by Stephen Vagg
The head of MGM Europe who greenlit Get Carter
You might have gathered from previous pieces in this series on Lawrence Bachmann and Bobs O’Brien and Weitman that we are a little obsessed with late period MGM executives. So, to keep the momentum going, we thought that we’d do another piece in the same genre, this one on Robert Littman, MGM’s head of European operations from 1970 to 1972.
Being a studio head was a relatively small chapter in Littman’s life. Like many executives of his era, he was better known as an agent; he started that career in 1959, aged 21, and was working for the William Morris Agency in London when “tapped” (as they say) by Jim Aubrey, head of MGM, to head the studio’s European operations out of London, starting January 1970.
This was a tricky time for MGM, which had suffered traumatic raids, takeovers and flop movies resulting in record losses and new studio ownership under Kirk Kerkorian (who installed Aubrey). In March 1970, Littman declared that “We’ve got to make more films for people, not directors. I want a variety of films, and I want to make them commercial.”
He would have to do it with limited funds, as MGM were on a cost cutting spree: several hundred crew were sacked and in April the studio announced it would be getting rid of its studios at Boreham Wood and moving to Elstree, home of EMI Films. To soften this blow, MGM and EMI announced that they would co-produce four films a year together, as well as make its own movies. This did not turn out to be the case, but Littman oversaw a handful of movies over the next two years. His stint as studio head was not long – in February 1972, Andre Pieterse was appointed executive vice president of MGM International’s production‐distribution operations, and Littman had to report to him. Littman left MGM not long afterwards and by May 1972 was an executive at Columbia.
Thus, Littman only stayed at MGM for two years. However, during that time he greenlit a pretty classy collection of movies. These included:
– No Blade of Grass – Cornel Wildes’s violent post-apocalyptic ecological drama (the first film made under Littman’s auspices);
– Get Carter – classic crime film with Michael Caine under the direction of Mike Hodges (this was technically a co-production with EMI but seems to have been more an MGM film);
– The Last Run – crime thriller with George C Scott from a script by legendary Alan Sharp which was going to be directed by John Boorman, then passed to John Huston;
– The Go Between – relationship drama from Joe Losey from a Harold Pinter script starring Alan Bates and Julie Christe (a co-production with EMI but it was more an EMI film);
– The Boyfriend – adaptation of the famous musical by Ken Russell (another MGM-EMI movie that seems to have been mostly MGM driven);
– Jo, a French remake of The Gazebo (1959), from a play by Australia’s own Alec Coppel;
– Sitting Target – crime film starring Oliver Reed;
– Savage Messiah – a biopic of sculptor Henri Gaudier-Brzeska from Ken Russell starring Dorothy Tutin;
– Travels with My Aunt – comedy drama with Maggie Smith directed by George Cukor from the novel by Graham Greene.
(Littman also oversaw films that started prior to his arrival such as Kelly’s Heroes and Ryan’s Daughter. He announced Never Bet against Nebraska, a spaghetti Western produced by Alfredo Grimaldi in Europe, which we think became Adios, Sabata but that was released by United Artists.)
That is a very classy collection of movies – a bit of crime, a musical, some comedy, a literary adaptation, some sci-fi violence. The reputation of these films is very strong today – Get Carter and The Go Between are acknowledged classics, and there are significant cults for The Last Run (Quentin Tarantino is a fan), Sitting Target, The Boyfriend and No Blade of Grass.
Production of these movies were sometimes controversial. No Blade of Grass had a graphic rape scene featuring a naked fifteen-year-old actress (Lynne Frederick). John Huston was fired during the filming of The Last Gun for upsetting Scott by departing too much from the script and was replaced by Richard Fleischer (Littman apparently played a key role in keeping the whole project together). MGM’s president, James Aubrey, disliked The Go Between so much he sold off MGM’s interest in the movie to Columbia, who reaped financial rewards when the movie became a surprise hit. Travels with My Aunt was to star Katherine Hepburn but she dropped out after clashes with Cukor despite doing extensive uncredited work on the script.
Still, Get Carter, was a big hit (MGM quickly remade it in America as Hit Man) and The Boyfriend was profitable. We assume that the crime/action movies made money and can’t see how the inexpensive Savage Messiah lost too much. We’re not sure about Travels with My Aunt. Littman recommended MGM invest in Last Tango in Paris but was overruled, a decision that would’ve cost the studio millions. It wasn’t the only project that got away from him: in 1972, MGM pulled out of England and two big budget MGM-EMI films that had been announced under Littman were cancelled – Trilby and Svengali with Julie Andrews and Blake Edwards, and a remake of Trader Horn to be filmed in Africa, possibly with Sean Connery (Trilby was never made, but a cheap Hollywood-shot version of Trader emerged in 1973 with Rod Taylor). This was a great shame, as a collaboration between MGM and EMI could have been mutually beneficial for both studios, not to mention the British film industry. But that was unlikely to happen under the cinematic wrecking ball that was Kirk Kerkorian.
Littman stayed at Columbia until 1974, then returned to being an agent and occasional producer (Wicked Stepmother). Among his contributions to cinematic history over the years, were recommending Jodie Foster for her part in Bugsy Malone, giving the original script for The Deer Hunter to Michael Deeley, and getting in a fist fight with producer Sidney Beckerman at Ma Maison’s Restaurant (Littman was famously fond of a drink). He died in 2001.
It’s hard to ascertain exactly what the contribution of a studio head is to a movie, but the fact is, while Robert Littman was head of MGM Europe for two years, the studio made some of its best later-period films, and that is something to celebrate.
