Slayground

Last updated

Slayground
Slayground film DVD cover (1983).png
DVD cover
Directed by Terry Bedford
Screenplay by Trevor Preston
Based onSlayground
by Donald E. Westlake
Produced by John Dark
Gower Frost
Starring
CinematographyStephen Smith
Edited byNick Gaster
Music by Colin Towns
Production
companies
Distributed by Columbia-EMI-Warner Distributors
Release date
  • December 1983 (1983-12)(United Kingdom)
Running time
89 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget$5 million [1]

Slayground is a 1983 British crime thriller film directed by Terry Bedford and starring Peter Coyote, Mel Smith and Billie Whitelaw. [2] The screenplay was by Trevor Preston, adapted from Slayground, the 14th Parker novel (1971) by Donald E. Westlake (as Richard Stark).

Contents

Cast

Production

In early 1983 Barry Spikings left Thorn EMI and Verity Lambert was appointed head of production. Lambert's first slate of films was Slayground, Comfort and Joy , Illegal Aliens (which became Morons from Outer Space ) and Dreamchild . [3] Filming had finished by November 1983. "I believe all these films have international appeal," said Lambert. [4]

Reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: " Flashdance meets film noir for this disappointingly lame front-runner from the new EMI stable. A directing début for Terry Bedford, formerly lighting cameraman for Adrian Lyne then for Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Jabberwocky , and now teamed with commercials cameraman Stephen Smith, Slayground is full of portentous camerawork that loads even a simple bus-stop arrival with heavily irrelevant suspense. ... Slayground offers a beginner's course in customary crimethriller images, culminating in the fairground shoot-out, all ho-ho masks and halls of mirrors, for those who may have forgotten how these things always used to be done. Littered with fashionably upright corpses, the film offers the ultimate affront in the concept of its gloating, faceless killer, fountaining bullets as from the hosepipe of a demented gardener (our team has scrupulously noted Assault on Precinct 13 along with Lady from Shanghai and Bugsy Malone), and almost as immune to retaliation as the bogeyman in Halloween. Rather as with the mystery girl at the start – and, for that matter, the film's title itself – his presence seems to mean something but nobody, it appears, could quite remember what." [5]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Skaro</span> Fictional Planet in the Doctor Who universe

Skaro is a fictional planet in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was created by the writer Terry Nation as the home planet of the Daleks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Verity Lambert</span> English television and film producer

Verity Ann Lambert was an English television and film producer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Billie Whitelaw</span> English actress (1932–2014)

Billie Honor Whitelaw was an English actress. She worked in close collaboration with Irish playwright Samuel Beckett for 25 years and was regarded as one of the foremost interpreters of his works. She was also known for her portrayal of Mrs. Baylock, the demonic nanny in the 1976 horror film The Omen.

Parker is a fictional character created by American novelist Donald E. Westlake. A professional robber specializing in large-scale, high-profit crimes, Parker is the main protagonist of 24 of the 28 novels Westlake wrote under the pseudonym Richard Stark.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Donald E. Westlake</span> American novelist (1933–2008)

Donald Edwin Westlake was an American writer with more than one hundred novels and non-fiction books to his credit. He specialized in crime fiction, especially comic capers, with an occasional foray into science fiction and other genres. Westlake created two professional criminal characters who each starred in a long-running series: the relentless, hardboiled Parker, and John Dortmunder, who featured in a more humorous series.

Canal+ Image International was a British-French film, television, animation studio and distributor. A former 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.

<i>Comfort and Joy</i> (1984 film) 1984 Scottish film

Comfort and Joy is a 1984 Scottish comedy film written and directed by Bill Forsyth and starring Bill Paterson as a radio disc jockey whose life undergoes a bizarre upheaval after his girlfriend leaves him. After he witnesses an attack on an ice cream van by angry competitors, he is led into the struggle between two Italian families over the ice cream market of Glasgow. The film received a BAFTA Award Nomination for Best Original Screenplay in 1985.

<i>Start the Revolution Without Me</i> 1970 film by Bud Yorkin

Start the Revolution Without Me is a 1970 British-French-American period comedy film directed by Bud Yorkin and starring Gene Wilder, Donald Sutherland, Hugh Griffith, Jack MacGowran, Billie Whitelaw, Orson Welles and Victor Spinetti. The comedy is set in revolutionary France where two peasants are mistaken for the famous Corsican Brothers. The film is considered a parody of a number of works of historical fiction about the French Revolution and French history in general, including A Tale of Two Cities (1859) by Charles Dickens and two works by Alexandre Dumas, The Corsican Brothers (1844) and The Man in the Iron Mask (1847).

<i>Dreamchild</i> 1985 British film

Dreamchild is a 1985 British drama film written by Dennis Potter, directed by Gavin Millar, and produced by Rick McCallum and Kenith Trodd. The film, starring Coral Browne, Ian Holm, Peter Gallagher, Nicola Cowper and Amelia Shankley, is a fictionalised account of Alice Liddell, the child who inspired Lewis Carroll's 1865 novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

<i>Hell Is a City</i> 1960 film by Val Guest

Hell Is a City is a 1960 British crime thriller film starring Stanley Baker, based on the 1954 novel of the same title by Maurice Procter.

<i>The Hot Rock</i> (film) 1972 film by Peter Yates

The Hot Rock is a 1972 American crime comedy-drama film directed by Peter Yates and written by William Goldman, based on Donald E. Westlake's 1970 novel of the same name, which introduced his long-running John Dortmunder character. The film stars Robert Redford, George Segal, Ron Leibman, Paul Sand, Moses Gunn and Zero Mostel. It was released in the UK with the alternative title How to Steal a Diamond in Four Uneasy Lessons.

<i>No Love for Johnnie</i> 1961 British film by Ralph Thomas

No Love for Johnnie is a 1961 British drama film in CinemaScope directed by Ralph Thomas. It is based on the 1959 book of the same title by the Labour Member of Parliament Wilfred Fienburgh, and stars Peter Finch.

<i>Morons from Outer Space</i> 1985 British film

Morons from Outer Space is a 1985 British comedy-science fiction film directed by Mike Hodges and written by and starring Griff Rhys Jones and Mel Smith. It also stars Jimmy Nail and James B. Sikking.

<i>Make Mine Mink</i> 1960 British film by Robert Asher

Make Mine Mink is a 1960 British comedy farce film directed by Robert Asher and featuring Terry-Thomas, Athene Seyler, Hattie Jacques and Billie Whitelaw. It was based on the 1958 play Breath of Spring by Peter Coke, and its sequels.

<i>The Adding Machine</i> (film) 1969 British film by Jerome Epstein

The Adding Machine is a 1969 British fantasy comedy drama film produced, written, and directed by Jerome Epstein and starring Milo O'Shea, Phyllis Diller, Billie Whitelaw, Sydney Chaplin, and Raymond Huntley.

<i>Payroll</i> (film) 1961 British crime thriller directed by Sidney Hayers

Payroll is a 1961 British neo-noir crime thriller film directed by Sidney Hayers and starring Michael Craig, Françoise Prévost, and Billie Whitelaw. The screenplay by George Baxt was adapted from Derek Bickerton's 1959 novel of the same name. The film revolves around a group of criminals who plan and execute a wages robbery, which ultimately ends in disaster.

<i>Jimmy the Kid</i> 1982 American film

Jimmy the Kid is a 1982 American comedy film starring Gary Coleman and Paul Le Mat. It was directed by Gary Nelson, produced by Ronald Jacobs, and released on November 12, 1982 by New World Pictures. Following 1981's On the Right Track, it was the second theatrical film release starring Coleman.

<i>The Devils Agent</i> 1962 film by John Paddy Carstairs

The Devil's Agent is a 1962 drama film directed by John Paddy Carstairs and starring Peter van Eyck, Marianne Koch, Christopher Lee and Macdonald Carey. It was a co-production between Britain, West Germany and the Republic of Ireland. It was based on a 1956 novel by Hans Habe. It is set in East Germany during the Cold War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">68th British Academy Film Awards</span>

The 68th British Academy Film Awards, more commonly known as the BAFTAs, were held on 8 February 2015 at the Royal Opera House in London, honouring the best national and foreign films of 2014. Presented by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, accolades were handed out for the best feature-length film and documentaries of any nationality that were screened at British cinemas in 2014.

<i>Man Detained</i> 1961 British film by Robert Tronson

Man Detained is a 1961 British crime film directed by Robert Tronson and starring Bernard Archard, Elvi Hale and Paul Stassino. Part of the series of Edgar Wallace Mysteries films made at Merton Park Studios, it is loosely based on the 1916 novel A Debt Discharged by Edgar Wallace.

References

  1. "The Sunday press has reported on the UK film industry." 17 April 1983 Textline Multiple Source Collection (1980-1994)
  2. "Slayground". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 15 April 2024.
  3. Cinema Verity: Peter Fiddick talks to EMI-Thorn 's new film production chief Fiddick, Peter. The Guardian 24 Nov 1983: 13.
  4. EMI back with four feature films Fiddick, Peter. The Guardian 16 Nov 1983: 2.
  5. "Slayground". The Monthly Film Bulletin . 51 (600): 52. 1 January 1984 via ProQuest.