milton subotsky
dr. who and the daleks amicus productions; producers, milton subotsky and max j. rosenberg; writers, milton subotsky and max j. rosenberg; director, gordon flemyng .
dr. who and the daleks [ videorecording ] / amicus productions; producers, milton subotsky and max j. rosenberg; writers, milton subotsky and max j. rosenberg; director, gordon flemyng. – national library
milton subotsky died in london on the 27th of june, 1991 of heart disease, at the age of 69 .
asylum amicus productions; producers, max j. rosenberg, milton subotsky; director, roy ward baker; screenplay, robert bloch .
just for fun (1963), columbia pictures, black and white, 85 minutes, director: gordon fleming, producer and screenplay: milton subotsky. - himself
asylum [ videorecording ] / amicus productions; producers, max j. rosenberg, milton subotsky; director, roy ward baker; screenplay, robert bloch. – national library
around 1970, carter was reported to have been involved in a deal to bring the conan property off the printed page and onto the big screen. milton subotsky (c
milton subotsky (27 september 1921 - 27 june 1991 [ 1 ]) produced and wrote the dalek movies produced in the 1960s and starring peter cushing as dr. who .
celebrating the legendary partnership of milton subotsky and max j. rosenberg with the production company amicus productions, who along with hammer films, dominated the horror film genre between the 1960s and 1970s .
cast: roy hudd, milton subotsky, david warner, linda hayden, edward de souza, john carson, paul stockman, simon greetham, simon flynn, john hamilton, amy hamilton .
— titre original daleks invasion earth: 2150 a. d. réalisation gordon flemyng acteurs principaux peter cushing bernard cribbins ray brooks andrew keir jill curzon roberta tovey scénario terry nation milton subotsky david whitaker …
cushing, peter, 1913 - ekland, britt, 1942 - lom, herbert. rosenberg, max j. subotsky, milton. baker, roy ward. bloch, robert. gamley, douglas .
vincent price: john carradine: the monster club: subotsky' s last round .
by harold lawlor, producers  andrew donally & milton subotsky, photography  ted moore, music  david whitaker, makeup  tom smith, production design  david minty. production company  sword & sorcery productions .
subotsky died of heart disease in 1991, at the age of 69. his widow, dr fiona subotsky, is a prominent london psychiatrist, and an historian of psychiatry .
after ww2 experience, milton subotsky began his career in us television, producing and co - writing the youth musical rock, rock, rock (us, d. will price, 1956) before moving to england in 1960 .
american writer and producer milton subotsky, known in the horror world primarily for being one of the founders of amicus productions, was born in new york city on the 27th of september, 1921 to a family of jewish immigrants .
amicus was formed by american producer milton subotsky, who moved to the uk in 1959 after distributing films to us television for ten years. his us based partner, max j. rosenberg, was the man who would find the money, while subotsky was in charge of the ‘artistic’ side – getting the films made .
correction: june 19, 2004, saturday an obituary of the film producer max rosenberg yesterday misspelled the given name of an actor whose career was advanced by mr. rosenberg and his partner, milton subotsky. the actor is terence stamp, not terrance .
prior to becoming a film producer, subotsky was a composer of rock' n' roll songs .
the black box club: vincent price: john carradine: the monster club: subotsky' s last round .
after the break - up of amicus in 1978, milton subotsky went his own way and formed sword and sorcery productions. there subotsky attempted to mount a number of interesting projects – thongor in the valley of the demons, a sword and sorcery film from lin carter’s sub - conan novels that would have starred darth vader himself dave prowse; and several other productions that ended up being produced by other people – the tv adaptation of ray bradbury’s the martian chronicles (1980); the remake of cat people (1982); while subotsky also purchased the rights to a host of stephen king short stories that were eventually brought by dino de laurentiis to emerge as cat’s eye (1985) and maximum overdrive (1986) with subotsky receiving nominal producer’s credit. other than the psycho - thriller dominique (1978), the monster club was the only of these projects that emerged directly under milton subotsky’s hand .
after the closure of amicus in 1975, milton subotsky continued his work as a producer, founding sword & sorcery productions with frank duggan, although many of the company’s mooted projects were never able to go into full production for a variety of reasons. in later years, subotsky co - produced adaptations of novels by stephen king, including maximum overdrive (1986) and the 1991 tv movie sometimes they come back .
for the first time on dvd, the alpha archives collection proudly presents a two part feature length documentary celebrating the history of the amicus productions film company. founded in the early 1960s by americans milton subotsky and max j. rosenberg, amicus produced some classic (now cult) horror movies, including
here is the inside story on the making of the films, about the films and about the inside battles between max and milton that are almost as interesting as the films themselves .
hammer was a business set - up ,
the late, legendary horror director freddie francis told this paper in 1995 .
had it dealt in garbage disposal, it would have been just as successful. milton subotsky from amicus, on the other hand, was a real horror buff .
milton subotsky was a strange, nerdish character ,
says weeks now .
he wanted everyone to watch home movies of his damn kid .
subotsky ran out of money halfway through the production, but rather than give up, he simply told weeks to cut whatever scenes he had filmed into something resembling a finished movie. the film was released to terrible reviews - but, like most amicus films, it made a profit .
eventually, max and milton subotsky went their separate ways in the late 1970s. max continued working on low - budget genre films such as bloody birthday and homework, and overseeing the rich legacy of the amicus films catalogue, which has recently seen a renaissance through dvd releases of such titles as the house that dripped blood .
subotsky, milton. rosenberg, max. j. flemyng, gordon, 1934 - cushing, peter, 1913 - castle, roy, 1932 - linden, jennie, 1939 - tovey, roberta, 1953 - wilcox, john, 1905 - 1979. hafenrichter, oswald, 1899 - gray, barry, 1925 - 1984. lockyer, malcolm .
the son of a furrier, mr. rosenberg was born in new york and was a lawyer when he entered the film business in 1939 as a distributor of foreign films. he became a producer in 1954. with his partner, milton subotsky, he made'' junior science,'' an award - winning series of tv science programs for children .
milton subotsky cut his cinematic teeth writing and editing technical training films while serving in the signal corps during world war ii. afterwards, he moved into television, writing and producing the tv series junior science before producing (and composing nine songs for) the film rock, rock, rock! (1956), which was co - produced by max j rosenberg .
max rosenberg was the producer of nearly 50 low - budget films, many of them cult horror movies, during a movie career that lasted for over half a century. with his partner milton subotsky, he produced such films as dr terror' s house of horrors and tales from the crypt, plus the early rock' n' roll musical rock, rock, rock .
alas, for the social media, we had to
censor
bruce timm' s fantastic cover art for
sword & sorcery productions ltd. - lost in lemuria: milton subotsky and harley cokeliss' s unmade thongor in the valley of demons by micah s. harris. amicus' former head tried to one - up conan. what could have been. uncensored cover in little shoppe of horrors # 37 .
the monster club was an attempt to return to amicus’s bread and butter – the horror anthology. subotsky brought back anglo - horror regular roy ward baker, who had directed asylum for amicus, and united three horror stars – john carradine, vincent price and donald pleasance. the film was adapted from the monster club (1976), a short story collection by minor british horror writer ronald chetwynd - hayes, who had earlier provided the basis for amicus’s from beyond the grave. while the other amicus anthologies played themselves seriously, the tone in the monster club is jokey and in - referential – there is, for example, a vampire filmmaker named lintom butosky (an anagram for milton subotsky). subotsky had intended the monster club as a horror anthology that could be seen by children. alas for subotsky, the monster club was a flop that sounded the death knell for the amicus horror anthology and fairly much the whole anglo - horror cycle .
together with partner max j. rosenberg, milton subotsky founded amicus productions in the early 1960s and they became the most successful of the companies exploiting the anglo - horror cycle created by hammer. amicus produced a number of horror anthologies during the 1960s and 70s including dr terror’s house of horrors (1964), torture garden (1967), the house that dripped blood (1970), asylum (1972), tales from the crypt (1972), the vault of horror (1973) and from beyond the grave (1973). indeed, subotsky and rosenberg defined the horror anthology as amicus’s trademark .
tags: 1960s, 1970s, amicus, amicus horrors: tales from the filmmaker' s crypt, amicus: house of horrors, amicus: the studio that dripped blood, anthology, british, cat' s eye, christopher lee, dinosaurs, dr who, freddie francis, max j. rosenberg, milton subotsky, monster movie, peter cushing, scream and scream again, sword and sorcery, the house that dripped blood, the monster club, the psychopath
to discuss the possibility of him playing the role of conan the cimmerian. not long after, the paths of prowse and subotsky would cross once more in regards to sword and sorcery .
here was a period in british culture - roughly the mid - 60s to the late 70s - when making a movie on the cheap, getting it shown in cinemas and turning a profit was actually possible. amicus studios, the brainchild of a socially inept scriptwriter called milton subotsky and a fast - talking hustler called max j rosenberg, hired everyone from vincent price to joan collins to star in hastily made horror movies with vague pretensions towards psychological depth. they even convinced hollywood boy wonder william friedkin to shoot an adaptation of harold pinter' s the birthday party. remarkably, subotsky and rosenberg achieved this without having any money whatsoever, let alone a real studio .
in the mid - seventies, subotsky had toyed with the idea of filming robert e howard’s conan stories, but finding them too violent, instead went for lin carter’s conan knock - off thongor. subotsky planned a major action epic, family - friendly of course, with little dialogue, lots of stop motion effects and dave prowse in the title role. harley cockliss was brought in as director and the search for financing began. aip showed interest but wanted to make changes. subotsky declined, fearing that they wanted to turn it into an r - rated movie .
unable to purchase film rights to robert e. howard' s conan the barbarian stories, subotsky instead bought the rights to carter' s
thongor
stories in 1976. subotsky himself adapted carter' s 1965 novel the wizard of lemuria. united artists agreed to bankroll the project – now called thongor in the valley of demons – in 1978, but subsequently withdrew for unspecified reasons .
amicus films were typically brooding and claustrophobic; they were far darker, and much less camp, than the horror films of the same period produced by the more famous hammer studios. the scripts tended to reflect subotsky' s obsessions. i, monster, its dr jekyll and mr hyde adaptation, is stuffed with freudian theories because subotsky' s wife happened to be studying psychology at the time .
after his dissolution with his amicus partner max j. rosenberg in 1975, milton subotsky set up sword and sorcery productions, ltd. built around mounting such a fantasy picture. in their short history, a good many projects went unrealized including a theatrical version of the incredible hulk, and the micronauts. among these unmade projects was thongor in the valley of demons. having secured the rights to lin carter' s character, subotsky wrote a script based on carter' s inaugural thongor novel from 1965,' the wizard of lemuria'. additionally, a nine issue series of thongor adventures appeared in marvel comics creatures on the loose line beginning with issue # 22 in march of 1973 and ending in may of 1974 .
“below the crypt lies death’s waiting room…the vault of horror. ” milton subotsky and amicus return with another horror anthology the vault of horror, a direct follow up to tales from the crypt (1972). roy ward baker steps in to take the director reigns from freddie francis bringing his own distinct but similar style with improved angles and composition with a more humorous tint. the blu ray also brings the film to the states for the first time uncut. the black saint and doc rotten tackle another groovy horror film from the 1970s .
subotsky was a vocal advocate of ‘family entertainment’ throughout his career – something that would have an increasing effect on his approach to horror and fantasy as time went on – and he seemed an unlikely person to create a studio that would rival hammer, who had eagerly embraced the ‘x’ certificate and were willing to push it as far as they could. but subotsky was first and foremost a businessman, and he knew that horror would sell .
thanks for this terrific post and for your research on subotsky' s background. thought i would share with you a report from the july 11, 1951 variety (p. 10) which claims that subotsky and max rosenberg were already associated in 1951 when the tv program junior science was being produced. max is said to have
recently advanced part of the financing .
thought you' d be interested to know that. cheers !
milton subotsky was born in new york. during world war ii he served in the signal corps where he wrote and edited technical training films. after the war, he began his career as a writer / producer during the
golden age
of television in the 1950s. in 1954 he produced and wrote the tv series junior science. he graduated to feature films in 1956, producing rock, rock, rock, for which he also composed 9 songs. in 1960 he moved to england where he produced his first horror movie horror hotel at shepperton studios .
the amicus story should have ended when subotsky walked off in a huff in 1975. but the films have endured, growing in cult status as the years pass. there' s something about the way they were made on a wing and a prayer that gives them charm, while the underlying themes of paranoia, neurosis and sexual repression - subotsky' s preoccupations, it seems - give some measure of depth behind the wooden dialogue and hammy acting .
his career as a producer started in 1954, when he joined forces with milton subotsky to make an award - winning television series of do - it - yourself science programmes for children entitled junior science. the pair moved into films with rock, rock, rock (1956), starring tuesday weld in her screen début, with her singing voice dubbed to good effect by connie francis. featuring the top disc - jockey alan freed, the film had guest performances by the rock favourites chuck berry, johnny burnette, the flamingoes, lavern baker and frankie lymon. rosenberg recalled ,
subotsky also co - produced several adaptations of stephen king novels, including maximum overdrive (1986), sometimes they come back (a 1991 tv film). and lawnmower man director' s cut was dedicated to his memory .
after forming amicus productions in england in 1962, mr. rosenberg and mr. subotsky made popular horror anthologies, including'' dr. terror' s house of horrors'' and'' the house that dripped blood.''
opinions differ on what exactly went wrong. subotsky cheerfully blamed it on weeks’ ‘inexperience’; weeks says it was non - starter from day one. it was certainly subotsky who insisted on the 3d format (which turned out to not work) – he had something of a fixation with the format, announcing several 3d movies in the 1970s, none of which were made. even if the 3d had been successful, it’s hard to see how it would have saved this stilted, talky film .
the daleks were a merchandiser' s dream. their inhuman likeness was ubiquitous by the mid - 1960s, appearing in books, comics, and newspaper cartoons; on pencils, toys, masks and bedroom slippers. selfridges even designed a dalek cake for christmas 1965. spotting a sure - fire money - spinner, producer milton subotsky acted quickly to secure screen rights to doctor who for his amicus company. according to amicus historian allan bryce, subotsky, a shrewd negotiator, persuaded the bbc and dalek creator terry nation to let his company make a film version of the first televised dalek serial, the daleks, with options for two projected sequels, for the knockdown price of £500. to secure funding and distribution, this family - orientated film was to be deliberately distanced from the horrific fare amicus was generally known for, and was released under the newly created aaru production banner .
filed for bankruptcy entangling all rights in a pool of lawsuits; some of which were levied against the company for failure to keep the books in circulation - - so this early conan deal failed to formulate. supposedly, the quotient of sex and violence in howard' s works contributed to subotsky losing interest in wrangling the rights to conan; another option were the less gruesome thongor stories of lin carter. while he was determined to make a sword and sorcery picture, there was one man subotsky had envisioned as a barbarian of cinematic sorts .
director – roy ward baker, screenplay – edward & valerie abraham, based on the novel by ronald chetwynd - hayes, producer – milton subotsky, photography – peter jessop, music – (shadmock story) douglas gamley, played by john williams, (vampire story) – john georgiadis, (humegoo story) – allan hawkshaw, music coordinator – graham walker, songs performed by night, pretty things, b. a. robertson & the viewers, background music – expressos & ub40, animation – reg lodge, makeup effects – roy ashton & ernest glasser, monster masks – vic door, production design – tony curtis. production company – chips productions / sword and sorcery productions .
subotsky' s sword and sorcery productions, ltd. did get a few films made before dissolving in 1980 such as dominique (1979), the television mini - series co - production the martian chronicles (1980), and the anthology the monster club (1981) .
subotsky was also driven by a deep - rooted hatred for hammer. in 1956, hammer had rejected a script he wrote called frankenstein and the monster, only to go on and have huge success with a similarly themed film called the curse of frankenstein. to rosenberg, this proved there was money in british horror movies. to subotsky, the gauntlet had been thrown down .
hammer seem happy to make the same film over and over again ,
he told an interviewer in the early 1970s .
i' m always looking for something different .
but subotsky overestimated his own abilities. he not only made a misguided attempt to improve on robert louis stevenson' s jekyll and hyde story with i, monster; he insisted it be filmed in 3d. the film' s young director, stephen weeks, could chop out subotsky' s monotonous dialogue about freudian theory, but making the 3d effect work was almost impossible, because the sets had been built the wrong way round. the script called for the action to go from left to right, but the building lines went the other way .
sword & sorcery' s first film project to get off the ground was dominique. in 1980, they co - produced the tv series the martian chronicles, adapted from the short story collection by ray bradbury. during the making of this miniseries, subotsky and donally parted ways .
by 1980, subotsky was in something of a quandary. having poured most of his time and money into the now defunct thongor, he’d also spent his remaining financial resources buying the rights to six of stephen king’s short stories. he needed to make a film, and soon .
for reasons that remain unclear, subotsky lost heart in amicus in the wake of its biggest successes. in 1975, the studio released an adaptation of edgar rice burroughs' lost - world adventure the land that time forgot. it had proved a difficult film to shoot: its star, doug mcclure, was drinking heavily after the collapse of his marriage, while subotsky was rumoured to be spending more time at hamleys buying toys than running the studio. his only real involvement with the production was to turn up at a screening with his four - year - old - son, announce that the boy could tell there were men inside the dinosaur suits, and leave. soon afterwards, subotsky withdrew from the company and launched a lawsuit against his former partner that dragged on for the next five years - largely because the company had been set up on nothing more than a handshake .
unfortunately, the relationship between subotsky and partner rosenberg was becoming increasingly strained, and in 1977 the business was dissolved. although a further burroughs romp, the people that time forgot, was in development at the time, it would eventually be credited to american international pictures. rosenberg, never high profile to begin with, continued in distribution and production, often uncredited (among his executive producer credits are the incredible melting man, bloody birthday, cat people and perdita durango). subotsky, not a great money man, was left floundering. he finally teamed up with andrew donally to form sword and sorcery productions .
prominent for producing mainly portmanteau films such as dr. terror' s house of horrors and tales from the crypt, subotsky and rosenberg also produced two dr. who movies, a couple of low budget sci - fi movies, the psychological thriller the psychopath, and three movies based on edgar rice burroughs stories .
subotsky’s career was pretty much over. he did co - produce the tv mini series the martian chronicles, and in later years had credits on cat’s eye and the lawnmower man – that shrewd investment in stephen king stories at least paid off to that level. he died in 1991. rosenberg died in 2004 .
rosenberg, who was the money man, was always in america and we never met him ,
says ingrid pitt, the polish - born actor who starred with dr who' s jon pertwee as a sexy vampire in the house that dripped blood .
but milton was an angel. he was often on set and he had a way of making you feel wanted. we used to sit around and talk about medicine. he always thought he had something wrong with him .
now, you might wonder why, having bought the rights at a time when the author was at his cinematic hottest (with the shining and hit mini series salem’s lot), subotsky didn’t make a king movie. instead, he dusted off an old screenplay and set about making his grandest folly, the monster club .
one of amicus' s most notorious titles was asylum, also made in 1972, another compendium piece based on short stories by bloch - this time revolving around the psychological aberrations of inmates at a psychiatric hospital. needless to say, subotsky was incapable of leaving bloch to his own devices, adding gratuitous scenes of limbs crawling across floors to the writer' s original script. but asylum' s director, roy ward baker, created a mood of sinister threat, and subotsky assembled a starry cast: the best story features charlotte rampling as a schizophrenic whose murderous alter ego is played by britt ekland. following a now - familiar pattern, asylum opened to atrocious reviews and huge returns .
subotsky was born in new york city, to a family of jewish immigrants. during world war ii, he served in the signal corps, in which he wrote and edited technical training films. after the war, he started a career as a writer and producer during the 1950s
golden age
of television. in 1954, he wrote and produced the tv series junior science. he graduated to film in 1956, producing rock, rock, rock, for which he also composed nine songs. in 1960, subotsky moved to england; he produced his first horror film, horror hotel, at shepperton studios. he was a regular juror on juke box jury on bbc television in the early 1960s .
wrongly classified as an amicus film (it was in fact made by sword and sorcery productions) as the final film of amicus producer milton subotsky, this later horror anthology has become commonly accepted as one. in return for a blood donation to a thirsty vampire, a writer is introduced to a secretive and supernatural club where he is told three terrifying tales. firstly, a beautiful woman finds employment at an isolated manor house and soon captures the heart of its wealthy and reclusive owner, but her dastardly designs on him soon go up in smoke. secondly, a shy young boy discovers that his father is a vampire who is being pursued by hunters who refuse to rest until he is caught. the final tale is of a remote norfolk village populated by utterly ghoulish dwellers. afterwards, the writer is admitted to the club as the ghastly members reveal that, in their eyes, humans themselves are the greatest monsters .
worse still, the film was incredibly dated and pitifully under - budgeted. i remember sitting in my local cinema watching this film as the audience hooted, howled and yelled abuse at the awful monster masks, the tired direction by roy ward baker and the terrible rock bands that subotsky though would add youth appeal (b. a. robertson? the pretty things ?). in the year that audiences were flocking to violent slasher films, subotsky was still thinking that vincent price and joke shop level werewolf masks were the way to go. rarely has a film been so spectacularly out of step with reality. the film bombed, failing to even secure us distribution, and plans for a sequel (monsters and meanies, would you believe !) were quickly abandoned .
hendry' s character in tales from the crypt was called maitland; there' s always someone of that name in anything written or produced by the splendidly schlocky milton subotsky. david quinlan, whose film reference books are much under - rated claims in his entry on hendry that his demotion to character roles may have been related to a refusal to wear a toupee as much as anything. it' s been claimed by several sources that hendry was in casino royale, but i' ve never been able to spot him in it; given the mess that was its production and end result, it' s probable that he filmed a scene that was cut out. similarly, i tried but honestly couldn' t spot hendry' s early bit part in the wet comedy the big money, when it was on at three in the morning a few years back; the rank organisation were so embarrassed by it, they didn' t bother releasing it for some years .
amicus broke up in 1975, but subotsky continued producing. in 1980 he co - produced the tv series the martian chronicles, adapted from the book by ray bradbury. he also co - produced several adaptations of stephen king novels, incliding maximum overdrive (1986) and sometimes they come back (1991, tv). he died of heart disease in 1991 at the age of 69 .
subotsky soldiered on, encouraged by rosenberg, for whom critical lashings mattered little in the face of increasingly large financial returns. subotsky' s script for tales from the crypt, an anthology piece based on stories from 1950s pulp horror publishers ec comics, was described by variety as
laughably melodramatic
. a review in films illustrated said :
much of the dialogue is risible throughout, and much of the playing incapable of overcoming the vast obstacle of the script .
yet crypt, which stars joan collins as an unfaithful wife who kills her husband only to be killed herself by a man dressed as santa claus, was one of the most successful films of 1972. it was second only to the godfather at the us box office, and spawned a follow - up, the vault of horror .
the first amicus film actually predates the company. the city of the dead, better known as horror hotel, was made before subotsky settled on the amicus (meaning “friendly”) name and the film is credited to vulcan films. made just prior to psycho, this occult thriller is notable for killing off the heroine midway through the story – much as hitchcock would do later the same year with janet leigh .
also in 1966 came two science fiction films. the terrornauts, directed by montgomery tully, was a pretty awful children’s film, while freddie francis made the slightly better they came from beyond space, a paranoid tale of invading aliens and mind control. science fiction, it seemed, was not something amicus excelled at, lacking the budget and the ideas to make it work. however, it did fit with subotsky’s wish to make family films .
other films that failed to get off the ground included comic book adaptations the incredible hulk, creepy and eerie and science fiction epic the micronauts. then sword and sorcery finally did get a film into production, it was a return to what subotsky knew best – a three story anthology about killer cats called the uncanny. this was followed by lacklustre psychological thriller dominique, like its predecessor a canadian - uk co - production. neither film was a success .
rosenberg kept amicus alive for two more years. the studio' s swansong was a terrible science - fiction western called welcome to blood city. rosenberg cut his ties with the british film industry, set up a distribution company in california and produced films such as the natassja kinski - starring cat people. subotsky lurched from one disastrous production to another until dying of heart disease in 1991. rosenberg kept working well into his 80s, dying in 2004 aged 90 .
the next four amicus films were of a very different strain – it’s trad, dad (aka ring - a - ding rhythm – subotsky’s favourite of his films !), just for fun, girl of the night and lad: a dog (a ‘touching’ tale of a disabled boy and his pet) were mostly forgettable youth and family films. there was little to suggest that the city of the dead had been anything more than a one - off .
he and subotsky initiated the hammer horror cycle when they produced the curse of frankenstein (1957), which is credited with single - handedly reviving interest in gothic horror movies. its controversial, gruesome black humour, the droll performance of peter cushing as baron frankenstein, and christopher lee' s unusually realistic monster (fashioned by the famed make - up expert jack pierce) resulted in a surprise hit that cost $ 250, 000 and made a profit of $ 7m .
it perhaps shows how out of touch subotsky had become by this time with audience – and genre fan – tastes that he had a dislike of the film. interviewed by cinefantastique in 1973, he commented “strangely enough, scream and scream again made a lot of money and that was different from any film we’ve ever done. i don’t know why, it wasn’t all that good. it might have been because we used three top horror stars and it had a very good title. ”
in 1964, amicus returned to the genre with a film that set the scene for a decade of horror. dr. terror’s house of horrors took its title from an obscure 1940s film and its format from the classic dead of night (1945). consisting of a series of short stories, linked together by peter cushing as a sinister tarot card reading doctor who predicts death for all his travelling companions during a train journey. the film set the tone for much of the subsequent amicus output – over the ensuing years, subotsky made the portmanteau film his trademark. while hammer concentrated on the gothic, subotsky mostly kept his films firmly set in the modern day, and had a particular affinity for the anthology (he was once quoted as saying he liked the format because it didn’t give the audience time to get bored !). it also allowed him to boast surprisingly starry casts, as it was cheap and easy to hire big name actors for a few days work on a short story .
curiously, amicus had their biggest hit at a time when the british film industry in general seemed on its last legs. in 1975, they made the prehistoric romp the land that time forgot, which was a huge box office success. horror was suddenly out – not only were giant monster films making more money, but they also fitted in with subotsky’s own wish to make wholesome films for kids to enjoy. it was followed in 1976 with another edgar rice burroughs fantasy adaptation, at the earth’s core, which proved to be another popular success .
the popular team of cushing and lee worked in several of rosenberg and subotsky' s films, which employed an exceptionally talented pool of actors. the cast of vault of horror (1973) included daniel massey, terry - thomas, michael caine, anna massey, denholm elliott, curt jürgens and glynis johns. veteran stars such as ralph richardson, who played the crypt keeper who linked the stories in tales from the crypt, and vincent price, who starred in madhouse (1974), acted alongside younger talent such as donald sutherland and terence stamp in their films .
the final amicus horror film was the eccentric the beast must die in 1974. you have to credit subotsky for taking a chance on this inadvertently hilarious film, which has calvin lockhart as a latex suit - wearing big game hunter who invites a group of people to his country estate, believing one of them to be a werewolf. a mix of murder mystery, horror and the most dangerous game, the film includes the infamous werewolf break, where audiences were supposed to shout out who they think the werewolf is. there are no records to show what audiences actually shouted…
the pair first dabbled in horror in the mid - fifties, and could claim to have kick - started the hammer cycle, as they submitted an idea for a new frankenstein film to associated artists productions, who in turn passed it on to hammer. while the subotsky / rosenberg screenplay, entitled frankenstein and the monster, was considered too short and too derivative to be filmed, the pair were paid off and the experience – not to mention the huge success that hammer subsequently had with the curse of frankenstein – set them on the road to fifteen years of horror and fantasy production .
lsohgirl wrote: hi
horrorboy
- you are going to see more material on calvin beck andcastle of frankenstein than you' ve ever seen in one place. the research that christopher m. o' brien has been doing is amazing. it has grown (as has our thongor piece on the unfilmed milton subotsky project) over the last months. one of the reasons we had to push our moon zero two coverage and the peter sallis interview to next halloween (our spring issue is totally devoted to frankenstein the true story). i hadn' t thought of monsters of the movies because i always considered it more of a
pro - zine
than a fanzine. you can make the argument that cof was a pro - zine too, but the way cal beck ran it and the irregular schedule and how virtually no one got paid - it has always seemed more in the mode of a fanzine to me. i would like to do horrors of the screen, if anyone should have a contact for alex soma. problem with l' incroyable cinema is my friend harry nadler, one of the two men behind it, is dead. i' m not certain if the other editor is alive. however, in the area of uk publications, i' m looking into shock xpress. and among american zines derek jensen' s children of the night. the roy skeggs interview runs 14 pages. lots of great images and artwork. more from roy in the future, too .
hi
horrorboy
- you are going to see more material on calvin beck andcastle of frankenstein than you' ve ever seen in one place. the research that christopher m. o' brien has been doing is amazing. it has grown (as has our thongor piece on the unfilmed milton subotsky project) over the last months. one of the reasons we had to push our moon zero two coverage and the peter sallis interview to next halloween (our spring issue is totally devoted to frankenstein the true story). i hadn' t thought of monsters of the movies because i always considered it more of a
pro - zine
than a fanzine. you can make the argument that cof was a pro - zine too, but the way cal beck ran it and the irregular schedule and how virtually no one got paid - it has always seemed more in the mode of a fanzine to me. i would have liked to do horrors of the screen, but according to facebook, the editor alex soma has passed away. problem with l' incroyable cinema is my friend harry nadler, one of the two men behind it, is dead. i' m not certain if the other editor is alive. however, in the area of uk publications, i' m looking into shock xpress. and among american zines derek jensen' s children of the night. the roy skeggs interview runs 15 pages. lots of great images and artwork. more from roy in the future, too .
1970 saw the house that dripped blood, a decent anthology film again based on bloch stories. it was more successful than torture garden, and even the token comedy story (the cloak, starring jon pertwee and ingrid pitt) worked. less successful was i, monster, directed by stephen weeks – a young filmmaker with a unique vision that often made his films hard work. putting an pseudo - arthouse director in charge of an adaptation of dr jekyll and mr hyde for a commercial filmmaker like subotsky was always going to be problematic. shooting it in a new, experimental form of 3d was utter madness .
in 1964, with fellow expatriate producer max j. rosenberg, subotsky formed the company amicus productions. based at shepperton studios, they produced such films as dr. terror' s house of horrors (1964), dr. who and the daleks (1965), daleks – invasion earth: 2150 a. d. (1966), torture garden (1967), scream and scream again (1970), the house that dripped blood (1970), tales from the crypt (1972), asylum (1972), from beyond the grave (1973) and the land that time forgot (1974) .
rosenberg and subotsky made several musical movies, valuable for preserving on film a host of legendary pop stars performing at their peak. jamboree (1957) featured 17 recording stars including fats domino and jerry lee lewis (singing his big hit
great balls of fire
). it' s trad, dad (1962), was the first film to feature the highly stylised direction of the future beatles director richard lester. helen shapiro and craig douglas were the stars, with chubby checker, john leyton, del shannon, gene vincent, chris barber, kenny ball, acker bilk and the temperance seven among the guest performers .
amicus was disestablished in 1975, but subotsky continued producing. around this time he formed
sword & sorcery productions, ltd .
with frank duggan. at some point andrew donally joined the company. numerous well - publicised projects did not go into production. these include adaptations of lin carter' s
thongor
stories, a live - action version of stan lee' s the incredible hulk, film adaptations of stories that appeared in james warren' s comic magazines creepy and eerie, and a co - production with former james bond film producer harry saltzman on saltzman' s troubled
shrunken man
epic the micronauts .
the classic days of the british horror film. i miss good old hammer and amicus so much. it was indeed the two doctor who films that were my gateway into the world of the time lord. and those wonderful anthology films, amicus did them better than anyone before or since. saw the two time forgot films on the big screen. remember the second one had this awesome cardboard display of the airplane fighting the dinosaurs, a shame those days are over. pity subotsky was never able to get his other projects off the ground. but if they ended up being as weak as the monster club, maybe it’s just as well. but oh the memories .
amicus may have fashioned preposterous horror hokum out of love, but the studio came into being through hard - nosed opportunism. rosenberg, a new yorker, was a law graduate with a successful distribution company when he heard about the eady plan, a british subsidy set up to funnel government money into movie production and encourage filming in the uk. subotsky was a shy science - fiction film freak, also from new york, whose parents considered the movie industry disreputable. nevertheless, he managed to get into the feature film business, producing rock, rock, rock with rosenberg in 1956, before he moved to england in 1960. in 1964, the pair came together again with the founding of amicus to take advantage of the eady plan .
modeler tony mcvey (sinbad & the eye of the tiger, superman, return of the jedi) built some early models of the lizard - hawks (see insert) with the actual animation being handled by barry leith, animator of british kids show the wombles (1975). tony pratt (hell in the pacific, the last grenade) was the art director while harley cokliss (warlords of the 21st century, black moon rising) was on board as director. with storyboards, a presentation book of artwork on the characters in the proposed film (see above), and models being built, subotsky and his co - producer andrew donally planned to begin shooting in june of 1978 and having it all tied up by june of the following year. the only problem was financing .
sharajsha attempting to thwart world domination by the dragon kings via the resurrection of their god. filled with monsters and elements bordering on science fiction, it was described by talent agent duncan heath as a
space - horror film
. among the intended highlights were giant flying spiders, giant snakes, magical swords and stones, a metal boat that flies, druids, princesses, and the lizard - hawks. these are just a few things to be visualized in what was an awfully ambitious endeavor. in hindsight, it' s difficult to imagine so much being crammed into what was likely to be a moderately low budget picture at best. subotsky was so enthusiastic over the property, thongor was envisioned as a trilogy. the production was slated to begin shooting in the summer of 1978, but through this time, there were doubts that thongor and the valley of demons would ever get off the ground at all .
like from beyond the grave, the film was based on short stories by r. chetwynd hayes. but unlike that film, the monster club became a textbook example of how not to make a horror film. again, part of the problem was subotsky’s fixation on family entertainment. as far back as the house that dripped blood, he’d wanted to make a film that kids could see (in britain; in america, these films were routinely rated pg anyway). he’d complained bitterly that the bbfc had rated that film ‘a’, only to change it to ‘x’ on the insistence of the distributor. condemning sex scenes as ‘boring’ and expressing a dislike of ‘gratuitous’ violence, he was now determined to make a horror film for all the family. the only problem was that this was 1980. a fangoria generation was fixated on dawn of the dead, phantasm and friday the 13th and were just gaining access to those films – and stronger – through home video. kids didn’t want to see a horror film aimed at them. and if the kids weren’t interested, adults definitely weren’t .
risible dialogue, busty vampires, huge profits... will hodgkinson tells the extraordinary story of the british horror studio that gave hammer a run for its money
four stories for the price of one... scene from the house that dripped blood (1970). photograph: ronald grant archive
what amicus did have was its own, original genre: the portmanteau horror. these involved an anthology of related segments, more often than not adapted from the short stories of psycho author robert bloch. amicus favourites included such titles as dr terror' s house of horrors (rail passengers get their tarot cards read), torture garden (carnival sideshow reveals people' s inner cruelties), asylum (inmates are interviewed by a psychiatrist) and the house that dripped blood (a copper investigates four crimes in one building) .
the late rosenberg called amicus
a studio without walls
. there was no capital structure, so films got made through a combination of private investment, funding from the eady plan, and extremely low budgets. its first proper production, 1965' s dr terror' s house of horrors, was made for less than £100, 000, yet starred horror giants peter cushing and christopher lee and was directed by francis, already an acclaimed cinematographer. rosenberg' s technique for attracting high - profile talent was simple: he hired them on a competitive day rate, but only for a few days, so shooting schedules were brisk. the house that dripped blood was filmed over a couple of weeks.
milton subotsky ( september 27 , 1921 – june 27 , 1991 ) was an american film and television writer and producer . in 1964 , he founded amicus productions with max j. rosenberg . amicus means " friendship " in latin . together , they produced a number of low-budget science fiction and horror films in the united kingdom . 
milton subotsky (september 27, 1921 – june 27, 1991) was an american film and television writer and producer. in 1964, he founded amicus productions with max j. rosenberg. amicus means " friendship " in latin. together, they produced a number of low-budget science fiction and horror films in the united kingdom.
milton subotsky (september 27, 1921 – june 27, 1991) was an american film and television writer and producer. in 1964, he founded amicus productions with max j. rosenberg. amicus means " friendship " in latin. together, they produced a number of low-budget science fiction and horror films in the united kingdom.