Introduction

History Part 1

History Part 2

Gallery

Made in 1982.

In the spring of 1982, Armstrong and the 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, Menahem Golan was far more interested in them creating a project for cinema’s horror legends: Vincent Price, Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee and John Carradine who had never, throughout their long film careers, actually appeared on screen together as a foursome. Golan felt that this would be a last opportunity to create cinematic history.

Walker and Armstrong knew that the current trend of teen slasher movies were not only unsuitable but would fail to attract these stars. There had been several attempts over the years to put them together in one film and 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 re-making 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 might lose the offer, Walker suggested another classic title of that era, Seven Keys To Baldpate.

Seven Keys To Baldpate had started as a novel by the creator of Charlie Chan, E Digger Biggs and then been dramatised for the stage by George M Cohan. The play had become a long running hit on Broadway before being made into a silent, black and white film in 1917 directed by Hugh Ford and with George M Cohan as George Washington Magee. Hedda Hopper starred opposite him. In 1925, yet another black and white silent version was directed by Fred C Newmeyer, starring Douglas MacLean as the renamed William Magee and Edith Roberts as Mary Norton. The first sound version, also in black and white was directed by Reginald Barker in 1929 starring Richard Dix as William Magee and Miriam Seagar as Mary Norton. It had been re-made again in black and white in 1935, directed by William Hamilton and Edward Killy, with Gene Raymond as Mr Magee and Margaret Callahan as Mary Norton. Walter Brennan had also featured. In 1947, Lew Landers had directed a final version starring Phillip Terry as a renamed Kenneth Magee and Jacqueline White as a renamed Mary Jordan.

Walker laid on a screening of several versions at his flat for Armstrong and Jenny Craven, a friend of Armstrong and Golan, who would eventually act as associate producer on the film. (Golan also gave her the opportunity to produce the Agatha Christie thriller, Ordeal By Innocence, for Cannon a year later).

Armstrong recalls: "We ignored a 1916 version made in Australia and a TV version in 1946, neither of which seemed relevant or even connected to the book or the play, and watched - I can’t remember how many versions - two or three, maybe - including the last one made in 1947. What we had 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 with nothing remotely suitable for our stars. Over dinner we decided the only thing we could do was to take the basic premise and the end twist and create a completely new story line 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 been most associated and create an affectionate tongue in cheek pastiche of Gothic movies incorporating as many genre movie references as possible. Certain that our stars would be drawn to the idea of parodying their own classic images, we became very excited, ordered some more wine and set about making a long list of everything we could think of from that classic era, - from thunderstorms and cats suddenly jumping out with a loud squeal to the inevitable “monster” behind a locked door, forever screaming heroines and menacing dialogues about ‘things better not spoken of...’."

To add one further frisson of excitement to their discussion, Walker suggested they also 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 that Walker could fly off to LA and quickly secure his 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 a fortnight.

"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 now agreeing to write a Gothic screenplay within two weeks! So, I locked myself away with my typewriter, reams of paper, an ample supply of whisky, enough cartons of cigarettes to open up a tobacconist’s shop - in those days I was smoking around 120 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, literally only a couple of hours before Walker had to leave for the airport.

"It was like some crazy suspense thriller," Armstrong says, "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 got there, literally, minutes before he had to leave for the airport. I’d been working around the clock on whisky and cigarettes, had had no sleep for two nights, staggered into Morton’s more dead than alive, thrust the manuscript of typed pages into his hand - the only copy in existence - he asked me if I fancied a drink, I told him I just wanted to go home and collapse, he said he’d call me and raced off to grab a cab - and that was it. He read the script on the plane, called me to say he liked it. A week later he told me the script had gone down well with the actors and they’d all agreed to do it - except Elsa Lanchester, who was unfortunately too fragile to travel."

The part Armstrong had written for her was that of a woman forever haunted by her past as a jilted bride (referencing her most famous role) and then impishly linking the love of the two Frankenstein monsters to one of the most famous unrequited passions of the screen, Scarlett O’Hara for Ashley Wilkes. The role, instead, went to a Pete Walker favourite, Sheila Keith, who produced a wonderfully comic performance - but without Lanchester, the aforementioned tongue-in-cheek references lost their relevance.

"Pete and I intended one of the fun levels of the movie to be its density of movie and literary allusions, sometimes double-edged, like Vinnie’s death: on the 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 the movie buffs got lost along the way. There were also some that weren’t followed through. For instance, the two 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 they meet were written as a parody of their British counterparts, epitomised by Noel Coward and Gertrude Lawrence in Private Lives. Again, as with the Elsa Lanchester situation, these references got lost, partly because the style of subtle campery required in the playing didn’t really suit the actors cast in those roles."

History Part 2

Copyright © 2005 Michael Armstrong