Douglas Cooper carries on an informal conversation with the actor, during his visit with friends in the New York suburbs.
The Interview
Cooper opens the conversation with the sparkling New York Times review of Mason's latest film, Anton Chekhov's The Seagull. Filmed in Sweden, the movie was going through its final dubbing, and was scheduled for promotion in mid-December.
Doug Cooper brings up the fact that Mason's Bigger than Life, in which he plays a small-town school teacher driven mad by cortisone. All had a chuckle over the fact that the film was scheduled for television on the coming Wednesday at 3:25 AM.
Urged on by one of the party guests, Cooper asked about The Seventh Veil (1945), which was a huge box office success in Britain. Mason acknowledged that it did make his reputation internationally. Exhibitors voted him the most popular star in Britain in each year from 1944-1947.
[Mason had a highly successful career in the United States in the years that followed, with stellar films including: The Desert Fox, A Star is Born, Lolita, North by Northwest, Journey to The Center of the Earth, and Julius Caesar.]
Mason told a cute story which followed his 1954 appearance as Captain Nemo in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. He was in the south of France, alone in a small wooden boat known as a pirogue. A wind came up, and the "canoe" filled with water, so he was paddling to shore in a sunken craft. At that moment a little boy on the beach stared at him in astonishment. The boy called to his tiny house, "Mama, mama, look quickly. Here comes Captain Nemo in his submarine!"
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The Douglas P. Cooper Distinguished Contemporaries Collection (1967-1974) contains rare interviews with influential writers, statesmen, artists, songwriters, journalists and others who have left their mark on our culture.