In 1970 or thereabouts appointed head of MGM inEurope
April 1971 MGM EMI formed - Nat Cohen in charge, LIttman beneath him
,Films - No Blade of Grass, Get Carter, The Last Run, The Boyfriend
That's a good record.
Gloomy Upheaval Dogs British Movie Industry
By Bernard Weinraub Special to The New York Times
March 30, 1970
March 30, 1970, Page 52Buy Reprints
LONDON—On a chilly London afternoon last No vember, the Metro‐Goldwyn Mayer Company abruptly canceled the multimillion dollar film “Man’s Fate.” The announcement was made while the director, Fred Zin neman, and the stars, David Niven and Peter Finch, were already in rehearsal at the Boreham Wood Studios here.
“It stunned the industry here,” said David Deutsch, a 44‐year‐old British producer, now engaged in filming “Joe Egg,” which is one of the few American‐backed pro ductions currently in Britain.
The cancellation of “Man’s Fate”—whose pre‐production expenditures reportedly ranged from $3‐million to $5‐ million—was one more sig nificant step that has left the British film industry in a gloomy upheaval for the last year and a half.
With 90 per cent of British films being produced with American money, the profit losses, proxy fights and ex ecutive reshufflings in Holly wood have clearly had a withering impact on movies here.
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At the peak of movie‐mak ing in 1966 and 1967, as many as 16 major American hacked films with interna tional casts were under pro duction at the Boreham Wood, Shepperton, Twicken ham and Bray studios.
At present, there are four major productions filming in studios here, together with about a half‐dozen smaller, British‐backed films. The four a we John Schlesinger’s “Bloody Sunday,” “Joe Egg,” a Colum bia production with Alan Bates, “Say Hello to Yesterday,” with Jean Simmons and “Scrooge,” a musical with Albert Finney and Sir Alec Guiness.
The decline in movie‐mak ing here and throughout Eu rope is underscored in nume rous ways, however — in the sudden cancellation of “Man’s Fate” and, more re cently, Richard Lester’s “Flashman,” in the overhaul of London‐based production personnel in United Artists. Paramount and M.G.M. and in the salary cuts that stars, directors and technicians are accepting in order to work.
Like other filmmakers in Britain, Mr. Lester attributes the decline in moviemaking here to two basic factors: the over‐all crisis in the movie industry and falling box‐of fice receipts.
“The failures in the past few years here have fright ened the studios,” he said.
In the mid‐sixties, some of the most successful films re leased were British—“Dar ling,” “Georgy Girl,” “Alfie,” “A Hard Day’s Night” and “Help.” Within the last few years, however, “Joanna,” “The Touchables,” and “Charge of the Light Bri gade” have floundered.•
“Fewer and fewer Euro pean films have been hit ting, not just here in Britain but the films made by Berg man, Debroca, Truffaut,” said Sandy Whitelaw, the European production chief for United Artists.
“It used to be certain European films could say and do things that American films couldn’t do,” said Mr. Whitelaw, whose company will produce about 12 films in Europe this year, a 50 per cent cutback over 1969.
Perhaps the studio in the midst of the stormiest changes, in Europe as well as the United States, is M.G.M, which has no Euro pean films in production now and has reorganized its over seas production staff under Robert Littman, a 32‐year‐old Briton, who was formerly a director of the William Mor ris Agency here.
“We’ve got to make more films for people, not directors,” said Mr. Littman, whose company recently laia off 300 carpenters and tech nicians from their local studio. “I want a variety of films and I want to make them commercial,” he said.
M.G.M. is now planning a number of low‐budget films in Britain, the first one a sci ence‐fiction drama, “No Blade of Grass,” produced and di rected by Corne Wilde.
In dealing with the cutback in American ‐ supported pro ductions, the British movie industry has begun to seek film support without Ameri can money. One of the most ambitious British projects is the Associated British Picture Corporation, which has an nounced a 15‐film program during the next two years.
The production outfit, whose managing director is Bryan Forbes, the director, has four films in various edit ing stages and three in pro duction.
“More and more people will have to go the independent way without studios,” said Mr. Lester. “People will have to make films and then sell them on their own to dis tributors.”
“It’s a very difficult time now,” he added with a shrug. “People have been out of work for a long time and no one really knows what they’re going to do.”
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