Let’s take a break but not a Kit-Kat; let’s go to the movies. Here are a few of my favourite films: The Maltese Falcon (1941), The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), The African Queen (1951), The List of Adrian Messenger (1963), The Night of the Iguana (1964) and The Dead (1987).
Besides having titles that start with a definite article they have something in common which hard-core cineastes among you will have spotted. If you are not an h-c c I’ll give you a hint. They were all directed by an MFH (Master of Foxhounds) and an Irish MFH to boot. The first woman to be master of the Galway Blazers was the formidable Molly Cusack Smith in the Second World War. Here is an extract from her obituary in The Independent.
Although she never denied it, in her old age she grew impatient of any retelling of an anecdote that had currency throughout the country and was told wherever enthusiasts of the turf or the hunt congregated. According to the story, when a groom remarked on the sweaty condition of her horse, Molly Cusack Smith, dismounting, retorted: “You’d be sweaty, too, if you’d spent the past three hours between my legs.”
Sorry, I’ve digressed. I don’t think Molly C S ever directed a film. The chap I’m writing about is John Huston who was Master from 1960 to 1963. JH is an unusual Hollywood director. A hell-raiser – he had a bare-knuckle fight with Errol Flynn for about thirty minutes before they were both carted off to hospital – an artist, an actor, a screen writer … you name it. If you’d like to get an insight into his character I suggest you watch John Freeman’s Face to Face interview with him. He exudes charm, sincerity and coils of cigar smoke; otherwise listen to this extract from Desert Island Discs and then watch a clip from The Maltese Falcon.
Ha ha! I wonder if she was partial to liberal amounts of Booth’s.
Hilarious quip from her. What a gal.
Was she large?
Her preference was for Cork Dry Gin. She was considered a great beauty and I have now inserted a portrait of her as a young woman into the post.
By chance I found myself talking last night to an ancient who had spent much of his life out with the Galway Blazers. Because of your piece I was able to ask him if he knew Molly. He did indeed. He found her tres formidable. At dinner one night her butler started to serve the wine when she bellowed down the table “for goodness sakes Jack, I said not the good bottle.”