The Hard Way R1 Patrick McGoohan

[Number 15]

Mp jod, I'm only sorry it came too late for you to find it on your last trip! I can't wait to visit again....

[punkyscudmonky]

It's great to see so much interest in this film - it used to turn up on late-night UTV in Ireland, and was of great interest to us all, with its mixture of hard-boiled Jean Pierre Melville style and tough-guy actors in a recognisably Irish setting.



Ten years ago I happened to mention it to a man I knew only as an expatriate Irish TV director who had been living in Australia for many years. His eyes lit up - an understatement, actually - and he grabbed my arm. What I didn't know was that this man, Richard, was the writer and the original director of The Hard Way. He told me an enormous amount about this very troubled production, but as we were full of good wine that evening, and it's a long time ago, I can't pretend to have a complete recollection.



The main details were that the script, his pride and joy, had been intended as a tribute to Melville, and Richard as director managed to get Melville's DoP, Henri Decae - quite a coup. When producer John Boorman attached McGoohan, Richard was overjoyed. But sadly, the great McGoohan was in no mood to be directed by a first timer. "If I asked him to look out the window," recalled Richard, "he'd lie on the bed." It couldn't go on, and halfway through the shoot, the producer Michael Dryhurst took over. Richard ran away to Australia and started drinking heavily. He never saw the finished film. And in all those years, I was the first person he'd ever met who had seen it.



I lost touch with him and have no idea where he is. But I know he'd be thrilled to think that people here still love what remains of his original film.

[Moor Larkin]

name='punkyscudmonky']The main details were that the script, his pride and joy, had been intended as a tribute to Melville, and Richard as director managed to get Melville's DoP, Henri Decae - quite a coup. When producer John Boorman attached McGoohan, Richard was overjoyed. But sadly, the great McGoohan was in no mood to be directed by a first timer. "If I asked him to look out the window," recalled Richard, "he'd lie on the bed." It couldn't go on, and halfway through the shoot, the producer Michael Dryhurst took over. Richard ran away to Australia

That's a great story!



It's odd but McGoohan seems to have made something of a late career doing odd films for unknown directors, some of whom remained unknown..... ....... - obviously David Cronenberg made his mainstream career breakthrough with McGoohan in Scanners and McGoohan's last movie was for some joe you don't know called Renee Daalder. He also went to New Zealand and made a movie called Trespasses for someone-else we've never heard of before or since, called Peter Sharp................







I did read one source recently that said he had some project in mind for his own Everyman company, back in 1968, which would be about a retired IRA man who was forced to return to do one last job....... I've pondered if this similarity in plot was what attracted him to accept the gig on The Hard Way. Unfinished business.....

[Lord Brett]

name='Moor Larkin']





I did read one source recently that said he had some project in mind for his own Everyman company, back in 1968, which would be about a retired IRA man who was forced to return to do one last job

It has to be said with an eye to history that the IRA in 1968 was a very different beast to the Provisional IRA which was soon to take over when 'The Troubles' started.

[Moor Larkin]

name='Lord Brett']It has to be said with an eye to history that the IRA in 1968 was a very different beast to the Provisional IRA which was soon to take over when 'The Troubles' started.

More akin to 'This Day in Fear' or 'Rest in Violence' perhaps.............