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sdcinerama 's review for:
Forever Young
by Hayley Mills
I try to avoid autobiographies. They're usually self-serving and tend to minimize some of the larger facts of a person's life, if they're not trying to settle some nebulous score that has long passed because all the parties have since died.
Imagine my surprise when I found that Hayley Mills, one of the Disney Company's biggest stars of the 1960s had finally set down on paper the most significant exploits of her life. Out of curiosity, I decided to give it a go by reading her own autobiography, FOREVER YOUNG. Even more amazing, it was a very compelling read.
As I said, Hayley Mills occupies an interesting place in film history. Her best known films were made between 1960 and 1965 when, after achieving some success in a few smaller British films like TIGER BEAT, she was put on contract with Disney Studios for the remake of POLLYANNA and went on to become as synonymous with Disney as Mickey Mouse until the contract ended in 1965. For adults of a certain age, she is best remembered as being on the white clamshell cases of VHS tapes our parents would bring home from the video rental store (while all her Disney films are available on Disney+, they're not featured on the opening graphics and you have to use the search function to find them).
Williams' own writing makes her accounts of the times growing up, being cast in TIGER BAY, and the subsequent years compulsive reading. Her style is easy and relatable. For some reason, I kept wanting to binge-read the book as she reveals much about herself and times she was growing up in.
Anyone with a basic understanding of history can talk about the Cuban Missile Crisis, or Kennedy's assassination, or Beatlemania as it happened, but Williams talks about having lived through each of these events with the first hand knowledge of experience where the students can only refer to texts of these events (and in the case of the Beatles, she actually hung out with them a couple of times- there's a great story of Hayley, her father John Mills, and George Harrison having scrambled eggs at 430 am).
And for those that will ask, the personal bits are recounted efficiently without exaggeration.
This isn't counting her recollections of how much of the Hollywood culture she encountered while working for Disney. There are multiple stories of meeting and working with established Hollywood stars and their personal foibles (like Burl Ives and his cooler full of root beers). The Disney fans will also love how much she talks affectionately about Walt himself, and the feelings of learning that he had passed suddenly from lung cancer.
Even moving beyond those stories, Williams continues to fascinate with tales of her other films and her eventual marriage and divorce from famed director Roy Boulting. Even her account of her small role in MR. FORBUSH AND THE PENGUINS makes for interesting reading (and a strange desire to see this film, I mean, it has John Hurt in it).
Hell, even the saga of her attempts to secure the trust containing the earnings from her Disney pictures is fascinating to read, although I wish she'd brought in a "guest writer" to explain the intricacies of British tax law that caused the trouble in the first place (I'm an American, but I swear there was malpractice on the part of her solicitors that formed the trust in the first place).
For once, I'm glad I decided to reward my curiosity and read an autobiography. While I think Williams does engage in a bit of score-settling, it's completely understandable. That said, there are so many good stories surrounding that you won't mind. Having read FOREVER YOUNG, I'm probably going to seek out a few of her films. Many are available streaming, but most of her non-Disney stuff is available on disc in the UK only. Here's hoping a few of the rep theaters still extant program things like TIGER BAY, WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND, or TWISTED NERVE (and I wish I'd read this earlier as the New Bev did show THE PARENT TRAP a few months back).
Imagine my surprise when I found that Hayley Mills, one of the Disney Company's biggest stars of the 1960s had finally set down on paper the most significant exploits of her life. Out of curiosity, I decided to give it a go by reading her own autobiography, FOREVER YOUNG. Even more amazing, it was a very compelling read.
As I said, Hayley Mills occupies an interesting place in film history. Her best known films were made between 1960 and 1965 when, after achieving some success in a few smaller British films like TIGER BEAT, she was put on contract with Disney Studios for the remake of POLLYANNA and went on to become as synonymous with Disney as Mickey Mouse until the contract ended in 1965. For adults of a certain age, she is best remembered as being on the white clamshell cases of VHS tapes our parents would bring home from the video rental store (while all her Disney films are available on Disney+, they're not featured on the opening graphics and you have to use the search function to find them).
Williams' own writing makes her accounts of the times growing up, being cast in TIGER BAY, and the subsequent years compulsive reading. Her style is easy and relatable. For some reason, I kept wanting to binge-read the book as she reveals much about herself and times she was growing up in.
Anyone with a basic understanding of history can talk about the Cuban Missile Crisis, or Kennedy's assassination, or Beatlemania as it happened, but Williams talks about having lived through each of these events with the first hand knowledge of experience where the students can only refer to texts of these events (and in the case of the Beatles, she actually hung out with them a couple of times- there's a great story of Hayley, her father John Mills, and George Harrison having scrambled eggs at 430 am).
And for those that will ask, the personal bits are recounted efficiently without exaggeration.
This isn't counting her recollections of how much of the Hollywood culture she encountered while working for Disney. There are multiple stories of meeting and working with established Hollywood stars and their personal foibles (like Burl Ives and his cooler full of root beers). The Disney fans will also love how much she talks affectionately about Walt himself, and the feelings of learning that he had passed suddenly from lung cancer.
Even moving beyond those stories, Williams continues to fascinate with tales of her other films and her eventual marriage and divorce from famed director Roy Boulting. Even her account of her small role in MR. FORBUSH AND THE PENGUINS makes for interesting reading (and a strange desire to see this film, I mean, it has John Hurt in it).
Hell, even the saga of her attempts to secure the trust containing the earnings from her Disney pictures is fascinating to read, although I wish she'd brought in a "guest writer" to explain the intricacies of British tax law that caused the trouble in the first place (I'm an American, but I swear there was malpractice on the part of her solicitors that formed the trust in the first place).
For once, I'm glad I decided to reward my curiosity and read an autobiography. While I think Williams does engage in a bit of score-settling, it's completely understandable. That said, there are so many good stories surrounding that you won't mind. Having read FOREVER YOUNG, I'm probably going to seek out a few of her films. Many are available streaming, but most of her non-Disney stuff is available on disc in the UK only. Here's hoping a few of the rep theaters still extant program things like TIGER BAY, WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND, or TWISTED NERVE (and I wish I'd read this earlier as the New Bev did show THE PARENT TRAP a few months back).