Hi Rene:
I'll address this to you since I believe you opened the
thread about Mainwaring's involvment with Don Siegel's
Invasion of the Body Snatchers. This is OT, so I'll just
offer it up and then let someone shoot it in the gut and
watch it die slowly and horribly.
Back in 1982, film buff Bill Warren brought out the first of
two excellent compilations of 50s science fiction films
entitled Keep Watching the Skies. There are some great
nuggets of information included in his (mostly) recounting of
plots. Here is what he had to say about Daniel Mainwaring
(from Vol. 1, pp. 285-286):
"Daniel Mainwaring, who also writes as Geoffrey Homes, is
mostly mediocre as a movie writer. In a career which extends
back to at least the early 1940s, only a few of his pictures
have been notable. Most were minor or hackwork. Big Town
(1947), Tokyo Rose (1945), Roughshod (1949), Powder River
(1953), Alaska Seas (1954), An Annapolis Story (1955), The
Minotaur
(1961), Revolt of the Slaves (also 1961) -- titles like these
make up the bulk of Mainwaring's screen work. His other
science fiction films, Space Master X-7 (1958) and Atlantis,
The Lost Continent
(1961), are hardly classics. For the most part, Mainwaring's
best films were written for Don Siegel, such as Baby Face
Nelson (1957). It's no wonder that much of the dialogue in
Invasion of the Body Snatchers that doesn't come from
Finney's novel is rather lame or ordinary."
Warren also recounts a minor controversy over a week's worth
of script polishing claimed by Sam Peckinpah. Siegel denies
the claim. Warren believes that Peckinpah actually did
provide the re-writes, but that Siegel's subsequent memories
of his friendship with Mainwaring have overridden that
occurrence.
Next time I'll try to contribute something that's on
topic.
Best regards,
... Reed
> From: "Rene Ribic" <
rribic@optusnet.com.au>
> Subject: Re: RARA-AVIS: Geoffrey Homes/Daniel
Mainwaring
>
> >
> > some time ago, getting there from Don Siegel's
films, I collected all
> the
> > information I could get about Mainwaring (the
real name), the
> collection can
> > still be found at
> >
>
http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Movie/1967/knoererkompass-donsiegel-m
> ainw
> > aring.html - it's in a strange mixture of
German and English, though.
> There
> > is a long and possibly complete list of his
books and movies there,
> plus two
> > quotes:
> >
> Thanks Ekkehard. Mainwaring may not have written
many classic novels but
> it looks like he's been involved in several
excellent films.
>
> Rene
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