San Francisco Film Society Oral History Project Interview with ...

eally been sick.” It wasn’t like Shelley Winters’ “Oh, what am I gonna do?” He said, “I was determined
to come here.” And I was thinking, “Thank God!” (LAUGHS) I mean, what are we going to do Opening
Night without him? He was just a remarkable man. It was very interesting, because he was a very shy
man. Because he’s a great stage actor, I thought, well, he can get up and talk to anyone. We had a lunch
for him somewhere—I forget where it was—and he got up and he was just very unassuming, not
theatrical at all. But he was very appreciative, and he brought his wife with him He was everything I
wanted him to be, which was great. And he came on Monday, and he was ready to go, which really, he
deserved what we did, which was to do an Opening Night for him.
MARGARITA LANDAZURI: Was that risky?
CLAUDE JARMAN: I think it was. It was different. But I mean, for someone like that— If it had been
someone not as prestigious, it might have been, but how could you not want to have him? So, it was
great. Of course, Albert’s back here now, and we’re doing Mary Pickford. (LAUGHS) Here we go
again!
MARGARITA LANDAZURI: Was there any residual bitterness with Albert?
CLAUDE JARMAN: Not really. I never had any bitterness toward Albert. I always respected Albert. I
could handle his eccentric behavior. He was a prima donna. George Gund used to laugh because he said
we’d be in Prague and he was at the airport, and Albert was demanding his car: “Where’s my car?”
(LAUGHS) And here was George; he was getting a cab. We didn’t care. But we would just laugh about
stuff like that. He was quite a character. I miss him. I was shocked when he died, absolutely shocked,
because I just never even thought of him not being in good health or whatever, because I never thought
of him as being a drinker or smoking; he was in pretty good health. I was just totally blown away when I
read that he had passed away.
MARGARITA LANDAZURI: Was he happy to be back at the Festival?
CLAUDE JARMAN: Oh, of course. He was like in seventh heaven.
90