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==Reception==
==Reception==
The film was a box office disaster and caused Bryanston to lose £80,000.<ref>Petrie p 13</ref>
The film was a box office disaster and caused Bryanston to lose £80,000.<ref>Petrie p 13</ref> Hughes said "nobody came near me" after the film came out.<ref>MOVIES: Hughes' 'Cromwell' Was Made With Malice Aforethought
SHIVAS, MARK. Los Angeles Times 20 Dec 1970: m30. </ref>

==References==
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{reflist}}

Revision as of 12:42, 4 October 2020

The Small World of Sammy Lee
Directed byKen Hughes
Screenplay byKen Hughes
Produced byAlec C. Snowden
StarringAnthony Newley
Julia Foster
Robert Stephens
Edited byHenry Richardson
Production
companies
Distributed byBritish Lion Films (UK)
Release date
April 1963 (UK)
Running time
107 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget£190,067[1]
Box office£49,981 (UK)[2]

The Small World of Sammy Lee[3] is a 1963 British crime film written and directed by Ken Hughes and starring Anthony Newley, Julia Foster and Robert Stephens.[4] A striptease-show compere is hunted across the seedy London underworld of Soho by debt collectors.

Synopsis and outline

Sammy Lee has five hours to pay off a gambling debt.

Andrew Pulver wrote in November 2016 for The Guardian, at the time of the film's re-release: "It’s a genuine curiosity: the last knockings of black-and-white, beat-influenced hipster cinema before a tide of gaudily-coloured, new wave-inspired, pop art films. Ken Hughes, its director, reached back to the pre-war working-class bohemianism so perfectly captured by Graham Greene and Gerald Kersh".[5] The film was based on a 1958 television play written and directed by Ken Hughes which also featured Anthony Newley in the lead.

Cast

Original TV Version

The story was originally filmed for TV by Hughes as Sammy in 1958. This version also starred Newley.[6]

This in turn was adapted for American TV in 1958 as Eddie on Alcoa Theatre.

Production

The original TV play was very successful and Hughes had requests to turn it into a feature, but he was reluctant, considering that the one-person aspect of the story was crucial. Eventually he decided to adapt it, but disliked the job he did. "I did everything wrong," he said. "I opened the story out in all the obvious ways. I showed what was happening at the other end of the telephone calls for instance when Sammy's end was all that was really needed." He then did another version which he liked.[7]

Music

Music for the film was composed by Kenny Graham; a soundtrack album did not appear at the time of the film's release, but one was later released by Trunk Records in 2013.

Reception

The film was a box office disaster and caused Bryanston to lose £80,000.[8] Hughes said "nobody came near me" after the film came out.[9]

References

  1. ^ Petrie, Duncan James (2017). "Bryanston Films : An Experiment in Cooperative Independent Production and Distribution" (PDF). Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television: 7. ISSN 1465-3451.
  2. ^ Petrie p 13
  3. ^ The Small World of Sammy Lee (1963), retrieved 6 June 2017
  4. ^ BFI.org
  5. ^ Pulver, Andrew (8 November 2016). "The great lost London beat thriller: why to watch The Small World of Sammy Lee". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 November 2016.
  6. ^ Sammy 1958 movie at IMDb
  7. ^ LONDON SCREEN SCENE: Edward G. Robinson Returns To Work --Second 'Sammy'--Sequel Plans By STEPHEN WATTS. New York Times 23 Sep 1962: 135.
  8. ^ Petrie p 13
  9. ^ MOVIES: Hughes' 'Cromwell' Was Made With Malice Aforethought SHIVAS, MARK. Los Angeles Times 20 Dec 1970: m30.

External links

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