Hugely fun thriller. Crichton wasn't great at creating characters but here he's got an ace cast - Genevieve Bujold as the investigating doctor, Michael Douglas as her boyfriend, Richard Widmark and Rip Torn as possible villains. There's appearances by Ed Haris, Lois Chiles and Tom Selleck. The hospitals are creepy the director's experience with them helps sell it. He's better at suspense than action.
Some camp - the love interlude, Bujold attending dance class and hopping in the shower.
Written in 1973, published in 2026. I wonder why? Maybe Crichton was worried about lawsuits. Story seems inspired by The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing - a death during a film shoot in the West. Here it's a screenwriter. Crichton has digs at the macho star (Burt Reynolds?), the horny female star (Sara Miles?), an idiotic critic who pitches his story ideas (who was he?), a director who flew planes (surely George Roy Hill). Technical details about making a film. A Sherlock Holmes like super investigator. The unit publicist is Watson, which is cute.
Not a bad mystery - about a TV episode standard. Decent twists - they figure out who did it but then it turns out to be someone else. A read it very quickly, had a good time.
Hypnotic. Beautiful music. Trippy but also social realism. Some social commentary. Two people actually having sex. There's a birth in there too.
No narrative. Tony Garnett produced. Roy Battersby directed. The lack of narrative does tell after a while.
Blake Edwards whined that MGM cut this movie around and I'm sure Jim Aubrey and co did even though it co stars Aubrey's daughter but it's still long even at 100 minutes taking all this time to get going.
The strength of the novel was its fast pace and technical detail, both which aren't conveyed. The faults of the novel - its tropes - do survive. Like the book there's not enough compulsion for James Coburn to investigate - I think they should've made Jennifer O'Neill (who's pretty but whose part is pointless) be the doctor who got arrested and Coburn investigates it to free her because he loves her.
There's some effective bits and it's not a bad story. Coburn is a swinger and groovy but though he spouts the dialogue isn't entirely convincing as a dogged pathologist. Actually O'Nell would've been better in his role because as a woman she might have a reason to defend an abortionist. You know, Raquel Welch would've suited this.
Thereis a scene where Michael Blodgett gives James Coburn a massage that is very homoerotic. Blodgett is an effective villain and there are neat turns from people like John Hillerman.
But it doesn't have Edwards' patented style and gloss. Variety was right it feels like a TV movie. I think the only point to making these sort of films by the 70s was if you made it glossy and had stars in them.
Robyn Coburn is an Aussie, married to James Coburn, son of the actor, so this book has an excellent inside track - close to its source but not too close. Certain it''s open about Coburn (I'll use the star's surname more) being a crap father, absent and not interested, and a grumpy old opinionated man. But a fine actor, superb speaking voice, some excellent performances. The book benefits from his letters, thoughts and interviews - as a member of the family the writer has superb access.
Coburn had a fascinating life and career. Tall, deep voiced, silver haired. He got professional work quite quickly. Benefited from being able to study under the GI Bill (he was drafted in the early 1950s but was in Europe not the Korean War). He always seemed to be able to support himself via advertisements - when starting out and later on. When he began getting TV work the jobs came thick and fast - he was ideal as villains in Westerns and played a lot of them. His film career was respectable quickly too - Ride Lonesome then The Magnificent Seven. He had a great run as a second lead. The Flint films turned him into a star but his actual period as a top level name above the star wasn't long. But 1980 there were no more film leading roles, and TV didn't give him that much longer either. But he always had his voice and cameos.
A genuine hippy. Managed to link to popular culture in odd ways - a mate of Bruce Lee's, in the Band on the Run photo, a rejected Cosmo nude centerfold (the one before Burt Reynolds), a big car importer, in some films edited badly by Jim Aubrey.
He had a great 60s and pretty good 70s. Things went south in late 70s and took a while to bounce back. Won an Oscar with Affliction but that didn't so much for his career. Managed to appear in some iconic films though. Made a LOT of flops.
I think Network means more to Americans who didn't grow up with public broadcasting but I recognise the film's excellence and power. This is a worthy book - the writer did his research, especiallu going through the different drafts that Chayefsky did. Getting finance was not too hard - I mean, it wasn't super easy, but it was the 70s and The Hospital had made money. Also Sidney Lumet was idea and there were stars - William Holden, Faye Dunaway.
No one wanted to play the Peter Finch part. He wasn't on any lists but his agent pestered and he got it. Though he had to audition, sulked, then called back and said "sorry darling I forgot I was an actor". Finch stories are the most lively - he got bored acting opposite Ned Beatty during Beatty's speech so started impersonating a monkey, he moved to LA from "semi retirement" because the film reignited his career, he warned everyone that black extras would find him irresistible, he campaigned for his Oscar, he'd walk to the Beverly Hills hotel every day (couldn't drive) and wait until someone bought him breakfast (so he died trying to scab a freebie), William Friedkin organiser of the Oscars told Chayefsky that Finch's black wife couldn't accept the Oscar but Chayefsky or Lumet could, Chayefsky invited her up anyway.
Chayefsky was a pain on the film but Lumet could handle it -what a bummer they just didn't pay Lumet the few extra hundred thou to do Altered States (though what happened with Arthur Hiller?).
William Holden was boozy and insecure with emotional scenes. Fay Dunaway was terrific but freaked out about her sex scene - the author makes diva claims but she had to do most of her career surrounded by men with their hands down their pants around her. She was very sympathetic here. I think the film and Oscar made her a bit nuts - she made it to the top and didn't know what to do next, went for star parts as opposd to best parts.
The impact/fandom of the movie is well conveyed. A totally decent book.
1. Ben Hur (1959)
2. Greatest Show on Earth (1952)
3. Ten Commandments (1956)
4. El Cid (1961)
5. Omega Man (1971)
6. Soylent Green (1972)
7. Naked Jungle (1954)
8. Three Musketeers (1973)
9. Planet of the Apes (1968)
10, Major Dundee (1965) - excellent performance
This was a really easy list to compile. Unlike many stars of his generation, Heston had a strong 70s.
There aren't many documentaries about British filmmakers and Michael Klinger wasn't that famous but he made Get Carter, one of the most beloved British gangster flicks.
This has some decent talking heads - Mike Hodges, Michael Caine. One gets the sense though some things have been left out.
Klinger's non-Carter credits aren't that amazing - the Confessions films, some Wilbur Smith adaptations. He did do some work with Tony Tenser. Mind you it was a tough time to be a producer. Not many people beat Klinger's output - David Puttnam of course, also Don Boyd, John Dark, John Brabourne,
The Brits turned out a lot of thrillers in 1971 - low budget I guess. Roald Dahl wrote the script as a gift for his wife Patricia Neal. It's a variation on the lonely women and handsome young psychopath story - Night Must Fall is part of that but also Suspicion.
Pamela Brown is old mum, Patricia Neal her "spinster" daughter, Nicholas Clay the hunky psycho. Bernard Herrmann wrote a terrific score that isn't well used. The direction lacks atmosphere. The love story between Neal and Clay isn't done well.
Clay is an impotent psycho - the same time as Frenzy.
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.
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 Columbia 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 Ber 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 European 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 Morris Agency here.
“We’ve got to make more films for people, not directors,” said Mr. Littman, whose company recently laid off 300 carpenters and technicians 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.”
The visuals are beautiful, even for a David Lean film - the cliffs, the wind, the coast, the town. The authenticity level is low. This didn't seem to matter for Lean's earlier movies but something about this one does - maybe it's because it's a 1970 movie, shot in Ireland, where there's heaps of good actors. And none of the leads here are Irish - Mitchum, Miles, Leo McKern, Trevor Howard, John Mills. Mills' village idiot performance now reeks of Simple Jack-ness.
Because the film takes so long to tell such a simple story the mind has a chance to wander and contemplate the casting. Robert Mitchum in the lead. Hmm... The producer thought Gregory Peck would've been better. Alec Guinness could've worked (he had an innate sexlessness - you'd understand his wife cheating on him). But as the film went on I warmed to Mitchum - he's big and lumbering and looks dopey, like a St Bernard. It's fine work.
Sara Miles in the lead... She can act, she's fine... I constantly got the sense though that they wrote this for Julie Christie. Maybe because I'd just seen Zhivago but that's what I felt. I can't criticse Miles' performance. I just wish Julie Christie had played it. Or someone with more... I don't know... va-va-voom.
Barry Foster is effective as an IRA man. It helps he has a juicy role, shooting policemen and importing guns, but he does have a great presence. So too does Christopher Jones. Too cool for school, yes, but he has a great look. His voice was dubbed but it doesn't matter.
The townsfolk aren't really depicted with much nuance - the women are shrill harpies and the men yell.
I quite like this film. It was unduly criticised at the time. It looks gorgeous, even on the small screen - that storm sequence! I'll have to see it on the big screen one day. Dramatically it's satisfactory, building to a good old head shaving of the town harlot.
The main flaw is a super simple story is dragged out far too long for characters who aren't complex. Old low sex drive man, hot for it wife, traumastised soldier... we've seen these before. There's none of the freshness of Kwai's Colonel Nicholson or TE Lawrence, or the subplots of those films or the epic sweep of Zhivago who goes through so much and those colorful characters.
What's there is fine, but just do it at two hours, guys.
David isn't that famous a figure but had an interesting career, producing a series of hits at Fox in the late 60s, and this is an entertaining book. It wobbles a little all over the place but has terrific accounts of the making of movies like Von Ryan's Express, Skullduggery, The Black Bird - ego trips from Sinatra and George Segal (!), MGM in the early 70s, Lew Wasserman, the Zanucks. I thought there's be more on the Flint films.
Seventies Hollywood - MGM in decline, Dan Melnick greenlit, James T Aubrey disliked it, new stars (James Caan, Sally Kellerman), quirky road movie that covers genres (search for a bag of cash, a musical number, comedy), new scribe (WD Richter), new director (Howard Zieff).
Caan is very engaging as a sort of drifter. Peter Boyle feels a little try hard. Kellerman is fun as a nutty hitchhiker who attracts and scares Caan, Louise Lasser is good though feels wasted (it hints at a sort of romantic history between her and Caan that isn't explored; nothing much about her character is explored).
The movie varies in tone and is full of colourful types - a little like an Elmore Leonard novel, with its mixture of comedy and violence. Beautifully shot by Laszlo Kovacs. It wasn't for me but it showed how Caan can charm.
Robert Altman goes nuts off the back of the success of MASH and produces a legendary flop. I can totally see why the public didn't like it but I found it a lot of fun. It's insane - you've got Rene Aberjonis giving lecutres about birds, Sally Kellerman following Bud Cort around, a lot of Houston people spouting racist/homophobic slurs, bird shit constantly falling out of the sky, Michael Murphy as a cop sending up Steve McQueen (but called Shaft), the cop investigating a murder, Stacy Keach in old age make up, Burt Cort wanting to fly.
It's consistently inventive and weird with an emotionally powerful climax. And because only racists are killed the death toll isn't disturbing. Kellerman, Duvall and Cort all have X factor.
It's entirely appropriate this was remade as a blaxplotiation film because it feels like white blaxploitation - there's a funky soundtrack, Michael Caine's Carter is a bad ass out for revenge, he comes in to town and within something like two days manages to solve the crime, kill a lot of baddies, have sex with two women and phone sex with a third, kills two women.
It's new lad cinema par excellance, with its ruthless hero. Carter is a superstud. He's also not softened - a young kid who helps him is bashed up and he barely cares though offers some cash, he kills two women like I said, throws a tubby businessman off a staircase. So it makes sense morally that he dies.
It is unpleasant at times but also very well done. Location filming helps as does the superb cast - Caine was never better, nor was Britt Ekland, or John Osborne or Ian Hendry.
I'm always suspicious of people who really, really love this movie but it is extremely well made.
Great fun. I haven't seen the other Shaft films so I can't judge compared to that - I gather this changed the tone, sending a New York boy to Africa.
But the fact that he's black gives it wonderful freshness. It's still not that common to see black American movie leads set in Africa. This was shot in Ethiopia so the visuals are fantastic. Richard Rountree is lively and the film has resonance because it's about the modern day slave trade and the baddies seem to be South Africa and when two whites torture a black man at the end with wires you know that sort of thing was going on in South Africa.
Striling Silliphant seems to have at least done some basic research on African culture - of course clitorechtomy gets an airing. It did think it took a little long to get going - Shaft gets kidnapped and undergoes these tests before going on a mission when they could've just asked him to go on the mission.
Vonetta McGee is great value as the female lead and even more fun is Neda Arneric as a nymphomaniac who gives Frank Finlay head in the back of a limo, gets turned on by watching husky blacks on the side of the road, and is turned to good after a session in bed with Shaft.
Three's scenes in France and New York on top of Africa which gives everything a globe trotting feel - almost like James Bond. A good time at the movies if approached in the right spirit.
Fun. Big. Loud, Romantic. Silly. Great idea for a film. Sean Connery perfect as the Shiekh, for all his Scottish accent - he had more life than original choice Omar Sharif and more youth than Anthony Quinn. Candice Bergen is fine, though once I heard Katherine Hepburn was who Milius originally wanted I kept wishing it was her. They could've had Hepburn, someone to play her daughter to have a romance, and kept the kids.
The film feels as though it is missing bits. Like a meeting between Bergen and Brian Keith (fabulous as Roosevelt). A developed subplot involving the kid (like have him be corrupted, or have him betray his mother.) A support character for Sean Connery - a sidekick or one of his wives.
I love how the supporting characters were gung ho Americans, like the marine captain and the diplomat. This is a film full of life with tongue in cheek... a sense of humour that Milius lost.
Easily one of Milius' best movies as director.
Some excellent acting from Peter O'Toole and Susannah York especially in the last third when the movie gets more serious. That's when the film seems to find its rhythm. Until then its a hard slog to be honest with the leads running around being flamboyant. It was hard to care about the antics of impoverished upper class. I knew O'Toole was hot for York so it wasn't a shock. I think more needed to actually happen.
Michael Craig is very good as York's estranged husband. There's also decent turns from Harry Andrews as another lord and Brian Blessed, without a beard, as a young buck who York sleeps with. The girl who plays the pregnant maid is a little dull.
Shot in Ireland. The film feels bog-gy which is appropriate. An attempt by J. Lee Thompson to make something with more street cred but I don't feel he does a good job. Compare his direction with that in say his Ted Willis adaptations where he got the camera right in there.
