Wisconsin Film Studies : Many Lives of Cy Endfield : Film Noir, the Blacklist, and Zulu

319 Pages·2015·3.08 MB·English

by  Brian, Neve

WISCONSIN FILM STUDIES
Patrick McGilligan
Series Editor
THE MANY LIVES OF
CY ENDFIELD
FILM NOIR, THE BLACKLIST,
AND ZULU
BRIAN NEVE
THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN PRESS
The University of Wisconsin Press
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Madison, Wisconsin 53711-2059
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Copyright © 2015
The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System
All rights reserved. Except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical
articles and reviews, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, transmitted in any format or by any means—digital, electronic,
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Internet or a website without written permission of the University of Wisconsin
Press. Rights inquiries should be directed to
CONTENTS
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
INTRODUCTION
1. EARLY LIFE AND THE THIRTIES
2 THE WAR AND AFTER
3. THE SOUND OF FURY AND HUAC
4. BRITAIN IN THE FIFTIES
5. ZULU AND THE SIXTIES
6. MAGIC, INVENTION, AND TELLURIDE
CONCLUSION
FILMOGRAPHY
NOTES
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
ILLUSTRATIONS
Cyril Endfield, circa 1942–43
Edward Arnold as the Devil-tycoon in Inflation
Endfield’s sketch of army life
Endfield, William Gargan, Alan H. Posner, Marjorie Lord, and Sam X.
Abarbanel
Endfield on the set of The Argyle Secrets
The “blacklisted” journalist Mike Reese and gangster Carl Durham in The
Underworld Story
Jerry Slocum and Howard Tyler in Sound of Fury/Try and Get Me!
The climax of The Sound of Fury/Try and Get Me!
Cast and director of Hell Drivers
Endfield rehearsing Stanley Baker on the set of Hell Drivers
Endfield teaching Zulu dancers the twist
Lieutenant John Chard and the “flying platoon,” Zulu
Lieutenant Chard and Lieutenant Bromhead, Zulu
Endfield family on location in southwestern Africa for Sands of the Kalahari
O’Brien turns on Dr. Bondrachai, Sands of the Kalahari
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This section thanks those who have helped me in this project. Of the archivists
who assisted me I would like to give particular thanks to Barbara Hall and other
staff at the Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and
Sciences (AMPAS); and to Ned Comstock at the USC Archives of Performing
Arts. Larry Ceplair was also of great assistance (along with Lia Benedetti
Jarrico) in facilitating my access to Paul Jarrico’s letters, while Jonathan
Rosenbaum was particularly generous with his time early on in the project and
sent me valuable tape recordings of his own interviews with Endfield. Phil
Wickham was a helpful guide to the resources of the Bill Douglas Centre at the
University of Exeter. Other librarians and archivists to whom I extend my thanks
are Fiona Liddell at the BBFC collection, Mary Ann Moran-Savakinus at the
Lackawanna Historical Society, and Judith Ann Schiff at Yale University’s
Manuscripts and Archives; thanks also to Kathryn Hodson (University of Iowa
Library), Alison Greenlee (McFarlin Library, University of Tulsa), Jonathon
Auxier and Shannon Fifer (Warner Bros. collection, Warner Bros.
Entertainment), Rodney A. Ross (Center for Legislative Archives, US National
Archives & Research Administration, Washington, DC), Jeff Walden (BBC
Written Archives Centre, Caversham), John C. Johnson (Howard Gotlieb
Archival Research Center, Boston University), Elizabeth Frengel (Beinecke Rare
Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University), and David Hibberd and others
at the Magic Circle Library, London. I also owe a debt of gratitude to the
following people for their assistance with information, answers to queries, and
access to copies of films: Joan Cohen, Andrew Spicer, Peter Lev, Steve Neale,
Frank Krutnik, Peter Stanfield, Sheri Chinen Biesen, Jean-Pierre Garcia, Robert
Murphy, A. T. McKenna, Joe Dmohowski, Reynold Humphries, Charles Drazin,
Leonard Quart, Rebecca Prime, and Deborah Elkin. Thanks also Katy Jordon (of
the University of Bath Library) and to the interlibrary loan service at Bath. I’m
also grateful to Sir Christopher Frayling for his early interest and for discussing
with me his enthusiasm for Sands of the Kalahari. There are some others who
helped to make this project a reality and who deserve special thanks, including
Eve Kahn in New York, who alerted me to the newly available Alan H. Posner
papers relating to The Argyle Secrets; Pierre Rissient, who shared his
recollections over a wonderful Paris lunch; and Gavrik Losey, who talked to me
on several occasions about his memories of Cy Endfield. I am also happy to
thank David Culbert, formerly the editor of the Historical Journal of Film, Radio
and Television, and to acknowledge his permission to draw on material from my
2010 article for that journal, “Inflation (1943) and the Blacklist: The Disrupted
Film Career of Cy Endfield.” I’m also much obliged to Michael Henry Wilson,
who alerted me to his writing on Endfield for Positif and answered a number of
queries. I am indebted to two anonymous readers who commented on drafts for
the Press; one in particular pushed me on several points, and I’m most grateful
for this critical engagement with my work. I also took advantage of a late
opportunity to examine relevant materials at the newly established Film Finances
archive in London; I’m most grateful to Sheldon Hall (who shared some of his
own work) and in particular Charles Drazin for facilitating this visit.
I would also like to thank a number of people who shared their memories of
Cy Endfield with me. Nate Kohn was particularly helpful and was kind enough
to send me a copy of Endfield’s 1975 screenplay “K.” Denis Lipman agreed to
be interviewed and also sent me an unpublished passage from his book. Ian
Fawn-Meade, through the good offices of Sheldon Hall, shared his recollections.
Thanks also to Dave Wagner, Tony Earnshaw, Donald Ogden Stewart Jr.,
Clancy Sigal, Blanche Marvin, Peggy Cummins, Sir Ken Adam, John Derris,
Erik Tarloff, John Fisher, Roy Fowler, Persi Diaconis, Alan Alan, Paul Buhle,
Anthony Fowles, Bertrand Tavernier, Bernard Eisenschitz, Mary Huelsbeck, and
Chris Rainey. I am grateful to those who invited me to talk about Cy Endfield at
Complutense University, Madrid, in March 2008; in particular my thanks are
due to Antonio Castro, José Antonio Jiménez de las Heras, Santiago Rubin de
Celis, and Daniel López Leboreiro. Another person who was there in Madrid,
and who has been unfailingly supportive of my book project throughout, is
Patrick McGilligan, the editor of the Wisconsin Film Studies series; I am most
grateful to him. Thanks also to those who translated material for me, including
Larine Leroux and Anne Jackël. I am also indebted to Doug Dibbern, John
McCormick, Paul Gelder, Art Simon, Jon Rachenbacher, Anne White, and to all
the staff at what is now the BFI Reuben Library in London.
I also want to thank the Endfield family for their generous assistance
throughout this process. Thanks in particular to Maureen (Mo) Endfield, who
talked to me on a number of occasions and allowed me access to her collection
of scripts, papers, and videotapes. She gave me a number of interviews and put
up with my endless enquiries. I’m very grateful for her help and hospitality. I am
equally grateful to Suzannah Endfield Olivier and Eden Endfield, both for their
interviews and for checking numerous issues, searching their memories (on
occasion painfully), and helping with the photographs. Eden’s husband, Brad
Lochore, was also unfailingly helpful in helping me with high definition scans of
key family photographs.
Finally I would like to record that it has been a pleasure to work with the
University of Wisconsin Press. Everyone has been patient, helpful, and
supportive, but perhaps I can particularly offer my warm thanks to Raphael
Kadushin, for his early confidence in the project, and editors Adam Mehring and
Judith Robey, for pressing me to express myself more clearly and directly.
Finally I should state that remaining errors and limitations are mine alone.
THE MANY LIVES OF
CY ENDFIELD