CAROL DRINKWATER INTERVIEW

Interviewed by phone, February 2003

I bet you thought no-one would ever ask you about Queen Kong.

"I thought it had been dead and buried and I was jolly pleased! I remember very little about it. I don’t even know if I ever read the entire script. I suppose I must have done. All I remember is that I played somebody’s agent. We shot it down at one of the London docks, I think. All I know is that I spent a lot of time running after somebody, a woman, possibly Rula Lenska."

She plays a film director.

"Oh, well then I played her agent."

Your character is in the book a great deal but not much in the film past the opening scene.

"I remember Rula striding around in high boots. In fact I think that’s where Rula and I first met. I played her agent, running around after her, taking instructions from her. We were filming around yachts."

Do you remember anything about Frank Agrama?

"He was Italian, wasn’t he? He worked at Cinnecitta in Rome. I just remember him coming up and saying, ‘Eet’s lovely, darling - but do eet better’! One of those classic lines! I just recall that it was truly dreadful and I only did it because I needed to pay my bill! But I do remember thinking to myself: this is such a load of hogwash! Then afterwards I heard somebody say, ‘It’s been banned’ and I thought: thank heavens for that! It’s paid my bills and it’s never going to come back to haunt me - and here we are!"

It comes out on DVD in the USA next year.

"It has a role in the canon of bad films. There was that film where Johnny Depp played a director of bad films, Ed Wood - they’re not great films but it’s rather wonderful that there’s a history of that. It is another side to Hollywood: the Ed Woods and the Frank Agramas. There were quite a lot of them around. I worked at Cinnecitta once or twice, doing small roles in nothing at all, but there were a lot of those kind of directors out there, who made a load of trash. But it is part of the industry so it is quite good that it’s remembered - not that I want this film to be well remembered! I couldn’t believe it when I got your letter. I think, generally speaking, it’s quite good that it’s being released. I suppose it will sell because it’s quite collectable in a way."

It’s a cult movie that no-one’s seen. Robin Askwith’s in it.

"Yes, I remember him down there now. He was quite famous at the time because he had done those Confessions films. He was quite big in tacky British comedy."

I'm told that the film didn’t even have a cast and crew screening.

"No, it didn’t. In fact, I didn’t even think it got finished. I thought that the injunction came on it before he’d finished editing or whatever. So I’m amazed that an entire film has surfaced."

Some people I’m talking to can’t remember the film at all.

"It wasn’t as if it was a memorable experience, insofar as one said ‘My god, that was a wonderful director. I learnt something.’ I think most people did it for the electricity bill or whatever reason. It was the summer, I remember it was quite nice weather. I remember a marina, and there was a tugboat but I don’t know if I ever went out on that tugboat and filmed. I don’t think I did. I do remember standing around, talking to Robin."

Robin’s autobiography mentions an Italian First AD who barely spoke English.

"I remember him, yes. He hung around with the director. He was like the director’s shadow all the time. I think the crew was English though."

You’re not given a name on screen but you’re called Ima Goodbody in the novel. You’re a fairly major character in the book.

"That’s the story of my life! ‘Ima Goodbody’? I shall put that on my CV now! I think that kind of sums it up."