Independent Production and Industrial Tactics in Britain: Michael Klinger and<i>Baby Love</i>

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes Notes 1 As Emily Caston has observed in her work on music-video production, such prejudice not only exists in the Academy, but also in the industry itself, where the networking, entertaining and negotiating undertaken by producers is not regarded as legitimately creative by directors: Emily Caston, ‘Kick, bollocks and scramble’: an examination of power and creative decision-making in the production process during the golden era of British music videos 1995–2001, Journal of British Cinema and Television, 9(1) (2012), 96–110. Moreover, the reasons regarding the producer's notable absence from film studies has become a topic of debate in itself. See, for example David Thomson, The missing auteur, Film Comment, July–August 1982, 34–39; Andrew Spicer, The production line: reflections on the role of the film producer in British cinema, Journal of British Cinema and Television, 1(1) (2004), 33–50; Matthew Bernstein, The producer as auteur, in Barry Keith Grant (ed.), Auteurs and Authorship: a film reader (Oxford, 2008), 180–189. 2 Vincent Porter, Making and meaning: the role of the producer in British films, Journal of British Cinema and Television, 9(1) (2012), 2–3. 3 Gerry Arbeid, Gerry O’ Hara and Linda Hayden interviewed by author and Andrew Spicer, 12 October 2010, 14 February and 7 March 2011 respectively. 4 Gene Gutowski, Del’Holocauste à Hollywood ou le triomphe de la vie (Lausanne, 2006), 197–198. [Translation by Joyce Woolridge]. 5 Christine Vachon, Shooting to Kill: how an independent producer blasts through the barriers to make movies that matter (London, 1998), 2–3. 6 Vincent Porter, Making and meaning: the role of the producer in British films, 23 7 Compton Seek New Image, Kinematograph Weekly, 10 March 1966, 3. 8 John Hamilton, Beasts in the Cellar: the exploitation film career of Tony Tenser (Surrey, 2005), 78. 9 University of the West of England, Michael Klinger Papers (hereafter UWE MK), Baby Love Clippings Scrapbook, Item Number MK391, Stephen Aris, Strip Slip, The Sunday Times, 27 August 1967. 10 Launching Party for Penthouse, Kinematograph Weekly, 7 January 1967, 11. 11 John Russell Taylor, New Faces of British Cinema, The Times, Saturday Review, 30 December 1967, 17; Michael Billington, The Lost Directors, The Times Saturday Review, 4 January 1969. 12 William Hall, The Film Man With A ‘Murder’ On His Hands, The Evening News, 31 October 1967, 7. 13 UWE MK, Baby Love Clippings Scrapbook, Klinger Buys First Novel For Film Before Publication, Daily Cinema, 9 February 1968. 14 Arthur Pottersman, Tina—Her Courage May Make Her £10,000, The Sun, 8 February 1968, ibid. 15 Robert Frank, A Talent to Disturb, The Liverpool Post, 23 February 1968, ibid. 16 Klinger Buys First Novel For Film Before Publication, Daily Cinema, 9 February 1968, ibid. 17 Robert Frank, A Talent to Disturb, The Liverpool Post, 23 February 1968, ibid. 18 Obsessed With Destruction, The Times, 13 February 1968, ibid. 19 Klinger Buys First Novel For Film Before Publication, Daily Cinema, 9 February 1968, ibid. 20 Big Search For A New Child Star, Manchester Evening News and Chronicle, 21 February 1968, ibid. 21 Daily Sketch, 30 January 1968, ibid. 22 Linda Hayden interviewed by author and Andrew Spicer, 14 February 2011. 23 UWE MK, Baby Love Clippings Scrapbook, Film Girl Linda, 15, Is ‘New Lolita’, Daily Mail, 27 March 1968. 24 Linda Likes Older Men … Say, The Ones About 20, Daily Express, 27 March 1968, ibid. 25 Fergus Cashin, My Giddy Aunt! Baby Love is a Knockout!, Daily Sketch, 27 March 1968, ibid. 26 Linda Likes Older Men … Say, The Ones About 20, Daily Express, 27 March 1968, ibid. 27 Baby Love Press Book. 28 For an analysis of stars as ‘an articulation of basic American/Western values’, see Richard Dyer, Stars (London, 1994), 38–45. 29 UWE MK, Baby Love Clippings Scrapbook, Fergus Cashin, My Giddy Aunt! Baby Love is a Knockout!, Daily Sketch, 27 March 1968. 30 British Board of Film Classification Papers, London (hereafter BBFC) That Kind of Girl file, Examiner's Report, That Kind of Girl, 5 April 1962. 31 BBFC, London In The Raw file, Letter from Michael Klinger to John Trevelyan, 26 June 1964. 32 BBFC, Repulsion file, AOF, Examiner's Report, Lovlihead (later re-titled Repulsion), 23 June 1964. 33 BBFC, Repulsion file, Letter from John Trevelyan to Michael Klinger, 10 December 1964. 34 John Trevelyan, What the Censor Saw (London, 1973), 122. 35 BBFC, A Study in Terror file, Letter from Tony Tenser to John Trevelyan, 7 February 1966. 36 BBFC, Baby Love file, Letter from John Trevelyan to Michael Klinger, 21 February 1968. 37 Letter from John Trevelyan to Michael Klinger, 17 April 1968, ibid. 38 Letter from John Trevelyan to Michael Klinger, 29 April 1968, ibid. 39 Roy Ward Baker, The Director's Cut (London, 2000), 93. 40 Anthony Aldgate, Censorship and the Permissive Society: British cinema and theatre, 1955–1965 (London, 1995), 78. 41 BBFC, Baby Love file, Letter from Michael Klinger to John Trevelyan, 19 April 1968. 42 UWE MK, Item Number MK197, Letters from John Trevelyan to Michael Klinger, 31 March and 22 April 1977; Letter from Michael Klinger to John Trevelyan, 15 April 1977. 43 UWE MK, Baby Love Clippings Scrapbook, Diana Really Plays A Dumb Blonde Now, Sunday Mirror, 19 May 1968, MK Papers. 44 Henry Fielding, The Sun, 30 April 1968, ibid. 45 Donald Zec, The Old Firm, Daily Mirror, 3 May 1968, 9. 46 The Daily Cinema, 12 June 1968, 11. 47 Linda Hayden interviewed by author and Andrew Spicer, 14 February 2011. 48 BBFC, Baby Love file, Letter from John Trevelyan to Michael Klinger, 29 April 1968. 49 Letter from Michael Klinger to John Trevelyan, 20 May 1968, ibid. 50 John Ware, Production-Wise, The Daily Cinema 5 June 1968, 5. 51 Linda Hayden interviewed by author and Andrew Spicer, 14 February 2011. 52 UWE MK, Item Number MK2, Avton Film Productions Statement of Production Cost, 19 May 1968. 53 BBFC, Baby Love file, Letter from Michael Klinger to John Trevelyan, 28 June 1968. 54 Compton Sets up World Selling Organisation, Kinematograph Weekly, March 18 1967. 55 UWE MK, Baby Love Clippings Scrapbook, Liebestoll Wie Einst Lolita, Berliner Zeitung, 28 March 1968; Diana's A ‘breast of the Times …’, Sunday Telegraph (Sydney), 5 May 1968; Oggi Illustrato, 9 May 1968, 43; Precocious Femme Fatale, New York Sunday News, 54. 56 Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Beverly Hills, California (hereafter MHL AMPAS), Baby Love Clippings file, Klinger Readies Love As Initial Avton Pic., Variety, 21 February 1968. 57 The Daily Cinema, 9 September 1968, 2. 58 Sarah Street, Transatlantic Crossings: British feature films in the USA (New York, 2002), 189–191. 59 UWE MK, Baby Love Clippings Scrapbook, Dollar Happy, Kinematograph Weekly, 9 November 1968. 60 For more on Levine see A. T. McKenna, Joseph E. Levine: showmanship, reputation and industrial practice 1945–1987, Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Nottingham, http://etheses.nottingham.ac.uk/549/1/Complete_Thesis.pdf (Last accessed, 20th May 2011). 61 A.T. McKenna, Harlow's bridle or, how avoiding sex and engaging the competion can lead to failure, Journal of Popular Film and Television, 38(1) (2010), 34–43. 62 Levine met Nichols through Sybil Burton of the UK-based Establishment Theatre Company, which had been founded by David Balding and Peter Cook. Levine funded an off-Broadway production of The Knack by the company in 1964, which Nichols directed. Subsequently, Nichols was signed to make The Graduate for Embassy, though he did make Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (dir. Mike Nichols, Warner Bros./Chenault Productions; USA, 1965) for Warner Bros. beforehand, with Levine claiming, ‘I let him learn on Jack's [Warner] money’, MHL AMPAS, Julian Schlossberg, Remembering Joe Levine, Variety 28 October 1996. 63 MHL AMPAS, Avco Emb Gets Global Distrib Rights to Love, A Michael Klinger Prod, Variety, 26 November 1968. NB. The actual figure was precisely $1 million minimum guarantee. 64 UWE MK, Baby Love Clippings Scrapbook, Baby Love sold to Avco-Embassy, Kinematograph Weekly, 9 November 1968. 65 Personal correspondence with author, 2009. 66 UWE MK, Item Number MK6, Open points which have been a matter of discussion with Paul Baumgarten [of Avco-Embassy] to date, undated Memo, 1968. 67 Ibid. 68 UWE MK, Item Number MK3, Letter from Michael Klinger to Leonard Lightstone, 5 December 1968. 69 Letter from Michael Klinger to Leonard Lightstone, 24 February 1969, ibid. 70 Letter from R. M. D. Odgers of Curtis Brown Ltd. to Michael Klinger, 8 January 1969, ibid. 71 Letter from Michael Klinger to Guido Coen, 9 January 1969, ibid. 72 The Baby Love Star, Linda Hayden Has a £5,000 Sixteenth Birthday Party, Kinematograph Weekly, 28–29; Why They All Love Linda, Today's Cinema, 4–5. 73 UWE MK, Item Number MK3, Letter from Michael Klinger to Guido Coen, 7 March 1969. 74 Linda Hayden interviewed by author and Andrew Spicer, 14 February 2011. 75 A.T. McKenna, Joseph E. Levine and A Bridge Too Far: a producer's labour of love, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 31(2) (2011), 211–227. 76 Howard Thompson, Chilling Baby Love, New York Times, 20 March 1969, http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9F00E1DD153AEE34BC4851DFB5668382679EDE&scp=3&sq=%22linda%20hayden%22&st=cse (accessed 21 March 2011). 77 Linda Hayden interviewed by author and Andrew Spicer, 14 February 2011. 78 UWE MK, Baby Love Clippings Scrapbook, David Lewin, The courage in changing a poster after a campaign has begun, Today's Cinema, 28 April 1969. 79 UWE MK, Item Number MK2, Embassy Pictures Financial Statement # 45, 31 October 1982. The figures in full are: US and Canada, $571,797; UK $546,514; Other Foreign Territories, $301,290. 80 Leo C. Rosten, Hollywood: the movie colony, the movie makers (New York, Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1941), 238.

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