Straw Dogs (1971) - Lobby Cards

 

 

Steve

Straw Dogs (1971)

Straw Dogs is such a seminal piece of 70's cinema that its very hard to imagine it being played out any other way than it is or having actors other than Dustin Hoffman and Susan George as the stars.  However it turns out that neither were necessarily first choice for their respective roles.

 

For the part of David Sumner; Stacy Keach, Beau Bridges, Donald Sutherland, Sidney Poitier and Jack Nicholson were all allegedly considered.  There's not a bad actor there but if I was to rewrite history I think Poitier would have been a more interesting choice although maybe that would have brought just one "ism" too many for the film to bear. 

 

For the role of Amy Sumner, again there is an handful of alternative names of which all could have carried it off with as equal aplomb as Susan George did.  I might also add that the list is very much a who's who of fanciable females from 70's cinema.  At least its a lot like my version of the list!

 

Hayley Mills, Jacqueline Bisset,  Diana Rigg, Helen Mirren, Carol White, Charlotte Rampling and Judy Geeson were all considered at some point.

 

 

And as you'll see from the evidence below, the latter even gets named checked on the back of the novel along with Dustin Hoffman and David Warner*

 

There's clearly a story there, the details of which we may never know for sure but along with our; "What if?" we also now have a mysterious "Why not?" as well

Interestingly its also reported that Hoffman didn't think George had the right kind of look for what he believed David Sumner's wife should be like.  And on top of that Gordon M Williams was not a fan of the changes Sam Peckinpah made to his novel and Peckinpah by retaliation, claimed not to think an awful lot of Williams writing ability.  All of which goes to show that you don't all necessarily have to be pulling in the same direction to make a great film.  And it is a great film.

 

Being only about 3 when it first came out I didn't see it until the late 70's early 80's but its potent stuff being at times both ambiguous and brutal which is a hell of a trick to pull off.

 

If you've never seen it then you probably should and if you have then you should really go watch it again.  I know I will be.

 

And that's it except to state for the record that I bloody love Susan George in Straw Dogs and the decades of other work she's appeared in.  What an actress.  What a Lady.

 

 

Steve

 

 

*Although noted on the paperback, David Warner remained uncredited on the actual film.  Some kind of crime, surely!  And of course we will be back to redress that at some point in the future

Unman, Wittering and Zigo - Lobby Cards (1971)

Unman, Wittering and Zigo is a 1971 British thriller about a new teacher who arrives at a school and begins to suspect his predecessor was murdered by the pupils, though his suspicions are written off as paranoia. He sets out to prove his theory and prevent the same fate from befalling himself 

Directed by John Mackenzie and starring David Hemmings.  It was adapted by Simon Raven from Giles Cooper's 1950s radio drama 

I have an idea we read the script book at school which, given the subject matter, was something of an inspired choice by our English Teacher; Mr Eaton.  I really couldn't say if I had seen the film before or after but it stayed with me and is long overdue for a revisit.

Best film Title ever?


Steve

Mr Forbush and the Penguins - Lobby Cards (1971)

Now if my memories are correct then this film was one shown during the six weeks summer holidays, either that or on a Saturday morning.  While the details were lost, or probably never fully absorbed, I did recall it was John Hurt, going slowly bonkers while observing penguins.  The desolate landscape stayed with me, as did its effects upon our Mr Forbush.  As a kid I found these two aspects deeply fascinating and became drawn to them in other films such as Walkabout and  Sands of the Kalahari.

Having watched Mr Forbush and the Penguins again today, for the first time in decades, I have to say that the film has lost none of its appeal (or I haven't changed all that much!) and I remained as transfixed by Hurt's performance and the Antarctic location as I ever was.  Interestingly, the first half an hour of the film, which is set in London prior to the expedition, had not been stored away in the old memory banks at all and seemed amusingly adult in its revelations that Forbush only embarks upon the six month trek down south after Hayley Mills knocks back his persistent attempts to; get his leg over! -to use the vernacular of the day.

Being a man of a certain age, one might understand the need to go to some very extreme lengths in order to win such favours were it not for the fact that Forbush has bedded and walked away from the delightfully lovely Sally Geeson almost before the opening credits have rolled.

Steve

Ken Dodd's Diddymen Annual 1972 and other Christmas Annuals (1971)

 

 

So its 1971, Christmas is a few short weeks away and there is a fresh batch of Annuals to be looked at in the bookshops  It was traditional, I recall, that during a trip into town, we kids would select which ones we would like Santa to bring us. Sometimes it was hard to pick just one and sometimes the choice would be made for us  My mum would then make a note, so as not to forget who wanted what when letting the fat red fella know, and then we would leave and let the magic happen.

This particular year I ended up with the Teddy Bear Annual and my elder brother had Star Trek.  This amuses me no end because as I may have already said in a previous post, he grew to hate all that "sci-fi rubbish" where as I remain quite keen.  If I'm honest though, I'm not all that fussed about teddy bears nowadays but in 1971, and for a few years after, I think I spent a lot of time in that book. Having recently discovered it lurking in the old family home, I was compelled to immediately revisit the Ice-Cream Mountains, a double page spread of what I remember as the first place I ever wanted to emigrate to.

Cool! isn't it and with the pun fully intended.  And while I'm not sure I would still make the move today, I find I remain very fond of Ivor, the giant four legged Jumbly who seems like he might be a distant ancestor of Chorlton the Happiness Dragon.

That's it for this post except to say that we'll definitely be back to look at the Diddymen again

because they do have a touch of the Candy and Andy uncanniness, abut them.

 

And when we move forward to Christmas 73 we might also be taking a closer look at that Wham! cover because the artwork seems strangely familiar.

 

Steve

Walkabout - Lobby Cards (1971)

Pictures now. We'll talk about it all later.


Steve