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Baxter! | |
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Directed by | Lionel Jeffries |
Screenplay by | Reginald Rose |
Based on | The Boy Who Could Make Himself Disappear by Kin Platt |
Produced by | Arthur Lewis |
Starring | Patricia Neal Britt Ekland Lynn Carlin Jean-Pierre Cassel Scott Jacoby |
Cinematography | Geoffrey Unsworth |
Edited by | Teddy Darvas |
Music by | Michael J. Lewis |
Production companies | |
Distributed by | MGM-EMI Distributors (UK) National General Pictures (US) |
Release date |
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Countries | United Kingdom United States |
Language | English |
Baxter! is a 1973 British-American drama film directed by Lionel Jeffries and starring Patricia Neal, Jean-Pierre Cassel and Britt Ekland. [1] [2] The film follows a young boy called Roger Baxter who struggles to overcome his speech problem (rhotacism) and his strained relationship with his parents. The screenplay was by Reginald Rose, based on the 1968 book by Kin Platt, The Boy Who Could Make Himself Disappear.
The film was made before Jeffries' third film as director, The Amazing Mr Blunden (1972), but released afterwards. [3]
Roger Baxter, a young American boy with a speech impediment, goes to live in London with his mother after his parents' divorce. He struggles to pronounce the letter R, and at school he becomes close to his speech therapist. He makes friends with his upstairs neighbour Chris Bentley whom he meets in the lift, and her French husband, Roger Tunnell. He also meets Nemo, a girl who lives across the street from his flat. His parents are extremely self-centred and neglectful, and he feels isolated in a strange city. He eventually slides into an emotional breakdown.
The Boy Who Could Make Himself Disappear was published in 1968. One critic called it "unforgettable". [4]
In November 1971, it was announced the film would be called The Boy and it would be a co production between Anglo-EMI Films and Group W Films. [5] Hanna-Barbera also produced the film; it is one of the studio's live-action efforts, despite being primarily known as an animation studio.
The film starred Scott Jacoby, who had just played the lead in a TV movie, That Certain Summer . [6] It was a rare English-language film for Jean-Pierre Cassel. [7]
Anthony George Franciosa was an American actor most often billed as Tony Franciosa at the height of his career. He began his career on stage and made a breakthrough portraying the brother of the drug addict in the play A Hatful of Rain, which earned him a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play. He reprised his role in its subsequent film adaptation, for which he won the 1957 Venice Film Festival Award for Best Actor, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role.
Patricia Neal was an American actress of stage and screen. She is well known for, among other roles, playing World War II widow Helen Benson in The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), radio journalist Marcia Jeffries in A Face in the Crowd (1957), wealthy matron Emily Eustace Failenson in Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), and the worn-out housekeeper Alma Brown in Hud (1963). She also featured as the matriarch in the television film The Homecoming: A Christmas Story (1971); her role as Olivia Walton was re-cast for the series it inspired, The Waltons. A major star of the 1950s and 1960s, she was the recipient of an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Tony Award, and two British Academy Film Awards, and was nominated for three Primetime Emmy Awards.
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie is a 1972 comedy-drama film directed by Luis Buñuel from a screenplay he co-wrote with Jean-Claude Carrière. The narrative concerns a group of bourgeois people attempting—despite continual interruptions—to dine together. The French-language film stars Fernando Rey, Stéphane Audran, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Paul Frankeur, Delphine Seyrig, Bulle Ogier, Julien Bertheau, and Milena Vukotic.
Britt Ekland is a Swedish actress, model, and singer. She appeared in numerous films in her heyday throughout the 1960s and 1970s, including roles in The Double Man (1967), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968), Machine Gun McCain (1969), Stiletto (1969), and the British crime film Get Carter (1971), which established her as a sex symbol. She also starred in several horror films, including The Wicker Man (1973), and appeared as a Bond girl in The Man with the Golden Gun (1974).
Mark Lester is an English former child actor who starred in a number of British and European films in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1968 he played the title role in the film Oliver!, a musical version of the stage production by Lionel Bart based Charles Dickens' novel Oliver Twist He is one of three last surviving actors of Said film along with Shani Wallis and Kenneth Crannham. Lester also made several appearances in a number of British television series. In 1977, after appearing in the all-star international action adventure film The Prince and the Pauper, he retired from acting. In the 1980s, he trained as an osteopath specialising in sport injuries.
Sally Thomsett is an English actress who starred as Phyllis in the film The Railway Children (1970) and played Jo in the TV sitcom Man About the House (1973–1976). She also appeared as Janice in the film Straw Dogs (1971) and Nemo in Baxter! (1973).
Mary Lynn Carlin is a former American actress. She is best known for her debut role in the film Faces (1968), for which she was nominated for an Academy Award.
William Simpson Fraser was a Scottish actor who appeared on stage, screen and television for many years. In 1986 he won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Comedy Performance for his stage role in the play When We Are Married.
Royal Flash is a 1975 British adventure comedy film based on the second Flashman novel by George MacDonald Fraser. It stars Malcolm McDowell as Flashman. Additionally, Oliver Reed appeared in the role of Otto von Bismarck, Alan Bates as Rudi von Sternberg, and Florinda Bolkan played Lola Montez. Fraser wrote the screenplay and the film was directed by Richard Lester.
Jean-Pierre Cassel was a French actor and dancer. A popular star of French cinema, he was initially known for his comedy film appearances, though he also proved a gifted dramatic actor, and accrued over 200 film and television credits in a career spanning over 50 years.
Kin Platt was an American writer, artist, painter, sculptor, caricaturist, and comics artist, best known for penning radio comedy and animated TV series, as well as children's mystery novels, one of which earned him the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award.
Les Sept péchés capitaux is a 1962 French film composed of seven different segments, one for each of the seven deadly sins, each being by different directors and featuring different casts. At the time it served as a showcase for rising directors and stars, many of whom achieved later fame.
Nanette Newman is an English actress and author. She appeared in nine films directed by her husband Bryan Forbes, including Séance on a Wet Afternoon (1964), The Whisperers (1967), Deadfall (1968), The Stepford Wives (1975) and International Velvet (1978), for which she won the Evening Standard Film Award for Best Actress. She was also nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for another Forbes-directed film, The Raging Moon (1971).
The Man with the Golden Gun is a 1974 spy film and the ninth in the James Bond series produced by Eon Productions, and the second to star Roger Moore as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. A loose adaptation of Ian Fleming's posthumously published 1965 novel of the same name, the film has Bond sent after the Solex Agitator, a breakthrough technological solution to contemporary energy shortages, while facing the assassin Francisco Scaramanga, the "Man with the Golden Gun". The action culminates in a duel between them that settles the fate of the Solex.
Maurice Ronet was a French film actor, director, and writer.
Anthony Nicholls was an English actor.
Mr. Nobody is a 2009 science fiction drama film written and directed by Jaco Van Dormael and starring Jared Leto, Sarah Polley, Diane Kruger, Linh Dan Pham, Rhys Ifans, Natasha Little, Toby Regbo, and Juno Temple. It tells the life story of Nemo Nobody, a 118-year-old man who is the last mortal on Earth after the human race has achieved quasi-immortality. Nemo, memory fading, tells a doctor and journalist about his three main loves and his parents' divorce and the subsequent hardships he endured. The speculative narrative frequently changes course to investigate the alternate life paths that could have resulted from his making different decisions in his life, focusing on when he is nine, fifteen, and thirty-four. The film has a nonlinear narrative that incorporates the multiverse hypothesis.
The Subject Was Roses is a 1968 American Metrocolor drama film directed by Ulu Grosbard. The screenplay by Frank D. Gilroy is based on his 1964 Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same title.
Mesrine is a two-part 2008 French biographical crime film on the life of French gangster Jacques Mesrine, directed by Jean-François Richet and written by Abdel Raouf Dafri and Richet. The first part, Mesrine: Killer Instinct, was based on Mesrine's autobiographical book L'instinct de mort, while the second part, Mesrine: Public Enemy Number One, detailed Mesrine's criminal career. The film has earned comparisons to the American film Scarface, and Vincent Cassel earned rave reviews for his portrayal of Mesrine.
The Wicker Man: The Official Story of the Film is the sixth book by John Walsh, published October 24, 2023, as part of the film's 50th anniversary. Walsh has previously written, Harryhausen: The Lost Movies, Flash Gordon: The Official Story of the Film, Dr Who and the Daleks: The Official Story of the Films, and Conan the Barbarian: The Official Story of the Film. In 2024, his seventh book will be published, entitled, The Third Man: The Official Story of the Film.