What Alan Bates Thinks
of the Man Who Can Kill With The Shout

"YOU KNOW when you read a script whether you respond to it and whether or not it relates to your own ideas of truth. There is credibility in "The Shout," however mysterious, however removed from the everyday. Crossley's story is within the realms of possibility, but it touches on the unknown. People are mystified by it and, most of all, they are forced to question."
This is Alan Bates talking about the man he plays in his new movie, a man named Charles Crossley who is the central character in the film (based on a Robert Graves short story) an asylum inmate who believes -- and forces others to believe -- that he possesses an ancient magic and an ancient power. Crossley claims he can kill with a shout. He says he can produce a vocal sound so mind-shattering that no living creature can hear it at close range and survive. Clearly the concept and the story fascinate Mr Bates.

| Something mystical |

"I don't know what I think about Crossley, I just accept him. I have never considered why or where he is within society...there are so many different levels of mental conditions and power.
"With Crossley the death shout is something mystical -- it is magic. We all know examples of the power of sound...'opera singers can shatter crystal,' as it says in the script, but with Crossley it's much more than that. He believes that his power is a divine gift -- only it has been given to him by a magician, a witch-doctor, not by a god.
"But what is a nightmare? What is belief in God? What is religion? there is an unknown area in all of us. Do you believe in ghosts?"
As Bates sagely points out, "Many people don't believe in ghosts until they see one, or think they have seen one." It is very much the same with Crossley and his strange, macabre story.
Alan Bates gives Charles Crossley flesh and blood; he gives him imagination and sensitivity; and he gives him what Crossley craves most, power. When Bates performs the death-shout, seeing really is believing.
The actual 'shout' sequences were filmed amidst Saunton Burrows, which stretch back some 2,000 acres from North Devon's Atlantic coastline. The 'burrows' are, in fact, remote sand-dunes.

| Dangerous to know |

Said Alan, "I think my final summing up of Crossley is this: There are some people who put you on guard because they frighten you. They have some power -- it could be murder, it could be possession of the soul -- that instantly alarms. There aren't many people like that, but there are some, people simply who are dangerous to know. That's what Crossley is, he is dangerous to know."
The director of "The Shout"is Jerzy Skolimowski, the brilliant Polish director responsible for "Deep End." This was the first time that he and Bates had worked together.
"Jerzy is terrific to work with. He is remarkable in the evenness and certainty of what he wants to do and is constantly and consistently open to new ideas -- right up to the last moment before the camera turns. He's quite brave, really. And, unlike some film directors, he never uses actors as something to be shoved around like puppets."
Alan was also delighted with the other members of the cast, Susannah York, John Hurt, Robert Stephens and Tim Curry. "I've known Robert since my early days at the Royal Court in the late fifties. We are good friends.
"A cast is a chemical balance -- a balance of elements which you never know until you get there. This is a cast which can play brilliantly off each other."
Looking back over his career, he says "Many of my roles have been quite tough subjects, requiring time, trouble and a lot of thought. Some of them were quite hard to take because they stretched both the imagination and awareness of the audience. But those are the things I find satisfying and those are the things that last."
All of which explains how and why Alan Bates came to star in "The Shout," in the demanding, complex role of Charles Crossley. "The film has suspense and the structure of a thriller, but it also has a highly disturbing quality," says Alan. "It is a thriller of the mind." |||

UK Photoplay July 1978, Vol 29, No 7