Letter from James Ivory, London, England, to Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Delhi, India, 1968 May 16 : typescript signed.

Complaining that all he has to write on is "Guru" letterhead, as they have "seven thousand rupees worth of if"; giving a long entertaining description of his journey to London via Tehran, and his fellow passengers; decribing the Carlton Tower hotel, where he is staying; reporting that Fox "seems very content about everything" and that Richard Zanuck is happy with the film; describing an encounter with John Oldknow, who told him that unfavorable "reports" have been made about Merchant, but Merchant is unfazed; sharing another piece of gossip from Oldknow, that Columbia told Satyajit Ray that they had heard Subrata Mitra was hard to work with, and Ray assured them he would use another cameraman; describing dinner and dubbing sessions with Rita Tushingham and her husband Terry; saying he is now finished with recording her and Saeed, and will begin with Utpal tomorrow; correcting his earlier claim [see MA 23840.425] that "Shakespeare Wallah" won best foreign film from the Académie Française-- it was the Académie du Cinéma; telling her he will be visiting her mother and brother soon, and that he spoke to her sister-in-law on the telephone in the wake of her son David's death; describing in great detail the Robert Bresson film "Mouchette," which he has just seen-- "Well. What do you do, after seeing a film like that? Go out and shoot yourself. Get drunk"; telling her which of her letters have arrived; saying Merchant "is being very tight-lipped about what he's doing in America"; passing on hearsay from Peter Reilly about Merchant's meeting with Faye Dunaway; closing, "Utpal and I have received invitations from Crockford's, that gambling club, to a free meal and other hospitality. I'd quite like to take Utpal to such a low, decadent place, but he's very busy seeing plays."