Roger Ebert Home

Interviews

Interviews

Maggie Smith, "Private Lives"

A great deal of Noel Coward's "Private Lives" is given over to characters being frightfully rude to one another, and perhaps, Maggie Smith thinks, that has a lot to do with the play's perennial appeal."I think it rather intrigues an audience,"…

Interviews

Susannah York, "Gold"

"Gold" isn't exactly the best movie Susannah York has ever appeared in. But it brought her to Chicago on a promotional tour, and that was one considerable item in its favor. She sat cross-legged in a suite at the Whitehall,…

Interviews

Karel Reisz, "The Gambler"

minute biography of Isadora Duncan, starring Vanessa Redgrave, and its original version inspired praise but not much business. Its American distributor chopped whole scenes and sections out of it, released it as "Loves of Isadora," saw it do even worse…

Interviews

Mel Brooks: "It will have a plot."

"Everybody's singin' it, everybody's hummin' it, that Tran-syl-VAN-ian Lullaby!" Mel Brooks conducted an imaginary symphony orchestra. "Isn't it a lovely tune?" he asked. "It was composed just for our movie. I said I needed a little romantic music for the Grandson…

Interviews

Irving Wallace: "The Fan Club"

It is a little awesome to listen to Irving Wallace talk about the sales figures of his novels. He has sold something like 92 million copies of them, in 31 languages; as his daughter once pointed out, "There's the Bible,…

Interviews

Billy Wilder on "The Front Page"

hungry police reporters, and corrupt politicians, and an escaped murderer who spends half the film concealed in a rolltop desk in the press room. The play has been filmed twice before: In 1930 with Lee Tracy as the reporter and…