Australian Women's Weekly (1933 - 1982), Wednesday 19 November 1958, page 12


FORT DENISON:

INTERNATIONAL FILM STARS gossip by the old stone wall of Fort Denison, historic island in Sydney Harbor, where they are on location for the film "The Siege." From left are Italian Carlo Justini, Canadian Neil McCallum, English Victor

Maddern and Heather Sears, and American Aldo Ray.

At 48, a shy Sydney actor

scores in first screen role

By AINSLIE BAKER

• From 8 a.m. to 5.30 p.m. each day Sydney ferry pas-sengers have a new neck-craning interest. They now can watch an international film cast playing "cops and

robbers" on Fort Denison.

HANDSOME Carlo Justini climbs a parapet for a dramatic scene in the film. Before coming to Australia, Justini played in "Goya," which stars Hollywood's Ava Gardner.

THE film causing all the

excitement is "The

Siege," a thriller set in present-day Sydney.

Director is Mr. Harry Watt, of "The Overlanders" fame,

who also wrote the story and prepared the script for "The Siege" in collaboration with Australian author Jon Cleary.

Most of the film action

takes place on Fort Denison, which is the real "hero" of the film.

This little 30ft. by 120ft. island was fortified in the mid 'fifties of last century, when it was feared there might be an attack by Imperialist Rus-sian warships, said to be

massing in the Pacific.

Previously it had been known as Pinchgut, a legacy from the colony's early days when prisoners were sent there on a starvation diet.

Fort Denison now is main-tained as a historical landmark by the Maritime Services

Board. There is an official caretaker, whose duties include turning on electric fog sirens and navigation lights and recording tide levels.

International stars flown to Australia for the film are:

• American Aldo Ray, who

has just appeared in the con-troversial war epic "The

Naked and the Dead," and goes back to Hollywood to à

Western----one of three in a row ----with Sophia Loren.

• English Heather Sears, who

finished work in "Room at

the Top" on a Wednesday

and left London for Sydney on the Friday.

• English Victor Maddern,

whose next film is "I'm All

Right, Jack," the sequel to

"Private's Progress."

• Italian Carlo Justini, who

ABOVE: Mattress, unseen to the film camera, cushions a fall for Justini as he jumps over a wall. Filming at Fort

Denison is expected to continue until January.

RIGHT: Victor Maddern climbs up to a naval gun on the island for a scene in which he and Justini threaten to blow

up Sydney by firing on an ammunition ship.

Island star of British film

expects to make a picture with Anita Ekberg in Yugoslavia

next February.

• Canadian-born Neil McCal-lum, 28, fresh from playing younger brother to Kirk Douglas in "The Devil's Dis-ciple." Neil had to leave for Australia before his last day's work, and a double completed

the role.

Despite this international line-up, the romance and drama of "The Siege" are centred on the presence of a middle-aged man who never before had put foot on a filn

set.

He is Dublin-born (Austra-lian by adoption) Jerry Dug-gan, who plays the Fort Deni-

son caretaker in the film.

"Harry Watt liked the look of me," Duggan said modestly

in his soft Dublin voice.

There is more to it than

that.

Duggan's role is a key one and Watt could have ruined the film he has so long wanted to make in passing over the more experienced actors for Duggan and the special quality Watt was sure Jerry had.

Watt made the gamble a

big one. He did not ease Duggan into film-making, but threw him into a series of lengthy, testing scenes on the first day of shooting.

Genuinely anxious that the retiring, gentle Irish-Australian should make the grade, cast and crew encouraged him with generous "Well done, Jerrys" as the temperature mounted to a scorching 96 degrees.

After three days' shooting, Harry Watt happily an-nounced: "The man's a genius. A positive genius."

An engineer by profession, 48 year-old Duggan has lived in Sydney for 20 years.

With Frank Waters he shared a 1955-56 best actor award for his performance as

Lennie in The Attic Theatre's

production of "Of Mice And

Men."

Some months ago an agent telephoned Jerry at the outer Sydney suburb where he

works.

Would Jerry be in town in two hours to apply for tests for the caretaker role?

Jerry was the last applicant

to arrive and the last to see

Harry Watt, who for one hour looked at Jerry and asked questions.

Jerry now has leave of

absence from his firm and will return to England with the unit for final shooting.

Married to a Sydney woman, they have a 13-year-old son.

High praise

Husky (14st. 8lb.) Aldo Ray, who earns high praise for his work in "God's Little Acre" (now an Australian re-lease), is 32. He is no lounge-suit her—by inclination as well as bulk. His second mar-riage—to actress Jeff Donnell —ended recently.

Heather Sears, with upward-sweeping dark eyelashes and a wide, ready smile, is deter-

mined to spend every minute she can on Sydney beaches.

She is married to art direc-tor Tony Masters.

Neil McCallum's wife, actress Judith Whitaker, who is expecting a baby in Feb-ruary, stayed in England.

Of Neil, Harry Watt said: "This boy hasn't had a great deal of experience, but I con-sider him the most exciting

screen material I've ever had before a camera."

Handsome, 6ft. 2in. Carlo Justini is 37 and married to

an Italian.

''Just a few months ago in Italy, while working on 'Goya,' neither Ava Gardner

nor I knew we'd both be in Australia for films at the same

time," he said.

Ava arrives for her role in

Pinchgut: Old setting for modern thriller

ABOVE: Director Harry Watt, who first visited Aus-tralia in 1945 to make the famous "Overlanders." Mr. Watt's last film, "People Like Maria," won three awards at the Venice Film

Festival.

BELOW: Mr. S. Adams, care-taker at Fort Denison, and Dublin-born Sydney actor, Jerry Duggan, who at 48 makes a triumphant debut playing the caretaker and father of Heather Sears in

"The Siege."

"On The Beach" while "The

Siege" is still shooting.

Victor Maddern, a pleasant, capable man in his early 30s, is one of the most constantly employed actors in the British film industry.

He was Jose Ferrer's ser-geant in ''Cockleshell Heroes" and has appeared in 53 films.

Victor's brother George, his wife and six children live in Perth.

Vic also believes that he has an aunt and uncle, with whom he has lost touch, living in Sydney.

Harry Watt, who is making his third Australian film— "The Overlanders" was fol-lowed by "Eureka Stockade" —keeps his cast happy with a blend of charm and granite.

After two or three gentle reminders to "Keep that door-way clear, please," Watt the amiable suddenly will become

Watt the terrible with a bel-

lowed, "Will you keep that blankety doorway CLEAR!"

Someone among the crew murmurs admiringly, "Harry in action!" and the doorway stays clear.

PRETTY FEMININE LEAD, 23-year-old Heather Sears, with co-star Aldo Ray. The American actor recently appeared in the film version of the controversial war book "The

Naked and the Dead."

YOUNG SYDNEY EXTRAS Jeannie Whittet and Tony Wickert, with make-up man Bill Lodge. Jeannie and Tony are with a group of tourists who visit the island in the film.