I had arrived in Mecca, the Mecca of cinema and the cage of the Roaring Lion, Metro Goldwyn Mayer Studios in Culver City, Hollywood. I was staring up at the Irving Thalberg Building, built in memory of the young executive producer and late husband of Norma Shearer.

I was on crutches, in plaster from ankle to hip, having had a skiing accident on the second day of my honeymoon. I had broken my leg in what was poetically described as a ‘butterfly fracture’ in 30 or more splinters a few inches above the ankle. Not the most glamorous way to arrive and launch a career as a feature film director. However, those massive steps as in front of a Greek temple had to be climbed so that I could announce my arrival.

It was now six weeks since my unfortunate fall in Stowe, Vermont. I was skiing on a hill aptly called ‘Suicide Six’. No, I was not showing off, trying to ‘vedell’ at 70 miles an hour. I might have been doing, perhaps seven or eight, gliding just off the flat, to the hotel. Everything was in shadow and contours hard to see. I hit a rut, regained my balance, immediately hit another and spreadeagled between the skis. The upturned metal running edge of one treated my leg as though it were a piece of kindling.

Now, I must climb those steps, deeply regretting that Korda was no longer at Metro. He had, to put it crudely, been sacked after his first film for them. They considered it a disaster. Korda, free of Metro, was now independent and successfully running Shepperton, taking Ian Dalrymple with him, but I was not released from the contract that Korda had drawn up for me on behalf of Metro. Much had happened since we showed him Western Approaches, but the net result was that I was out here to try and do battle against the ‘mighty moguls’. My poor wife of only a few weeks, Kitty Talbot of Boston, Massachusetts, slowly climbed the steps with me.

Whether by accident or design, we were met by Ben Goetz who was supposed to be running the Metro Studios at Boreham Wood, Elstree. They hadn't turned a foot since Korda's disaster but were, at least, preventing competitors from using the studio space.