- Frank Langella: One night I was taken to dinner by a wonderful actress named Coral Browne, and she said to me, 'Have you had a scene with Donald Pleasance yet?' I said, 'No... ' And she said, 'Well, be careful dear, he's a handkerchief actor. He'll take out his handkerchief, he'll blow his nose, he'll eat a bag of candy, he'll do anything he can. Don't get in a two-shot with him.'
- John Badham: I wish I had Frank Langella's friend to give me that advice, because I was very naive. Donald Pleasance came up to me before we started and he said, 'Y'know I think it would be nice if I had a little paper bag full of hard candy'; 'sweeties', he called them. I said, 'Oh, fine, that's nice. I encourage actors with things to do.' Of course, he was doing it just to steal the scenes. He had it down to such an art, that when it came time to do his dialog, he would be saying his dialog and reaching in for a sweetie. He'd have the bag up; always knew where the camera frame line was so it was up there, and as he was just finishing the last word the sweetie would go in his mouth so that the editor couldn't very easily cut away until he finished this action. So he got more time on screen.