29th December 2011, 09:52 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael Brooke  I once interviewed the editor of The Queen's Guards (and Peeping Tom), and she told me that she hated the project from the start - and gave me the distinct impression that Powell was none too fond of it either.
Much though the critics would prefer otherwise, it's very rare indeed for bad reviews to kill a career - in fact, I'm really struggling to think of an uncontentious example. But an expensive flop is far more threatening, and in Powell's case he had two in a row. In fact, he hadn't had a bona fide hit in ages.
But just imagine what might have happened if Peeping Tom had been released a mere six months later, in the wake of Psycho. In fact, if its distributors had any nous, they should have reissued it and cashed in on one of 1960's biggest hits, but they'd long since washed their hands of it, presumably in the hope that The Queen's Guards would pay off. Whoops. | Charles Laughton with Night of the Hunter, perhaps? He did not direct again and the reviews back then did not appear to be kind as they are now.
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