HandMade Films Best to Worst

(of the ones I have seen - so not The Missionary, Song of Freedom, Taboo, Venom, The Burning) 

Classics 

Life of Brian (1979)

The Time Bandits (1981)

The Long Good Friday (1980)

Withnail and I (1987)

Solid Comedies 

A Private Function (1984) 

Water (1985) 

Nuns on the Run (1990)

Bullshot (1983) 

Solid Dramas 

The Lonely  Passion of Judith Hearne (1989)

Mona Lisa (1986) 

Five Corners (1987) 

Brave tries 

The Raggedy Rawney (1988)

How to Succeed in Advertising (1989)

Track 29 (1989)

Scrubbers (1982) 

Powwow Highway (1989) 

Comedy misfires

Privates on Parade (1982)

Drama misfires

Bellman and True (1987) 

 Fiascos

 Shanghai Surprise (1986)

Checking Out (1989) 

Cold Dog Soup (1990) 

Great Unmade British films - a random selection

* Alex Korda - I Claudius (started filmin), War and Peace (with Orson Welles!)

* Hammer - I am Legend (yes, more but that's the main one)

*Kubrick - Napoleon, The Aryan Papers

* Hitchcock - No Bail for the Judge, Greenmantle 

* Alistair Maclean - HMS Ulysses

*Mistress of the Seas

*Mary Queen of Scots from Alexander Mackendrick 

*Tom Paine by Richard Attenborough

*The Knight by Ridley Scott

*Barnado Boys, Feathers of Death and The Long Loud Silence from Bryan Forbes at EMI

*Nat Cohen - the Nat King Cole Story yes, remake of Kind Hearts and Coronets with Dick Emery no

 *Lawrence of Arabia from Terence Rattigan

*the Lewis Collins Falklands film 

Brian de Palma elements

 1) Perviness - lots and lots of vouyerism

2) Old Hollywood - famously Hitchcock but also gangster movies, broad comedies, musicals

3) Leftist politics - Greetings, Redcated, Casualties of War - soldiers are bad, it's a conspiracy, etc etc

4) Satire - of American politics but also business, gangsters

5) Wacky comedy - related to above - most notorious in Wise Guys but also in other films like Home Movies, Greetings

6) Genuine artist - when De Palma gets chits he blows them in interesting ways: anti-war movies, student films, video

William Holden's cold streak

 With The World of Suzie Wong (1960) he was at his peak. Then: 

- Satan Never Sleeps (1962) Leo McCarey dud that killed off Clifton Webb and McCarey

- The Counterfeit Traitor (1962) - spy story did poorly

- The Lion (1962) - dull drama

- Paris When it Sizzles (1964) a flop rom com with Audrey Hepburn

- The Seventh Dawn (1964) flop Malayan Emergency drama

- Alvarez Kelly (1966) flop Wesern

- The Devil's Brigade (1968) disappointing war film

Then The Wild Bunch (1969) brought him back. 

Richard Burton shag list

 I’ve been listening to the TCM podcast on the making of Cleopatra (1963) where there’s the claim Richard Burton, up to the making of that film, slept with all of his leading ladies except Julie Andrews. As I’m currently watching Cleopatra and it’s four hours long (it has some great stuff in it) I thought I would fact check this. 

Unless specified it’s a movie...

* Last Days of Dolwyn - mostly male cast
* Waterfront (1950) - with Susan Shaw... yes they would’ve done it, she was wild
* The Woman with No Name (1950) - can’t imagine anything happened with no nonsense Phyllis Calvert but second female lead Helen Cherry was married to boozer Trevor Howard and might have liked a crack at Burton
* The Lady’s Not for Burning (1950) - Broadway play with Pamela Brown... yeah I reckon that happened
* Legend of Lovers (1951) - Broadway play with Dorothy McGuire... I doubt this one but you never know
* Green Grow the Rushes (1951) with Honor Blackman - honestly couldn’t say
* My Cousin Rachel (1952) with Olivia de Havilland... maybe, she could be a little minxy (had a hot fling with John Huston).. maybe something happened with Audrey Dalton who was also in it
* The Robe (1953) - Jean Simmons was in this and she was prone to flings with co stars even when married (she was with Stewart Granger at this time) so yeah I reckon that happened
* The Desert Rats (1953) - all male cast but both Burton and Robert Newton were notorious drinkers so anything is possible
* Prince of Players (1955) with Maggie McNamara - a possibility
* Rains of Ranchipur (1955) with Lana Turner - this would’ve happened 
* Alexander the Great (1956) with Clair Bloom, who he did have an affair with
* Sea Wife (1957) with Joan Collins... what do you reckon? Of course they did
* Bitter Victory (1957) with Ruth Roman... maybe
* Time Remembered (1957) - Broadway show - he did have affair with Susan Strasberg
* Look Back in Anger (1959) - he definitely had an affair with Claire Bloom
* Ice Palace (1960) - with Carolyn Jones, Martha Hyer, Shirley Knight... he would’ve had one of those

* The Bramble Bush (1960) - with Angie Dickinson... yeah I reckon that happened
* Camelot with Julie Andrews - didn’t happen

Diller versus Evans

Am reading Barry Diller’s excellent memoirs which discuss his time running Paramount in the 1970s which made me decide to compare his regime with the fabled Robert Evans regime that proceeded it. (These lists below attribute films to various regimes as well as I can... it's entirely possible some started development under other regimes)

So films from the Evans regime which film bros (deservedly) always bang on about...  

Love Story, The Godfather Part 1 and 2, Harold and Maude, A New Leaf, Willy Wonka, Play It Again Sam, Lady Sings the Blues, Paper Moon, The Friends of Eddie Coyle, Serpico, The Conversation, Daisy Miller, The Parallax View, Chinatown, Death Wish, The Longest Yard, Three Days of the Condor, Hustle, Italian Job, Medium Cool, True Grit, Goodbye Columbus, Rosemary’s Baby, The Odd Couple, Romeo and Juliet, Barbrella, if..., Oh what a Lovely War, Downhill Racer. 

Great stuff. 

But films from Evans regime which film bros forget he made (or blame on Charlie Bludhorn)...

 The Molly Maguires, The Adventurers, Darling Lili, Friends, Little Fauss and Big Haley, Norwood, a weirdly large number of flop Neil Simon adaptations (Plaza Suite, Last of the Red Hot Lovers, Star Spangled Bannered Girl), Murphy’s Law, TR Baskin, Such Good Friends, Bad Company, The N***** Charley Films, Save the Children, Sterile Cuckoo, Hello Down There, My Side of the Mountain, Where’s Jack, Blue, No Way to Treat a Lady, 5 Card Stud, Skidoo, The Brotherhood, A Talent for Loving, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Scalawag, The White Dawn, Paint Your Wagon.

Not so great stuff. You just don't hear Peter Bart go one about these as much. 

Films from the Diller regime which film bros go on about:  

Saturday Night Fever, Bad News Bears, Marthon Man, King Kong, Mikey and Nicky (in its own way), Looking for Mr Goodbar, Saturday Night Fever, Pretty Baby, Grease 1 and 2, Heaven Can Wait, Foul Play, Days of Heaven, Up in Smoke, The Warriors, Escape from Alcatraz, Meatballs, North Dallas Forty, Star Trek 1 and 2, American Gigolo, Friday the 13th series, Urban Cowboy, Flying High 1 and 2, Ordinary People, Popeye, Raiders of the Lost Ark and Temple of Doom, Mommie Dearest, An Officer and.a Gentleman, 48 Hours, White Dog, Flashdance, Trading Places, Terms of Endearment, Uncommon Valor, The Keep, Footloose,  Top Secret, Beverly Hills Cop, Witness.

Again, a great line up of films. 

But there are films from the Diller regime which seem to be forgotten: 

Won Ton Ton the Dog That Saved Hollywood, Lifeguard, Handle with Care, First Love, The One and Only, Going South, Oliver's Story, An Almost Perfect Affair, Prophecy, Bloodline, Sunburn, French Postcards, Nijinsky, Rough Cut, The Hunter, Coast to Coast, Going Ape, Dragonslayer, First Monday in October, Paternity, Ragtime, I’m Dancing as Far as I Can, Some Kind of Hero, Partners, Jekyll and Hyde Together Again, It Came from Hollywood, Ladies and Gentlemen the Fabulous Stains, The Man Who Wasn’t There, Racing with the Moon, Best Defence, River Rat, Thief of Hearts, Falling in Love, King David, Rustlers Rhapsody, Compromising Positions. 

Don't forget the flops, that's all I'm saying. 

Script editing Bryan Forbes' films at EMI

 I'm too obsessed with these. But anyway, here are my suggested fixes of the "Forbes' twelve"

- And Soon the Darkness - needed three girls so there were at least two kills (preferrably three kills), not enough story

- The Breaking of Bumbo - too late for it to have been made, missed its window

- Dulcima - never should've been made, too television, not enough story

- Eyewitness - pick a lead and make it about that one person, not four

- A Fine and Private Place - never should've made it with those stars, they weren't names

- The Go Between - no notes 

- Hoffman - either make it Beauty and the Beast and turn the Beast sympathetic or make it a horror story, again not enough story

- The Man Who Haunted Himself - better fashion, lean into concept more... but I would've green lit this 

- Mr Frobush and the Penguins - experienced director, and a human love story that happens in Antarctica not via bloody phone - make Hayley Mills the star, have a handsome man visit her, personify the penguins

- The Raging Moon - younger stars (Jenny Agutter say) and a subplot involving parents, not enough story otherwise

- The Railway Children - no notes

- The Tales of Beatrix Potter - I would've asked for more of a narrative; the film did fine but with more of a conventional story it could've done gangbusters

Zampi vs Del Guidice

 Two friends turned enemies.

 

Paul Wendkos

 Films and Filming Aug 1968

 

Piece on Alan White

Films and Filming (I think 1957)

 

Jack Thompson interview from 1975 Cinema Papers

 

Old Cinema Papers interview with Bryan Brown

 

Real time in movies vs movie time in movies: some thoughts

I read the script for Saturday Night the other day, a movie which seems to fall into the “good try” category, and is definitely in the “at least 20 years too late for people to care” category (in 2005 people like Bill Murray, Chevy Chase etc were still omnipresent).

It’s written in real time - 90 minutes before the first show - and it got me thinking about the notion of real time in movies versus real time in theatre.

Real time works great in stage plays because, if done well, it creates this extra tension and energy in a work - it’s all happening right there, right then and there, with these people literally right in front of us. It’s also faster because on scene changes slow things down in the theatre: the lights dim, the actors leave, the scene changes, the lights come up, the actors come on. This is usually cumbersome and you have to resort to skill to not slow it down. John Guare's Six Degrees of Separation is an excellent example how to do quick scene changes on stage. But a lot of plays would be better off with longer scenes. Part of the trouble with many of David Williamson’s later plays is he has too many scenes which he'd be better off combining and playing out in real time as much as possible.

Real time works less well in film, where it can slow action down. The audience isn’t as attuned to watching film in real time - it expects time jumps via editing.  I mean, real time movies can work brilliantly (there are exceptions to every rule) - one only has to think of something like High Noon, Run Lola Run or Birdman. 

But you have to be careful picking what specific period of “real time” you are using.

Saturday Night takes place in real time before the first show of Saturday Night Live. That’s a sexy concept and it sounds like a good idea - all the chaos, the madness, etc. You can imagine the colour and movement and feeling of stakes.

But actually it’s not a good idea, not really. Because the last ninety minutes before a script show goes to air are tense for those involved... but not to watch. I mean, the show has already been written and cast and planned and costumed and rehearsed. The key decisions (who to write it, who to star, what jokes to tell) have been made. The ninety minutes before show is for vocal warm ups, props checks and trying not to freak out. It’s exciting but not that exciting, certainly not 90 minutes’ exciting.

Reitman tries to pump it up with some drama like having Lorne Michaels go see a stand up show, be unimpressed by the comic but like the material and hire the writer... which happened... but not just before the first show. Michaels should be on set during that time, to have him run off to a bar and see another show makes him look really incompetent. (I know the event happened, but on another night altogether). Also some things just don’t ring true like hinting Chevy Chase might be the new Johnny Carson before the show goes to air. After the show’s a hit, yes, and that's what happened in real life but it was after the show was the talk of the nation - having this event happen before the first show has aired doesn’t make sense. And all the sketches and bits that people come up with right before the opening show doesn’t feel real. A few lines, yes, a bit of business, certainly - but not to the extent here.

Saturday Night would have been better off focusing on the months, or a week before the show. You could put in the same material, more or less, I just think it would have had more propulsion and felt realer and you could do the countdown to the opening show as a ticking clock throughout.

Another script/film it reminded me of was Jobs. (Sidebar: while reading Saturday Night I was constantly thinking of Studio 60 on Sunset and that was much better written than Saturday night though that’s an unfair comparison. Actually I began to wish that instead of making Studio 60 on Sunset Aaron Sorkin had written the Saturday Night Live story like he did for Social Network.. I think he would have done a banger job, packed a script full of zingers, understood the drug addiction, got that backstage showbiz story out of his system, and spared us that three episode arc where the star’s brother was kidnapped in Iraq. End of sidebar.)

With Jobs Aaron Sorkin came up with a (seemingly) sexy way to tackle the life of Steve Jobs: three different product launches. Well, that is different, and better than from cradle to grave storytelling.

But... problem is, nothing much really exciting happened at those product launches. Like Saturday night the key decisions/conflict had happened before/after those launches. I think Sorkin kind of realised it writing the script - he did pretty well with the conflict involving Jobs not identifying his daughter (this was quite well done) but still couldn’t resist flashing back to the big moment in Jobs’ professional life - when Jobs got sacked from Apple. That was a lot more interesting than the product launches and Sorkin knew it.

Also another thing about real life stage versus film. I think on stage you can allude to things you don’t see more - characters, events. Indeed, it can work quite well, discussing what happened, say, “last spring” with “Camilla” can be very evocative on stage. Tennessee Williams uses it brilliantly - having characters recall events that happened off stage. Theatre audiences will use their imaginations a bit more than film audiences. You can stand on a theatre stage and say “we’re on the moon” and audiences will go for it. Film audiences are on the whole far more literal. Absurdism and expressionism works far better on stage than film, as does references to past events. I think discussing Jobs getting fired in Jobs would have worked on stage but it doesn’t on film because when you watch film you are conditioned to use your eye more. And Sorkin and Danny Boyle realised it so they showed it.

Maybe Saturday Night would work on stage because you can have people chatting about all the big events and the audience would go with it. You can recap events via dialogue quite effectively on stage. (I actually think the dialogue on Saturday Night isn’t very good but that’s a separate issue).

So what am I saying?

I guess it’s this: real time can work on film, yes, but think very very carefully about what sort of “real time” you’re going to do.

“24 hours before a big terror attack” - that’s great. You can do 24. “One hour til the noon train comes in with killers”. You can do High Noon. You just have to juggle the stories but it can work.

“90 minutes before the first show”. Actually not a good idea. Ditto “three product launches”.

One thing I think filmmakers should do more of - longer takes. Play out certain scenes in real time. Alphonso Cuaron does this brilliantly. Sometimes scenes are too short when there’s drama to be had playing them out. Again though you have to pick your moment.

Random list - pop stars whose parents were movie stars

- Gary Lewis from Gary Lewis and the Playboys - son of Jerry Lewis
- Peter Lewis from Moby Grape - son of Loretta Young
- Crispian Mills from Kula Shaker - son of Hayley Mills
- Dino, Desi & Billy - sons of Dean Martin and Desi Arnaz
- David Crosby son of Floyd Crosby the DOP

Neil Simon plays - autobiographical or not?

Come Blow Your Horn (1961)* - yes, based on his brother and parents
Little Me (1962) - no, musical
Barefoot in the Park (1963)* - yes, based on his first marriage
The Odd Couple (1965)* - kind of, based on his brother and mate
Sweet Charity (1966) - no, musical adaptation
The Star-Spangled Girl (1966) - no, Simon regretted not doing concept justice
Plaza Suite (1968) - no, just funny
Promises, Promises (1968) - no, musical adaptation
Last of the Red Hot Lovers (1969) - no, just funny
The Gingerbread Lady (1970) - no, based on people he roughly knew
The Prisoner of Second Avenue (1971) - no
The Sunshine Boys (1972) - no, based on old vaudevillians
The Good Doctor (1973) - no, Chekov
God’s Favorite (1974) - no, Job (bad play)
California Suite (1976) - no, just funny
Chapter Two (1977)* - yes, based on his second marriage
They’re Playing Our Song (1979) - no, musical
I Ought to Be in Pictures (1980) - no
Fools (1981) - no, old Russian
Brighton Beach Memoirs (1983)* - yes, expressly so
Biloxi Blues (1985)* - yes, time in army
Broadway Bound (1986)* - yes, starting career
Rumors (1988) - no, farce
Lost in Yonkers (1991)* - yes based on childhood
Jake’s Women (1992)* - yes based on ex wives
The Goodbye Girl (1993) - no, musical
Laughter on the 23rd Floor (1993)* - yes based on TV career
London Suite (1995) - no just funny
Proposals (1997) - no
The Dinner Party (2000) - no
45 Seconds from Broadway (2001) - no
Rose’s Dilemma (2003) - no

So it’s actually a smaller proportion than I thought - ten if you include Odd Couple. I think bc the blockbusters and critical hits are autobiographical they overshadow other work.

James Coburn and Australia

 1) The Great Escape - mangled the accent, nailed the attitude

2) Death of a Soldier - Australian film with Coburn as the imported star

3) Payback - Coburn had a good support role in this film from Aussie-when-it-suits-us Mel Gibson - he and Gibson were also in Maverick together

4) Dead Heat on a Merry Go Round - Coburn impersonates an Aussie

5) Babe in th Woods - early TV play written by Aussie Sumner Locke Elliott starring Coburn

6) Major Dundee - Coburn and Aussie Michael Pate have support roles

7) Duck You Sucker - Cobun took a role originally offered to George Lazenby

I'm kind of stretching...

Musicals - "Cry Baby" versus "Hairspray"

 Listened to the cast album of Cry Baby - the broadway show. I know it's only going off cast albums but I think I can see why that didn't work and Hairspray did. As a musical that is - I prefer Cry Baby as a film. But it doesn't have a lot of story - the film runs out as is. Also the characters are less vivid - Johnny Depp and Amy Locane are a solid centre, and there's decent villains (the smarmy guy, the fake pregnancy girl) but the others are more a galaxy of types - Hatchet Face, Ricki Lake.

Compare Hairspray - it's got the overweight girl, and her mum and geeky dad, and her best friend and the friend's religious nutter mom, and the cute guy and bitch girl and her mum, and the black singer, and the black boyfriend. Hairspray has a natural playground - the Corny Collins show - and is about two big issues: treatment of fat people and treatment of blacks. There's more to work with. Cry Baby doesn't have these. It's about outsiders.

Also I think the music in the film is better than Broadway. It was rock a billy, catchy, fun, The musical music feels more generic.

Films MGM could’ve remade in the early 60s instead of the ones they did

 After Ben Hur MGM went on a remake kick. Not surprising considering the success of Ben Hur.

Their choices sunk the studio
- Cimarron
- Mutiny on the Bounty
- Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

Also throw in Jumbo.
 

Okay trying not to be too wise in hindsight but... all the remakes made sense. Big screen and colour worked on all.

Mutiny on the Bounty especially. Shot in Tahiti. Gorgeous.

Where the studio really stuffed up with that one? They went into production without a fixed script and a star who overpowered the director. They really just needed to shoot the 1935 script. Update it a little. But it was involving water and going to Tahiti. They needed calm heads. People good on location. Not to make a masterpiece. Just to get spectacle. They should’ve cast Charlton Heston or Burt Lancaster or Kirk Douglas. A little bit of a diva but basically pros.

Cimarron had the right male star and director. But problem - it’s a woman’s story. They gave the female lead to Maria Schell - but then geared the film to Glenn Ford. They needed to have a matching female star, Elizabeth Taylor would’ve been ideal but if not her then I don’t know Debbie Reynolds. Make it more about her. Tell the story of her falling for Ford and so on.

Four Horsemen was the most obvious misfire. Update to WW2 - why? That not fatal but... Glenn Ford killed it. And female stars. Needed to be sexy. Sexless director. Incidentally, this didn’t need to be a big spectacle.

Other flops.
- Wonderful World of Brothers Grimm. Charming film. But dull, dull brothers. Just needed to tell fairytales. Not the dull brothers. Just too much money spent. Blown up too much.
- Billy Rose’s Jumbo. Great star and ideal director. Lost heaps. Musical possibly too old.
 

What else could they have remade from the MGM library? As in, a big budget spectacle
- Tale of Two Cities? Yes but the Brits did it in 1958.
- Marie Antoinette? Yes, but only if right star... Elizabeth Taylor or nothing.
- Gone with the Wind? No point. Same with Wizard of Oz.
- San Francisco? Yes!! Colour, better effects. No Gable but... you could do Glenn Ford.
- The Good Earth? No. Too problematic. Needed genuine Chinese actors by the 960s.
- The Big Parade? Interesting. A big hit. But public more war weary in 1925 than 1960?
- The Birth of a Nation? No!
- The Thief of Badgad? Yes. If they’d gotten the rights. They could’ve done big Robin Hood too.
- The Scarlet Letter? Too depressing.

Ben Thau's Slate at MGM

 Dore Schary was kicked out of running MGM in late 1956. Joe Vogel replaced him with Ben Thau - well, not officially replaced, but Thau was now head of the studio in Hollywood. He wasn't meant to be a production chief. There was a lot of continuity - Eddie Mannix stayed, as did Kenneth Mackenna (story editor). 1957 was a rough year for MGM as several movies came along that didn't do too well - or did but cost a lot. However Thau-Vogel films came through and they did very well. Look at these films greenlit 

* Jailhouse Rock (Oct 1957) - the first really great Elvis movie, MGM brought their skill to Presley and it paid off in spades. If only he'd done more at Metro in this mood.

* The Brothers Karamazov (Feb 1958) - Doystokevsky! But a big hit via Yul Brynner and Richard Brooks. This did cause MGM to think Maria Schell was going to be a star.

* Merry Andrew (March 1958) - Danny Kaye musical that was not that liked but I can understand why it was made

* I Accuse! (March 1958) - Jose Ferrer does Dreyfuss affair.

* Gigi (May 1958) - a last huge musical success. Freed, Minelli, Lerner and Loewe. A last blaze of glory.

*  The High Cost of Loving (May 1958) - a dud. Jose Ferrer in a comedy? Film gets points for Gena Rowlands, who Thau championed.

*  Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Aug 1958) - terrific adaptation of the Broadway hit with the perfect stars. (Mike Todd died during filming in March)

* Imitation General (Aug 1958) - Glenn Ford service comedy. These were fail safe until they weren't. This was - big hit.

*  The Reluctant Debutante (Aug 1958) - light comedy which did okay just not profitable due to its high cost.

*  Party Girl (Oct 1958) - Nick Ray movie. Robert Taylor cop film and a hit.

*Torpedo Run (Oct 1958) - Glenn Ford in the services.

*  The Tunnel of Love (Nov 1958) - Broadway adaptation with Doris Day probably needed comedy and definitely needed a more suitable co star than Richard Widmark.

* Some Came Running (Dec 1958) - Minelli, Sinatra, Martin, MacLaine, Jones. Big hit. Cost a lot.

*  Tom Thumb (Dec 1958) - charming George Pal movie shot in England.

*  The Journey (Feb 1959) - greenlit by Thau, lost money.

*  Green Mansions (March 1959) - think they made it because it was Audrey Hepburn. Wrong co star and director. Big flop.

*  The Mating Game (Apr 1959) - charming version of Darling Buds of May, a perfect role for Debbie Reynolds, and a success - I'm assuming they intended Glenn Ford to play the Tony Randall part! A hit.

*  Count Your Blessings (Apr 1959) - rom com no one remembers with Rosanno Brazzi and Deborah Kerr.

*  North by Northwest (July 1959) - classic Hitchcock - filmed around Aug 1958 so maybe more a Siegel film

*  Ben Hur (Nov 1959) - Thau and Vogel greenlit though Sol Siegel benefited. They took the decision to hire William Wyler not Richard Thorpe and cast Charlton Heston/

*  The Wreck of Mary Deare (Nov 1959) - this wasn't really Thau - made late, but greelit by him, originally for Hitchcock.

Now of course other people were responsible for the above. But what a great slate. Comedy, drama, romance, stars.

But Vogl brought in Sol Siegel as head of production in early 1958. I think they just found the new system tricky. Siegel did well with Ben Hur money but then came a cropper in Cimarron, Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and Mutiny on the Bounty. A Thau regime might have made this - Thau was still part of the set up. But I wonder.

Barry Spikings Slate at EMI Films

 Michael Deeley left in 1978. Barry Spikings ran the ship alone, with films for EMI's distribution outfit in the US. This would prove disastrous. But let's look at the films:

* The Awakening 

*The Mirror Crack'd.

*The Jazz Singer

*Times Square

*Can't Stop the Music

*Honky Tonk Freeway

Okay, let's try not to be too wise in hindsight. A classy horror film... that' not bad, Even if the source material wasn't strongest. Agatha Christie? Tick. A remake of Jazz Singer? Why not?

Times Square... obscure, small target film. Can't Stop the Music - big budget musical for a band that had peaked, These were arguable. Honky Tonk wasn't - unfunny comedy from a director with no experience in the genre, and no stars... and a blow out cost.

Another slate

*Memoirs of a Survivor

*Britannia Hospital

*Evil Under the Sun

*Frances

*Handgun

Alright let's look at this. Agathat Christie good. A Frances Farmer biopic, yes. But the others are weird - Memoirs of a Survivor and Handgun are like TV, Brittania Hospital is brilliant but lacking any empathy. Only two had a commercial chance.

Then there are films Spikings arranged for before he left:

* Second Thoughts

*Tender Mercies

*Bad Boys

*Cross Creek

*Strange Invaders

*Not for Publication

Cripes what a slate. A B list rom com, gritty drama, biopic about an unfamous person, satire. No action movie,  no stars, it's all pretty arthouse.