| The Jerusalem File | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | John Flynn |
| Written by | Troy Kennedy Martin |
| Produced by | Ram Ben Efraim |
| Starring | Bruce Davison Nicol Williamson |
| Cinematography | Raoul Coutard |
| Edited by | Norman Wanstall |
| Music by | John Scott |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
Release date |
|
Running time | 96 min |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
The Jerusalem File is a 1972 film directed by John Flynn. It stars Bruce Davison, Nicol Williamson, Daria Halprin, and Donald Pleasence. [1]
The film follows a young American named David, who comes to Israel to study and finds an Arab friend who legally lives there. Before long he finds himself involved with others and finds not all in Israel is as it appears. The action takes place before the 1967 Six Day War.
Director John Flynn later recalled the original script was bad but Troy Kennedy Martin rewrote it and Flynn loved the result. The movie was shot in Israel. Flynn:
I stayed at the American Colony Hotel in east Jerusalem, further refining the script while waiting for the production money to come in. All the foreign journalists congregated in the bar of that hotel. So I’d be sitting there in that cavern, as they called it, with all these gentlemen of the press, getting the inside dope on what was really happening in Israel... I never saw Ian Hendry sober, but he somehow managed to function. He’d start with a couple of shots in the morning, but it didn’t seem to affect him. He’d say his lines clearly. Hendry was a perfectly functioning alcoholic when I worked with him. Nicol Williamson (who played an archaeologist) was a wild man too. Very heavy drinker. Late one night, Nicol got quite loaded and threatened to throw Bob Dylan off a hotel balcony! [2]
The Jerusalem File was met with mixed reception from critics. A. H. Weiler of The New York Times concluded his review stating, "The politics, the disparate motivations and the implicit drama of youth defeated by a world they don't want are only vaguely projected and are secondary to the chase and shoot-em-up action of The Jerusalem File." [1]
Flynn said the film "didn’t do well at the box office and has all but disappeared." [2]
The British administrative headquarters for Mandatory Palestine, housed in the southern wing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, were bombed in a terrorist attack on 22 July 1946 by the militant right-wing Zionist underground organization the Irgun during the Jewish insurgency. 91 people of various nationalities were killed, including Arabs, Britons and Jews, and 46 were injured.
Telefon is a 1977 spy film directed by Don Siegel and starring Charles Bronson, Lee Remick and Donald Pleasence. The screenplay by Peter Hyams and Stirling Silliphant is based on the 1975 novel by Walter Wager.
Shout at the Devil is a 1976 British war adventure film directed by Peter R. Hunt and starring Lee Marvin and Roger Moore. The film, set in Zanzibar and German East Africa in 1913–1915, is based on a novel by Wilbur Smith which is very loosely inspired by real events. The supporting cast features Barbara Parkins and Ian Holm.
Zabriskie Point is a 1970 American drama film directed by Michelangelo Antonioni and starring Mark Frechette, Daria Halprin, and Rod Taylor. It was widely noted at the time for its setting in the counterculture of the United States. Some of the film's scenes were shot on location at Zabriskie Point in Death Valley.
Thomas Nicol Williamson was a Scottish actor, once described by playwright John Osborne as "the greatest actor since Marlon Brando". He was also described by Samuel Beckett as "touched by genius" and viewed by many critics as "the Hamlet of his generation" during the late 1960s.
Alexander Livingston Nicol Jr. was an American actor and film director. Nicol appeared in many Westerns including The Man from Laramie (1955). He appeared in more than forty feature films as well as directing many television shows including The Wild Wild West (1967), Tarzan (1966), and Daniel Boone (1966). He also played many roles on Broadway.
Daria Halprin is an American somatic-expressive arts therapist, author, teacher dancer, and former actress known primarily for her performances in three films of the late 1960s and early 1970s and as founding director of Tamalpa Institute.
Elliott Kastner was an American film producer, whose best known credits include Where Eagles Dare (1968), The Long Goodbye (1973), The Missouri Breaks (1976), and Angel Heart (1987).
Peter James Yates was an English film director and producer.
Janet Munro was a British actress. She won a Golden Globe Award for her performance in the film Darby O'Gill and the Little People (1959) and received a BAFTA Film Award nomination for her performance in the film Life for Ruth (1962).
Treasure Island is a 1972 adventure film, based on the 1883 novel by Robert Louis Stevenson. The film stars Orson Welles as Long John Silver, Kim Burfield as Jim Hawkins, Walter Slezak as Squire Trelawney, Rik Battaglia as Captain Smollett, and Ángel del Pozo as Doctor Livesey.
The Strawberry Statement is a 1970 American drama film set in the counterculture and student revolts of the 1960s. The story is loosely based on the non-fiction book of the same name by James Simon Kunen about the Columbia University protests of 1968.
The Hour of the Pig is a 1993 British/French film by writer/director Leslie Megahey, produced by the BBC. The film stars Colin Firth, Ian Holm, Donald Pleasence, Nicol Williamson, Jim Carter and Amina Annabi. It was released in the United States as The Advocate. The film is usually categorised as a drama, although it could also be classified as a mystery or a black comedy.
The Charge of the Light Brigade is a 1936 American historical adventure film from Warner Bros., starring Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland. It was directed by Michael Curtiz and produced by Samuel Bischoff, with Hal B. Wallis as the executive producer. The film's screenplay is by Michael Jacoby and Rowland Leigh, from a story by Michael Jacoby, and based on the 1854 poem "The Charge of the Light Brigade" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. The music score was composed by Max Steiner, his first for Warner Bros., and the cinematography was by Sol Polito. Scenes were shot at the following California locations: Lone Pine, Sherwood Lake, Lasky Mesa, Chatsworth, and Sonora. The Sierra Nevada mountains were used for the Khyber Pass scenes.
John Flynn was an American film director and screenwriter known for films such as The Outfit and Rolling Thunder.
All Creatures Great and Small is a British television series made by the BBC and based on the books of the British veterinary surgeon Alf Wight, who wrote under the pseudonym James Herriot. The title aired over seven series, totalling 90 episodes, from 1978 to 1990.
From Beyond the Grave is a 1974 British anthology horror film from Amicus Productions, directed by Kevin Connor, produced by Milton Subotsky and based on short stories by R. Chetwynd-Hayes.
The Uncanny is a 1977 British-Canadian anthology horror film directed by Denis Héroux, written by Michel Parry, and starring Peter Cushing, Donald Pleasence, Ray Milland, Joan Greenwood, Donald Pilon, Samantha Eggar, and John Vernon.
The Bofors Gun is a 1968 British drama film directed by Jack Gold and starring Nicol Williamson, David Warner, Ian Holm and John Thaw. It was based on the play Events While Guarding the Bofors Gun by John McGrath. It is set in 1954, during the British peacetime occupation of West Germany following the Second World War. It portrays the increasingly violent interaction between members of a squad of soldiers during a single night of guard duty.
"Hot Snow" is the debut episode of the 1960s cult British spy-fi television series The Avengers, starring Ian Hendry and Patrick Macnee. It originally aired on ABC on 7 January 1961. Only about 15 minutes, the first of three acts, remain. The episode was directed by Don Leaver and generally acknowledged to have been written by Ray Rigby, but Brian Clemens claimed to have written it.