From the S&S archives: Making movies is thrilling — for the spectators

MAKING A MOVIE is loads of fun. Ask anyone NOT in the business. Shooting scenes on foreign locations is also a thrilling experience — for the local folks.

For example, take the filming of "Phaedra," starring Greek actress Melina Mercouri and Anthony Perkins on the tiny island of Hydra in the Aegean. Many of the inhabitants spend their working hours watching.

While American director Jules Dassin, who teamed with Miss Mercouri in "Never on Sunday," pranced around the cliffside set, scores of spectators were perched on a ridge just above the film crew. Dassin was perfecting a short scene between Perkins and a French newcomer to the movies, Elizabeth Ercy. It was tedious work.

Forty times Miss Ercy called "Phaedra," and 40 times Perkins shouted "Don't call her" while glaring in the direction of the ghoul gallery. Then he walked toward the cliff to ponder the sea — 40 times. And the gallery watched, all 40 times.

Does it get on the actor's nerves?

'We expect people to come around," said Perkins, "but sometimes you just have to shout 'hold it' and try to compose yourself. A few minutes and you're all right again.

"But there's one guy up there who is driving me crazy. I don't know what his story is, but he never stops taking the same picture — five days in a row now. Somehow it irks you."

Other scenes for "Phaedra" have taken the company to London, Athens and Paris. While shooting one phase of the modern version of Euripides' "Hippolytus," where Perkins roars off to his death in a new Aston Martin, the crew was double-checking street guards to make sure everyone had the right signals. They asked one fellow if he knew the signal to let the traffic through at a particularly busy intersection.

"Sure, he beamed. "Like this,' and demonstrated. The policeman waiting for the signal let the traffic go and shooting was delayed for several hours while they untangled the tie-up.

During another sequence involving a party scene aboard a newly launched ocean liner, the camera crew set up on a drydock. The local workers didn't like the idea, it seems, and started sinking the thing. The film crew hustled off and the dock was resurfaced. They boarded a second time and stayed until the water came up to their knees before abandoning ship.

As for the foreign-shooting bit, Perkins, whose film work has taken him all over the world, commented that it was "a very unsatisfactory way to live. But we didn't come here to see the sights. We're here to work.

"Some day, though," he added with a wistful gleam showing through his 'pilotlike' eye glasses, "I hope to save enough dough to take a steamer and really see what all these places are like."