Without a doubt the most troubled production on my list, Rough Cut boasts not only two uncredited directors (Peter H. Hunt & Robert Ellis Miller), but four filmed endings. Nevertheless it is a treat for Burt fans, being his only attempt at a Cary Grant type role, an actor of whom he had always expressed great admiration. Originally a Blake Edwards project before his early departure, it became Burt's only film directed by Clint Eastwood's mentor Don Siegel (Escape From Alcatraz), a former Cambridge graduate whose personal Anglophilia was an asset for this made in England diamond caper comedy. Unfortunately a falling out between Siegel and tyrannical producer David Merrick led to the director's firing, rehiring, then permanent removal, resulting in a denouement completely re-written and shot by others. A bit of a dog's breakfast but a must for Reynolds and Siegel completists.
8.
PHOBIA (1980: Dir. John Huston)
The Paramount party poopers strike again! A particular obsession of mine is the general unavailability of Canadian films from the so-called "tax shelter era" between 1975 to 1982. Phobia was one of the higher profile movies from this busy period of production, not least because it was directed by Hollywood legend John Huston (The Maltese Falcon, The Man Who Would Be King). Huston returned to Toronto, the city where his father was born, to make this unique addition to his eclectic oeuvre, a Hitchcock style horror with a nearly all-Canadian cast. Seen at the time to be a crass slumming job for Huston, it was torn to pieces by the critics and soon forgotten. Also contributing to the film's negative reception, was its notoriety as the only feature film to star Paul Michael Glaser of Starsky & Hutch fame.An actor of limited charisma, his casting provided none of the box office draw required for this lower budgeted genre exercise. According to prominent Canadian film historian Gerald Pratley, a not unworthy film from Huston and one that is ripe for re-examination.
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