Also included on the DVD was commentary from Caine, Hodges and Suschitzky, constructed from separate interviews with the three. Lastly, the films of this decade seemed to exhibit their own riff on the cinéma vérité style of movie making.

Several of the company's actors were also in background shots in the film including the casino, streets, bars and the police raid scene. Klinger was invited to view a first print of Peter Walker's Man of Violence (1969) and was unimpressed, telling the director "I'm going to make a gangster film, but it's going to cost a lot more than this and it's going to be better". as he crashes selfishly through post-war Nottingham, while Barry Hines’s wonderful A Kestrel for a Knave (1968) focusses on an unwanted boy from a Barnsley council estate, and his doomed friendship with a hunting bird he rescued as an orphanned chick. MGM executives initially wanted Telly Savalas for the part of the "big man", but were impressed by Coronation Street actor Mosley's performance in fight scenes in Far from The Madding Crowd. At the advice of Richard Lester, Hodges and his assistant director stayed at a separate hotel to the rest of the cast and crew, which enabled him to have some respite from the production after the shooting day was done.Apart from having sex with Audrey, he seems most happy with a cup of tea and a copy of the Daily Express. This scene in the book really stood out for me but mostly because of the last two lines of it making me laugh out loud. Given that Ted Lewis had not specified where his novel was set, Hodges felt free to relocate the story [36] to a place he was familiar with, considering Grimsby, Lowestoft, Hull and North Shields [2] before deciding on Newcastle upon Tyne.

Although, my attempts to discern the novel’s distinct slang kept bringing me back to film to help understand what was happening with the dialogue.Beechcroft, Broomside Lane, County Durham, the location of Cliff Brumby's house, awaiting demolition in 2007. In Michael Klinger's The Guardian obituary in 1989, Derek Malcolm remembered the film as "one of the most formidable British thrillers of its time". Asked to comment on what he was aiming for in the look of the film, cinematographer Wolfgang Suschitzky said "The camera work on it [. Cider House Rules, something as cheesy but fun as Blame It On Rio, Alfie, gosh the list just goes on.

And even today, everything I’ve just said notwithstanding, it’s a bit of an eye-opener to see such a stark, matter-of-fact depiction of a rough, tough town, with its depressing rows of terraced houses, its fiery backcloth of factories and steel mills, its backstreet pubs full of drunks and strippers, and its smoke-filled billiards halls where a single wrong word can get you into serious trouble. by Burton Lane and Ralph Freed, [4] a song more associated with glamorous Hollywood films than the backrooms of Newcastle pubs. She attracted Hodges' attention not just for her good looks but for her work on Alun Owen's television plays Stella and Doreen. By using the Web site, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to be bound by the Terms and Conditions.

Andrew Spicer has written that "he [Klinger] sensed its potential to imbue the British crime thriller with the realism and violence of its American counterparts". I’d say Caine’s interpretation of a British gangster was so eye-popping, you’d have to wait until the start of the next decade for another quite like it.

Long estranged from his family, Jack has only two close relatives remaining: his older brother, Frank, and Frank’s daughter, 15-year-old Doreen. MGM agreed to a reasonable but below-average budget of 750,000 (there is some dispute as to whether this figure refers to dollars or pounds) [2] for the production. Brumby identifies Kinnear as being behind Frank's death, also explaining that Kinnear is trying to take over his business. This was later sampled by Vangelis, who used it on the 1981 Jon and Vangelis track The Friends of Mr Cairo.

He and Pierce Brosnan are marvelous in this Frederick Forsyth Cold War thriller which still doesn’t have an official U. The film finally opened for general release across the UK on 10 March 1971 and in the US on 18 March, where it was rated 'X' for violence and female nudity, meaning it was for adults only. Michael Klinger and the MGM publicity spokesman dismissed the use of the location as mere coincidence; however, Hodges was aware of the significance of the house and chose it deliberately. Sound editing and dubbing was done by Jim Atkinson, whom Hodges described as "so obsessive about the job".