This article needs additional citations for verification .(July 2023) |
Eagle in a Cage | |
---|---|
Directed by | Fielder Cook |
Written by | Millard Lampell |
Based on | teleplay by Lampell |
Produced by | Millard Lampell Albert Schwartz |
Starring | John Gielgud |
Cinematography | Frano Vodopivec |
Edited by | Max Benedict |
Music by | Marc Wilkinson |
Production companies | Group W Productions Ramona Productions |
Distributed by | National General Pictures |
Release dates | 22 December 1971 (Los Angeles) March 1973 (UK) |
Running time | 103 minutes (UK) 98 minutes (USA) |
Countries | United States United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Eagle in a Cage is an Anglo-American historical drama film, released in 1971.
The film was based on the teleplay of the same name by Millard Lampell, which aired on the Hallmark Television Playhouse on 20 October 1965.
After his defeat at the Battle of Waterloo and surrender to the British Empire, Napoleon Bonaparte is delivered into exile and imprisonment on St. Helena, setting the scene for a psychological character study of the fallen Emperor and those upon the island with him as he rakes over the ashes of his career. After a failed escape attempt, the British Government offers him a chance for a return to limited power in France once again as a buffer against instability there; however, on the point of departure he is afflicted by the symptoms of stomach cancer and the offer is in consequence withdrawn, leaving him entrapped on the island and exiting history's stage.
Lamprell had written an episode of East Side, West Side that was admired by George Schaefer, producer of Hallmark's Hall of Fame. He commissioned Lamprell to write an original script. The play aired in 1965 starring Trevor Howard as Napleon and Pamela Franklin as Betsy. [1]
Howard, Lamprell, and Franklin were nominated for Emmies. Lamprell won. When he accepted it he said "I think I ought to mention that I was blacklisted." This led to the New York Times offering Lamprell the chance to write an article about the blacklist. The incident is credited as helping draw mainstream public attention to the existence of the blacklist and contributing to its end. [2] [3]
Howard Barnes, an executive for Group W who knew Lamprell in radio, contacted the author suggesting his television play would make an ideal film and they had an investor willing to put up half the money. Lamprell said his adaptation "meant really rewriting pretty much everything, because there’s such a vast difference between what works on television and what works as a theatrical feature." The other financier fell through but Group W agreed to fully finance if Lamprell agreed to produce. [4]
Lamprell wrote the part of the black general specifically for Moses Gunn who had been in a play of his, Hard Traveling. " There were actually black generals in Napoleon’s army, from Haiti and elsewhere, although not with Napoleon on St. Helena," said Lamprell. [5]
The original plan was to film in Italy but this proved too expensive so the film was shot in Yugoslavia. [6]
Lamprell later thought, "Gielgud was wonderful, so was Richardson, so was Billie. Kenneth Haigh, who was a talented actor, just wasn’t up to the part of Napoleon, however, and that hurt the film." [7]
The New York Times wrote "It should be obvious that the film-maker's imagination working at this level will create roles to tax the most imaginative of actors. But from his awesome cast, with a few exceptions, what he generally gets is a fairly professional elaboration of clichés." [8]
Variety called it "a dramatically fascinating entry for the class market." [9] The Los Angeles Times said it was "completely involving." [10]
Clinton Eastwood Jr. is an American actor and film director. After achieving success in the Western TV series Rawhide, Eastwood rose to international fame with his role as the "Man with No Name" in Sergio Leone's Dollars Trilogy of spaghetti Westerns during the mid-1960s and as antihero cop Harry Callahan in the five Dirty Harry films throughout the 1970s and 1980s. These roles, among others, have made Eastwood an enduring cultural icon of masculinity. Elected in 1986, Eastwood served for two years as the mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California.
Louis Napoléon Bonaparte was a younger brother of Napoleon I, Emperor of the French. He was a monarch in his own right from 1806 to 1810, ruling over the Kingdom of Holland. In that capacity, he was known as Louis I.
Jérôme-Napoléon Bonaparte was the youngest brother of Napoleon I and reigned as Jerome Napoleon I, King of Westphalia, between 1807 and 1813.
Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte was an American socialite. She was the daughter of a Baltimore merchant and the first wife of Jérôme Bonaparte, Napoleon's youngest brother.
Napoleon Bonaparte, later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French emperor and military commander who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led successful campaigns during the Revolutionary Wars. He was the leader of the French Republic as First Consul from 1799 to 1804, then of the French Empire as Emperor of the French from 1804 until 1814, and briefly again in 1815. His political and cultural legacy endures as a celebrated and controversial leader. He initiated many enduring reforms, but has been criticized for his authoritarian rule. He is considered one of the greatest military commanders in history and his wars and campaigns are still studied at military schools worldwide. However, historians still debate whether he was responsible for the Napoleonic Wars in which between three and six million people died.
Joachim Murat was a French military commander and statesman who served during the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars. Under the French Empire he received the military titles of Marshal of the Empire and Admiral of France. He was the first Prince Murat, Grand Duke of Berg from 1806 to 1808, and King of Naples as Joachim-Napoleon from 1808 to 1815.
The Almanac Singers was an American New York City-based folk music group, active between 1940 and 1943, founded by Millard Lampell, Lee Hays, Pete Seeger, and Woody Guthrie. The group specialized in topical songs, mostly songs advocating an anti-war, anti-racism and pro-union philosophy. They were part of the Popular Front, an alliance of liberals and leftists, including the Communist Party USA, who had vowed to put aside their differences in order to fight fascism and promote racial and religious inclusiveness and workers' rights. The Almanac Singers felt strongly that songs could help achieve these goals.
Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, has become a worldwide cultural icon generally associated with tactical brilliance, ambition and political power. His distinctive features and costume have made him a very recognizable figure in popular culture.
Georgina Hale is a British film, television and stage actress, known for her roles in the films of Ken Russell, including Mahler, for which she received a British Academy Film Award. She received a Laurence Olivier Award nomination for her performance in the original London production of Steaming. In 2010, she was listed as one of ten great British character actors by The Guardian.
Arnold Manoff was an American screenwriter who was blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studio bosses in the 1950s.
Philip Ives Dunne was an American screenwriter, film director and producer, who worked prolifically from 1932 until 1965. He spent the majority of his career at 20th Century Fox. He crafted well regarded romantic and historical dramas, usually adapted from another medium. Dunne was a leading Screen Writers Guild organizer and was politically active during the "Hollywood Blacklist" episode of the 1940s–1950s. He is best known for the films How Green Was My Valley (1941), The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947), The Robe (1953) and The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965).
Richard Waring was an American actor. He is perhaps best remembered for his role in the film Mr. Skeffington (1944).
Jeff Corey was an American stage and screen actor who became a well-respected acting teacher after being blacklisted in the 1950s.
Earl Hawley Robinson was a composer, arranger and folk music singer-songwriter from Seattle, Washington. Robinson is remembered for his music, including the cantata "Ballad for Americans" and songs such as "Joe Hill" and "Black and White", which expressed his left-leaning political views. He wrote many popular songs and music for Hollywood films, including his collaboration with Lewis Allan on the 1940s hit "The House I Live In" from the Academy Award winning film of the same name. He was a member of the Communist Party from the 1930s to the 1950s.
Bernard Gordon was an American writer and producer. For much of his 27-year career he was prevented from taking screen credit by the Hollywood Blacklist. Among his best-known works are screenplays for Flesh and Fury (1952), Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956), and 55 Days at Peking (1963).
Millard Lampell was an American movie and television screenwriter who first became publicly known as a member of the Almanac Singers in the 1940s.
The Hollywood blacklist was an entertainment industry blacklist put in effect in the mid-20th century in the United States during the early years of the Cold War, in Hollywood and elsewhere. Actors, screenwriters, directors, musicians, and other American entertainment professionals were barred from work by the studios.
Sid Grossman was an American photographer, teacher, and social activist.
Edward Huebsch, AKA "Eddie Huebsch" and "Ed Huebsch," (1914-1982) was a 20th-century American Communist screenwriter whose career was cut short by the Hollywood blacklist.
"Eagle in a Cage" was an American television movie broadcast on October 20, 1965, as part of the television series, Hallmark Hall of Fame. It told the story of Napoleon at Saint Helena.
{{cite magazine}}
: Cite magazine requires |magazine=
(help)