Behp 0254

JOHN MONCK (GOLDMAN)

Interviewed by Rodney Giesler on 15 3.92

SIDE ONE

Born 24.1. 1908. Entered the film industry in 1928 with Gainsborough Pictures, Islington Studios, under Michael Balcon. Swept the set floors. Father made his money in South Africa. Graduated to call boy, assistant director. Studio changing to sound. Ian Dalrymple recruited him as editor. Paid 15 shillings [75pence] a week. First film The Return of the Rat with Ivor Novello. Cutting him too short. Memories of Bill Kellino, father of Roy Kellino. Saw many films and realised potential of the medium. Knew editor Esther Schub. Visited Soviet Union in 1929 through the Vox Organisation. Had met Herbert Marshall who helped him there. Got by with French and German. Memories of Revolutionary Russia. Mejrabpom studio. Pudovkin, Dziga-Vertov, Turin, Kozinsev and Trauberg all working there. Exciting experimentation there. A very open society then. All changed when Hitler came to power. Great hospitality. The aristocrat who wanted to belong. Pudovkin’s way of working, and his opinions of Eisenstein. Admiration of Dovzhenko. More on relative merits of Eisenstein and Pudovkin. The contribution of Lev Kuleshov. Shocked by real poverty in Soviet Union.  Had to adjust to it. Effect on his socialism. Stalin still a positive force then. Changed with Hitler’s rise. Many victims of the purges trained by the Germans. Personal reactions to treason trials. British culture based on inviolability. Russian cinematic approach did not stem from music-hall or vaudeville. The key importance of the Revolution. Colossal industrialisation ultimately led to victory at Kursk. Heard that Flaherty intended to make film about Soviet Union. Returned to Britain. Succumbed to diphtheria. Edited Michael & Mary for Milton Rosmer. Flaherty’s intention to make Women of Russia in collaboration with UFA. (How' Flaherty plot the idea for Man of Aran) Hitler’s arrival cancelled the project. (47’09”)

                End of side I.

SIDE TWO

Role of Caroline Lejeune and Cedric Belfrage into pushing Balcon into backing Man of Aran. Budget of £12000. Script a page of an idea. Joined Flaherty for £5 a week. Learned photography from him. John Taylor, aged 17, built a lab and did all processing on the spot. Worked as second cameraman and editor. Flaherty’s method of working. "The camera finds the composition". Studio liaison. Editing the storm sequence. Need for a good memory. Living and working on Aran. Flaherty a chain smoker among nitrate film. The use of sound and Pudovkin’s and [Rene] Clair’s influence on him. Long discussions on sound with Flaherty. Dialogue an intrusion of real time on film time. Detailed recollections of editing  Man of Aran. Dismisses Louisiana Story as not being true Flaherty. The completion of Man of Aran. Shot exteriors for Turn of the Tide with Yale Walmsley. Associate Producer on King Solomon’s Mines. Taken on by Korda to make a film in France at start of’ war. Ian Dalrymple went to Crown Film Unit at Pinewood. Produced for the Ministry of Information with Arthur Elton. Jack Beddington, Nick Bentley etc. Served in all three services. Recruited by Sergei Nolbandov for This Modem Age. Made three films. Atmosphere in films changed in the 50’s. Sense of purpose evaporated. Creativeness moved to Italy. Memories of GPO Film Unit. Didn’t get on with Cavalcanti. Views on Grierson. Recollections of Joris Ivens and Pare Lorenz. Left films to take up farming. (40’14")

                 End of Side 2.

Second  Interview 30 4.92

SIDE THREE

Working on King Solomon’s Mines. Admiration of Paul Robeson. Became firm friends. Uncertain about the quality of his own voice. Couldn’t get Robeson a visa for South Africa. Took Robert Adams instead as a double. Adams travelled as a prince to get him into first class saloon on ship. Second unit director was Geoffrey Barkas. Financial problems during shooting. American pressures to limit UK production. The formation of ACT. Involved with George Elvin in negotiations at Crown Film Unit. Memories of Ivor Montagu, Adrian Brunel and Sergei Nolbandov. Montagu was Balcon’s conscience. The importance of Michael Balcon. The American dominance of the British industry. More on Esther Schub and Dziga- Vertov. Marie Seton. More on Grierson and Flaherty. How Flaherty became a film maker, how he worked, and the philosophy that runs through his films. (44 mins)

End of Side 3.

 SIDE FOUR

More on Flaherty and their working relationship. Released to join him in India on Elephant Boy. Abortive film on Cecil Rhodes directed by Berthold Viertel. Met Milestone, Mamoulian, Vigo, and Renoir. Looks back on film career and the influences on his life. (30’00")

End of Side 4.

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Third Interview 5.1.99 SIDE FIVE

Recalls his early family life and his forbears’ migration to South Africa in 1848 from Germany. Jewish Grandmother lived to be 94, dying in 1925. Grandfather and his brother were Moncks, adopted by the Goldman sisters. Grandfather’s brother Ludwig went out in 1830’s. Grandmother followed and married out there. Uncle Edwin became a bacteriologist in Germany. Died in 1913 of cancer. Father’s younger brother Richard went to South Africa. Father born there. Left there aged 8 and lived with his uncle. Made the definitive map of Witwatersrand at 22. "Rhodes’ Bible". Made his fortune. Mother a Peel. Her father a  former Speaker, her grandfather the Prime Minister. Aunt Julia married Rhodes’ farmer. Father entered Parliament on return to England. Relationship with brother and sister. Brother in navy. Edwin a favourite uncle. Recalls being given editing job by Ian Dalrymple at Gainsborough at Islington. The people at Gainsborough: Micky Balcon, Chandos, William and George Gunn. No one prepared for the coming of sound. Cutting Ivor Novello too short. Ivor Montagu’s role. Adrian Brunel and Sidney Bernstein. Greatly. influenced by visit to Soviet Union in 1929. Involved in Trade Union work. The importance of Communism in his life. Fellow party members. Boosting production in war factories. Party confusion over German/Soviet non-aggression pact. The character of’ Stalin. How he joined the Crown Film Unit. (46’28")

End of Side 5.

 SIDE SIX

Became a producer at Crown under Ian Dalymple. Contemporary of Pat Jackson, Laurie and Jack Lee, Humphrey Jennings, Stewart McAllister and Len Lye. Made Wavell’s Thirty Thousand and Malta GC. Remembers Ken Annakin’s first film. Frustrations with the Censor. Low opinion of Cavalcanti. High regard for Grierson. Micky Balcon’s great gifts and faults. Left Crown at end of war. Fights with the Treasury. Joined Sergei Nolbandov at  This Modern Age. Directed films on mining, agriculture, and Scotland Yard. Memories of the pits after the war. Novel industrial relations. Lord Chelmsford’s work. Relationship between Shinwell and the Mining Union. High accident rates. The agricultural situation. Contrasting prewar and postwar conditions. Wife Margaret ran the farm during the war. Reasons he took up farming. Changing political views over the years. (42’52”)

End of Side 6.

End of Side 6.