Elliott Kastner

Kastner then teamed up with producer Jerry Gershwin to form Winkast Film Productions, based at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire. They wound up making eleven movies together, the first of which was the highly popular Harper (1966) from a novel by Ross Macdonald and directed by Jack Smight. The screenplay was written by William Goldman who had been talking to Kastner about a film of Goldman's novel Boys and Girls Together; Goldman suggested that the Ross MacDonald Lew Archer series would make a good movie, and Kastner bought the rights.[4] Kastner then got Goldman to write a sequel The Chill, but it was never made.[5]

Kastner's third film was Kaleidescope (1966), made in England, directed by Smight with Warren Beatty and Susannah York. Kastner and Gershwin raised the finance independently, and sold it to a studio, Warner Bros. "That was the beginning of producers taking control creatively by self financing", said his stepson Cassian Elwes, who later became a producer himself.[1]

Winkast then made The Bobo (1968), starring Peter Sellers and his then-wife Britt Ekland, and Sweet November (1968), with Sandy Dennis. Both were released through Warners, but Sol Madrid (1968) was released through MGM.

Sol Madrid was directed by Brian G. Hutton who helmed Kastner and Gershwin's next film, Where Eagles Dare (1968). The producer had managed to persuade Alistair MacLean to write an original screenplay as a vehicle for Richard Burton (it was later turned into a novel).[6] The movie was a big hit and led to Kastner adapting several other MacLean stories and working with Burton a number of other times.

Less popular was The Night of the Following Day (1969) with Marlon Brando.

Burton was meant to star in Laughter in the Dark (1969) but was fired during filming and replaced by Nicol Williamson.

Other MacLean adaptations included When Eight Bells Toll (1971), Fear is the Key and Breakheart Pass (1975). He would also reteam with Burton on several occasions – as well as working with Burton's wife, Elizabeth Taylor.

Kastner also partnered up with noted producers Alan Ladd, Jr. and Jay Kanter and together they produced the films Villain (1971), The Nightcomers (1972), X Y & Zee (1972) and Fear Is the Key (1972).

Kastner is also famous for his film adaptations of three Raymond Chandler's novels based on the exploits of one of Chandler's most famous creations, Philip Marlowe: The Long Goodbye (1973), Farewell, My Lovely (1975) and The Big Sleep (1978) the latter two both starring Robert Mitchum as Marlowe.

In 1976 Kastner produced The Missouri Breaks starring Marlon Brando and Jack Nicholson. Kastner famously got each star to commit by lying and telling them the other one had already signed.[5]

In a 1977 article Mario Puzo wrote about the Cannes Film Festival said that a group of producers regarded Kastner as "the greatest genius in the movie business... [he] has put together very big films, nearly all of which are flops. And yet he can get the money and stars to produce any movie he decides to. He does it with a phone, irresistible charm, and shameless chutzpah."[7]

Alan Parker, who made Angel Heart with the producer, called him " an irascible gadfly in the film industry, having been involved with more films than Technicolor and outlived fifty studio heads and as many lawsuits. Many was the time I’ve seen him ‘work’ the tables in the Pinewood Studios restaurant on the way to the men's room. He usually stayed just long enough to blow his nose in your napkin, dispense some wickedly cynical aphorism about the movies and move on. There is an oft-told story that Marlon Brando finally said yes to doing Missouri Breaks because he could not face the prospect of Elliott Kastner, on his knees, crying in front of him one more time."[8]

Colleague Jay Kanter said Kastner's reputation in Hollywood was "Some good, some bad. He was relentless in pursuing what he wanted. I mean dogged in his pursuit."[5] He added "If Elliott believed in some material, he'd never hesitate to put his own money into buying it and hiring writers to develop a screenplay. He was passionate about what he did, and he was a terrific salesman as well."[9]

His obituary in the Guardian stated that "Kastner was relentless in his pursuit of getting what he wanted. Mostly he wanted to entice well-known playwrights and novelists to write screenplays, or gain the rights of those works whose authors were no longer around to cajole."[3]

Miscellaneous crew

Thanks

• The Children of Sanchez (1962)[22]
• Flight into Camden from novel by David Storey (1962)[23]
• Hanno's Doll with Jane Fonda and Stanley Kramer (1962)[24]
• adaptation of Boys and Girls Together (1966) – to be directed by Sydney Pollack[25]
• The Telephone Book an original script by Harry Cohn (1966)[26]
• Sard Harker based on a book by John Masefield[26]
• Fruit of the Poppy by Robert Wilder[26]
• Chow Charlie Babybased on novel by David Dodge[26]
• The Violent Land a western to be directed by Brian Hutton[26]
• Revolutionary Road based on novel by Richard Yates[26]
• musical adaptation of Treasure Island for Cinema Center Films (1968)[27]
• The Chill (1967) – sequel to Harper[28] – at one stage to be directed by Sam Peckinpah[29]
• Rose of Tibet (late 1960s)[29]
• Hall of Mirrors (late 1960s)[28]
• Caribbean (late 1960s)[28]
• The Violent Land (late 1960s)[28]
• Hive of Glass (late 1960s)[28]
• Sard Harder (late 1960s)[28]
• Confidence Man (late 1960s)[28]
• adaptation of Gore Vidal's Julian with script by Vidal (1968)[30]
• adaptation of The Forty Days of Musa Daugh (1969)[31]
• The Pictures of Fidelman (1971) based on novel by Bernard Malmud[32]
• Sleep is for the Rich based on novel by Donald MacKenzie (1972)[33]
• The Boy Who Invented the Bubble Gun (1973)[34]
• Untitled Tony Bennett/Ruby Braff-George Barnes Quartet Documentary aka This Funny World (working title) (1973)
• adaptation of The Fountainhead (1975) – to be directed by Michael Cimino
• Gunfighters (1977)[35]
• Serpentine based on life of Charles Sobhraj (1977)[36]
• adaptation of The Deer Park by Norman Mailer (1987)[37]
• adaptation of book Indecent Exposure (1987)[38][39]
• Jericho with Marlon Brando (1988)[40]
• The Madman's Tale based on novel by John Kaztenbach (2004)