[Leica] Re: Retirement

[lrzeitlin at optonline.net (Lawrence Zeitlin)]

On Nov 27, 2006, at 7:43 PM, Brian wrote:

>
>>  I got a chance to be a Visiting  Professor at the Univ. of Wales  
>> and we moved there for a couple of  years. Next was a Fulbright  
>> Professorship at the Univ. of Delhi.
>
> Professor, eh?
> You wouldn't by any chance be the same Lawrence Zeitlin who was  
> credited as a screenwriter for that breast-fest of a movie, Paradisio?
>


Brian,

You have "outed" me. Just how old are you anyway? Paradisio was  
released in 1960.

I was indeed the author of this little soft porn filmmaking conceit.  
It had its genesis in the film writer's strike of 1959-60. Hollywood  
studios were shut down. While the stars and executives didn't suffer,  
most of the film making trades, paid by the picture, were out of  
work. Low budget nudie films such as "The Immoral Mr. Teas" were  
cleaning up as second acts in burlesque houses. A couple of movie  
studio friends and I, having a lot of time on our hands, felt that we  
could make a sleazy picture as good as those currently being shown.  
In Hollywood that was the only game in town.

I sketched out the basic story of a professor with x-ray glasses that  
would let him see through fabric. The writer/director Henri Haile  
fleshed it out into a shooting script. Henri Haile was, in fact,  
Haile Chase, a B film director and a dialog coach for independent  
studios. Jacques Henrici was Michael Baumhole, a studio publicist. I  
was the only one naive enough to put my real name on the film. In a  
couple of days we had an 80 page script, originally titled "Around  
the World in Eighty Ways." The budget was what we had in our bank  
accounts. We decided to film in Europe, both to avoid union rates and  
to get scenery unavailable in California. Besides, it was an  
opportunity for a great vacation.

Our original choice for the lead actor was Alastaire Sims, but he was  
unavailable. We settled on Arthur Howard, the younger brother of  
Leslie Howard and a fortuitous choice. He worked for less money and  
obviously relished the opportunity for getting a starring role. We  
filmed all over Europe, hiring local independent camera men, many who  
had filmed prize winning short subjects. The film making industry was  
undergoing a technical revolution at the time. Hand held Arriflex  
cameras could produce image quality as good as studio Bell and Howell  
equipment. All scenes were filmed on location because we couldn't  
afford sound stages. Local actors took all the secondary roles.  
Nudity wasn't a big deal in European films and we had no difficulty  
getting full exposure. We enjoyed the experience, Arthur enjoyed the  
experience. And then the writer's strike was over. Real jobs called.  
We returned to the USA with 10,000 feet of exposed film and no  
contract for theatrical release.

On our return we sold the largely unedited footage to Jack Harris, a  
distributor of second bill (and soft porn) films. Harris had the  
theatrical contacts to get the film shown. He is the one who spliced  
in the color segments when Professor Sims put on his glasses and  
added the 3-D effects. The film was released in the US to modest  
success but made a big hit in Japan. I understand that it became a  
minor cult favorite during the  80s.

Haile Chase went on to direct a number of unexceptional studio  
potboilers. Michael Baumhole returned to the publicity department. I  
took a teaching position at a New York university. We had a fine time  
making this crummy nudie flick.

And I also learned not to put my real name on scurrilous activities  
outside my professional field.

Larry Z