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A Fine and Private Place was a proposed feature film from Paul Watson that was abandoned during filming, ostensibly due to poor weather.

Premise

A love story set in the 1920s between a loner schoolmaster, Jones, and the married, privileged Judith Leeward.

Production

Development

Paul Watson was a documentary filmmaker who had written the script. Bryan Forbes, head of EMI Films, greenlit the film and announced it as part of his slate in August 1969. It was one of several films Forbes financed from inexperienced directors (some of these out worked well, others badly). He later wrote he felt Watson's "enthusiasm and approach merited the risk; the screenplay contained all the ingredients for a compelling film and I gave him the go-ahead."

Forbes later said the director cast Nanette Newman, who was Forbes' wife, and that her fee was £5,000, while Woodward "who was very hot at the time" was paid £10,000. Forbes said it was "a very good script" and that Watson "came to me with a very good pedigree at the BBC".

Shooting

Production began in Tintagel, Cornwall in late April 1970, with plans to complete the film at Elstree Studios. Female lead Nanette Newman had just completed The Raging Moon written and directed by Forbes, who was her husband.

The film soon fell behind schedule, forcing Forbes to visit the set. He claims that after two weeks of filming a third of the budget had been spent for only ten minutes of screen time. Forbes also felt the footage would not cut together and was unimpressed with how Watson planned to film other scenes, including a sequence involving butterflies and a sex scene between Newman and Woodward. Forbes says when he raised his concerns with the director he was not reassured. Forbes shut down the production and fired Watson.

Forbes paid off the cast and crew. He said "EMI went crazy." The movie was budgeted at £280,000 and Forbes estimated it would have eventually cost £400,000 (£118,000 had been spent). "I shut the gate before it was too late," he said.

The delay was blamed at the time on the weather in Cornwall. An EMI spokesman said "location work was stopped because it was going beyond its budget. If sites closer to Elstree cannot be found work on the film could be abandoned."

Forbes later called it "the most agonising decision I ever had to take on a film. I felt sorry for everybody concerned and I knew that I would come in for heavy criticism. But everything is relative and this was my Heaven’s Gate. I did not have the luxury of increasing the budget and, even if I had, I had lost confidence in the ability of the director to deliver. It was a tragedy of good intentions, a blight on Nanette’s and Edward’s careers and a sad loss of income for the crew."

Over the next two weeks Forbes attempted to resuscitate the project with director John Hough but he eventually decided not to proceed and the film was abandoned. Filming ceased for good in mid-May 1970.

Forbes publicly blamed the cancellation on bad weather, which he said would make the film £70,000-£80,000 over budget, saying "this is too much to get back in the English market it was made for. One film today, just one, which runs into budget trouble and has to have endless money poured into it can bring a studio to its knees." Forbes added another factor was Woodward had to start rehearsals for a play at the National on 30 June, saying the film "was built around its star Edward Woodward to take advantage of his popularity as Callan on TV and his prestige at the National Theatre."

Watson subsequently went on to a highly successful career as a documentary filmmaker.

References

1. Picture of lead actors accessed 26 May 2014
2. Walker, Alexander, Hollywood England, Harrap and Stein, 1974 p433
3. Day-Lewis, Sean (13 August 1969). "British finance backs plans for 15 new films". The Daily Telegraph. p. 17.
4. Vagg, Stephen (October 10, 2021). "Cold Streaks: The Studio Stewardship of Bryan Forbes at EMI". Filmink.
5. Forbes, Bryan (1993). A Divided Life:Memoirs. p. 175.
6. ^ Fowler, Roy (9 August 1994). "Interview with Bryan Forbes". British Entertainment History Project. Retrieved 2 August 2024.
7. "The shining stars of Cornwall" By Cornish Guardian January 29, 2014 Archived May 27, 2014, at the Wayback Machine accessed 26 May 2014
8. In the Picture Sight and Sound; London Vol. 38, Iss. 4, (Fall 1969): 181.
9. "Actress who is in love with her director". Lincolnshire Echo. 7 April 1970. p. 6.
10. "TV Callan takes film role as schoolmaster". Thanet Times and East Kent Pictorial. 21 April 1970. p. 10.
11. Moody, Paul (2018). EMI Films and the Limits of British Cinema. Palgrave MacMillan. p. 25.
12. "Not such a fine place". The Birmingham Post. 2 May 1970. p. 31.
13. McGowan, Robert (6 May 1970). "'Callan's film may be abandoned". Evening Standard. p. 12.
14. Forbes p 179
15. Bryan Forbes, A Divided Life, Mandarin, 1993 p 174-179
16. "Production of new AB Picture film halted". The Daily Telegraph. May 15, 1970. p. 22.
17. Walker, Alexander (26 May 1970). "The film man who refused to get the jitters". Evening Standard. p. 13.
18. Chris Tryhorn, 'Watson scoops top documentary awards', The Guardian, 26 November 2007 accessed 30 July 2012

External links

• A Fine and Private Place at BFI

• 1971 films
• 1970s unfinished films
• EMI Films films
• 1970s English-language films