Freelance | |
---|---|
Directed by | Francis Megahy |
Written by | Francis Megahy Bernie Cooper |
Produced by | Francis Megahy executive Lynn S. Raynor Ronan O'Casey |
Starring | Ian McShane Gayle Hunnicutt Keith Barron Alan Lake Peter Gilmore Luan Peters |
Cinematography | Norman Langley |
Edited by | Arthur Solomon |
Music by | Basil Kirchin |
Distributed by | Commonwealth United Entertainment |
Release date |
|
Running time | 91 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Budget | £200,000 [1] |
Freelance (US title: Con Man) is a 1971 British thriller film written and directed by Francis Megahy and starring Ian McShane. [2] It was not released in England until 1976. A con artist witnesses an assassination.
Mitch is a small-time London con-artist. When he witnesses a gangland hit, he is forced to lie low while trying to carry out his own various schemes.
Filming began in London in October 1969. [3] It was Ian MacShane's fourth lead role of the year, following Tam-Lin (1970), Battle of Britain (1969), and Pussycat, Pussycat, I Love You (1970). [4]
The Cambridge Evening News called it "a film of such ordinariness that one wonders how it ever got to be made." [5]
Sir Ian Murray McKellen is an English actor. With a career spanning more than six decades, he is noted for his roles on the screen and stage in genres ranging from Shakespearean dramas and modern theatre to popular fantasy and science fiction. He is regarded as a British cultural icon and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1991. He has received numerous accolades, including a Tony Award, six Olivier Awards, and a Golden Globe Award as well as nominations for two Academy Awards, five BAFTA Awards and five Emmy Awards.
Russell Albion Meyer was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, cinematographer, and editor. He is known primarily for writing and directing a series of successful sexploitation films that featured campy humor, sly satire and large-breasted women, such as Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!. Meyer often named Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970) as his definitive work.
Capucine was a French fashion model and actress known for her comedic roles in The Pink Panther (1963) and What's New Pussycat? (1965). She appeared in 36 films and 17 television productions between 1948 and 1990.
Robert Alba Keith, known professionally as Brian Keith, was an American film, television, and stage actor who in his six-decade career gained recognition for his work in films such as the Disney family film The Parent Trap (1961); Johnny Shiloh (1963); the comedy The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming (1966); and the adventure saga The Wind and the Lion (1975), in which he portrayed President Theodore Roosevelt.
Paula Prentiss is an American actress. She is best known for her film roles in Where the Boys Are (1960), What's New Pussycat? (1965), Catch-22 (1970), The Parallax View (1974), and The Stepford Wives (1975).
EMI Films was a British film studio and distributor. A subsidiary of the EMI conglomerate, the corporate name was not used throughout the entire period of EMI's involvement in the film industry, from 1969 to 1986, but the company's brief connection with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Anglo-EMI, the division under Nat Cohen, and the later company as part of the Thorn EMI conglomerate are outlined here.
Philippe Mora is a French Australian film director.
Villain is a 1971 British gangster film directed by Michael Tuchner and starring Richard Burton, Ian McShane, Nigel Davenport and Donald Sinden. It is based on James Barlow's 1968 novel The Burden of Proof. Villain was director Michael Tuchner's first feature film after directing in television.
John Nicholas Finch was an English stage and film actor who became well known for his Shakespearean roles. Most notably, he starred in films for directors Roman Polanski and Alfred Hitchcock.
Peter Collinson was a British film director probably best remembered for directing The Italian Job (1969).
White Lightning is a 1973 American action film directed by Joseph Sargent, written by William W. Norton, and starring Burt Reynolds, Jennifer Billingsley, Ned Beatty, Bo Hopkins, R. G. Armstrong and Diane Ladd. It marked Laura Dern's film debut.
The Raging Moon is a 1971 British romantic drama film starring Malcolm McDowell and Nanette Newman and based on the book by British novelist Peter Marshall. Adapted and directed by Bryan Forbes, this "romance in wheelchairs" was considered unusual in its time owing in part to the sexual nature of the relationship between McDowell and Newman, who play disabled people. The film received two Golden Globe nominations, for Best Foreign Film, and Best Song for "Long Ago Tomorrow".
The McKenzie Break is a 1970 British war drama film starring Brian Keith as Jack Connor, an intelligence officer investigating recent disturbances at a prisoner of war (POW) camp in Scotland. The Nazi German POWs are led by the charismatic and ruthless Willi Schlüter. Filmed in DeLuxe Color, the picture was directed by Lamont Johnson,
Alfred the Great is a 1969 British epic film which portrays Alfred the Great's struggle to defend the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Wessex from a Danish Viking invasion in the 9th century. David Hemmings starred in the title role.
Clive Stanley Donner was a British film director who was part of the British New Wave, directing films such as The Caretaker, Nothing but the Best, What's New Pussycat?, and Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush. He also directed television movies and commercials through the mid-1990s.
Linda Lovelace was an American pornographic actress who became famous for her performance in the 1972 hardcore film Deep Throat. Although the film was an enormous success, Boreman later alleged that her abusive husband, Chuck Traynor, had threatened and coerced her into participation and that the film is in fact a film of her rape. In her autobiography Ordeal, she described what went on behind the scenes. She later became a born-again Christian and a spokeswoman for the anti-pornography movement.
Pussycat, Pussycat, I Love You is a 1970 American comedy film directed by Rod Amateau. Intended as a sequel to the 1965 film What's New Pussycat?, it stars Ian McShane, Anna Calder-Marshall, John Gavin and Severn Darden.
Hennessy is a 1975 British thriller film directed by Don Sharp and starring Rod Steiger, Trevor Howard, Lee Remick, Richard Johnson, Peter Egan, Stanley Lebor, Patrick Stewart and a young Patsy Kensit, the last two in their film debuts.
Adam's Woman is a 1970 Australian-American historical drama film directed by Philip Leacock and starring Beau Bridges, Jane Merrow and John Mills. It has been called a "convict Western".
John Guillermin was a French-British film director, writer and producer who was most active in big-budget, action-adventure films throughout his lengthy career.