by Stephen Vagg
Earlier this year, we did a long series on Nat Cohen, the should-be-legendary mogul of Anglo Amalgamated, Associated British and EMI films. In 1973, Cohen was the most powerful man in the British film industry by virtue of running EMI Films – which was the only real source of British finance for producers. Cohen’s career hit a peak the following year with the release of Murder on the Orient Express, a global blockbuster that was his idea… and, oddly, led to his departure; because it caused Bernard Delfont, Cohen’s boss, to dream of matching Hollywood. And matching Hollywood was not Cohen’s style, not really. He was a big believer in making films of international appeal – for instance, his ‘50s thrillers almost always had American stars – but he was a careful gambler and reluctant to bet the house on large budgets. Cohen had been stung on movies like Far from the Madding Crowd – thus, even after Orient, his output remained predominantly parochial.
Furthermore, the success of Orient perhaps led to Delfont thinking that Cohen might be getting too big for his boots. Surely, it couldn’t hurt to have some other executives at EMI? After all, there had been healthy (ish) competition between Cohen and Bryan Forbes when both men had their own unit. Maybe that could be repeated?
Delfont was impressed by the team of Barry Spikings and Michael Deeley over at British Lion. These two had teamed up in the early 1970s – Spikings was an ex-journalist while Deeley had a background in production (The Italian Job, Robbery). Along with actor Stanley Baker, they established a series of companies all called “Great Western”, which did all sorts of things, from buying buildings, to running pop festivals and making movies. One of their companies, Great Western Investments, took over British Lion Films in 1973, and Deeley was appointed managing director; Baker dropped out (or was squeezed out) and focused on acting prior to his death in 1976.
British Lion was a film company with a colourful past – it had been around since the 1920s, and had various managers/owners, most famously Alex Korda, and then a co-op run by the filmmakers Launder and Gilliat and the Boulting Brothers. British Lion was forever having cash problems and being bailed out by the government, but it made some of the best British movies ever. A series of flops in the early ‘70s saw Deeley and Spikings take over British Lion, and then eventually buy the company.
At British Lion, Deeley and Spikings oversaw an interesting slate of films. Their degree of involvement in these movies varied from project to project – some were greenlit before the duo turned up – but the later ones had their fingerprints all over it (on the last two they are credited as producers). Anyway, they were:
* Don’t Look Now (1973) Nic Roeg thriller in Venice with Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie having a hot love scene.
* A Doll’s House (1973) Version of Ibsen’s play from Joseph Losey and Jane Fonda, which weirdly came out around the same time as a rival version with Claire Bloom (how did the ecology result in rival Ibsen adaptations?)
* The Wicker Man (1973) Classic horror with Edward Woodward the virgin, a dancing Britt Ekland, and Anthony Schaffer’s script.
* The Internecine Project (1974) Thriller from Ken Hughes with James Coburn.
* Who? (1974) Thriller from Jack Gold starring Elliot Gould that is probably one of Gould’s least loved ‘70s movies,
* The Land That Time Forgot (1974) and At the World’s Core (1976) Adventure movies from Kevin Connor and producer John Dark with Doug McClure. British Lion distributed.
* Ransom (1975) Thriller shot in Norway starring Sean Connery that everyone forgets exists, but which made money because of Connery’s name.
* Conduct Unbecoming (1975) Old school adaptation of a hit stage play about naughty officers in British India.
* The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976) Nic Roeg sci-fi with David Bowie, which features a scene where a woman talks to Rip Torn’s penis, and we see Candy Clark from every possible angle.
This wasn’t a bad slate – thrillers, horror, fantasy, court drama, sci-fi. There was a healthy dollop of sex, classy directors and writers. It had ambition. The two Roegs and The Wicker Man became classics, while the Doug McClure movies are beloved. None of them were commercial blockbusters.
But Spikings and Deeley had things immensely appealing to Delfont – youth, energy, and a real vision: they proposed EMI move into blockbuster territory but lessen the risk by going into partnership with Hollywood majors. Its films wouldn’t necessary be British but rather “international” (i.e. American).
In May 1976, EMI Films paid £739,000 in cash and shares for British Lion – which ceased to exist – and appointed Deeley and Spikings as head of the studio. “It does not change my position in the slightest,” insisted Nat Cohen. “I shall continue to be chairman and chief executive of the EMI film production side.” But Cohen was coming off a disappointing slate including Aces High, Seven Nights in Japan and the abandoned Trick or Treat. Deeley declared that he couldn’t see how “EMI could have continued the policy we’ve operated in Britain up to now. Making a big British picture like Murder on the Orient Express every two or three years and then falling back into small, local pictures, in some cases spin offs from TV series meant for the home market for the rest of the time.”
And thus, the Deeley-Spikings regime at EMI Films began. As with British Lion, the degree of their involvement in various projects varied from film to film. Sometimes, they just provided money, other times they got in the trenches and were actual producers. Several projects were hold over from the Cohen regime. Many movies were made in conjunction with Columbia.
Here is the bulk of their EMI Films:
– Nickelodeon (1976) Peter Bogdanovich ode to silent era comedy (EMI kicked in some funds to Columbia to make this happen) that everyone thought would be a hit – Burt Reynolds, Ryan and Tatum O’Neal – and flopped.
– The Greatest (1977) Biopic of Muhammad Ali starring Ali – yes, that really happened – and directed by Tom Gries who died during post-production.
– The Silver Bears (1977) Random Michael Caine-Ivan Passer that everyone forgets exists.
– The Deep (1977) Treasure hunt drama from a Peter Benchley novel directed by Peter Yates that was a huge hit in part due to Jacqueline Bisset. Set in the Caribbean so… kind of British?
– Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) Science fiction epic from Spielberg. Columbia asked EMI for money and the company benefited greatly.
– The Cheap Detective (1978) Neil Simon sends up Humphrey Bogart with Peter Falk. Another Columbia movie.
– The Deer Hunter (1978) Vietnam War epic from Michael Cimino with Robert de Niro. Championed by the duo, who are credited as producer. A huge critical and commercial success.
– The Driver (1978) Car chase drama from Walter Hill with Ryan O’Neal that was a disappointment commercially at the time but has become much loved.
– Convoy (1978) Sam Peckinpah trucker film (Peckinpah’s Cross of Iron had been financed by EMI). Deeley and Spikings are credited as executive producer. Deeley writes entertainingly about making this movie in his memoir (a must read if you’re into this period along with Paul Moody’s book on EMI Films).
– Death on the Nile (1978) Peter Ustinov as Hercule Poirot, a sequel to Murder on the Orient Express. This was a Cohen production really. (Orient was meant to be followed by Evil Under the Sun but production on that was delayed when writer Paul Dehn died.)
– Warlords of Atlantis (1978) and Araban Adventure (1979) More fantasies from the team of Kevin O’Connor and John Dark. Only the first starred Doug McClure.
– Sweeney (1977) and Sweeney 2 (1978) Big screen adaptations of the TV series. These were more Cohen productions.
There was also a series of TV movies such as The Amazing Howard Hughes and Deadman’s Curve.
We actually love the Deeley Spikings slate. It contains franchises (eg Agatha Christie), solid genre pieces (treasure hunt dramas, Walter Hill car chase movie, fantasy, Sam Peckinpah trucker move). The big risk was The Deer Hunter but even that had commercial elements – war, Robert de Niro, exciting new director – and it paid off hugely. As if to show that no one knows anything, the most guaranteed hit of the lot would’ve been Nickelodeon, which flopped. The slate could’ve been even more successful – EMI invested in Monty Python’s Life of Brian but then Delfont backed out at the last minute and only George Harrison saved the day and reaped rewards.
Having developed a successful, solid, lucrative technique of making movies, success made EMI go funny in the head. Delfont was persuaded by his brother, Lew Grade, to distribute EMI movies in America in association with Grade’s own company, IFC (“they’re stealing our gold, Bernie”), so they set up their own American-based company, Associated Film Distribution (AFD). This was an utterly foolish move, that had been tried in the past by British companies (eg. Rank Organisation) and always failed. Deeley quit, leaving Spikings on his own.
Looking back, the Deeley-Spikings movies are the most consistently interesting British cinema in the 1970s. Deeley went on to produce Blade Runner but never recaptured what he did; Spikings definitely didn’t (as shall be seen in a future instalment in this series). And neither did Nat Cohen. Still, the films remain and that’s what matters.
