The first hurdle nearly became my undoing – Customs are notoriously difficult with film crews but when one of the cases slipped, broke open and bullets spilled on to floor around the custom’s officer’s feet, I knew by his bulging eyes he was about to take an ugly pill and be very, very difficult. After a spluttering that seemed to go on forever, there followed a torrent of Arabic that flowed over me like raging tide. I let him run out of breath before I attempted show him my papers, permissions in both Arabic and English in what seemed to no avail. However, after a time he did calm down and I explained to him, “It is all pre 1915 and the bullets are blanks” – This did not impress him at all but he finally let the rifles and blanks through to my assistant, who moved like lightning to put them on a truck and roared off to our base. If I thought my troubles were over I was wrong. I had hoped he would just read the permissions and let the other boxes through. As I reached to push a large industrial trolley out of the Custom area, he stepped in front and motioned for me to open them. I showed my papers again and he again told me to open crates in what probably was exasperated Arabic. Stalling no longer, he opened the crates. The first one contained Lewis machine guns, belt ammunition, for the use of, etc, he rushed to another opened that and saw explosives of the Special Effects Dept. He threw a major tantrum, shouted, men rushed up and he hadn’t even reached the very large crate that contained the Artillery piece!
About five years ago, just after it became religiously correct to play music and TV was up and running, though mostly programmes showing the Mosque or the Royal household. McMillan Films had taken me from the cold of a London winter to the heat of Saudi Arabia to help in making a Drama Documentary about the ‘Birth of Saudi Arabia’ and ‘King Abdulaziz ibn Saud’ who reigned for over fifty years and was a remarkable brave clever soldier, religious leader and statesman and he was both a good friend of Winston Churchill and President Roosevelt. A remarkable well informed man on world affairs the king had two radio operators, whose job it was to monitor world news and give a summary to him every night of the week. My job as 1st Assistant Director/Production Manager was to help organize and make it all happen – With the help of course, of a Regiment of Cavalry, some of the Camel Corps and two battalions of infantry from the Kingdom.
Thanks to Customs, a little rescheduling was needed. So we started with what we had, rifles and blanks. The king had to clear the bandits off the Caravan Trails and make them safe for trade and this became one of our first scenes.
The hiatus with the Customs’ continued, it was more than their ‘jobs worth’ to let our weapons, props through – So we had to make appointments higher up the food chain, to deal with this problem and as with many things in the Kingdom, this took some time.
In this down time between appointments the Producer, Michael McMillan and I went to see the Camel races – Sand instead of grass track and little boys were the jockeys, other than that it was just like a racecourse in England! We were also invited to a sumptuous lunch at a GPS location in the desert, a three hour drive seeing no one or anything but sand but on arrival we joined a couple of thousand others for sweet tea, on a carpet, by a log fire; hundreds of miles, maybe thousands from the nearest forest. A traditional meal of Mutton, Camel, exotic salads and fruits both to eat and drink; laid out in the tents. Each tent held about four hundred men and of course no women present at all. Cross legged on the carpeted interior, we discussed the Euro and the probability that it would take fifty years for Europe to become a federation! After lunch a strange sort of singing, chant filled the air and the Prince, courtiers started to sway, swords in the air. Suddenly, I was offered a sword, put in the middle and before I could worry if I could do the dance and not slice anyone with my weapon, I was amongst them. The clash of swords, the swaying of bodies to the slow drum beat, the thrusting intrusion of a news camera, this I thought, is what it’s like when you dance with a Prince!
The heat seemed stifling, the sun was trying to bore its way through my Tilley hat, the sweat was sticking to my back, I tried to clear my parched throat; before starting my radio check. The stillness of the desert was only broken by my Walkie Talkie radio, “Turn over sound”, “Sound rolling”, came the reply, “Action Cavalry”, “Turn over cameras, stand by special effects”, I said . The horses appeared, from a walk, gathered pace into a cantor and as they approached the camera and myself the cavalry became a thunderous noise of drumming hooves with dust enveloping both man and beast. Special effects joined in and from what had been a dead silence of a few moments ago was now a cacophony of explosions, ground shaking, men shouting their battle cries, the smell of cordite in the air caching in your throat, your adrenalin pumping as this regiment of horses sweeps by only passing a few feet away. A famous General once said, “The only thing worse than a battle won, is a battle lost”. Our battle with the customs now over we had started to film our horse and camel charges and the reason I had time to take these photos is that these set pieces take time to set up. Like real soldiering: filming is all about ‘hurry up and wait.’ The shot of the single charging warrior, I sometimes put on the front of an envelope that contains my CV – With a balloon coming out of his mouth, the words ”My CV must get thru” in it.
King Abdulaziz was the first person to put machine guns on moving vehicles. Model T Fords had Lewis guns set up on them, so they could be moved about the battlefield. So with his small force but with cannon, machine guns, the latest rifles of the time, he out thought as well as out fought his enemies.
We set up an ambush and made use of our Lewis guns, the ordinary Saudis so peaceful now, we found it most difficult to teach them to pretend to fight but they certainly died well in our ambush! Of course this scene was cut from the film, as they did not want the real story warts and all.
The Cavalry were normally used in demonstrations of horsemanship, in Royal tournaments etc. So they really enjoyed riding the desert and taking part in mock battles and too be very honest I also thought myself privileged to be enjoying all the fun of old style warfare but without the casualties or consequences.
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About the author Tony Annis: Have camera will travel. Over the top but not yet over the hill. Past sixty five and still alive, my get up and go has not entirely got up and gone – like good whisky, I’m still going strong. Travelling through these global villages of ours is great adventure but to me it is the people that make this wonderful world, as well as the exotic places that I love to visit. See you over the next horizon, Tony.