Copyright Statement - ResearchSpace@Auckland

294
offered by David, he wipes his knife on his sleeve (Crump would normally have
wiped it on his thigh but this was too low an angle for the camera) and cuts himself a
slice of venison. Seating himself on the bed next to the ill-at-ease Diana he thrusts a
piece of venison at her and enjoys her shuddering response to his line, “Just shot it the
other day.” 20 Later, with the rain pounding on the roof, chewing nosily and edging
closer to Diana, he suggests lewdly, “We’re in for a wet night”, eliciting an angry
look from David who pointedly picks up the hunter’s rifle. This scene showing the
three of them with David in the foreground, was cleverly composed. Taking his
directions as to the positioning of the gun from Tony Williams, Broadley pointed the
barrel down so that it visually divided the background image of Clarrie leaning
suggestively forward towards a shrinking Diana.
Lake Maparika was as beautiful as it was tranquil but the filming of a scene that
supposedly took place the next morning proved to be very challenging. The aim was
a long shot that showed David and Diana in a small boat fishing in the centre of the
lake, framed by the mountains and by the morning sun. This difficult shot required
actors and crew to rise very early in the morning, travel by road for about three
quarters of an hour to the edge of the lake near the Franz Joseph glacier, and then by
boat for fifteen minutes to the lakeside location to set up the camera before the sun
rose. O’Shea recalled that it had taken 12 days to get the shots that he wanted at dawn
without the lake’s surface “being ruffled by wind and motorboats and that sort of
rubbish.” 21 Tension had been mounting between O’Shea and Dickie Lauder, the
Scottish production manager, who had difficulty fitting in with the rest of the
Runaway production team. Lauder deliberately created problems at the lake and in
O’Shea’s words, behaved like “a real bastard because he kept disturbing the surface of
the lake [with his] little runabout boat. He was just stupid.” 22
Following the spectacular long shot the couple are shown in medium shot attempting
to change places so that David could row to shore. The boat rocks unexpectedly and
Diana falls overboard. For Deirdre McCarron the scene was a difficult one as the
waters of the lake, in the early morning, were chilly. To prevent any possibility of
hypothermia her skin was oiled and she wore additional garments under the clothes
seen on the screen. As she flounders in the water her companion hesitates, and
looking down sees a vision of the dead body of Tom Morton floating past, the image