Hammersmith Is Out

Hammersmith Is Out (1972)

HAMMERSMITH, master criminal and nut, is out. Watch Out!

The Faust legend retold (loosely) and applied to a mentally disturbed patient in a hospital run by a doctor of dubious sanity himself. The patient offers the innocent orderly vast riches if he'll help him escape.

Date of release
1972-05-12
TMDB
5.9 / 10 (8)
Runtime
1h 48m
Genres
Comedy, Drama
Director
Peter Ustinov

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Filmed in: Mexico

Hammersmith Is Out is a 1972 American comedy-drama film based on the legend of Faust. It is directed by Peter Ustinov, who stars in the film alongside Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, and Beau Bridges.

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."

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 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.

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

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.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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