Charles Jarrott R.I.P.

[Euryale]

The British film director has died at the age of 83. From the Los Angeles Times:

Charles Jarrott

Directed TV and film, including 'Mary, Queen of Scots'

Charles Jarrott, 83, a British film and TV director best known for the Hal Wallis productions "Anne of the Thousand Days" and "Mary, Queen of Scots," died Friday at the Motion Picture Home retirement community in Woodland Hills, according to Jaime Larkin, a spokeswoman for the Motion Picture and Television Fund. He had prostate cancer.

Although "Anne of the Thousand Days" (1969) was nominated for 10 Academy Awards, including best picture, and "Mary, Queen of Scots" (1971) received five Oscar nominations, Jarrott was not recognized by the academy for his work on the historical costume dramas. Other films he directed included the 1977 melodrama "The Other Side of Midnight" and the 1973 musical remake of "Lost Horizon."

Jarrott was born June 16, 1927, in London and during World War II served in the British Royal Navy after his mother agreed to let him join as a teenager. He started in the entertainment business as a stage manager and an actor. He began directing stage and television productions in England before moving to Canada, where he acted and directed.

His TV directing credits include "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" starring Jack Palance and airing on ABC in 1968, and "Poor Little Rich Girl: The Barbara Hutton Story" starring Farrah Fawcett in 1987.


E.

[JamesM]

His mother was actress Ursula Jean.

[cornershop15]

His mother was actress Ursula Jean.

For a moment, I thought you meant Ursula Jeans, with Roger Livesey as his father, but there really was an Ursula Jean, a "British musical actress", and the director's father was also named Charles Jarrott, a top racing driver. This is a link to a biography of him:

Charles Jarrott - Finish At All Costs

As for Charles Jarrott Jr., I'm sorry to learn he has died and disappointed that I have seen so little of his work. It's also a very long time since I watched them: Anne of the Thousand Days, played by Genevieve Bujold, and the mini-series A Married Man, starring Anthony Hopkins, both very good as I remember.

The director's name is at the foot of an unknown TVTimes listing I have from the 1980s (the first thing that comes to mind whenever I see his name). If I can find it, I must compare the details with whatever comes up in Mr. Jarrot's filmography.

I wonder if it could be an ITV showing of Lost Horizon? I'd like to see this film, despite the poor reviews, with two of my favourite film stars, Peter Finch and Liv Ullman. Strange to see her 'singing' this Bacharach & David song, which I've always loved. She was dubbed (obviously!) by Diana Lee:

I would be very interested to read any reminiscences our Mr. Moxey has of Charles Jarrott, a contemporary of his who also directed many TV plays in the 1950s and 60s before going to America.

He directed an impressive 34 Armchair Theatre productions (including the Jeremy Brett version of The Picture of Dorian Gray), five Wednesday Plays and The Wesker Trilogy for BBC's Theatre 625. A fantastic career but it would be a miracle if we get the chance to see much of his Sixties work, even whatever survives. All that's been released on DVD so far is If There Weren't Any Blacks You'd Have to Invent Them, which I will watch tonight in his memory.

R.I.P., Charles Jarrott

[Moor Larkin]

The 1961 award is what we now call a BAFTA.

[will.15]

I've seen a few clips of Lost Horizens on youtube, What horrible songs.

[TimR]

He was the director of two films that are at the top of my list: Anne of the Thousand Days and Mary Queen of Scots, which are available together on one DVD. He deserved more recognition for both. I just watched Mary Queen of Scots again two nights ago and enjoyed Jarrett's talent for historical drama. It is an achievement to bring together so many parts into one whole while keeing the pace and flow.

......I wonder if it could be an ITV showing of Lost Horizon? I'd like to see this film, despite the poor reviews, with two of my favourite film stars, Peter Finch and Liv Ullman. Strange to see her 'singing' this Bacharach & David song, which I've always loved. ......

I saw that when it was released in theatres as a boy, and again on television a few years later. Peter Finch is by far the best part of the film and is a worthy successor to Ronald Coleman, and I think that is high praise. Liv Ullman - an outstanding and beautiful actress - is miscast and ill-at-ease here. It's interesting to note that she refuses to talk about the film.

It was a notorious failure and there are scenes that are jaw-droppingly bad. But you may find it interesting Cornershop, as you share my appreciation for both Finch and Ullman. Even when she is miscast I think she is worth seeing. The Shangri la theme is attractive.

Michael York is quite good. Bobby Van, who was popular here before his early death, is also - oddly - good, as he at least knows how to sing and dance. The others do not, and the result is hard to watch at times (to put it charitably...as regards Sally Kellerman...).

I've seen a few clips of Lost Horizens on youtube, What horrible songs.

Bacharach and David, post 60s, without Dionne Warwick. Some of them are not too bad - but they are in a 1968 television-special bubble that nothing can alter. A true time warp, and very, very far from the Himalayas.

[TimR]

One of those posts I would like to delete but cannot, so here it must stay......

[Arfur Teacake]

One of those posts I would like to delete but cannot, so here it must stay......

The world is a circle without any end and nobody knows...

[TimR]

The world is a circle without any end and nobody knows...

Everything depends on where you are in the circle that's spinning around
Half of the time you are upside down....

[julian_craster]

Channel 5 have screened Lost Horizon (1970s) a couple of times recently....

[John Llewellyn Moxey]

A talented, but overlooked fellow director. I am proud to have known him.

John Llewellyn

[Moor Larkin]

The picture I posted earlier seems to have gone awol.....
imageshack wobbliness. I've uploaded it again.

[Nick Dando]

From the Guardian

Charles Jarrott obituary | Film | The Guardian

Nick

Charles Jarrott obituary
British-born director known for Anne of the Thousand Days and Mary, Queen of Scots

Ronald Bergan
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 6 March 2011 18.49 GMT

The film and television director Charles Jarrott, who has died of cancer aged 83, began his career during a golden period of British TV drama, working on Armchair Theatre and The Wednesday Play in the 1960s alongside writers and directors such as Ken Loach, Dennis Potter and David Mercer. Both series were presided over by the Canadian producer Sydney Newman, who encouraged original work – what he called "agitational contemporaneity" – and had an astonishing impact. But in 1969 Jarrott's career took a different turn when he left for Hollywood, thereby increasing his income a hundredfold, while having to contend with far less adventurous material. His best films were his first, two Elizabethan costume dramas, Anne of the Thousand Days and Mary, Queen of Scots, enlivened by the Oscar-nominated performances of Richard Burton (Henry VIII), Geneviève Bujold (Anne Boleyn) and Vanessa Redgrave (Mary Stuart); Jarrott himself won a Golden Globe for his direction of the former.

Born in London, Jarrott was brought up in glamorous surroundings. His father, also Charles Jarrott, was one of Britain's greatest racing drivers. Jarrott Sr's mottos were that it was better "to race clean and lose, than to win by foul driving" and "finish at all costs". His son inherited much of his morality and determination, and a taste for show business from his mother, who was a musical-comedy performer.

After begging his recently widowed mother to allow him to join the Royal Navy during the second world war, Jarrott served in the far east while still a teenager. After being demobbed, he joined the Nottingham Repertory Theatre as actor, stage manager and director. In 1953, he moved to Canada, where he directed his first TV play for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, on which Newman was supervising producer.

When Jarrott returned to Britain in 1960, Newman, who had joined ABC Television, invited him to join his team of young directors. Some of Jarrott's contemporaries were directors Philip Saville, Ted Kotcheff, and Alvin Rakoff, and writers Donald Churchill, Clive Exton, Alun Owen, Allan Prior and Hugh Leonard. Few of them made successful transitions to the big screen nor did much better or more interesting work than they did during this period.

Four years later, when Newman moved to the BBC, Jarrott joined him. Among the first teleplays he directed was The Young Elizabeth (1964), starring his South-African born wife Katharine Blake as Mary Tudor, a foretaste of his feature-film debut. Among his directing triumphs at the BBC were two plays by Harold Pinter, Tea Party (1965) and The Basement (1967); The Wesker Trilogy (1966); a couple of Irish-set plays by Leonard; and The Snow Ball (1966), adapted by his wife from the Brigid Brophy novel.

From 1959 to 1969, Jarrott was mostly occupied with directing a breathtaking range of plays for Armchair Theatre. There were fantasies – notably The Rose Affair (1961), Owen's take on Beauty and the Beast; social dramas, such as Athol Fugard's The Blood Knot (1963); classics, including Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray (1961) with Jeremy Brett in the title role, and comedies. One of his final television assignments before Hollywood called was The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1968), shot in Canada, with Jack Palance in the dual role.

All this remarkable work brought him to the attention of the producer Hal B Wallis, who invited Jarrott to direct Anne of the Thousand Days (1969), the success of which led to Mary, Queen of Scots (1971). Jarrott then embarked on Lost Horizon (1973), an expensive ($7m-plus), interminable (150 minutes), musical version of James Hilton's novel about Shangri-La. Actually, Jarrott did the best he could against the dire songs, the calamitous choreography and the kitschy sets. The mega-flop ruined the career of the producer Ross Hunter, but only slightly dented Jarrott's.

Away from the purgatory of Shangri-La, Jarrott's next film was The Dove (1974), the name of a 23ft sloop on which 16-year-old Robin Lee Graham (Joseph Bottoms) sailed for five years on a solo voyage around the world in 1965. Photographed on location by Sven Nykvist, it was a sea-blue movie with most of the footage being of Bottoms, weathering tropical storms and being swept overboard, only interrupted by a soppy love story on the Fiji islands. Soppy, too, was The Other Side of Midnight (1977), based on a bestselling novel by Sidney Sheldon. An over-the-top melodrama, it covered the second world war and its aftermath in three hours.

Jarrott, who had settled in Los Angeles, was taken up by Walt Disney Productions for several films including The Last Flight of Noah's Ark (1980) and Condorman (1981), neither of which added to his reputation. His subsequent work on American television could not have been more dissimilar from his days at ITV and BBC. There were biopics such as Ike (1986), on Eisenhower; I Would Be Called John: Pope John XXIII (1987); Poor Little Rich Girl: The Barbara Hutton Story (1987); and The Woman He Loved (1988), on Edward VIII and Mrs Simpson, and soaps based on blockbuster novels by Judith Krantz (Till We Meet Again, 1989), Danielle Steel (Changes, 1991) and Jackie Collins (Lady Boss, 1992).

Jarrott's last feature, Turn of Faith (2002), co-produced by and starring former boxer Ray Mancini, was a minor mobster thriller. Jarrott, who was married three times, leaves no survivors.

• Charles Jarrott, film and television director, born 16 June 1927; died 4 March 2011

[will.15]

The Dr. Jeckyll was extremely low budget made for late night televison by ABC to compete with Johnny Carson, produced by Dan Curtis using recycled music from Dark Shadows. Like the Tracy, Palance wore little make-up, mainly a bulid-up of the nose and bushy eyebtrows, but it was far better than the glossy MGM movie. Unlike the Tracy, you always knew which one Palance was. It was supposed to star Jason Robards, but a strike delayed shooting and Robards was no longer available. Robards was going to use make-up closer to the Barrymore silent.

[Moor Larkin]

A talented, but overlooked fellow director.

There's an interesting perspective from him about the nature of movies and the relationships between directors and actresses, from this interview with him, in 1977. Click on the thumbnail to expand it

[julian_craster]

[johnnyn]

I also watched Mary Queen of Scots not long ago and that was great.

I remember seeing The Dove at a cinema in Limerick in the seventies - very escapist but I really enjoyed it. Great music from the also recently deceased John Barry.

I remember being in Harrods once and someone started playing Sail the Summer Winds on an organ there!

[dpgmel]

S ad sad news, as has been said previously, Mary Queen Of Scots really is a terrific film and one I can watch again and again ( and have ! )

[Moor Larkin]

The Dr. Jeckyll was extremely low budget

I don't know what the budgets in those days would have been, but a ccontemporary report says it was made by CBC for $900,000, but whether that's Canadian or American I'm not sure. It was a big hit and was nominated for four Emmy's but I haven't looked to see if it won any. ABC were very pleased with it anyhow, as you suggest. I've a vague notion I might have seen it myself over here (if it was ever shown in the UK), but then Jack Palance always came across as Mr Hyde, whatever he was in...


I daresay it was this 1968 commercial success that made Hollywood pay attention to Mr. Jarrott, as I can find nary a thing on the web about his British plays, other than that he made them and most famously worked with Harold Pinter.

[will.15]

If that cost 900,000 (in any kind of dollars, there were movies being made then for that kind of money) it sure didn't show it. Maybe most of it went to pay off Palance. But it was good. It looked like a TV playhouse type production from the fifties.

Dark Shadows producer Dan Curtis was the producer and I was under the impression it was made in Canada for ABC (he was produing Dark Shadows for them at the time). Maybe it was a co-production.