A Matter of Choice | |
---|---|
Directed by | Vernon Sewell |
Written by | Paul Ryder |
Story by |
Derren Nesbitt Vernon Sewell |
Produced by | George Maynard |
Starring |
Anthony Steel Jeanne Moody Ballard Berkeley |
Cinematography | Arthur Lavis |
Edited by | Lee Doig |
Music by | Robert Sharples (composed & conducted by) |
Production company | Holmwood Productions |
Distributed by | British Lion Films (UK) |
Release date |
|
Running time | 79 minutes [1] |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Budget | £23,671 [2] |
A Matter of Choice is a 1963 British drama film directed by Vernon Sewell and starring Anthony Steel, Jeanne Moody and Ballard Berkeley. [3] Two youths who accidentally kill a man.
It was one of a number of low budget British films Steel made in the 1960s while based in Rome. [4]
Sewell called the film "a disaster": [5]
I had been working with this man and, I had said, "I won't work with you again." And he writes to me, he says, "Look here, I've got a contract, I can make your story, 'Matter of Choice.'" I said, "No, absolutely out, absolutely out!" He said, "Well, would you sell me the script?" I said, "That, I will do," and I sold him the script. Then his wife rings me up and says, "Vernon, I'm in a desperate position. George can't get the film floated without you, and if he doesn't do it, this is our last chance, he's going to kill himself." I should have said, "Well let him do it" but I didn't. I said, "Well now, OK, if I do this, is it going to be, (this, this, this and this?)?" She said, "Yes, it's all wonderful." Of course when I got to it, the sets were terrible, the whole thing was a disaster, disaster. I don't think it appeared at all, I don't think it was ever shown. The idea of the story was good, but, you see, it had to be – he said he had a find, a wonderful new star, and I gave her the sack the first day, couldn't work. Tony Steel was in it and was pissed all the time. Oh it was a disaster... a bloody awful movie, because the thing was buggered up.
The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "This very moral tale, dependent for its dénouement on the thundering coincidence that assembles all five characters in the same mews flat, is slow as a thriller and despite its incursions into social realism, notably in the portrayal of Mike and Tony, unexciting on any other level." [6]