By Erin Free
FilmInk salutes the work of creatives who have never truly received the credit that they deserve. In this installment: director John Hough, who helmed The Legend Of Hell House, Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry, Escape To Witch Mountain and Brass Target.
Like several of his fellow Unsung Auteurs, director John Hough is one who should enjoy more cultish standing amongst keen cineastes. He’s been in the director’s chair for bona fide cult classics like Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry and The Legend Of Hell House, yet Hough’s cache has never been as rich as it should have been, perhaps due to his habit not just of genre-jumping, but also for making not only family films, but family films for Disney…which unfairly appears to represent an almost instant revocation of any rights a filmmaker may have to auteur status. The fact that Hough has made both distinctly English and distinctly American films doesn’t help either. But despite Hough’s seeming lack of singularity as a filmmaker, if you dig a little deeper and scratch with a bit more eagerness, there are very obvious stylistic and thematic signifiers within his large body of work, particularly in the fields of suspense and action.
Born in 1941 in London, John Hough began his career as a second unit director on UK TV series The Baron, The Avengers and The Champions, and eventually moved into the director’s chair on the 1968 season of The Avengers, sitting at the helm for a number of episodes. Hough also directed a TV pilot for a proposed Robin Hood TV show called Wolfshead: The Legend Of Robin Hood in 1969, which was shelved and later repurposed by its producers for a theatrical release in 1973. Hough made the move to the big screen proper in 1970 with the thriller Eyewitness, which would set something of a template for Hough, as it basically takes the form of an extended chase, and features an imperilled child, plot moves the director would return to again later in his career. Taut and punchy, this economical thriller stars young Mark Lester (who had found fame in the musical smash Oliver!) as a kid on the run after he witnesses a political assassination. Also in the interesting cast are the wonderful Susan George (who Hough would work with again), actor and Unsung Auteur Lionel Jeffries, and Aussie legend Tony Bonner. Eyewitness did not do huge business at the box office or make a major mark, but it represents a striking and very solid debut for Hough, who handles the material with expert flair.
After helming the Hammer Films 1971 vampire flick Twins Of Evil and a 1972 take on the classic adventure novel Treasure Island (with Orson Welles, no less, as scheming pirate Long John Silver), Hough directed his first major cult hit with 1973’s The Legend Of Hell House. Adapted by the great Richard Matheson (I Am Legend, The Night Stalker, Duel) from his own novel, this chilly, highly effective horror flick is enjoyably “old school” as it throws a group of disparate characters (played by the entertaining likes of Roddy McDowell and Gayle Hunnicutt) right into the middle of a supremely haunted house with a long and very dark history. Hough’s gifts for crafting high-tone suspense are terrifically showcased here, and the director could very well have gone on to become a consistent purveyor of English fright-fests.
Instead, however, Hough went to the US, where he made a big splash with what stands as his best and most celebrated work – the action-packed 1973 car chase flick Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry, which benefits from a far better script (co-written by Unsung Auteur Leigh Chapman), more impressive performances, and richer characterisation than most similar films of the era. Moving at a great clip and boasting a jocular, rollicking vibe with an underlying sense of menace, the film tracks a daring robbery/extortion job by the freewheeling Larry (Peter Fonda in one of his most enjoyable roles) and his far more serious colleague Deke (1970s character actor extraordinaire Adam Roarke), who are eventually joined by the loud and boisterous Mary (a never-more-engaging Susan George). The trio are pursued by a gruff, idiosyncratic sheriff, played with ferocious grumpiness by Vic Morrow. Funny, exciting and action packed, Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry is an essential 1970s drive-in/car movie, and it could have made Hough an important player in the American action market.
Hough hit the brakes on that, however, and veered over into the Disney lane instead. It’s important to note though that Hough’s first flick for Disney was also a chase flick heavy on action and excitement, and far lighter on cutesiness than much of the famed studio’s output. 1975’s Escape To Witch Mountain is an absolute cracker of a family thriller, following two mysteriously powered youngsters (played by future Real Housewife Kim Richards and Ike Eisenmann) being pursued by a nefarious millionaire (Ray Milland) looking to exploit their gifts. Nearly as exciting as Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry, Escape To Witch Mountain is also rich with warmth and sentiment, largely derived from the duo’s relationship with Eddie Albert’s cynical widow, who comes to their aid and eventually becomes their protector. The film was a justifiable hit (it’s unquestionably one of Disney’s best 1970s live action flicks), and Hough came back for the solid 1978 sequel, Return From Witch Mountain, which boasted new stars Bette Davis and Christopher Lee.
Along with these two minor family classics, Hough also directed the 1980 Disney thriller The Watcher In The Woods (again with Bette Davis), and then worked across a number of genres and formats, while also moving back and forth between telefilms and the big screen. Hough directed a thrilling, cheekily plotted WW2 caper (1978’s Brass Target, starring John Cassavetes, Sophia Loren and George Kennedy); strange, near-gonzo horror flicks (1981’s grim and very nasty The Incubus with John Cassavetes; 1987’s freakishly over-the-top American Gothic with Rod Steiger and Yvonne De Carlo); more kids’ flicks (1986’s Biggles: Adventures In Time); and a belated western sequel (1983’s Triumphs Of A Man Called Horse, with Richard Harris), all of which are interesting and often well-made, but which lack the focus and bravura punch of Hough’s earlier flicks. After two sub-standard efforts (1998’s Something To Believe In, 2001’s Bad Karma), the now 83-year-old John Hough appears to be retired from filmmaking.
A Brit with a knack for making distinctly American films, and a master when it comes to engineering on-screen pursuits – in which you genuinely care about who is being pursued – John Hough is a director whose films move at a mile-a-minute, just like his wide-swerving career.
If you liked this story, check out our features on other unsung auteurs Dick Richards, William Girdler, Rayland Jensen, Richard T. Heffron, Christopher Jones, Earl Owensby, James Bridges, Jeff Kanew, Robert Butler, Leigh Chapman, Joe Camp, John Patrick Shanley, William Peter Blatty, Peter Clifton, Peter R. Hunt, Shaun Grant, James B. Harris, Gerald Wilson, Patricia Birch, Buzz Kulik, Kris Kristofferson, Rick Rosenthal, Kirsten Smith & Karen McCullah, Jerrold Freeman, William Dear, Anthony Harvey, Douglas Hickox, Karen Arthur, Larry Peerce, Tony Goldwyn, Brian G. Hutton, Shelley Duvall, Robert Towne, David Giler, William D. Wittliff, Tom DeSimone, Ulu Grosbard, Denis Sanders, Daryl Duke, Jack McCoy, James William Guercio, James Goldstone, Daniel Nettheim, Goran Stolevski, Jared & Jerusha Hess, William Richert, Michael Jenkins, Robert M. Young, Robert Thom, Graeme Clifford, Frank Howson, Oliver Hermanus, Jennings Lang, Matthew Saville, Sophie Hyde, John Curran, Jesse Peretz, Anthony Hayes, Stuart Blumberg, Stewart Copeland, Harriet Frank Jr & Irving Ravetch, Angelo Pizzo, John & Joyce Corrington, Robert Dillon, Irene Kamp, Albert Maltz, Nancy Dowd, Barry Michael Cooper, Gladys Hill, Walon Green, Eleanor Bergstein, William W. Norton, Helen Childress, Bill Lancaster, Lucinda Coxon, Ernest Tidyman, Shauna Cross, Troy Kennedy Martin, Kelly Marcel, Alan Sharp, Leslie Dixon, Jeremy Podeswa, Ferd & Beverly Sebastian, Anthony Page, Julie Gavras, Ted Post, Sarah Jacobson, Anton Corbijn, Gillian Robespierre, Brandon Cronenberg, Laszlo Nemes, Ayelat Menahemi, Ivan Tors, Amanda King & Fabio Cavadini, Cathy Henkel, Colin Higgins, Paul McGuigan, Rose Bosch, Dan Gilroy, Tanya Wexler, Clio Barnard, Robert Aldrich, Maya Forbes, Steven Kastrissios, Talya Lavie, Michael Rowe, Rebecca Cremona, Stephen Hopkins, Tony Bill, Sarah Gavron, Martin Davidson, Fran Rubel Kuzui, Elliot Silverstein, Liz Garbus, Victor Fleming, Barbara Peeters, Robert Benton, Lynn Shelton, Tom Gries, Randa Haines, Leslie H. Martinson, Nancy Kelly, Paul Newman, Brett Haley, Lynne Ramsay, Vernon Zimmerman, Lisa Cholodenko, Robert Greenwald, Phyllida Lloyd, Milton Katselas, Karyn Kusama, Seijun Suzuki, Albert Pyun, Cherie Nowlan, Steve Binder, Jack Cardiff, Anne Fletcher ,Bobcat Goldthwait, Donna Deitch, Frank Pierson, Ann Turner, Jerry Schatzberg, Antonia Bird, Jack Smight, Marielle Heller, James Glickenhaus, Euzhan Palcy, Bill L. Norton, Larysa Kondracki, Mel Stuart, Nanette Burstein, George Armitage, Mary Lambert, James Foley, Lewis John Carlino, Debra Granik, Taylor Sheridan, Laurie Collyer, Jay Roach, Barbara Kopple, John D. Hancock, Sara Colangelo, Michael Lindsay-Hogg, Joyce Chopra, Mike Newell, Gina Prince-Bythewood, John Lee Hancock, Allison Anders, Daniel Petrie Sr., Katt Shea, Frank Perry, Amy Holden Jones, Stuart Rosenberg, Penelope Spheeris, Charles B. Pierce, Tamra Davis, Norman Taurog, Jennifer Lee, Paul Wendkos, Marisa Silver, John Mackenzie, Ida Lupino, John V. Soto, Martha Coolidge, Peter Hyams, Tim Hunter, Stephanie Rothman, Betty Thomas, John Flynn, Lizzie Borden, Lionel Jeffries, Lexi Alexander, Alkinos Tsilimidos, Stewart Raffill, Lamont Johnson, Maggie Greenwald and Tamara Jenkins.
