The Singer Not the Song
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
by Audrey Erskine Lindop
| The Singer Not the Song | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Roy Ward Baker |
| Screenplay by | Nigel Balchin |
| Based on | The Singer Not the Song by Audrey Erskine Lindop |
| Produced by | Roy Ward Baker |
| Starring | Dirk Bogarde John Mills Mylène Demongeot |
| Cinematography | Otto Heller |
| Edited by | Roger Cherrill |
| Music by | Philip Green |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Rank Film Distributors |
Release date |
|
Running time | 132 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Budget | £350,000[1] |
The Singer Not the Song is a 1961 British Western film directed by Roy Ward Baker and starring Dirk Bogarde, John Mills, and Mylène Demongeot.[2] It was written by Nigel Balchin based on the 1953 novel of the same title by Audrey Erskine Lindop.
The film became a notorious flop for the Rank Organisation.[3] Bogarde called the film "a travesty of what it should have been"[4] while Roy Baker said "I hated it, it broke my heart. It put me completely out of kilter for years afterwards, it was a disaster. I’m told it’s a cult picture and quite probably in countries with large Catholic communities it has some special reference. I should never have made it."[5] "That was one that went wrong," said John Mills.[6]
The film failed at the box office, but has since developed a cult following due to its camp homosexual context and over-the-top performance by Bogarde in black leather trousers.[7]
A priest, Father Michael Keogh, is sent by Rome to Quantana, a remote Mexican town which is under the control of a ruthless bandit, Anacleto Comachi. Anacleto is educated and intelligent, and is "down" on the Church, but he finds in Keogh a man he strangely admires and with whom he can have intelligent conversation. However, he does not allow this to distract him from his goal: to expunge the priest from his fiefdom at any cost.
Main cast
- Dirk Bogarde as Anacleto Comachi
- John Mills as Father Michael Keogh
- Mylène Demongeot as Locha de Cortinez
- Laurence Naismith as Old Uncle
- John Bentley as Police Captain
- Leslie French as Father Gomez
- Eric Pohlmann as Presidente
- Nyall Florenz as Vito
- Roger Delgado as Pedro de Cortinez
- Philip Gilbert as Phil Brown
- Selma Vaz Dias as Chela
- Laurence Payne as Pablo
- Eileen Way as cigar-smoking woman
- Lee Montague as taxi-driver
Production
Development
Leo Genn bought the film rights to the novel in 1954 with a view to starring in it as the bandit.[8] Film rights were then bought by Robert Bassier in 1955 who announced Alan Scott was writing the screenplay.[9]
Then the rights were acquired by the Rank Organisation. That company was very impressed with the job director Ken Annakin did on Across the Bridge and signed a two picture deal with Annakin, of which the first was to be an adaptation of The Singer Not the Song. John Stafford would produce. In 1957 Annakin said "This is really a tremendous subject. I aim to make it more uncompromising and stark than Across the Bridge. It has good intellectual content yet the background is almost pure Western.”[10]
Annakin wrote a script with Guy Elmes and claimed he wanted to cast Marlon Brando and Peter Finch in the leads. However he was unable to get in touch with Brando, so John Davis, the head of Rank, suggested Annakin instead use Dirk Bogarde, who was under contract to the studio. Annakin felt Bogarde would be miscast. Stafford suggested that he and Annakin make the second film under the two-picture contract with Rank - which became Nor the Moon by Night - to give them time to secure the services of Brando.[11]
In October 1958 Rank declared it had decided to postpone filming of the movie, along with two other projects that had been announced Precious Bane (which would never be made) and The 39 Steps (made not long afterwards).[12]
According to Annakin, John Davis was unhappy that the director went over budget on Nor the Moon by Night, and reneged on his promise to let Annakin make The Singer Not the Song.[13] Instead the movie was offered to director Roy Ward Baker, who was under contract to Rank. Baker said, "I can’t think why they [Rank] wanted the damned thing. It wasn’t a good book, it was the old phoney story of a little girl falling in love with a priest and it’s been done so many times."[5] He claimed he tried to get out of the film by suggesting Luis Buñuel as director but was unsuccessful.[14] Eventually, Baker claimed, Rank forced him to make the movie, with Dirk Bogarde in the lead. Nigel Balchin was hired to write the script.
At one stage Richard Burton was announced for the role of the priest.[15] This part ended up going to John Mills. According to Baker, when this happened Dirk Bogarde reportedly became so incensed that he told Baker, "I promise you, if Johnny plays the priest I will make life unbearable for everyone concerned".[7] Bogarde later said "It was such a terrible script and they put John Mills in as the priest when it should have been someone like Paul Newman, as he was in those days."[16]
However, according to John Mills, the film was meant to star Mills and Marlon Brando, "and I was thrilled because he was one of my favorite actors. Unfortunately he walked away, and Dirk Bogarde replaced him at the last minute. He of course was rather miscast as the tough, leather-clad baddie."[17] Mills also said Bogarde "wasn’t happy with the film, nor was Roy. You couldn’t have two more different people than Bogarde and Brando, chalk and cheese."[6]
According to Mylène Demongeot the film was at one stage meant to star Charlton Heston. She declared in a 2016 filmed interview in Paris:[18]
"I was then shooting Upstairs and Downstairs at Shepperton Studios, the producers came by to offer me the part. I accepted immediately. I was later told that Charlton Heston had agreed upon doing it, his name was even in my contract. But when we arrived back in London to shoot, we've been told "Mr Heston no longer wants to do the film because the film shocks him", it might have been for other reasons... I was told Montgomery Clift would eventually do it, then that Marlon Brando was in talks to do it, I was therefore excited. But I saw coming up a charming little man [John Mills], probably 1.60 m high man, kind, in his fifties with lovely blue eyes. But I said, is he really the man my character is supposed to be crazy about? The man whom Dirk Bogarde should be crazy [French: folle pour, tongue-in-cheek term to imply 'go gay for'] about? Uh sorry ... [Laughs]. I was about to quit but my agent told me "you'll do it anyways", so I grumbled the whole time. I struggled to project in emotional scenes with him the fact that I adored him. It proves that I am a good actress [Laughs]. He was a very good actor but I understand me, I was 23 at the time and he was an old man to me. The film remains as one of the first homosexual stories seen on screen."
Shooting
Even though the story takes place in Mexico, the film was actually made in Alhaurín de la Torre, in Andalusia, Spain. Filming started 18 April 1960 in Spain and finished at Pinewood Studios in London by July.
Roy Ward Baker later said, "Dirk came to me and he said, as he thought he was going to be the villain, he should be all in black, which is reasonable enough" and he had the trousers made in Rome. Baker claimed in one of his earlier films Hardy Kruger wore black leather trousers and "I didn’t know that black leather trousers were supposed to be kinky, or in some strange sexual way. I didn’t occur to me. Alright, so I’m naive, a BF[bloody fool], you can say what you like, but there’s no need to be so downright rude about the picture."[1]
Bogarde said "I should have been in blue jeans and a beat-up old jacket, driving an old Chevy, and there I was in black leather and riding a white horse — I did the whole thing for camp and nobody had any idea what was happening! "[16]
Roy Baker recalls after John Davis came to see the film, "he took me by the arm and he said “well, I don’t quite know what you’ve done, but it’s beautiful and it is, it’s very pretty."[1]