Wednesday, June 22, 2011

PLF and John Huston

Leigh Fermor's one venture into movie writing was with my favorite (and most literary) director, John Huston, but apparently it was not a success (although there were still some good times enjoyed by the pre- PC group.

As the only available version of the movie is in Spanish, in Euro format, and subtitled in English, I wrote to fellow writer and falconer Tony Huston to see if there were any others available. He knew of none, and confirmed that the otherwise brilliant PLF never quite "got" screenwriting; he thinks his father rewrote it, though even that didn't save the film from the critics.

In gratitude for our efforts, Tom Sawford of the PLF Blog sent this splendid photo of Huston, Paddy, and Darryl Zanuck en route to Africa. Damn Leigh Fermor still looked the same at 90!


If any reader has a lead to any English version, we would love to see it.

2 comments:

Tollerphyllis said...

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002BVW8YM

Jerry said...

Gawd, I loved that movie. Must have seen it as a rerun back in the 60s. I remember the scene when Howard's crew interrupt an upper crust dinner party to punish a rich woman who had been poaching elephants. The eldest member lifted her skirt and spanked her.

Funny, that's the only scene I remember distinctly, but there you have it. Also read Howard and Flynn were heavy into the Scotch to endure the shooting location.

Have to watch it again soon. Thanks Philmac.