Inside the Shadowplayhouse #2: Tosh
A glimpse inside the Shadowplayhouse. The Toshiro Mifune YOJIMBO inaction figure was a treasured gift from my great friend Kiyo Murakami. The VHS tapes all hail from regular Shadowplayer Chris Bourton. Oh, except for A DANDY IN ASPIC, Anthony Mann’s last film (he died while making it).
shadowplay 
September 22, 2008 at 1:00 pm
And Laurence Harvey completed it. Rather nicely too.
September 22, 2008 at 3:29 pm
A few people have complained about zoom-happiness in the exterior scenes, but it seemed appropriate enough to me. The climax, which is presumably all Harvey’s work, is pretty effective. The film develops Mann’s tradition of gay villains to its furthest extreme: ALL the men seem sexually ambiguous. And with Mia Farrow representing the fairer sex, there’s even more room for muddle. Peter Cook is very effective as a randy agent, whose womanising is accompanied by an extraordinarily camp attitude.
September 22, 2008 at 3:43 pm
It was impossible for Peter Cook to be anything BUT camp.
September 22, 2008 at 4:00 pm
He’s LESS camp in Bedazzled, bizarrely. And he could always play bluff old duffers, of the Harold Mcmillan type. In those kind of roles he accesses a kind of dementia which burns through his eyes and is quite alarming. I associate that look with the fine British actor Nigel Green.
September 22, 2008 at 7:06 pm
He died while making the videotape?
September 22, 2008 at 9:40 pm
Yes, Mann got a job at Maxell, manufacturing VHS tapes, after he finished his Hollywood career. He was just screwing the hinged plastic cover onto this one when he suddenly keeled over.