IN THE SPRING OF 1982, Michael Armstrong and director Pete Walker
approached Cannon Films, with Armstrong's supernatural thriller, Deliver Us From Evil.
With
his love of star packages, however, the head of Cannon, Menaham Golan
was far more interested in them developing a package for cinema's horror
legends: Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Vincent Price and John
Carradine, who had never throughout their long careers, actually
appeared on screen together as a foursome. Golan felt this would be
a last opportunity to create cinema history.
WALKER AND ARMSTRONG knew that the current trend of teen slasher movies
were not only unsuitable, but would fail to attract the stars in
question. There had been several attempts to put them together in one
film over the years, but each had failed because of the subject matter
and the screenplay. Both Lee and Cushing, in particular, had often
stated their dislike of the latest horror trends. Walker, therefore,
suggested the remaking of an old classic, The Old Dark House, but was
unable to secure the rights from Universal. Aware that if they failed to
get back to Cannon quickly, they may lose the offer, Walker suggested
another classic title from the same era, Seven Keys To Baldpate.
SEVEN KEYS TO BALDPATE, had started life as a novel by the
creator of Charlie Chan, E. Digger Biggs and then been dramatised for
the stage by George M. Cohen. It became a long running hit on
Broadway, before being made into a silent movie back in 1917, directed
by Hugh Ford, with George M. Cohen as George Washington Magee! Hedda
Hopper starred opposite him. In 1925, yet another silent version was
made of the story directed by Fred C. Newmeyer. The first sound version
was produced in 1929 by Reginald Barker, starring Richard Dix as William
Magee.
1935 rolled out another version, directed by William Hamilton.
The final version was made in 1947 with Lew Landers directing, starring
Phillip Terry as the renamed Kenneth Magee and Jaqueline White as the
also renamed Mary Jordan.
WALKER LAID ON SCREENINGS of several versions at his flat for writer
Armstrong and Jenny Craven, a friend of Armstrong and Golan, who would
eventually act as associate producer on The House of Long Shadows. Armstrong recalls: 'We ignored a 1916 version made in Australia and a
television version 1946, neither of which seemed relevant or connected
with the book or the play, and watched - I can't remember maybe two or
three, including the last one made in 1947- What we hoped would be a
Gothic mystery thriller, along the lines of The Old Dark House,
turned out to be an extremely dated crime thriller and nothing remotely
suitable for the cast we had in mind. Over dinner we decided the only
thing we could do was take the basic premise and the end twist and
create a completely new storyline to suit our needs.''As I was going to be writing specifically for our four stars, it seemed
logical to pay homage to the movies with which they had all been
associated and create a tongue in cheek pastiche of the Gothic movies
incorporating as many genre movies references as possible. Certain that
our cast would be drawn to the idea of parodying their own classic
images, we became very excited, ordered some more wine and set about
creating a long list of everything we could think of from that era-thunder storms, to cats jumping out, to the inevitable 'monster locked behind the door', forever screaming heroines and menacing dialogues of 'things better not spoken of...'
TO ADD A FURTHER FRISSON of excitement to their discussion, Walker suggested they create a part for the original Bride Of Frankenstein, Elsa Lanchester. Because of the urgency to cement the deal, Armstrong returned home that
night and within twenty four hours had produced a detailed twenty page
treatment, so Walker could fly off to LA and quickly secure their stars.
A few days later, Armstrong received a late night phone call from
Walker, telling him the stars liked the treatment and were interested,
subject to the screenplay - which he had told them was on the point of completion and would be available for them to read within two weeks. 'I've never been a slow writer, but to complete a screenplay within two
weeks and be sufficiently polished to hook star names? It was quite
ironic really. The film was about a writer taking on a bet to write a
Gothic novel within twenty four hours! And here was I agreeing to write a
Gothic screenplay within two weeks! So, I locked myself away with my
typewriter, reams of paper, an ample supply of whiskey and enough
cartons of cigarettes to open a tobacconists shop - in those days I was
smoking 120 cigarettes a day! - and with Verdi's La Forza (Guiseppe Verdi's opera, La Forza Del Destino - The Force of Destiny) drowning out any distracting noises from the outside world, I sat down and went to work!'
AS REQUIRED, Armstrong delivered a completed draft of the screenplay on
time! It was just hours before Walker had to leave to get to the airport! 'It was like some crazy suspense thriller' Armstrong now remembers, 'I
finished the final page of the script around five, grabbed a cab to
Morton's where Pete was waiting for me, before catching his flight to
LA. I go there, literally minutes before he had to leave to get to the
airport. I'd been working around the clock, on whiskey and cigarettes,
had no sleep for two nights, staggered into Morton's more dead than
alive, thrust the pages of typed manuscript into his hands- the only copy
that existed- Pete asked me if I wanted a drink, I told him I just
wanted to go home and collapse, he said he'd call me then called a cab-
and that was it. He read the script on the plane and called me to say he
liked it. A week later he called me to say that the script had gone
down well with the actors and that they had all agreed to do it - except
Lanchester, who unfortunately was too fragile to travel.' The part that Armstrong had written for her was that of a woman forever
haunted by her past as a jilted bride. The role, instead, went to a Pete
Walker favourite, Shelia Keith, who produced a wonderfully comic
performance.
'PETE AND I intended that one of the fun levels of the film to be it's
density of movie literary allusions, sometimes double edged, like
Vinnies death: on one hand echoing his demise in Witchfinder General, whilst, on the other, being a parody of Mickey Mouse chopping up the broomsticks in 'Fantasia'.
Armstrong explains, 'Unfortunately, quite a few filmic references for
film buffs got lost along the way. There were also some that weren't
followed through. For instance, the juve leads were written as a kind of
Dick Powell and Fay Wray exchanging those sparring quick banter
dialogues of the period. The young married couple were written as a
parody of their British counterparts, epitomized by Noel Coward and
Gertrude Lawrence in 'Private Lives'. But, these with other
references got lost, partly because of the subtle campery required in
the playing didn't really suit the actors cast the those roles.'
FOR ONCE, Armstrong was not around for the casting. Jenny Craven, the
associate producer, was elevated into overseeing the film from the
moment it went into pre production. 'Everything happened so quickly.'
Armstrong recalls, 'Pete Walker had barely arrived back from LA before
the film was in pre-production with a shooting date only a few weeks
away. To my concern, what I'd dashed off in those two weeks was the
script they were working from. Admittedly my first drafts are usually
as tight as most people's final drafts but, even so, I still desperately
wanted, at the very least, to sit down and clean it up and tidy it-
especially around the final confrontation scene between the Grisbane
brothers- but it proved impossible. Pete had been swept up into the
throes of production with Jenny Craven, which meant that he and I
couldn't find a free moment to get together and talk., even. Whenever I
tried to say anything, everyone seemed perfectly happy with the script
as it was, then I finally gave up pressing the point and assumed it was
just me being insecure and finicky and that they'd come back to me if
something wasn't working'
WITHIN THE FIRST WEEK of shooting a call came from the set, asking
Armstrong to go down and fix the final dialogue scene between Vincent
Price and Christopher Lee. 'I was so relieved,' Armstrong confesses, 'When I got on set, I found
Christopher's concern was that he felt the final confrontation between
he and Vinnie wasn't correctly balanced. Vinnie had more dialogue and
had the last line. He was quite right, of course- except about wanting
to have the last line. I sat down and tightened the whole scene, which
I'd been dying to do. It automatically balanced their dialogue and
resolved Christopher's worries and Vinnie still kept his last line, much
to his amusement. From that point on, I decided it might be better if I
remained on the set for the rest of the shooting- although, as it
turned out, there was nothing else that needed fixing.'
'THE SHOOT went smoothly.' Armstrong recalls. The stars, in particular, enjoyed working
together and relished the camp theatricality of the dialogue and the
lampooning the Gothic melodramas of the past. By the end of shooting,
there was a general feeling on the set that the end product would be a
lot of fun and prove popular with audiences'.
LEAVING WALKER to editing and post production, Armstrong became
embroiled in Cannon's plans for publicity, part of which involved him
writing and recording a series of jokey radio ads with Christopher Lee
and Vincent Price. Elaborate plans were now in progress for releasing
the film. Head of Distribution, Trevor Green and the publicity
department came up with the idea of a starry, camp 30's style premiere
to reflect the mood of the film. Craven, however, now overseeing the
films publicity machine, as well as the film, opposed the concept,
preferring the idea of a simple dignified press reception instead.
Shortly afterwards, Trevor Green left and joined his brother to build
one of Britain's biggest current distributors, Entertainment.
AS ENTHUSIASM for a fun launch of the film waned and a more serious
approach to it's marketing was adopted, a similar sobriety seemed to be
affecting the whole film during it's post production. 'Early in the cutting, Pete invited me into the edit suite to see his
cut of the music scene with Vinnie and it was wonderful. Vinnie was very
funny reveling in the moroseness of explaining the Grisbane's
doom-ridden destiny to an accompaniment of Shelia Keith's wailing Verdi
aria and the whole scene had a fabulous rhythm and stylish wit about it.
Pete was so enthusiastic and clearly happy with the way the film was
shaping up. I don't know what happened between then and later, when I
saw the scene in the finished film, it had been re-cut and a good half
of the scene was missing.....mostly Vinnie' dialogue. There were other
strange cuts and trims too, a serious reduction of comic pacing by
dragging out Desi Arnaz Jr's early scenes and those with Julie Peasgood.
Someone told me it was Cannon's attempt to tone down the films humour
and turn it into a more serious horror film. How true that is I really
don't know, but somewhere along the way, I sensed Pete's usual buoyant
spirit had been eroded by something. I didn't know what. I didn't know
why.....'
PART TWO OF THE MAKING OF
THE HOUSE OF THE LONG SHADOWS HERE! NEXT MONDAY!
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