would go about shooting 'The African Queen', which had been adapted by James Agee from CS Forester's novel. Originally, Charles Laughton and Elsa Lanchester were to do it for Columbia and then David Niven with Bette Davis for Warners, but then Huston and Spiegel acquired the rights and cast Bogie and Katie Hepburn.

What was your impression of him?

I looked around and saw a couple of rather large 12 bore shotguns and knew that film was not the only thing he wanted to shoot – but I still couldn't help being rather enthused. 'It will be really simple,' he said in his deep and wonderfully expressive voice. 'We'll make the whole film on a raft and we'll use the raft as a stage that can be towed through the great rivers of Africa while we shoot away to our hearts' content.' And then rather pleased he stretched out on his chair and took a reassuring sip of his vintage brandy. As far as I was concerned, I knew that the worst and most perilous risk in movies is water. But I thought it sounded like a very interesting way of making a film and that might be quite an adventure – which it certainly was.

What was he like to work with?

Well, 'African Queen' was a bit of a problem. I had to deal with the intense heat and this incredible humidity. Mould grew on everything. There were scorpions, snakes, crocodiles, angry hornets, mosquitoes and these huge black ants that ran up one's leg. But John Huston was so easygoing that he never shouted or stamped his foot. On one occasion we were shooting from this raft and Katie was doing this scene and John just turned his back and put his feet in the water and started fishing. Everything was great until Katie noticed. She stopped and said, 'John Huston, what are you doing? I am performing with Mr Bogart and you are fishing with your back to us.' And John said: 'I'm listening, honey, and you're doing great. Just turn over, no problem. Do it again, baby.'

Did the water prove as hazardous as you first feared?

Well yes, and in more ways than one. We had this big cast-iron boiler that was part of the ship, which we didn't fasten down as it was being shifted every day. One day we were caught in these rapid currents and the boiler was wobbling terribly behind Katie as she was acting and we all thought it was going to topple over and crush her. John dived on to Katie and covered her with his body. Luckily, we all rushed and steadied it in time, but it would have crushed him to death. But that was the man he was.

We were all really very, very ill. We lived on a houseboat and were drinking water that was coming from the river through a purifier. Crew had to go home. Doctors flew in to help. Katie was acting with a bucket as near as possible to her so she could be sick and go straight back and act. Eventually, we discovered that this filter wasn't working so we had been drinking pure river water contaminated by hippo droppings. Bogie and Huston were fine because they didn't believe in drinking water. They only drank neat whisky.
 
And was Huston lucky?

No, he was a genius.

The John Huston season runs at the NFT until the end of December. Jack Cardiff's autobiography, 'The Magic Hour', is available now.

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