William Cameron Menzies, who was probably the greatest production designer – certainly in the United States – and it was the first time to... to be granted that title of production design, and he was associate producer on Around the World in 80 Days.

So I spent a lot of time with him, we both got on like a house on fire. And, unfortunately, he was a nervous wreck, because Todd was a monster really, you know. And that was a strange thing, that I seemed to be attracted to these monsters, because the first time I met Todd, he was at the Messel Suite at the Dorchester Hotel, he was half nude, because he'd just taken a shower. And he had somebody doing a manicure, he had a Japanese secretary, and he was sitting there like Napoleon, and Vincent Korda, who was a brilliant… brother of Alexander Korda was there to advise him where could he buy jewels for Liz Taylor, you know. And I saw this going on and he wouldn't let me, or Menzies, go away at nine, or ten; he ordered caviar, whatever we wanted, and we had to stay all night, you know, with this madman.

But it was... it was... exciting and at the time, it was before... before he married Liz, and he was living with Evelyn Keyes, the actress, and they didn't get on so well, and so I was involved in all that... thing going on, but he had a strange fascination. And when we shot Around the World in 80 Days he asked our production manager, who had some in... to Her Majesty, if he could shoot a sequence of the guards changing, and the courtyard of Buckingham Palace. And we got a very nice letter back from HM saying she would love to grant this to us, but if she granted it to us everybody else wants to do it, but she would give us the guards at Wellington Barracks. So… and, you know, these Todd-AO cameras were gigantic and they had this enormous frame. And I arrived there and... three cameras all setup on the outside to see the guards changing and then march out over to Buckingham Palace. And as they are marching out, Todd got the cameraman and operator to put one of those enormous Todd-AO cameras right in the centre of the gate, at Wellington Barracks. And, of course, they had to do a different manoeuvre to get that out... around the camera, you know. It was a terrible thing to do, but four bottles of Scotch sent to the officer commanding the guards dealt with it eventually. But with Todd you always had these sort of problems.