All language subtitles for 00011111111111111111112.track_4608

- [Man] John Farrow
was a very rare example

of an Australian who went to
the very top in Hollywood

at a time when that
was extremely uncommon.

To have an Australian become
a first ranking director

was startling.

He made one picture after another,

many of which were box 0ffice hits.

- [Lady] John Farrow had
one of the most col0rful

and interesting backgrounds
of any filmmaker of his time.

He ran away to sea, he
claimed to have fought

in various revolutions.

He eventually wound up in
Los Angeles in the late 1920s

and started writing for silent movies

and then of course,
graduated to directing.

It sounds like the kind of biography

that was sort of concocted
by studi0 publicity machines

but I guess it has a kind of
a print the legend quality.

- [Man] He was a man
without a past in a sense.

He'd left many pasts behind by
the time he left to HOIlyw00d

and made films.

- [Lady] He was a very
col0rful kind of person

and he came from an era where colorful

was almost part of a
directorís job description.

These were very mach0
men who had really rough

and tumble lives and
lived a lot of experiences

before they ever stood behind a camera.

The films that you get
from someone like that

are not the same kind
of films you might get

from someone who spent a lot
of time in screening rooms

becoming acquainted with world cinema.

They have a different perspective

and I think you can see
that in John Farrow's films.

- I'm John Farrow Jr., son of John Farrow

and I'm his third child.

He told us and many people
that we were directly related

to the kings of England

and that indeed it was
important to people of that age

and in his profession to
have a polished side to them,

the raw and the rough of Australia

wasn't in style at that time.

- He was born in Marrickville,
Sydney, New South Wales

on the 10th of February 1904.

His father was Joseph Farrow.

He was a tailors trimmer

and his mother was Lucy Savage

and Lucy was a dressmaker.

On his birth certificate,

he was born at Hazeldene,
Meade Street, Marrickville.

Lucy died three years after John was born.

But unfortunately, she
died in Callan Park Asylum.

And in my 0pinion, she
may have been suffering

from postnatal depression.

And if you was in a depressive state,

they take the baby away.

It didn't do her condition any Gd

and she died in 1907, aged
26 when John was three,

a very, very sad story.

I think Lucy was 0stracized

because she's not in the family grave.

And I think they may have been a stigma

of being in Callan Park
that they did not bury her

in the family plot.

And when she died, he
was raised by an aunt,

a spinster, aunt Eliza.

- This little boy down here
was John Farrowís father.

My father, George Martin Farrow

is John Farrow's first cousin

and tells me various little
stories about the family

particularly the one about Eliza.

When John's mother died,
she looked after him.

- When he was 10, he was writing
an essay for a competition

and he started off with,

"Bang, crash, the aeroplane hit the deck."

And his teacher, Mr.
M00dy, was so impressed

by this unusual beginning
that he prophesied

John would be a writer.

He wasn't far wrong.

He used to elaborate on his
deeds and even make up stories.

One of the things he bragged
about, was his education,

about going to Newington COIlege.

But he didn't go to Newington COIlege,

he just lived near there,
he had to walk past it

to go to school.

He used to, when he was about 16,

walk around with a
stethoscope around his neck

and whether he was pretending
to be a doctor or what

but this was his style.

We regarded him as a
rascal or a scallywag.

- My father in 1915,
he joined up as a private

and was sent to Gallipoli

and there was a dump
equipment that blew up.

And that's where he was
wounded and lost both his legs.

So that was the end of the war for him.

As a young boy, John used to come

and they used to talk about
all kinds of things apparently

and they enjoyed one another's company.

It was about nine years
difference between two of them

and I think John would
have probably been around

about maybe 14 or something like that.

- George being George,
he would take the time

to talk to a younger cousin,

be some sort of mentor or I suppose

someone that would listen to them

and probably give them encouragement

in what they want to do.

If John had shown any
interest at all in Iiterature,

George would have taken
the time to help him

or to inspire him to follow that career.

- And maybe a young man or perhaps a life

that was not so, wasn't
terribly very exciting.

He thought all these
stories are so wonderful,

I have to do this kind of thing myself

as my cousin George has done.

And that's what I'd like
to be able to do 2000s.

And what am I doing here?

(smooth music)

- When they had the Spanish flu epidemic

just after World War One, they had set up

mass treatment areas at
the Sydney showground.

And John Farrow was a
young man wh0'd gone out

masquerading as a doctor and
had treated patients and so on.

Now, somewhere along the
line, when he was found out,

the shame of this, of doing such a thing

was such the family encouraged
or possibly even paid

for him to leave the country

and maybe immigrate somewhere else.

- But he was only 15 and nine months.

He went down to the merchant ships

and he got 0nt0 the Royal
Mail steamer, Makura,

which was a New Zealand trading vessel.

And the ship left Sydney in November 1919

And arrived in Honolulu in December.

- If he had been involved in
sailing ships and had signed on

as a merchant, it seems very likely

that he would have I00ked
to the American west coast

because through the Pacific,

it's the next link after Australia.

But also, America I
think to a lot of people

that were innovative and broadminded

would be a much more
attractive place than say,

Europe and the old world of England.

- He jumped ship
basically in San Francisco

as a illegal immigrant.

He got married and it ended in a divorce.

The last name was Levin I believe,

I don't know 2000s much about
her or the circumstance

because it was all kept from us.

There was a few arrests that
were in the scandal papers

having to do with him
carrying a diplomatic passport

from I believe, Romania.

And at an early age, he came
down to LA and started in

as an actor, then a
writer and then a producer

and a director.

- I think Farrow sort of
entered the film industry

because of his naval experience
and he was asked to work

on naval pictures and write
captions and intertitles

and then started writing dialogue.

I think that was a point of
entry for foreigners in a way

if they had a specialist interest.

Say, if you landed in L.A
and you're a rode0 rider

or a great horseman, you could get a gig

on pictures doing stunts
and things like that

and gradually work up to
being a second unit director

and so forth.

I think Farrow worked his
way through silent movies

and little pictures until
his work was appreciated

and then on The Capture of Tarzan

which became Tarzan Escapes.

- [Narrator] Into the heart
of darkest Africa comes-

- He got his first c0-writing
screen feature credit

on The Capture of Tarzan.

And most importantly, he met,

W00ed and won Maureen O'Sullivan
who he married in 1936.

- Jane, sorry.

- I've never been so
happy in my whole life.

- The actress, Maureen
O'Sullivan, was playing Jane

and they subsequently had
seven children together

including the well-known
star actress, Mia Farrow.

And Maureen 0'Sullivan
interestingly enough,

her career was really major.

She was discovered in
lreland by Frank Borzage

when he was over there sh00ting a movie,

came to the States, became
a major star in the 1930s.

But when she met Farrow and got married,

she put her career kind
of on hiatus in 1942.

So they had a kind of interesting mix

of a HOIlyw00d star couple

but a very traditional Catholic family.

- She was a very beautiful lady.

She was very funny.

She had the Irish twinkle.

She Ioved life, she loved people.

She Ioved getting involved in projects

that would consume her.

She wasn't particularly a Gd mother

but she was good in other ways.

She taught us how to shop,
she taught us how to address

the chauffeur and do all
of the proper things.

She was product of a Irish
upper-class background

and sent to finishing school in London

and then a movie star.

So her perspective on
things is very unique

and was imparted to us,
but she was never really

the warm motherly, making
pancakes for breakfast lady.

She used to brag she never
made a meal in her life.

But she was mom and many,
many people love her.

Farrow we know was born a Protestant,

converted to Catholicism.

There's been a view that it happened

during the relationship
with Maureen 0'Sullivan

and the marriage.

And it's the Catholicism that he followed,

not only in his personal
life and his films

but his books writing a
history of the Popes,

a b00k on Damien the
leper and other things.

- You had different rungs

of the HOIlyw00d production ladder.

You had the A pictures which are the 0nes

that everybody knows don't
really needed an introduction,

the Gone With The Winds, et cetera.

And then you had the B pictures

which usually didnít have stars

unless it was a star
very much on the wane.

And then inhabiting this gray
area sort of in between them,

you had what were known as programmers,

they could be longer than B's,

they certainly had lower budgets than A's.

But the idea was that a
programmer could be used

by cinemas to fill out a bill.

This was the sweet spot
where John Farrow was able

to make a lot of the movies that he did

especially in the early
part of his career.

1939 is almost a cliche

because we've all heard a million times,

we've all seen the different
titles flashing by.

The Wizard of Oz, Gone With the Wind,

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.

It really was a year when
every aspect of the genius

of the HOIlyw00d system
seemed to come together

and just be running full throttle.

So for cinephiles, one
of the pleasures of 1939

is discovering how deep the bench was.

It wasn't just the big
marquee names that were great,

even the Iower budget
movies like Five Came Back

were often much better than
they were in other years.

Five Came Back was not
a high budget movie.

It cost about $225,O00, I think

and it made like 750 ish.

In those days, that
was a heck of a profit.

It was very well Iiked.

The idea being that you
take a group of people

from all walks of life
and then you thrust them

into some kind of life or death situation,

an idea that might've seemed
hackneyed in the conception

but was not at all in the execution.

I think that John Farrow
must've known that this movie

had the potential to be something
of a breakthrough for him.

He must've I00ked at
the script and thought,

"This is really Gd, I can
make something of this."

- That's him.

- [Lady] You do have a
beautiful tracking shot

at the beginning of the movie
that goes down the plane

and gracefully introduces the characters

but in a very sm00th way.

There's just a subtle
sense of who they are

from what they're doing in that shot.

- Have you got a match?
- No.

- [Lady] Lucille Ball.

She's playing what's pretty
obviously a prostitute

although sheís never
completely identified as such

but you can suss that

from the way the other
characters treat her.

- Your papers are in order,

the steward will show you to your seats.

- We like her right away.

Sheís smart, she's witty,

she is very practical.

- Ready to go miss?

- [Lady] And she's also a
Gd judge of character.

You see her sizing everybody up

and she has their numbers fairly early on.

- He had a clever way
and itís very difficult,

of staging a lot of scenes,
very complicated scenes

in single shots which,

he tracked someone into the
rm, someone out of the room,

someone else would come, the
camera would move across.

To try and do that over a take
of even a couple of minutes

is enormously difficult
and it's very very hard

to sustain it.

What 0ften happens when directors try it

The editor I00ks at it and says,

well, it's boring at
this point, we'll cut it.

But Farrow somehow always made it work.

I donít think I'd ever dare try and do it.

I'd always do it in cuts.

- Well, during the war, because
he was born in Australia,

he was not able to join the American Navy

so he went to Canada and he
joined the Royal Canadian Navy

where he had a successful career

and also nearly died of typhus.

He wrote a mon0graph about
the Royal Canadian Navy

which is an experience he loved,
he felt very at home in it.

He was glad to be doing
something during the war,

he felt that was his responsibility.

And he I00ked upon it as an
important time in his career

and then when he came out
of it, he made Wake Island

so I think it's one of the
most astonishing war films

ever made.

Even though it was made in the
1940s at a height of passion,

it has no jingosim at all,

there are no caricatures of the Japanese.

- Apart from the craft level,

the sequence where the Japanese
start bombing the island

which is without dialogue,

I think it's one of the tour
DE forces of montage.

It's remarkable, it's just
looking at people again

in a difficult situation
doing their best to survive,

an astonishing work.

So I think that reflects
what he went through

and felt in the Royal Canadian Navy.

It bonded him with the men,
he understood how men bonded

in pitholes on islands in the Pacific

and he underst00d the
choices they had to make

in terms of life and death.

- What are you doing,
praying or something?

- Yes corporal, I guess I was praying.

- That's all right Tommy.

There's nothing wrong with praying here.

There are N atheists in foxholes.

Wake Island was nominated
for best director,

he got the Director's Guild Award.

He got the New York Critics
Award for best director.

He was up there with Ford who kept winning

that award every year.

He was there, he was set.

- The Hitler Gang is a fascinating picture

which has never really had it's due.

It is a remarkable history
of Hitler's rise to power

made towards the end of the war.

And it is a picture about
a terrifying figure.

- There were very few movies
made incredibly enough

about Hitler in that period.

There was The Great Dictator,

there was To Be Or Not To
Be, there was The Hitler Gang

and there were a couple of
Three Stooges, shorts

and some Bugs Bunny cartoons
of propaganda stuff.

So the Hitler Gang was actually
historically very important,

it's the first American film

that tracked the rise of Hitler.

A new Germany, shall arise.

And you, you my comrades are the ones

who will create it - Sieg Heil.

- John Farrow in recreating
Hitler's history,

did a brilliant job of recreating
big episodes of his life

such as the Night of The Long Knives.

- Take him away.

Next prisoner.

- The Burning of The Reichstag.

Scene after scene after
scene was recreated

very much as it must
have been at the time.

And there had been nothing like this,

almost a semi documentary.

And Bobby Watson who played Hitler

had N experience whatsoever
of this sort of thing.

John Farrow did wonders with him

making him seem to be Hitler.

I mean, it was all direction.

Of course, the actor helped a great deal,

but John Farrow had a great deal

to do with directing him properly.

- Rudolf, we must prepare our blacklist.

Anyone who resists us
shall be punished by death!

- It's very difficult making
a movie about real people.

And you either have to
try and get doppelgangers,

especially if they're well known people

or go for performance as well.

He seemed to have gone for both.

I mean, a lot of the people he picked,

I think he picked because
they I00ked like them

as 0pposed to fantastic acting ability.

But it worked.

Obviously he was a very
committed anti-Nazi.

I mean, it's one thing being drafted

and youíve got to fight and
everyone fought and everything,

it's another thing fighting
and then making a movie

about what a complete
lunatic Adolf Hitler was.

Well, that's a big jump.

There were millions of soldiers
in the second World War,

only one of them made a
movie, The Hitler Gang.

- And I consider the sentimental
feeling for Christianity

a kind of sickness!

I shall tear out the cancerous
growth of pity and brotherly love

that eats into our manh00d!

I shall create a master
race that 0wes allegiance

to blood and the sword!

I shall make Germany the
greatest power in the world!

- So I think he was
extraordinarily consumed

by the experience of the second World War

and what fascism was.

- When you attack the
Jew, you attack us all.

- Itís a very unusual film
and a very underrated film

as John Farrow is an underrated director.

- And this is where the
Catholicism I think is important.

I think that he Iiked films

in which people did the honorable thing

and he believed in it.

And you can say that that's of the church,

it's also of the atmosphere
of World War Two.

And clearly he was a
person for whom the war

was an immense experience.

And he took that kind of
commitment very seriously

and he made films that
were unambiguous about it.

- We were brought up very religious.

In the house, we used to pray every night

and we had a shrine with a crucifix

that was seven feet tall
of Jesus on the cross

in the most excruciating
position you can imagine,

it's Spanish passionate.

So we would pray every night

and say the rosary on the
weekends in front of candles

and my dad would force this on us

to be led by a different member
of the family every night

and that was when we were
home and we were devout.

I know that myself, I
wanted to become a priest,

Prudence wanted to become a nun.

And we saw my father in
a role that would lead us

in a showy way into church

because in Beverly Hills at that time,

there would 0ften be press taking pictures

of who was taking people to church.

So if my dad could get a
picture of his seven children

dressed nicely, getting out
of the car and into church,

it bode well for his career.

- He was profoundly Catholic,

he wrote a lot of books on
Catholicism, very learned b00ks,

he was honored by the Catholic church.

But I think he had a sort
of tolerance of humanness

which sometimes dogma gets in the way of.

I think Farrow is very interesting

and I think that sort of
humanness approach to Catholicism

informs pretty well all of his films.

- Several of Farrow's
films have supernatural

or spiritual elements,
chiefly Alias Nick Beal.

It's a version of the Faust story.

- [Man] And every man has an
imperfection, a fatal weakness,

a seed of destruction.

You discovered that Foster
when you traded principles

for personal glory.

When you sacrificed integrity for power.

- That idea of making
a deal with the devil,

imagining that somehow you will
be able to enjoy the rewards

without paying the price is kind of basic

to a lot of noir stories

but here it's actually made explicit

in that there really is a
character representing the devil,

the Nick Beal character
played by Ray Milland.

- People want to talk
about Alias Nick Beal

and I say, what the devil for?

And that's the point of course.

- Actually, one of the
scenes I'm fascinated by

is the arrival of Nick Beal.

How do you introduce the devil?

For me, itís a very Gd example

of Farrow's moralizing films.

- Mr. Foster.

- So that Thomas Mitchell,
who was interested

in being the mayor of San Francisco.

- You're the man that sent me the note?

- Sit down.

Drink?

- He's not expecting to be tempted

and that I think we can identify with,

that we try to be people of integrity

and what happens is somebody
wants to undermine us,

Iead us astray, actually cause us to fall.

- Do you know if it
weren't for Dr. Garfield,

you'll be in a reform school?

- What's the matter with reform school?

- You want to go there?

- Sure, this is sissy stuff.

The guys in the block would laugh at me.

- Do you gotta think anybody laughs at me?

- No.

- I remember how absolutely
charming Thomas Mitchell was.

I remember how easy he
was to communicate with

and how nice he was to
me as we worked together,

I felt totally like we
were colleagues together.

Now, I didn't always feel that way.

- Wow, athletes!

What are you going to
do, make me a boy scout?

- And John Farrow, giving me very clipped,

specific, simple, to the point directions

as to what he wanted me to do.

He was not, shall we say, a
Ioquacious man on the set.

He tended to be very reserved,

kept to himself a lot.

When he had something to say, he said it

and it was kind of to the point.

I had the feeling always
from the beginning

when I first met him that he
was a very well-educated man

and he had that accent
which I thought was British,

it turns out it was Australian.

- If you're thinking about
HOIlyw00d before television,

the director is really a hired hand

who brings his or her
visual acumen to the party

but is hired to yell action and cut

within a very restricted timeframe

and a restricted involvement.

But back in the thirties,
forties and fifties,

it was all controlled by the studios

and by studio appointed producers

and post-production supervisors.

The director would 0ften
wake up on a Sunday morning

and first thing you'd see on
his lawn would be the LA Times.

And the second thing would be his script

that he might be starting
to shoot the very next day

or most likely, not that
Monday but the Monday after.

He'd sh00t for 20 days, edit for a week

and then he'd move on to another film.

And it was this system that
enabled a guy like John Farrow

to make up to six films in
one year whereas nowadays,

a director is lucky to make
one film every two years.

Big difference.

- The studios, they put you under contract

and they gave you everything,
you got fencing lessons,

singing lessons, dancing
lessons, everything.

They trained you.

In fact, Marilyn Monroe
and I did our scenes

every day together.

And thatís how we became so close.

He was a good director,
John Farrow, fantastic.

He directed.

You felt that you were in Gd hands.

So many people just don't
know anything about directing.

You have to direct yourself.

You have to bring everything to them

but then that's very important

they know what you bring to them is Gd

but you had to have
star power to begin with.

- Farrow was a very efficient director

but he had a reputation
as a tough guy on the set.

Now this wasn't unusual,
many directors at the time

were hard taskmasters, Cecil
B. DeMille notoriously.

And you have to remember
that producers, directors,

stars even, all had to
deliver their films on time

and on budget and the
people who ran the studios

were very, very tough.

If the film wasn't successfuI

and if it wasnít delivered on time,

then there was trouble.

- He was an 0fficer in charge of a film.

That's the metaphor I think.

And he knew that making a
film was a bit like a battle.

And when you're making
a battle, making a film,

you don't waste time, you take a decision

and you have the confidence
to go with your decision

because if you delay or
question yourself to much,

then you're going to lose.

- I would pick up stories
about him on the grapevine.

And I think that they were so consistent,

one would have to believe
there was something in them,

they were reasonably reliable,

is that he was very sadistic,

he was very cruel and 0verbearing,

that he was something
of a monster in fact.

And despite the fact that he
was converted to Catholicism,

which one might perhaps have thought

would render him more charitable

and more considerate of 0thers,

the 0pposite it is claimed was true

that he was a terror to the
crew, terror to everyone

including his wife, Maureen O'Sullivan.

- He had a temper.

He should have been taking
anger management classes

but he used to inflict
corporal punishment.

And we lived a little
bit in fear of his rages

and learned very early
to avoid any of them.

Sometimes it's a relief to go to boarding

school, and get out of there.

- Suspense!
(dramatic music)

Radioís outstanding theater of thrills

presents Ray Milland in a
preview of his forthcoming

Paramount picture, The Big Clock.

But first, a word from the director.

Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. John Farrow.

- [Farrow] Thank you.

One of the most engaging forms of fiction

is that nail biting exercise
known as the thriller.

And of course, the very
heart of every thriller

is the chase.

I wanted to make The Big
Clock because it revolves

around the most bizarre
chase I've ever encountered.

The Big Clock, starring Ray
Milland and Maureen O' Sullivan

in the roles they 0riginated,
George and Georgette Stroud.

But first of all, listen
to the other star,

the clock itself, The Big Clock.

(dramatic music)
- John Farrow was a craftsman.

He was reliable.

You always got a certain
level of craftsmanship.

The Big Clock is my
favorite John Farrow film

because of his Hitchcockian editing,

the way in which he built his sequences

and shots within the sequences to slowly,

ever so slowly build up the tension.

I mean, watching The
Big clock which is set

mainly in one building, a
newspaper publishing house,

you start to just really sweat

and hold your head and
you clench your fists

as you feel the way in which
he tightens the screws.

- Stylistically, if
Farrow had a trademark,

it would be his elegant
long tracking shots.

They're very interesting
because they just aren't there

for the sake of it.

They go from one rm to
another or from the exterior

to the interior for a specific purpose.

For example, the 0pening
shot begins outside

and goes across space, through a window,

into a building, prowls around

and then heads up a circular staircase

as youíre hearing this voiceover

in a sense of d00m and intrigue,
it's an incredible shot

because it's taking you from
one world into another world.

- [Voiceover] That was close.

What happens if I get inside the clock

and the watchman's there?

Think fast George!

- And it's funny how he does that.

Now, Hitchcock mightíve
turned the camera on the side.

He might've been more expressive

in the way that he made us feel uneasy.

- [Voiceover] How'd I get
into this rat race anyway?

I'm N criminal, what happened?

When did it all start?

Just 36 hours ago I was down there,

crossing that a Iobby on my way to work,

minding my own business,

I00king forward to my
first vacation in years.

36 hours ago I was a decent, respectable,

Law abiding citizen with a
wife and a kid and a big job.

- But John Farrow does it in ways

that you can't quite put your finger on.

Maybe that's the mark of a true artist.

- [Voiceover] And is the most
accurate and the most unique

privately owned clock in the world.

- Photography was magnificent.

The sets were extraordinary,
especially of the huge clock

that dominated the action in
the Iobby of the great building

- [Voiceover] All the time,
anywhere on the earth.

London, Chicag0, Honolulu.

- When you enter the
building for the first time,

you go to a fl00r and then
you go to another floor

and another floor and another fl00r

and another fl00r in an elevator.

And each time, there's a
different magazine revealed to you

inside the 0ffice of a different magazine.

It was an amazing technical feat.

And I don't quite know how it was done

but I think it was an
extraordinary beginning.

And the movie had a real
sense of menace in it.

- Excuse me.

Do you work this shift every day?

- Airways!

- Might be to the reliability angle.

You're safer in an airplane
than you are in the bathtub.

Here's a sketch.

- We've got nice elevators
in our building too.

Come on over some time,
líll give you a free ride.

- Artways!

- Down?
- Up.

- What's the matter?

I got poison ivy?

- We are not allowed to speak
to people in the elevators.

- Mr. Janoth doesn't permit it.

- Styleways.

Watch your step!

Gentlemen, watch yourselves.

- It's a film that belongs
to a rare sub genre,

itís a workplace noir and
it implicates these ideas

about corporate efficiency in crime.

And it touches on some
very contemporary issues

of the 0bsession with
time and work life balance

and the ubiquity of
media and surveillance.

And it also has a lot of ironic

and sort of absurdist elements
in that the protagonist

winds up being assigned to
track down a mystery man

whom he actually knows to be himself.

- Nope, never heard of him.

- George, I am not going to rest

until I have exposed this scoundrel

if I have to assign every
man in my 0rganization.

- I'll grab the next plane, Mr. Janoth.

- Jeff, say you love me.

- Honey, you know it.

- But you're bad for me.

- Where Danger Lives, it's
a lovers on the run story.

The main character is
played by Robert Mitchum

and Faith Domergue.

They're literally Noir's sickest couple.

The trajectory of their
journey is so interesting

in going from these kind of
very respectable clean settings,

the hospital and the mansion

and then going into
these increasingly weird

and hellish regions of the desert

and then this kind of crazy town.

- Reach for the sky pal.
- Hey, what's your name?

- Carter, Herbert Carter.
- We haven't done anything.

- You can tell that to the sheriff.

- It's in the middle
of a wild west carnival

and Mitchum is arrested
for not having a beard.

- Again I say, the charge is
wearing no beard, N costume,

driving through the streets to
Postville without due respect

to our 0bservance of the
customs of said city.

- The whole thing, it plays out

as a kind of a nightmarish farce.

Itís like a fever dream.

- California picture just came in,

Lannigton woman.
- Put it on the table.

We got everything here possible

for a complete hitching.

Justice of the Peace.

- With the sense that the whole
world is kind of delirious.

- Hey, N beard!

Everybody gotta have a beard.

- And thereís nothing else quite like that

in the film noir genre.

- In a lot of the film,
Mitchum is really out of it.

He's just psychologically and chemically

not in good shape in this film.

You're used to seeing Mitchum
being able to handle himself

in almost any situation because of his

"I don't give a damn attitude"
and his physical prowess.

- I think my whole left side
is beginning to get numb.

- I said what time is it?

- Itís just 10 minutes since
the last time you asked.

- After four?
- Yeah.

- So in this film, he's mightily disturbed

both mentally and physically
and he can't really manage.

And so toward the end of the film,

he and Faith Domergue
end up in this flophouse

Mexican hotel, right on the border.

- Jeff.

Itís the van, the first van.

It's passing, you hear?

Darling, there's nothing
more to worry about.

- We've got everything to worry about.

- It's one of the great noir
sequences all in this one rm

and the camera keeps shifting positions

in really subtle ways.

- We're on the next one
we've got to go down.

- The first time you watch it,

you're not really watching the camera

'cause there's background seedy stuff

that's right out the window.

It's at night and Faith Domergue

is trying to manipulate
things with Mitchum

who can barely tell what's going on.

And there's some physical,
really rough stuff

going on in the scene.

And I t00k another look at it and timed it

and this is about a seven
and a half minute take.

- Oh Jeff, come on,
you've only got to make it

to the border.

Oh N!

- Go on Marg0.

- Jeff, please.

If you love me, you'll make the effort.

- For what?
- For what?

Then you don't love me, is that right?

Answer me!

- All right, you're right.

- Even in Touch of Evil, Orson
Welles eight years later,

the interior takes were not this long.

And there were some famous
tableaus and setups that he did

which were fantastic in that film.

But eight years earlier,
with two actors on the screen

and for almost eight minutes.

- You won't tell either.

Nobody pities me.

Nobody!

- I don't think there's
anything comparable.

- But it's really a film that people

should take a look at.

And I think Farrow was perhaps

stylistically at his most ambitious.

- Iím coming.

- It's a very dark movie

with surprisingly a Gd performance

under John Farrow's careful direction

of Faith Domergue who was
not as impressive elsewhere.

A favorite or more than
that of Howard Hughes.

And he wanted her to be
a big dramatic actress

and Robert Mitchum of
course could do no wrong.

He was very capably
handled by John Farrow.

- Farrow was not known
as a woman's director,

there are not a lot of his films

that actually have a
central female protagonist.

- [Farrow] Cut!

- All right Mr. Farrow?
- Yes.

- Thank you.

- But the women play a
really important role

in a lot of his films and
there's a lot of diversity

in the types of women who appear,

some of whom fall into sort of types,

the femme fatale or the
long suffering good wife

or the damsel in distress.

But the most interesting, the
best of his female characters

are very complex and they're very flawed

and yet remain very sympathetic.

For instance, Audrey
Totter in Alias Nick Beal.

- I'm a heel.
- Oh no miss,

I wouldn't say that.
- Don't argue with me!

I'm a heel, admit it.

He's a bigger one.

- Rita Johnson in The Big Clock.

- Do you always drink stingers Mr. Stroud?

- Mhm.

What makes you think my name is Stroud?

- Oh, lím psychic.

Hor0scopes, crystal balls, astrology.

- Perhaps I should have
brought a deck of cards.

- Your hand will do.

- I mean, Jane Russell
I think is wonderful

in His Kind Of Woman.

- Yeah Buck, but what?

Tell him about us, tell
him how this is different.

- That's right Gerald, this is different.

I know you won't believe me

but then líve never been in love before.

- What's happening here?

Are you looking for a
settlement, is that it?

- And Cardigan is in N
position to refuse one, is he?

- Obviously!

- He was clearly drawn to
these independent women

who have a strong presence
and have a certain quality

of sparring with the male protagonists

or challenging them.

However, I find it kind of disheartening

that Farrow cast his
wife, Maureen O' Sullivan

in two really thankless
and unappealing roles.

- How is he doctor?

- Well enough to send you flowers.

- Flowers?

- Just one.

- A white rose.

Is he well enough to have visitors?

- Just one, you.

- In Where Danger Lives,

her character is a little bit pathetic,

she's the nice girlfriend
whom Robert Mitchum abandons

for this more exciting
and dangerous woman.

She reappears at the end to forgive him

and nurse him back to health

as I believe O'Sullivan nursed Farrow

through a bout of typhus after the war.

- [Voiceover] Now here
again are our stars,

Ray Milland and Maureen O' Sullivan

and screen director, John Farrow.

- [Ray] Hi Maureen.

How did you like your new
acquaintances with The Big Clock?

- [Maureen] All fine Ray,

accept that my part always
reminds me of a donut,

I'm in there around
the edges of the story,

but in the middle, nothing.

- [Ray] Well Maureen, John
Farrow is the director

of the picture, why don't
you complain to him?

- [Farrow] Donít be ridiculous, she can't.

- [Ray] Why not?

- [Farrow] Well, we might have an argument

and Maureen might get angry.

And if she gets angry,
she might leave the studi0

and go home.

And do you know what you'll find at home?

- What?
- John Farrow.

I'm married to him!
(Iaughing)

- It could be dangerous
to read 2000s much into this

but it is tempting given what we know

about their relationship,
that Farrow really refused

to be constrained by their marriage

and she, with seven children 0bviously,

was represented a kind
of a domestic hearth

and home sort of femininity.

But she is so charming and has so much

of a stronger personality
in some other films,

both her earlier work
in the early thirties

and later in something like
Budd Boetticher's The Tall Don't.

- Did you love him?

- I married him.
- That's not what I asked.

Did you love him?

- Yes.

Yes I did.

- Mrs. Mims, you're a liar.

- I feel like she's a little
bit wan and diminished

in her husband's films.

♪ Five little miles from San Berdoo ♪

♪ I woke up humming and thought of you ♪

♪ I I00ked out the window, what a view ♪

♪ Five little miles from San Berdoo ♪

- It was made for Howard Hughes

so there's this wacky backstory.

And with RKO's two biggest stars,

Robert Mitchum and Jane Russell,

the two biggest chests in
Hollywood, male and female.

- How high do you like to play?

- If I told you, you wouldn't believe me.

- But Mitchum and Russell were
really made for each other,

they were like ham and eggs.

They both had a irreverent
sense of themselves.

They weren't full of themselves.

- I remember the first time I
ever saw you, you were singing

- Is this supposed to be
the last time or something?

- Or something.

♪ Five little miles from San Berdoo ♪

- Howard Hughes was an anal 0bsessive.

He'd let you make your movie.

And then when it was done,
he would get hold of it

and hold 0nto it forever and
want to change everything.

- The hallmark of his filmmaking,
itís just the energy of it.

It's a really modern energy,
nothing Iugubrious ever.

He's got such a wonderful
way of dovetailing scenes

where he's learnt the
econ0my of storytelling

where within any given composition,

if he needed something else to happen

it'll just happen within that frame

and then the camera will
move on and take you on.

He does it in film after film.

His consummate use of the camera

and choreography of his actors.

But 2000s, he's learned noir language.

It's quite beautiful.

And it's not 0verstated noir language.

- Yes sir.
- Ginger ale please.

- I'm Jose Morr0.

- The film was done
and the film wrapped up

with a very prosaic scuffle with
Mitchum and Raymond Burr,

his henchmen and the film was over.

So Farrow was done, he
was done with the film,

he'd been paid and so forth.

So Hughes I00ked at it
and thought that, well,

this needs a more boff0 ending.

- Wake up little boy, wake up.

I want you to see it coming.

- And he calls in
director Richard Fleischer.

- Wake up!

- Nick.

- So, Fleischer starts
on shooting the ending

and then Hughes goes from
one thing to another.

At one point, Vincent Price had a party

because he was celebrating
his year on the picture.

So finally, it was done.

And you know what? It's a joyful picture.

- Full speed ahead!

- There aren't 2000s many
hombres in this boat signor!

- Stop counting hombres
and start that engine!

Full speed ahead!

- It's a film noir but you just
can't take it 2000s seriously.

And watching Mitchum and
Vincent Price doing a send-up

of a wacky Errol Flynn type
actor, itís really entertaining.

- Now that I give a
thousand furlongs of sea

for an acre of barren ground.

- His Kind Of Woman is
kind of like several movies

mashed into one.

It's like Raymond Burr is in one movie

which is a very violent, gangster movie

with almost sort of horror elements

with the whole plastic surgery plot

and he is taking
everything deadly seriously

and giving this quite scary performance.

- I'd know that face anywhere.

I don't blame you for trying
to trade it in on a new one.

- Do you judge everyone
by his face, Milner?

- That and smell.

What's your method?
- I have several methods.

- And then Jane Russell

is in this completely different movie

which is a sort of breezy musical comedy.

♪ Those dreams you've planned ♪

♪ All at once will come true ♪

- And yet there are themes

that connect these
different parts of the movie

which are chiefly this
idea of impersonation.

Everyone in the movie is
sort of playing a part.

- Hello Liz.

Where did you come from?

- Sorry, wrong name, wrong woman.

- That also applies to
Vincent Price's character

who is this movie star wh0's
caught up in his own myth.

And even Mitchum's character
wh0's the one person

who is not playing a part,
discovers that he has been cast

in the role of the corpse basically,

that he is going to be switched out

with this other character.

So there's this sense of
deception sort of run wild.

- John Farrow had a very shadowy

and contradictory personality.

He seems to have led different lives.

On the one hand, there was the
public life as a family man

and the director of about 50 films.

And then there was the acclaimed author.

He wrote novels, poetry, biographies

and even religious texts.

And then there was the
more mysterious Farrow,

the man who had a life
outside the public eye,

the man who had an affair
with the actress and dancer,

Lillian Hamilton Lenorak.

- What happened to you?

- I've got a letter there from Mia, years ago

when I first contacted her
and she was talking about,

they discovered another brother.

And she said, "I just
wonder how many more of us

are out there."

Yeah.

- My name's Rosanna Wilson Farrow.

My late husband, John,

who used to be John Lenorak,
and we called him John I.

Became John Farrow when he realized

who his biol0gical father was.

He found out about that in 1975.

He was in a play.

John Ioved Tennessee Williams,

he's all about dysfunctional families,

he could really relate to that.

Apparently when that play was showing

maybe for a couple of weeks,

this man, Joe Barrett, just
happened to go to the play

and 0pened the notes and seeing
John's name on the program,

Lenorak, which is an unusual name.

And he went backstage to find John.

And he said, "John, your
father is probably not

who you think he is and your father

was actually named John Farrow

and he was a famous director and writer

and the father of Mia Farrow."

John was absolutely stunned.

He had never heard this of course

and he was 29 years old at the time.

- My name is Steve Hodel.

I'm a retired Los
Angeles Police Department

homicide detective.

I'm a author, writer now.

My career was from 1963, I
joined LAPD as a uniform cop,

went through the Academy

and then I would spend the
next 24 years promoting up

and becoming a basically
homicide detective

in HOllywood division.

John Farrow was unknown to me.

I mean, I knew he had done films

back in the thirties, forties.

He came to my attention through
one of my prime witnesses

in the Black Dahlia investigation,

a guy by the name of Joe Barrett.

- Joe Barrett said to John that night,

"I knew your mother really really well

when she was pregnant with you.

In fact, we Iived in
the same house together

and we were very Gd friends."

- My father, George Hodel,

had moved into this Frank
Lloyd Wright Jr. home

in HOIlyw00d.

My two brothers and I were
the three little princes

running around, mom was the queen.

She was a screenwriter.

Dad was the king.

There was Iots of cocktail parties,

beautiful young actresses.

Well-known individuals like Man Ray

who was a surrealist phot0grapher.

All kinds of interesting people

that would come to the house.

- And then we found out more.

They met at the house.

The house that she was
living in at the time

was this house on Franklin street,

which was owned by this
doctor named George Hodel

who rented rooms out to
people in this house,

a very big house, a very
interesting Frank Lloyd Wright,

sort of Mayan strange house.

And he liked artists
types, he liked creatives.

So Joe was an artist and
Lillian was a dancer.

Joe had mentioned that there
were parties at the house

where other film people came.

I know that the director, John
Huston came to the house,

he was a friend of George Hodel.

And according to Joe,
John Farrow and Lillian,

they had a love affair.

And it wasn't just a one night stand.

As far as I know, that was
the end of their relationship.

I don't think they continued
to see each other after that.

This is John, this was around 10 or 11.

I know that John Farrow,
he didn't visit John,

so I don't think that he ever met John.

- There's been a lot of documentation

on some of the wildness of
the directors of the day

and the stars were not
really held together

by the the values that they professed

in the Catholic church and such.

The family grew, Maureen gave
up her career for the family

while he was out and perhaps womanizing

and she t00k that as affront
but kind of forgave him

she told me, for his screwing
around with all those women.

And apparently there were dozens.

- When I found out that
he had another family,

he had a wife and children,
Maureen O' Sullivan

and I don't remember how
many children he had by then

but it would have been a
terrible scandal in his life

so he probably wanted to keep it hidden,

that was my impression.

- If it bleeds, it leads.

You would have private investigators

following the A-list actors around

and trying to get dirt
on them, sexual affairs.

So a lot of these Confidential magazines

were basically hack writers
putting out a lot of dirt

if they could find it on
anybody that was anybody.

- By weird coincidence,
John Charles Farrow

and John Charles Lenorak
were born on the same day,

September 6, 1946, different
Los Angeles hospitals.

- For a lot of Catholics,
you shouldn't be weak

and so it's a bit of a shock
when people actually are.

I mean, the shock of finding out the truth

about John F. Kennedy after
his death was a blow I think

to Catholics who never dreamt

that he would behave like that.

And so I think that that's
the kind of explanation

that comes to my mind for Farrow.

Yes, weakness, passion,

emotions, repentance,
forgiveness, absolution

and that he relied on that.

- It was also just
ironic that p00r Lillian

was ultimately murdered.

She's approached by a young
man, pulls a rifle on her

and says, "Get in the car."

He takes her to the north
side of Palm Springs

and gets her out of the
car and beats her to death.

The case is solved within 10 days or so.

Sent away for life but back then,

life was, who knows?

Seven, 10 years.

- By 1951, John and Maureen
had their seventh child, Tisa.

Farrow began an affair with Ava Gardner.

He took on a number of acting roles

and he went from the unexpected failure

of a film like Botany Bay,

the only film he made about Australia,

to a return to form with
films like Plunder of The Sun

and Hondo.

- Hond0, like many John Farrow films,

opens with a terrific scene.

In this case, where John
Wayne alone with just a gun

and a dog, comes out of nowhere
to arrive at this homestead.

- But he has N horse.

- No talking.

- And Farrow films it with,

because it's in 3D, he has John Wayne

Iiterally walking into the
camera, into the audience.

Itís a very powerful 0pening scene.

- It's a rather gentle picture.

It's somewhat philos0phical.

It's also quite political in
that John Wayneís character

is half apache.

And the movie does muse quite a bit

on the treatment of the Indians.

- We broke that treaty, us whites.

There's N word in the
apache language for lie

and they've been lied to.

And if they rise, there
won't be a white left

in the territory.
- They won't bother me.

- I also like his relationship
with Geraldine Page

as a widow.

They have a romance that grows

in a very subtle and
companionable kind of way

that still feels quite romantic.

- Please stay.

I really want you to.

I'm sorry, I should have
realized from the beginning

that you were a gentleman.

- Wayne's playing Hond0 Lane,

a kind of Ione wolf.

- Night ma'am.

- All the first scenes are rather special

because they are 0pposing
Wayne and a widow,

that was a very, very good choice.

I never could figure who was
responsible for the choice,

I think it's more or less
Farrow who chose Geraldine Page

who had never acted in a movie before,

she was coming from stage
and she was totally perfect,

the widow is not so young.

She's not an ingenue, she's
not one of those young girl

or young women that you have
in most of the Westerns.

- I am fully aware that I
am a homely woman, Mr. Lane.

- Well, I didn't mean that.

I've got a bad habit of telling the truth

but being pretty isn't much.

- It's a beautiful performance

and a very interesting compliment
to John Wayne's stoicism.

Her warmth is a nice combination.

- I can smell you when lím
down wind of ya.

- One of the key scenes in the film

is where Wayne and Geraldine
Page come together.

- You baked today, I can
smell fresh bread on you.

Sometime today you c00ked with salt pork,

smell that on ya 2000s.

You smell all over like soap, took a bath.

And on top of that, you
smell all over like a woman.

I could find you in the dark Mrs. Lowe

and I'm only part Indian.

- You don't often tell a woman on screen

that you can smell her

and that you like the smell that you get.

And it could easily have been
almost laughably strange,

but the way the two actors handle it,

it's really erotic and quite powerful.

- Directorally, it is in my 0pinion,

the best movie made in 3D

in the same league as Dial M For Murder,

which was Hitchcock and
both Farrow and Hitchcock

used the 3D very subtly
and with discretion.

So when that came into
play, it really worked,

like Hitchcock used it for the
murderer's hands coming in,

the rest of it was pretty straight.

And Farrow 2000s, I mean,
there's spectacular shots

of John Wayne against the landscape in 3D

which was startling in 3D.

And then a couple of times,

he'd succumb to the arrow coming at you.

But just a couple of times and
it was just a very restrained

artistic I'd say, use
and understanding of 3D.

- [Announcer] Chairman Parnell
Thomas 0pens the hearing

as witness, Robert
Taylor, takes the stand.

- I personally certainly do
believe that the communist party

should be 0utlawed.

However, I'm not an expert on politics

or of what the reaction would be.

If I had my way about it, they'd
all be sent back to Russia.

- Farrow's role during the McCarthy era

is not that well known and
it's particularly interesting

in that he was basically
a conservative himself

but someone who really
0pposed the kind of bullying

of the McCarthyites.

- Farrow was a known conservative,
an anticommunist,

he certainly wasn't on
the left of politics

and yet he was caught up
in the most interesting way

in that horrible attempt
by Cecil B DeMille

to undermine a far greater director

and Joseph L. Mankiewicz is
president of the Directors Guild

and have him expelled.

- DE Mille's campaign had real elements

of xenophobia and antisemitism.

He made a point of sort
of casting suspicion

on directors with foreign
names and Jewish names

and it really created a lot
of turmoil in that union.

- But Farrow learnt when a
despatch rider came to his house

with a notice of his secret
meeting to get rid of Mankiewicz

and Farrow went, "This is
not the way you do things.

You don't do things in the
middle of the night in secret."

And so he went and informed various people

and sort of spoiled the plot

that Cecil B. DeMille had in plan.

- [Mankiewicz] And Kazan said to me,

"Yes, it's not only true,

John Farrow had just come into his house.

John Farrow was very
Catholic and very right

but very furious at this
attempt to quickly impeach me."

- Farrow was among the
directors who signed a petition

calling for a general membership meeting

so that they could head off this attempt

to 0ust Mankiewicz.

And it was at this meeting
that John Ford famously,

another conservative
director, kind of stood up

and confronted DE Mille
about what he was doing.

And Farrow's own role
was very similar to Ford

in that he really was driven by a desire

to protect the union from
this kind of divisiveness

and just to stand up
against what was really

undemocratic behavior on
the part of the forces

of the anti-communist witch hunt.

- Now, Farrow intervened
and annoyed prof0undly

a very powerful man in Cecil B. DeMille.

He, in a sense put his career on the line

to go this isn't right.

Then of course, John Ford stood up

and he was of the right to, and he said,

"This is not right."

So I think Farrow comes out
of that story incredibly well.

That he, in a sense, t00k a position

that he didn't agree with and defended it

to the point of putting his career at risk

and I think that says
volumes for him as a man.

- The nominations for
Best Screenplay Adapted

are James Poe, John
Farrow and SJ Perelman

for Around the World in 80 Days.

- There were a couple of
moments in the fifties

where it looked like Farrow might be able

to jump to the real big leagues

and join the very very top
directors in Hollyw00d.

And the first example of
that is Around The World

in 80 Days, which of course went on to win

best picture of the year and
was a huge success at the time.

- Many congratulations.

- Well, for John Farrow
and myself, thank you.

- Farrow did the script on that film

and I mean with some help

but it was the only 0scar he ever won

for Around the World in 80 days

and he was the original
director on the film.

And he ended up shooting just two days,

the first two days of filming
Mexican bullring f00tage.

And then he was let go by
the very powerful producer

who was engineering this
thing, Michael Todd,

who I think felt he needed a director

he could boss around better

because Farrow wasn't
going to take anything

from Michael Todd and it was Todd's show,

so Farrow was out after two days.

And then about three, four years later,

he went to work for Samuel Bronston

who was about to become a big deal

with his own studio in
Madrid and make epic films.

And he made John Paul Jones
directed by John Farrow.

- He made John Paul Jones,
that was a $4 million picture.

That's a big budget for those days.

He was lined up to do King of Kings

for which you would say he would
have been very well suited.

I don't know what happened
but Nicholas Ray did the film.

But I think it's possible
that he was at a point

in his career where he was
gonna make some big pictures.

- Do you want to go deep water lad?

- Oh yes sir.

- We'll see what we can do about it.

- I was asked to be in
it as my sister Mia was

and my brother, Patrick,
we all had small parts.

- You've had an extraordinary life.

When you were a kid very, very young,

you started acting in a film, right?

- Yeah.
- What was the film?

- It was called John Paul Jones.

My dad gave me a line.

- Your father.

- My father was the director
of the movie, John Farrow.

It was a show business family.

For our birthday, we got a line, right?

- That's very cute.

- Oh my goodness.

That's me.

During the John Paul Jones filming.

This is my brother, Patrick,

smoking a cigarette
when he was 14 in Spain.

There's the little picture of me

marching around with my sword.

Here's Robert Stack.

And this of course would
have been between scenes

taken by that guy with the Super 8.

Here's my dad.

Getting ready for night
scenes, thatís my mother.

It was interesting to work with them

on a professional level.

It was terrifying as a child

because he's a dictator on the set.

The scene in which happens
to require me to hit a person

on a horseback with an egg.

And I kept missing and my
father got madder and madder

and I got worse and worse

and I started hitting people
in the crowd with the eggs.

For me, it was a terrifying experience

being the subject of all
of the crew I00king in

and the money being spent
and then being frozen

because my fatherís yelling
at me in the middle of it,

so I had a couple of
meltdowns in working with him

as a lot of people did in HOIlyw00d.

I became very much less interested
in acting at that point.

I think that that is
true with a lot of people

who work with a very harsh director.

- By all reports, the Iocation shooting

of John Paul Jones in Spain
had been very problematic.

And which tragically
became even more difficult

because of the death
of Farrow's eldest son,

Michael, aged 19, who was
killed in a light aeroplane crash

over the skies of Los Angeles.

The death caused the family
to return to the United States

and actually put a great
strain on the Farrow marriage.

- It changed my father as
it would change any person

and all of a sudden his
success and everything else

didn't mean 2000s much

and that's when he really turned to God.

And through his tears,
I could hear him praying

and I think that that
would happen to anybody.

And then everything changed.

He had a heart attack and in HOIlywood,

you cannot be a director of the film

if you do not pass a physical,

so if you have a heart attack
especially in those days

before stents and stuff, he
was ruled out from working,

except on TV and stuff.

- A number of big HOIlyw00d directors

by the end of the fifties,
especially if they've been around

for several decades, their
careers began winding down

and kind of early by
contemporary standards.

I mean, by our standards,

by the time you were in your sixties,

I mean, you were kind of
getting a little over the hill.

Now, some people stuck with
it and were able to continue

and never stopped.

Some went into television.

Hitchcock in the late fifties,
the beginning of the sixties

and Farrow was another one who,

right at the end of his career

and still, he wasn't that old

but after he did John Paul Jones,

went entirely the 0pposite
way and went into television

and got involved briefly
in a series called Empire.

- Well, John Farrow came in
and he directed three episodes

at Empire that starred
Richard Egan, Anne Seymour

and costarred Ryan O'Neal
and Charlie Bronson.

So it was one heck of a cast.

The people, actresses warned me

and Jane Russell told me stories,

Jane and I were very close.

So I was scared to death
when I got John Farrow

'cause líd heard all these stories.

Well, he was so nice to me.

He was a doll, I just Ioved him.

- Jimmy, this is a real honest to g00dness

Iogging 0peration.

Charlotte Robbins, I'd
like you to meet Mr. Redig0

and my little brother, Tal.

- Always cutting me down to
size, hell0 Mrs. Robbins.

- I find him a very kind,
knowledgeable, understanding man

who knew what he was doing.

He had experience, he knew.

So I was when I was going to work with him

and then to find him so nice.

I wonder if his career
was falling at that time.

He'd done big movies, now he
was doing a television show

and I think he had be nice.

I mean, if he got fired off
another job or anything,

he was through.

So I think that he was watching
his P's and Qís frankly.

And I think he learned his lesson.

He found out that you get
a lot more bees with honey.

- He was hanging around the
house a lot and rather unhappy.

My mother was in New York in
a successful Broadway play

which kind of rubbed
it in a little bit more

because she was enjoying big success

while he was trying to get
some work going at home

but couldn't.

- If you were a woman who had divorced

a powerful HOIlyw00d man, there was a lot

to lure you to New York.

If you're Maureen O' Sullivan

and your marriage to John Farrow,

by then, a fairly prominent director,

is not going that well,
if you stay in HOIlyw00d,

that name is going to follow you around.

And furthermore, Broadway
was also a better place

for an actress who was
perhaps getting 0lder.

- [Mia] Since the show was
clearly going to be running

for a long time, mom rented
an apartment in early 1963.

I pretended not to notice
that George Abbott,

my mother's director, seemed to be taking

more than a professional interest in her.

But when my father
phoned in the early hours

of a January night, I could not,

could not tell him where she was.

And later still, when the
phone rang and rang and rang,

I pulled the pillow tight around my ears.

And when in the hard light of day,

we learned that my father
had died that night

of a heart attack with
the phone in his hand,

winds of nothingness
blew cold across my soul.

- I happened to be out
that evening and came home

at five in the morning when
they were wheeling out his body

and my brothers and sisters,
Mia was back in New York.

I was sitting outside the
house and we lost him.

There was not a lot of warning,

there was N sickness that we saw

but of course, it changes everything.

Within a few days, I
was standing in church

filled with people and a lot of tears.

I walked up to the alter in
Beverly Hills Catholic Church

and we filed up and I looked inside

and I saw a medieval knight of Malta

with the sword on his
chest and knight robes.

Surprised the heck out of me.

And that's how far the
Catholicism stretched,

all the way to the grave.

I know that my mother Ioved him,

I know that they had a
tumultuous relationship,

they were both very high spirited people

and very driven in their own ways.

I don't think his death
went down easy with her

so I know that she did have a love,

even though in the last few years

she lived in her New York apartment

and he was in our Beverly Hills house

and they're not estranged,
but not living together.

- People know more about
John Farrow's children

than they do about John
Farrow the film director.

Many of us know that Mia Farrow went on

to marry Frank Sinatra

and become one of
HOIlyw00d's iconic actresses.

Prudence Farrow is known
to all Beatles fans

as the inspiration for
the song, Dear Prudence.

But actually, I think all the children

have been now eclipsed by
Farrow's grandson, Ronan Farrow,

who in a lot of ways has helped 0verturn

the old HOIlyw00d power structures

that Farrow was once a part of.

- What an hon0r to be
here at this beautiful,

historic place.

I actually have Australian r00ts.

My grandfather, John
Farrow, was Australian.

- Simon Templar.

- The Saint?

- How about a lift to California?

- Not a chance.

- Hello Johnny.

I'm Carolyn Grant.

- Glad to know you.

You know, the first
thing we're going to do

is buy you a drink.

- Auf Wiedersehen Sydney.

- He was underrated.

He was not given a great
splashy welcome by the critics

as George Cukor was, as
Billy Wilder especially was,

as Hitchcock was.

He was never considered on
that level, which is a pity

because in fact, he was very talented.

But I think it's because
he was a craftsman

and I think because he was a hard worker

and didn't seek publicity,
didn't go out to create gimmicks

or fantastic images for himself.

This was a man who really
enjoyed the art of picture making

and I don't honestly
think that John Farrow,

like so many Australians,
was passionate for publicity.

- It's unfortunate that the
fondness of some critics

for categorizing and ranking directors

has led certain people to
kind of fall by the wayside

even though their films are
often among the most enjoyable

and the most beloved.

- Whenever I have nothing
to do and I can't think,

I always iron my money.

- It was a city in itself and inhabited

right up to the time of the
Conquistadores.

And here's the church
that the Spaniards built

when they arrived.

- People have a hard time
sort of putting their finger

on who exactly was John Farrow.

- Excuse me sir.

Here it is sir, Mr. Barrett
said itís very important.

- I don't think he knew
how much he was respected.

I don't think because
I donít think he really

fully esteemed himself.

And I don't think he was happy.

I don't think he Iived up
to his own expectations,

Ietís put it that way.

So consequently, he lived
sort of a successful life

but not on a personal basis,
not a really successful life.

- Paul?

Who are your friends?

- And, I think itís time
we talked of payment.

You're not going to be alarmed are you?

- That is a huge amount
of work that guy did.

He's a pioneer.

Everyone's prattling on about
the Australian film industry,

well, have a look at a bit of the history.

- Yup.

End of a way of life.

Too bad.

- Farrow was a philanderer

and kind of a wild guy around town

and he was also a serious scholar.

How do you fit all that in?

You need to live two or three lives

and sometimes guys who live
really packed lives like that

do die young and it
certainly was true with him.

- My own strange fate

must make you ponder for a moment.

Must make you realize that
there are things on Earth

still hidden from us.

Secret things.

Dark and mysterious.