Wieceee TTT IT ATT an on A NT By BERT WHYTE | Tribune Staff Correspondent MOSCOW — The age.of 60 is per- haps not the ideal time in life to begin a movie caréer, but when Mosfilm stu- dio phoned me and asked if 1 would play the role of a British Ambdssador in its 70-mm five-part color epic Libe- ration I couldn’t resist. the offer. The super-film’s first two parts have won acclaim both here and abroad since they were released on the 25th anniversary of the victory of the Soviet people over Hitler fascism in the Second World War. Part Three, in which I make m debut (and probably farewell appear- ance) in'a three-minute “bit” scene, will be released later this year, and Parts Four and Five will be completed next year. S 2 The wide-screen feature film has been made in collaboration with film actors and workers from Hungary, Poland, the GDR, Yugoslavia, Ru- mania, Czechoslovakia, Italy and Bul- garia. Already its budget exceeds that of the world-famous Soviet production, War and Peace. Part One, Arc of Fire, and Part Two, The Breakthrough, portray the great battle of the Kursk Bulge, the tremen- dous Prokhorovskoye battle and the difficult crossing of thé Dnieper River in 1943. Parts Three, Four and Five are respectively entitled Direction of the Main Blow, Balkans-44 and. The Battle of Berlin. After arriving at Mosfilm studios I was okayed for my “bit” role by di- rector Yuri Ozerov and. whisked into a make-up room, where I found myself sitting in a barber’s chair next to Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Later I ran into Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin walking arm-in-arm along a cor- ridor on their way to meet Roosevelt around a conference table. My big moment came the following day. As British ambassador to Turkey, I had to receive copy of the Teheran Papers from a courier, glance through them, say a few words, call my valet and tell him I was going out to lunch, walk over to a wall safe and deposit the documents, and leave the’ room. Simple enough, one would think. But complications arose. To begin with, the German actor flying in to play the part of Ciceroni, the German-spy valet (James Mason played the part in a film called Five Fingers) missed his plane at Berlin air- port because he’d come straight from a TV program and forgotten his Pass- port. That meant a four-hour delay un- til the next plane. Directér Ozerov invited my wife and me to cold snacks and vodka in his office. Here we met assistant director TA) TV em TT Julius Kun and chief cameraman Igor Slabnevich. After a few toasts the con- versation became lively and interest- ing. \ : “Here I must interject an anecdote. It seems that some time ago, in the in- terests of efficiency, the head office. at Mosfilm issued ‘a. directive banning alcoholic drinks on the premises. One film worker having lunch had just pulled a flask from his hip pocket and poured himself a full tumbler of cog- nac when a member of the top brass walked into the cafeteria. Showing great presence of mind in a crisis, the worker without a moment’s hesitation reached for the sugar bowl, put. three lumps in his glass and began stirring them vigorously with a spoon. The of- ficial came up, said, “Ah, tea!” and picking up the glass, drained it to the bottom. “Excellent tea!” he comment- ed with a straight face, and walked out. Director Yuri Ozerov, a big, genial, unflappable man, was a student at the Theatre Art Institute when war broke out. He went to the front as a common soldier and rose to the rank of bat- talion commander. After the war he entered the Film Institute. Assistant director Julius Kun, who usually makes comedies, is also a war veteran with battle experience. Script writers Yuri Bondaryov and .Oscar Kurganov were respectively a lieuten- ant in artillery and a Pravda war cor respondent. Cameraman Slabnevich was a tankman. : “In this film,” Ozerov said, “we at- tempt to show the true face of war, plus a panorama of the political life in Europe during the final two years of fighting. As. director, I have tried to avoid creating a caricature of the fas- cist leadership and to present a realis- tic image of our enemies. Of course our main aim is to portray the tremen- dous feat of the Soviet people and the _ Soviet Army.” Parts of the film were shot in foreign countries—Poland, Germany, Hungary, Rumania, Yugoslavia and Italy. The Soviet Ministry of Defense helped the film-makers by providing old T-34 tanks, which had to be made opera- tional again. It was also necessary to construct German Tiger and Ferdinand tanks, and put Soviet and German planes of Second World War vintage into the air. This resulted in Ozerov and his co-workers having a terrific concentration of military equipment— tanks; planes and artillery—in a spe- cial base, as well as a battalion of Soviet soldiers. “We had enough stuff to capture a fair-sized town,” Ozeroy quipped. Among the dramatic cast, besides fictitious characters, there are such authentic historical personages as Stalin, Zhukov, Vasilivesky, Rokossov- sky, Konev and Malinovsky; Roosevelt and Churchill; Hitler and Mussolini. Dr. J. G. Endicott: acto! pro named Zakariadze, whose oldef het ‘ther was such a hit in the ang welt of a Soldier, Roosevelt by Stalin is played by a Georgian known Polish actor Jackewicr by Churchill by Durov, a Russian; Hl! jini GDR actor Fritz Dietz and Mi by Italian star Ivo Garani. — ete |, The door burst open and in of the German who was to fill the role shed | master spy, Ciceroni. He had *udio straight from the airport to thé to get make-up room, and was anxious to the on with the job. So we walked “ori! set representing my . ambass@ office in Ankara. “ ua After a couple of trial run-thr 4 the director called “Action!” aM nett cameras began to roll. But the aon? |¢ minute it was “Stop!” I had = |é something wrong. ouriet I On the second take the © 4 { couldn’t get his briefcase unlocker. of | the third I flubbed my two lin ube dialogue. On the fourth I had ",, opening the wall safe. Finally, ©" 24 |o fifth take, director Ozerov de® Ih himself satisfied. i So, if I ever have grandchildren ask i gather around my wheelchair ane "4 3 “What did you do in the war, greet \. father?” I’ll be able to tell them dist |t I was not only a corporal ina Coe : mortar platoon fighting on the thre |p ern Front, but for a period of Ast : minutes held the post of British cn bassador to Turkey—on film, th@ ‘Fascinated by the film’ ° One of the most interesting experi- ences that I had this time in the Soviet Union was to see the first two parts of a five-part film called “Liberation.” Each part is two hours long. I was so fascinated that I went twice. The. film begins with the great tank battle of the “Kursk bulge,” after Sta- lingrad, and goes on to the crossing of the Dnieper River and the recapture of Kiev. All the leading generals, both the Soviet ones and the German ones are made up to look like the originals, One friend commented that “this is the first time that Nazi generals have been shown realistically instead of as ‘crude, stupid idiots’.” Their evil deeds and purposes are nevertheless clearly in- dicated also. The Kursk battle was an awe-inspir- ing spectacle of the greatest massed tank encounter in all history so far. There was probably a total of 3,000 tanks engaged. Hitler had produced hundreds of the massive Tiger tanks, hoping that the Soviet tank guns could not pierce them, but they were knocked out by the new Soviet gun. The Ger- . {a man command expected a brea lg through and the capture of Kurs® ja The film shown in grimly realist A fashion that in the heat of battle 2 +0 a men turned coward and officers had © |e deal with them roughly, forcing t off \s back into battle by firing over ice heads. But on the whole it was 2 ?' ne ture of heroism, devotion to duty ake & self-sacrifice. They have tried to ™ if the film a genuinely human documé Wp When the Soviet tanks were moving to battle one tank officer stopped an village to spend a little time with wa girl friend (in the tank) and f alerted by a friendly patrol about 0% | orders. He managed to get off with { scolding. t z { The picture shows what is hist it rically accurate: that prisoners of W* ‘ in Nazi hands were treated like cor centration camp inmates, in stri uniform. They were given in this C4 t a choice of volunteering in anti-Sovie battalions or else to be shot: only nil! volunteered. Thousands were t and shot.