Hammersmith Is Out

Hammersmith Is Out is a 1972 American comedy-drama film based on the legend of Faust. It is directed by Peter Ustinov, who starred in the film alongside Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Beau Bridges, Leon Ames, and George Raft.[1]

Hammersmith Is Out
Promotional artwork (soundtrack album)
Directed byPeter Ustinov
Produced byAlex Lucas
Written byStanford Whitmore
StarringElizabeth Taylor
Richard Burton
Peter Ustinov
Beau Bridges
George Raft
Music byDominic Frontiere
CinematographyRichard H. Kline
Edited byDavid E. Blewitt
Production
company
J. Cornelius Crean Films Inc.
Distributed byCinerama Releasing Corporation
Release date
  • May 12, 1972 (1972-05-12) (U.S.)
Running time
108 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Plot

Billy Breedlove (Beau Bridges) is an orderly at a Texas psychiatric hospital. He simultaneously falls under the spell of two people: a blonde waitress at a local diner named Jimmie Jean Jackson (Elizabeth Taylor) and an allegedly sociopathic hospital patient named Hammersmith (Richard Burton), who is restrained in a straitjacket within a locked cell.

Hammersmith promises Billy a new life with fame and fortune if he is released from his incarceration. Billy agrees to free Hammersmith, provided that Jimmie Jean can accompany their escape. The three make their way into adventures where Hammersmith murders people and steals property as the means for elevating Billy's social and financial status. Billy becomes the owner of a topless bar, the owner of a pharmaceutical company, an oil tycoon, the financier of political campaigns and a roving ambassador-at-large for the United States.

Over time, Billy comes to loathe Jimmie Jean. However, Hammersmith takes an interest in her and grants her wish that she should become a mother. Hammersmith arranges for Billy to become disabled in a water skiing accident, and then convinces him to commit suicide. The head of the psychiatric hospital (Peter Ustinov) locates Hammersmith and has him returned to his incarceration – where he begins to promise fame and fortune to another orderly.[2]

Cast

Production

Hammersmith Is Out was the first film financed by John Crean, the founder of Fleetwood Enterprises, Inc. a producer of recreational vehicles, travel trailers (including fold-down tent trailers) and manufactured housing. Crean told an interviewer that he ventured into the motion picture industry in search of excitement. "Boredom with business led me into movies", he said. "Believe me, there's nothing boring about motion pictures."[3]

On June 27, 1970 Richard Burton wrote in his diary about the script:

It is very wild and formless but just the kind of thing that I would like to do at the moment. Particularly as it has a splendid part for E too, and a film for both of us is what we've been looking for for a long time. Ustinov is to direct so that should be alright.... It should be wildly funny and fun to do, especially with somebody as congenial as Ustinov and as brilliant, and might be a big commercial success to boot and spur.[4]

The casting of Burton and Taylor was announced in January 1971.[5]

Elizabeth Taylor wanted Robert Redford to play the other male lead but he turned down the role. Burton watched Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and wrote in his diary that he felt Redford was "disappointingly ordinary and Newman is much more impressive. It is just as well that he has turned down Hammersmith as he has a quality of dullness and I can see quite easily why he has taken so long to become a star. I think he would have ruined our film simply because he seems so sluggish and certainly doesn't suggest for a second the kind of demonic idiot-ness that Billy Breedlove must have."[6] The following night they watched The Landlord to see Beau Bridges, another candidate for the role. Burton said the actor was "nice and sloppy a la Dustin Hoffman but taller and just as plain. He won't do for our film – he's too young and too undynamic."[7]

In February 1971 Beau Bridges joined the cast.[8]

Ustinov called it "a variation of the Faust legend" where "the story offers a convenient structure for social comment. There are, I'm afraid, people, corporations, that 'kill', so often and so regularly that they transcend the possibility of either suspicion or penalty."[9]

Ustinov admitted before filming he was worried Bridges "might be a bit immature and a little light for the part. But we needn't have worried."[10]

Although the film takes place in the United States, Hammersmith Is Out was shot in Mexico. (The Burtons had a villa near Puerto Villara.)[11] Director Peter Ustinov had previously worked with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor as their co-star in the 1967 drama The Comedians.[12] In directing Burton, Ustinov instructed the actor to convey Hammersmith's sociopathic power by never blinking.[13]

George Raft had a small role.[14]

Release

Hammersmith Is Out opened to positive reviews. Roger Ebert, writing in the Chicago Sun-Times, called it "one of the year's best comedies” and “one of the year's best satires."[15] Vincent Canby, reviewing the film for The New York Times, stated the film "is both too elaborate and not quite witty enough to be especially convincing as contemporary morality comedy. However, just when the patience is at the point of exhaustion, when one might leave the theater with a clear conscience, the film comes to fitful life."[11]

However, Hammersmith Is Out was not commercially successful. The film was released on VHS video in the 1980, but to date it has not been released on DVD.[13]

Awards
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See also

Notes
  • Burton, Richard (2013). The Richard Burton Diaries. Yale University Press.

References
  1. HAMMERSMITH IS OUT Monthly Film Bulletin; London Vol. 39, Iss. 456, (Jan 1, 1972): 212.
  2. Overview of "Hammersmith Is Out", Turner Classic Movies
  3. "Boredom", St. Petersburg Times, June 20, 1972
  4. Burton – June 27, 1970
  5. "New Film for Burtons", The Washington Post, Times Herald 13 Jan 1971: B11.
  6. Burton July 30, 1970
  7. Burton August 1, 1970
  8. "Movie Call Sheet: Role for Beau Bridges", Martin, Betty. Los Angeles Times 17 Feb 1971: i12.
  9. "Ustinov Lacks Take-It-Easy Time: Peter Ustinov", Knapp, Dan. Los Angeles Times, 12 Mar 1971: e1.
  10. "The many men that are Peter Ustinov", Servi, Vera. Chicago Tribune, 23 Apr 1972: k14.
  11. New York Times review, May 25, 1972
  12. Walker, John. “Halliwell’s Who's Who in the Movies.” HarperCollins, 2001. ISBN 0-06-093507-3
  13. “The Bootleg Files: Hammersmith Is Out,” Film Threat, September 26, 2008
  14. Vagg, Stephen (February 9, 2020). "Why Stars Stop Being Stars: George Raft". Filmink.
  15. Chicago Sun-Times review, May 26, 1972
  16. "Berlinale 1972: Prize Winners". berlinale.de. Retrieved 2010-03-16.
  17. Pasolini's Film Wins Top Award at Berlin Festival Special to The New York Times 5 July 1972: 32.
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