Already an esteemed cinematographer and wonderful effects whiz, Mario Bava remained a reluctant director – reportedly wanting to move into the director’s chair, but keeping a deliberate distance – so it took some clever maneuvering by Riccardo Freda, Calitiki’s original director, to give Bava a taste of directing a full movie…
After the success of the original Blob (1958), producer Jack H. Harris had a story for a sequel, but it wasn’t filmed until 1972, long after the rights to the first film flipped back from Paramount to the film’s original right holders, and when strangely enough, Harris’ Malibu neighbour, Larry Hagman, was interested in the film project…
Between The Barbarian and the Geisha (1958) and The Roots of Heaven (1958), Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (1957) forms the middle of John Huston’s three-picture deal with Fox, and another film shot in exotic, challenging locations. One could presume that Huston’s fancy for far-off locations was purely for production value…
Based on the novel Sea-Wyf by J.M. Scott, Sea Wife is a curious mélange of genres – WWII drama + survival tale + tropical island exotica + romance – that originally began as a Roberto Rossellini film until Fox had concerns about the script’s sexual content, and to appease censors opted for a tamer script, causing Rossellini to exit and production manager Bob McNaught to take on the directorial chores…
After taking two unsuccessful pokes at directing with Seizure (1974) and the awful The Hand (1981), Oliver Stone parlayed the success of his script for Scarface (1983) by developing Salvador, based on the writings of photo journalist Richard Boyle…
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