JamesM

Joseph M. Newman died in January in 1996. He made one British film, I'll Get You For This (1950) starring George Raft and Collen Gray with child actor Enzo Staiola, Charles Goldner and Walter Rilla in support. The screenwriters, author and producer were all American. The composers were French, German and Uruguayan and the cinematographer, Otto Heller, was Austro-Hungarian. It was filmed in Italy. None of the top five billed actors were born in Britain but it is not a co-production. It might have been one of the first Romulus films.

AndrewLA

Funnily enough, a year or two later, Raft made another British movie with a similar title, I'LL GET YOU, this time with another Gray -- Sally, not Coleen.

philips

I bet you really meant to write that he died in January 2006 aged 96.

JamesM

well spotted, I did. I'll Get You is set for release on DVD in region 1 by VCI Entertainment. I am hoping to persuade VCI to engage my services to record an audio commentary for this film.

AndrewLA

James, I can't resist asking, do you know good stuff about Joseph Newman? He's so rarely written about. Anything you can share here?

He always struck me as an underrated director. There was a photo of him in one of our local papers a couple of years ago at a screening at the Egyptian. I like 711 OCEAN DRIVE, THE OUTCASTS OF POKER FLAT and A THUNDER OF DRUMS. And THIS ISLAND EARTH alone should have boosted his career. Interesting to note that he sort of directed George Raft again -- in the guise of Ray Danton -- in THE GEORGE RAFT STORY, which wasn't bad at all. I seem to remember his name on a lot of the Alfred Hitchcock TV shows.

By the way, you mentioned Romulus. According to the Motion Picture Guide, the production companies for I'LL GET YOU were Kaydor-Romulus (the "Ka" part of Kaydor likely refers to the producer, Joseph Kaufman). In the U.S., it was released by Fox under the title, LUCKY NICK CAIN.

JamesM

When I say 'record', I mean physically record a commentary for the film "I'll Get You / Escape Route" with an original crew member or two. Aparantly, on the DVD of "Love Nest", there's an audio commentary with Joseph M. Newman and he mostly talks about his whole career.

AndrewLA

Thanks for that info, James. I hadn't thought of watching LOVE NEST, but if there's a Newman commentary, I'll definitely get to it soon.

Good luck with the DVD for I'LL GET YOU.