Neve - Wisconsin Film Studies : Many Lives of Cy Endfield : Film Noir, the Blacklist, and Zulu

THE MANY LIVES OF

CY ENDFIELD

FILM NOIR, THE BLACKLIST,
AND ZULU

BRIAN NEVE

THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN PRESS

WISCONSIN FILM STUDIES

Patrick McGilligan

Series Editor

The University of Wisconsin Press
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All rights reserved. Except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles and reviews, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any format or by any meansdigital, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise or conveyed via the Internet or a website without written permission of the University of Wisconsin Press. Rights inquiries should be directed to .

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Neve, Brian, author.
The many lives of Cy Endfield: film noir, the blacklist, and Zulu / Brian Neve.
pages cm (Wisconsin film studies)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-299-30374-7 (pbk.: alk. paper)
ISBN 978-0-299-30373-0 (e-book)
1. Endfield, Cy, 19141995.
2. Endfield, Cy, 19141995Criticism and interpretation.
I. Title. II. Series: Wisconsin film studies.
PN1998.3.E57N48 2015
791.430233092dc23
2014037000

This section thanks those who have helped me in this project. Of the archivists who assisted me I would like to give particular thanks to Barbara Hall and other staff at the Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS); and to Ned Comstock at the USC Archives of Performing Arts. Larry Ceplair was also of great assistance (along with Lia Benedetti Jarrico) in facilitating my access to Paul Jarricos letters, while Jonathan Rosenbaum was particularly generous with his time early on in the project and sent me valuable tape recordings of his own interviews with Endfield. Phil Wickham was a helpful guide to the resources of the Bill Douglas Centre at the University of Exeter. Other librarians and archivists to whom I extend my thanks are Fiona Liddell at the BBFC collection, Mary Ann Moran-Savakinus at the Lackawanna Historical Society, and Judith Ann Schiff at Yale Universitys Manuscripts and Archives; thanks also to Kathryn Hodson (University of Iowa Library), Alison Greenlee (McFarlin Library, University of Tulsa), Jonathon Auxier and Shannon Fifer (Warner Bros. collection, Warner Bros. Entertainment), Rodney A. Ross (Center for Legislative Archives, US National Archives & Research Administration, Washington, DC), Jeff Walden (BBC Written Archives Centre, Caversham), John C. Johnson (Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center, Boston University), Elizabeth Frengel (Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University), and David Hibberd and others at the Magic Circle Library, London. I also owe a debt of gratitude to the following people for their assistance with information, answers to queries, and access to copies of films: Joan Cohen, Andrew Spicer, Peter Lev, Steve Neale, Frank Krutnik, Peter Stanfield, Sheri Chinen Biesen, Jean-Pierre Garcia, Robert Murphy, A. T. McKenna, Joe Dmohowski, Reynold Humphries, Charles Drazin, Leonard Quart, Rebecca Prime, and Deborah Elkin. Thanks also Katy Jordon (of the University of Bath Library) and to the interlibrary loan service at Bath. Im also grateful to Sir Christopher Frayling for his early interest and for discussing with me his enthusiasm for Sands of the Kalahari. There are some others who helped to make this project a reality and who deserve special thanks, including Eve Kahn in New York, who alerted me to the newly available Alan H. Posner papers relating to The Argyle Secrets; Pierre Rissient, who shared his recollections over a wonderful Paris lunch; and Gavrik Losey, who talked to me on several occasions about his memories of Cy Endfield. I am also happy to thank David Culbert, formerly the editor of the Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, and to acknowledge his permission to draw on material from my 2010 article for that journal, Inflation (1943) and the Blacklist: The Disrupted Film Career of Cy Endfield. Im also much obliged to Michael Henry Wilson, who alerted me to his writing on Endfield for Positif and answered a number of queries. I am indebted to two anonymous readers who commented on drafts for the Press; one in particular pushed me on several points, and Im most grateful for this critical engagement with my work. I also took advantage of a late opportunity to examine relevant materials at the newly established Film Finances archive in London; Im most grateful to Sheldon Hall (who shared some of his own work) and in particular Charles Drazin for facilitating this visit.

I would also like to thank a number of people who shared their memories of Cy Endfield with me. Nate Kohn was particularly helpful and was kind enough to send me a copy of Endfields 1975 screenplay K. Denis Lipman agreed to be interviewed and also sent me an unpublished passage from his book. Ian Fawn-Meade, through the good offices of Sheldon Hall, shared his recollections. Thanks also to Dave Wagner, Tony Earnshaw, Donald Ogden Stewart Jr., Clancy Sigal, Blanche Marvin, Peggy Cummins, Sir Ken Adam, John Derris, Erik Tarloff, John Fisher, Roy Fowler, Persi Diaconis, Alan Alan, Paul Buhle, Anthony Fowles, Bertrand Tavernier, Bernard Eisenschitz, Mary Huelsbeck, and Chris Rainey. I am grateful to those who invited me to talk about Cy Endfield at Complutense University, Madrid, in March 2008; in particular my thanks are due to Antonio Castro, Jos Antonio Jimnez de las Heras, Santiago Rubin de Celis, and Daniel Lpez Leboreiro. Another person who was there in Madrid, and who has been unfailingly supportive of my book project throughout, is Patrick McGilligan, the editor of the Wisconsin Film Studies series; I am most grateful to him. Thanks also to those who translated material for me, including Larine Leroux and Anne Jackl. I am also indebted to Doug Dibbern, John McCormick, Paul Gelder, Art Simon, Jon Rachenbacher, Anne White, and to all the staff at what is now the BFI Reuben Library in London.

I also want to thank the Endfield family for their generous assistance throughout this process. Thanks in particular to Maureen (Mo) Endfield, who talked to me on a number of occasions and allowed me access to her collection of scripts, papers, and videotapes. She gave me a number of interviews and put up with my endless enquiries. Im very grateful for her help and hospitality. I am equally grateful to Suzannah Endfield Olivier and Eden Endfield, both for their interviews and for checking numerous issues, searching their memories (on occasion painfully), and helping with the photographs. Edens husband, Brad Lochore, was also unfailingly helpful in helping me with high definition scans of key family photographs.

Finally I would like to record that it has been a pleasure to work with the University of Wisconsin Press. Everyone has been patient, helpful, and supportive, but perhaps I can particularly offer my warm thanks to Raphael Kadushin, for his early confidence in the project, and editors Adam Mehring and Judith Robey, for pressing me to express myself more clearly and directly. Finally I should state that remaining errors and limitations are mine alone.