Villain (1971 film)

Development

The film was based on a novel by James Barlow, Burden of Proof.^[2] The Chicago Tribune called it a "sizzling, compelling book".^[3]

The film was written by an unusual combination of two well-known British comedy television writers, Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, working from a treatment by the American actor Al Lettieri, renowned for his 'tough-guy' image in films such as The Godfather and The Getaway as well as for his real life associations with the New York Gambino Family. Though several of the main characters and important situations carry over from the source novel, the film alters the plot considerably. The film also has more humour and less violence than the book, though a greater sense of danger.

Casting

Burton wrote in his diaries that he was approached to make the film by Elliott Kastner, who had produced Where Eagles Dare with Burton:

It is a racy sadistic London piece about cops and robbers - the kind of 'bang bang - calling all cars' stuff that I've always wanted to do and never have. It could be more than that depending on the director. I play a cockney gangland leader who is very much a mother's boy and takes her to Southend and buys her whelks etc but in the Smoke am a ruthless fiend incarnate but homosexual as well. All ripe stuff.^[4]

Burton at the time charged a million dollars a film but agreed to make it for no salary in exchange for a larger percentage of the profits. "These are the times of economies for everyone making pictures," said Burton. "And actually working this way - if you can afford it and don't mind waiting for your money - is far more exciting for the actor. You feel more involved in everything rather than just like an old hired hand."^[5]

Burton said the producers got him to do the film through "great American conmanship. One of the producers said to me - 'I bet if I offered you the part of a cockney gangster you'd turn it down, wouldn't you?'. And of course one's immediate response is to say - don't be daft of course I wouldn't - and the next thing you know you've got a script in your hand."^[5]

Burton admitted he always wanted to play a gangster, having long admired Edward G. Robinson, James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart. "I suppose like the fact man who would have loved to be a ballet dancer."^[5]

"I usually play kings or princes or types like that," said Burton during filming. "I've never played a real villain... Interesting type. I'm not sure about this film. We'll see."^[6]

It was the first feature for the director, Michael Tuchner, who worked in television.^[5]

Shooting

Filming took place over ten weeks in late 1970, mostly on location in the East End of London.^[5]

Box office

According to Melvyn Bragg's 1988 biography Richard Burton: A Life, the film was a terrible flop and helped erode Burton's status as a box office star. Two years before Villain, Burton had played a homosexual hairdresser in the comedy Staircase (in which Cathleen Nesbitt also played his mother), which had proved a huge bust at the box office, despite the talents of co-star Rex Harrison and director Stanley Donen. A gay love scene between Burton and co-star Ian McShane was cut from Villain, possibly as it was felt it wouldn't boost ticket sales, as cinema audiences already had not accepted Burton, one of the cinema's most notorious Don Juans, as a homosexual.

British exhibitors voted Burton the most popular star at the local box office in 1971, although Villain was not listed among the top ten most popular movies.^[7]

On 30 May 1971 Richard Burton wrote in his diary that Villain "a goodish film but so far isn't doing very well in the States but has not yet opened in Britain and the Commonwealth were it should do better".^[8] On 21 August 1971 he wrote that the film's director was "whassisname" and that he:

Received a cable... from [executive] Nat Cohen saying the notices for [the film]... superb and great boxoffice, and another cable said we expect a million pounds from UK alone. That means about $1/2 m for me if I remember correctly. There is no accounting for differing tastes of Yanks and English critics. Villain was received badly in the US and with rapture in the UK. I know it is cockney and therefore difficult for Yanks to follow but one would have thought the critics to be of sufficiently wide education to take it in their stride. The English critics, after all, are not embarrassed when they see a film made in Brooklynese. Anyway I am so delighted that it is doing well in UK. Otherwise I would have doubted E's and my judgement in such matters. I thought it was good and she said she knew it was good. The American reaction was therefore a surprise.^[9]

Coincidentally, Burton was mentioned in James Barlow's novel, The Burden Of Proof, upon which the film was based. In the book, in order to sow doubt in the jury's mind about her identification evidence, Dakin's barrister asks a female witness if she likes and admires the actor Richard Burton.

Critical

The film received bad reviews, and Burton—whose acting style was predicated upon the precise use of his mellifluous voice—was particularly savaged for his attempt at a Cockney accent.

Bibliography

• Burton, Richard, The Richard Burton Diaries.