Film-maker behind Alfie and three Bond films
Lewis Gilbert, film director and producer: b London, March 6, 1920; m Hylda Tafler; 2s; d Monaco, February 23, 2018, aged 97.
When offered the job of directing the fifth film in the Bond series, You Only Live Twice (1967), Lewis Gilbert turned it down, saying in his softly spoken East End voice: ‘‘I would be like Elizabeth Taylor’s fifth husband. I would know what to do, but I wouldn’t know how to make it any different.’’
It was a typically selfdeprecating comment from a man who blinked a lot behind thick glasses and once said of himself: ‘‘I’ve never been what I would call a really fashionable director. I’ve made entertainment films.’’
But then, having worked in showbusiness since the age of five, Gilbert knew the value and appeal of pure entertainment. This connection with the appetites of the audience proved to be one of his most important assets over a long and varied career.
It certainly endeared him to producers – the Bond executive Cubby Broccoli was so convinced of Gilbert’s suitability that he called the director back the day after he turned down the job. Broccoli won him over by appealing to his sense of humour, saying: ‘‘You are making a mistake. You have the world’s biggest audience and it’s waiting to see what kind of a hash you make of it.’’
Fortunately he didn’t make a hash of it – this is one of the most stylishly over-the-top and entertaining of the Connery Bonds. The title became eerily prophetic when Gilbert, along with Broccoli and other crew members, narrowly escaped death during pre-production. They were booked to fly out of Japan on a BOAC flight, which they missed when they were invited at the last minute to a ninja display. The flight disintegrated 25 minutes after take-off, killing all on board.
In a career that was remarkable for its genre-crossing range he also directed Kenneth More in the classic war film Reach for the Sky
(1956), turned Michael Caine into a star when he brought the ultimate swinging Sixties antihero Alfie
(1966) to the big screen and directed Julie Walters and Pauline Collins in Oscar-nominated performances in Educating Rita
(1983) and Shirley Valentine (1989) respectively.
Lewis Gilbert was born in Hackney, east London. His parents were secondgeneration vaudeville entertainers and from an early age Gilbert would accompany them to the theatre, watching from the wings. He first joined them onstage as a five-year-old, and soon became part of their act.
When a few years later his father died of tuberculosis, Gilbert was soon helping to support the family, first as a child extra in silent films, then in more prominent roles. Perhaps to fill the void left by his father he became obsessed with football, spending hours on his own kicking a ball against a wall.
A pivotal career moment came when, aged 17, Gilbert landed a role in The Divorce of Lady X (1938), during which he shared his directing ambitions with director Alexander Korda. During World War II Gilbert enlisted in the RAF and was assigned a post with the RAF Film Unit, then subsequently with the US Air Corps Film Unit.
Another fortuitous encounter led to a job at Gaumont British Instructional, based at Lime Grove studios, where Gilbert caused a stir by casting the comic actor Charles Hawtrey in a documentary about prefab houses. The film was a success with the client as well as with audiences.
During the Fifties Gilbert made war films his speciality. The best known and most successful was Reach For The Sky, in which More, who was one of the biggest British stars of the period, played the legless Battle of Britain pilot Douglas Bader.
Another film from that period was Sink the Bismarck! (1960), again starring More and notable for sea battles fought in the Pinewood tank.
Gilbert’s career changed direction in 1966 after his wife Hylda Tafler, an actress and model,saw the stage play Alfie and urged her husband to make it into a film. As an East End boy the subject matter struck a chord with Gilbert. He was impressed with Caine’s performance in The Ipcress File and told Paramount ‘‘there’s only one person who can play this part, and that’s Michael Caine’’. Their response was: ‘‘We’ve never heard of him.’’ Gilbert replied: ‘‘You will, trust me.’’
The film won the Jury Special Prize at Cannes, earned five Oscar nominations and gained its director the option of bigger projects, the first of which was You Only Live Twice.
This was followed by several disappointments, including a costly flop, The Adventurers (1970), an adaptation of a Harold Robbins novel, which was filmed in Colombia and for which he needed so many extras – 12,000 – for a battle scene that he had, he said, practically the entire Colombian army on his payroll.
Gilbert returned to the Bond stable with The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker. He was under no illusions about what was expected of him. ‘‘In the Bond films characterisations are nonexistent,’’ he said. ’’That’s not what the Bond films are about. They’re all action and fun.’’
Having worked with Sean Connery and Roger Moore he was uniquely placed to assess their relative merits. ‘‘What Sean did, really, was to make James Bond in his own image – because he was not the Bond of the books ... Roger Moore is more like the character in the books. He also gets along on a great deal of charm and friendliness.’’
Perhaps the two most notable films of his late career were adaptations of plays by Willy Russell. Educating Rita (1983) was about the often prickly relationship between a young Liverpool hairdresser trying to better herself and her Open University tutor. It picked up the three Baftas – best film (Gilbert), best actor (Michael Caine) and best actress (Julie Walters).
Pauline Collins also won a Bafta for her performance in Shirley Valentine, at a ceremony that held a surprise for Gilbert. Princess Anne was on stage, beginning to announce the recipient of the Michael Balcon Lifetime Achievement Award. Gilbert whispered to his wife: ‘‘Quick, some old buffer is going to get up and drone on forever. If we don’t shift, we’ll be here until three in the morning.’’
A moment later it dawned on Gilbert that Princess Anne was talking about him. – The Times