Biography of Michael
Reeves (2nd Edition published Summer 2004) (Publisher: Midnight Marquee + Luminary Press; ISBN:0951179314) |
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The Remarkable Michael Reeves John B Murray's The Remarkable Michael Reeves is a wonderful book. Focussing on Reeves life and the stories behind the films, using a variety of first and second hand sources, including Reeves's correspondence and interviews with friends and colleagues like Ian and Diane Ogilvy, Nicky Henson, Paul Ferris and Tom Baker, Murray separates out the myths from the truth and draws a fascinating picture of this enigmatic, tragic film-maker. John B Murray's The Remarkable Michael Reeves is a wonderful book. Focussing on Reeves life and the stories behind the films, using a variety of first and second hand sources, including Reeves's correspondence and interviews with friends and colleagues like Ian and Diane Ogilvy, Nicky Henson, Paul Ferris and Tom Baker, Murray separates out the myths from the truth and draws a fascinating picture of this enigmatic, tragic film-maker. |
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Born in 1943 into a privileged background, Reeves had wanted to be a film-maker from an early age. Though wealthy enough to buy his way into the industry, he preferred to hustle for work. After some second unit shooting on Castle of the Living Dead, he made his directorial debut in 1965 with The Blood Beast Terror, featuring horror diva Barbara Steele. Reeves followed this with two other films in the horror arena, The Sorcerors and Matthew Hopkins – Witchfinder General, in the process working with horror icons Boris Karloff and Vincent Price. Then, seemingly unable to get any projects off the ground and suffering from depression, he died from an accidental overdose of sleeping pills. The book's brilliance lies in separating out the intentional from the coincidental. Reeves had no great desire to make horror films, making them as much as anything else for the simple reason that, at the time, horror represented a field in which a young, relatively inexperienced director could get work. If anything, he saw Matthew Hopkins: Witchfinder General as being a revenge western, more Budd Boetticher than Terence Fisher. Similarly we learn that the downbeat ending to Witchfinder General, in which trooper Marshall exacts his revenge on Hopkins at the cost of driving his wife Sara insane, was a last-minute improvisation. The original intent had been for Hopkins to get his just desserts and for Marshall and Sara to ride off into the sunset, happy ever after. In other words, the message that critics have often read into the film was scarcely there as it was originally conceived. All in all, anyone with an interest in Michael Reeves needs this book. Murray is to be contratulated on his dedication in piecing together the story of this remarkable film-maker's, "short and tragic life" so compellingly. Footnote, September 2004: The book has now been reissued in a new edition by Luminary Press with a full-colour cover, additional photographs and some changes to tighten up the text in places. So, if you're a Reeves fan and didn't manage to get a copy of the original version, you've no excuse now. The Remarkable Michael Reeves is available from Luminary Press and Midnight Marquee Press – https://www.midmar.com. |
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