THOSE DARING YOUNG MEN IN THEIR JAUNTY JALOPIES

In 1968 Searle was hired to create the title sequence for Ken Annakin's 'MONTE CARLO OR BUST!' - a follow up of sorts to 'THOSE MAGNIFICENT MEN IN THEIR FLYING MACHINES'- for which Searle had also created a memorable title sequence.

I'm grateful to Mr Searle for allowing me to photograph & present here pages from the original sketchbook he kept on the set of the film.  I'd presented a slideshow of these images at the various presentations I made on Searle's work in animation & film titles. Here for the first time on the blog you can browse through his sketches and notes made while following the production on location around Europe. . .

With his customary meticulous attention to detail Searle records the duration of his trip between the 25th July to the 10th August 1968.  The film was released the following year.

In the photo below Ronald is sketching at the Rome location accompanied by Monica and director Ken Annakin.  I presume the notebook he's holding is the same one I photographed 40 years later. He's probably making the sketch shown above.

Here we can see Searle starting to explore the action of the title sequence.

Searle produced the final titles with production outfit TRICKFILM, with whom he also created the title sequences for Ronald Neame's 1970 film SCROOGE.

The rest of the drawings in the sketchbook were published as a tie-in, illustrated book of the film. They include Searle's sketches of the principal actors including Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Eric Sykes, Tony Curtis and Gert Frobe.

The roving artist made sure he was on set for the scene where the girls stop to bathe in a river!

Searle even caught the screenwriter of the film, Jack Davies, on set.

You can read a well illustrated review of the film here.

Art of the Title on Searle here and the title sequence here.