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Were you a product of the Hollywood system?

“No, was never part of that. I was in a completely different category. I was with Alexander Korda and Sam Goldwyn; not a contract player. It wasn’t like the MGM or Warners… That was a sausage factory, you’d be making a picture, you’d have two more being written, three more being written ahead. You’d finish this one and go right into the next one. None of that went with me.
I’d had enough of an experience watching Miriam getting on Willie’s nerves and I would never presume… I think that’s a mistake. If you think you know better, one should discuss it, especially as I’m not domineering. I would do it gently. On the side, quietly. But anyway, that’s all past.”

We’re up to 1966 and “The Oscar”.

“That was just a gesture. I presented the Oscar to Frank Sinatra. He and I and Bob Hope did cameos and they paid me $5,000. Which went directly to the Screen Actors Motion Picture Relief Fund. Frank Sinatra did the same with his.”

HOTEL for Warners in 1967.

“That was a disgraceful cutting job. I don’t like that film at all. I find it very boring, hours and hours of Karl Malden in the passages. It was a very interesting part, or rather it could have been. The idea was the incommunicability of love; these two people really loving each other underneath, the audience knowing it, and neither one of them knowing it. So that when he does die, when she says “My husband loved me very much,” now it’s idiotic, it doesn’t make any sense. I was shocked when I saw it.”

The only thing that really works strongly is the interaction between you and Conte at the end.

“Yes. But Wendell Mayes, the writer, who also produced it, kept saying, “We’ve got to be sure you don’t steal the picture.” And in doing that I think they ruined the picture. What’s wrong with having another marvelous story?”

Was there more actual footage of you that wasn’t used?

“Lots more film. And you can’t ruin a picture like that. So if somebody steals it, what difference does it make? They didn’t have Catherine Spaak under contract or Karl Malden. As long as the picture’s better.”

It has been mentioned that in 1967 you did another picture called THE OTHER WORLD OF WINSTON CHURCHILL.

“What’s that? I never…”

How about one called THE PRIVATE WAR OF MRS. DARWIN?

“That was projected, but never made.”

Finally INTERVAL let’s discuss this and give you a voice… the reviews have not been overwhelming.

“I’ve stayed away from them. I was battling in the beginning, but Robert (Wolders) wouldn’t let me see them, and finally I felt he was absolutely right, because people like Joe Levine said the other day at his house “They were all very gentle with you.” That’s what he told me. Now that’s nice to hear, just enough, without all the digs they took at the picture. Rex Reed was up here the other day, and he was giving me their side, and as I’m so compassionate to everybody – even those people who tear me up – I began to feel sorry for them because he said they see four or five pictures a day – I said “I hear you didn’t like it” and he said “I didn’t like some of the dialogue and stuff” And he mentioned several lines and he was trying to find a word. And I said “Is corny the word you’re looking for?” And he said “Yes.” and I said “You know, I’m not defending it – I don’t think I need to especially as we’re having good luck at the box office. But I learned a long time ago that you can take anything and make it sound corny.” You try it – you can take the best dialogue you’ve ever read, and you can make it sound corny. Depends on the person. Their mind and their viewpoint and how they look at things. There’s a lot of purity in this picture that a lot of people today unfortunately don’t believe in. It’s a pure love story, and people are so jaded. I’m sorry; it’s sad. Of course, when I was in New York two years ago, and I saw all the advertisements for movies and I looked at these pages and I saw “sex,” “murders” and “dope”… I went back and I said to Gavin, “I don’t think we can make this picture. The world has passed me by. I don’t understand what’s going on. And they don’t understand me, and they won’t understand this picture.”

Merle Oberon died November 23, 1979 from stroke suffered at her home in Malibu.

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