THE CURSE OF TITTIKHAMON
(Movies That Never Got Made)
 The screenplay: In 1973, Armstrong was working for Drumbeat Productions and took time out from the conveyor belt of commissioned sex comedy screenplays he and Tudor Gates were churning out to service independent producers, and wrote an original film treatment to add to their stockpile, inspired by the heavily commercialised Tuttenkhamon exhibition at the British Museum. He titled it, The Sex-Curse Of Tittikhamon.
Other than the basic premise of a vengeful, if highly confused, Mummy and his sexually comic demise, the treatment bore little relation to the screenplay, The Curse Of Tittikhamon, which he would write four years later in 1977 and even less to the stage version of that screenplay twenty years later in 1998.
Intended for Martin Campbell to direct after The Sex Thief, the comedy thriller of a plot concerned a couple of private eyes (Armstrong and Christopher Neil in another double-act) and their mishap-laden adventures as they investigated the Mummy’s ludicrous murderous rampage. It was intended to be an off-the-wall low budget sex comedy for inclusion in Drumbeat’s line-up of films they were planning to produce as part of a deal with Tigon Distributors. Both Gates and Campbell thought the whole idea very funny but too ambitious for their immediate capabilities and it was filed away for possible production at a later date.
The script, consequently, never passed beyond a 1st draft and remained unfilmed.
In the winter of 1977, Armstrong was working with Barry O’Keef’s company, Maiden Music and looking for a suitable low budget vehicle with which to launch a film production side to the company. No longer having to service the sex market, Armstrong was free to re-think his Tuttenkhamon idea  and completely reconceived it as a musical comedy spoof of Mummy films, movie genres and just about everything else. The resultant screenplay was The Curse Of Tittikhamon.
In January of 1978, Maiden Music announced that it would go into production with the film at the end of the year and immediately set about packaging the project.
As an encouragement to potential investors, Armstrong decided that, rather than hand over a screenplay to read, he would, instead, offer them an audiotape of the script performed as if it was a radio play. It was something he had already done, in a crude form, with his musical comedy version of Robin Hood, which Stanley Long of Alpha Films had commissioned in the summer of 1977.
As O’Keef’s company specialised in audio plays, it was simple to set up a taping for Armstrong and Campbell, who Armstrong still intended as the film’s director.
During an extended session in February, Armstrong and Campbell gathered a small cast to record the dialogue sections of the screenplay - among them Roy Kinnear, Peter Duncan and Armstrong himself taking on the role of Baby Bette, only because no one else was prepared to risk tackling a Bette Davis impersonation. This session was followed by a series of separate tapings where Armstrong read out the narrative and description of screen action to link the dialogues. Where original songs would occur in the film, existing show songs were used to indicate style and mood. Finally, sound effects and mood music were added.
In addition to this audio screenplay, investors were also given a demo tape of three of the film’s actual songs: Tip-tap-tapping Shoes (music and lyrics by Danny Beckerman and performed by Armstrong as Baby Bette); It’s Lovely Being in the Water (music and lyrics by Danny Beckerman) and They Don’t Make Them Like Us Anymore (music by Max Early, lyrics by Armstrong).
By the end of July, most of the financing was in place through O’Keef’s city contact and financial adviser, Harry Bollon, together with a completion guarantee and the involvement of Bray Studios.
To provide a fresh approach to the dance routines, contemporary dance star, Robert North had been approached for the choreography of the musical numbers. Casting ideas included Leo McKern as Sir Henry (at one point Peter Cushing, the star of Hammer’s The Mummy had been mooted by Armstrong), Anna Quayle as Minerva, Roy Kinnear as Bustem, Alfred Marks as Whippit, Diane Langton as Sal and Diana Dors as Baby Bette. Armstrong had pencilled himself in to play one of the gutter press, Grub Digger, again as a double-act with Christopher Neil as his paparazzi photographer, Flash.
 On the basis of all this, a shooting date was pencilled in for October with pre-production due to commence in September. Then one of Bollon’s city investors withdrew from the deal, suddenly leaving a third of the budget still to be found.
As efforts were being made to secure this missing third, Campbell in association with the writer and director, Anthony Simmons, approached Armstrong and O’Keef, offering to enter into a co-production situation with O’Keef’s company in return for which they would attempt to raise the required balance through Simmons’s contacts. To this end they wanted drastic re-writing of the screenplay into a Pink Panther style comedy.
Armstrong and O’Keef were shocked not only at what they saw as an attempt to take over the production but the fact that Campbell suddenly seemed content to discuss changing it into a completely different kind of film. Withdrawing from any further discussion, O’Keef and Armstrong decided to continue trying to raise the additional monies themselves but with Armstrong now as the film’s director.
As their search for investors began, a change of circumstances suddenly brought O’Keef’s album, The Enchanted Orchestra to the fore as a possible feature film. To facilitate this and turn the album into a screenplay, Armstrong had to put The Curse Of Tittikhamon on temporary hold.
It was never remounted due to the collapse of O’Keef’s company in 1983. Armstrong’s subsequent move to Los Angeles and, later, Paris, meant that the script of The Curse Of Tittikhamon continued to lie dormant as a project until 1998.
History - Part 2
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