(MGM/UA Home Video)
Howard has a secret - he is in love with Christine. There's only
one problem. Christine is DEAD.
A grave was no place for Christine. The only place for her was at Howard's
side as his wife. At least she was finally his - his to dress, his to feed,
and his to care for. In his mind he had his very own 'Living Doll'. In reality,
her lifeless body was slowly decomposing. But he would go to any length
to keep her, even murder.
- blurb from the back of the video sleeve:
'Living Doll', that takes me back a few years... but then it was a few
years ago. I wrote the script while I was working on 'A Chorus of Disapproval'
up in Scarborough in mid-1988. At the time I didn't have much of a clue
about how to go about getting films made and so showed the script to a few
people who really didn't seem too keen.
I was aware of Dick Randall through such cinematic wonders as 'Pieces'
and 'April Fool's Day'. That was all I knew about him - he made horror
movies and was based in London.
I took the script along to his office and he picked up on it straight
away. I guess he must have read the script (don't take it as an essential
requirement of the industry though), but it seemed as though he decided
to run with it right there and then.
Initially production was scheduled to begin within a month of the meeting
at which he decided to go with the project but eventually started on November
7th.
This was my first venture into the business side of the industry and taught me a lot of valuable lessons.
My original screenplay was extensively re-written by George Dugdale and Mark Ezra. It had been agreed with Dick that I'd be involved in all that kind of stuff but as happens, things didn't turn out quite as expected and the first time I called them up to join in the fun it transpired that they'd already rewritten the script without me.
The script changed quite dramatically although the essential storyline
remains intact. The major change was in putting the characters in a hospital
morgue (I wish I'd thought of that) and that worked okay.
The second major change, which I didn't like too much, but I could see their
point, was in their approach to the necrophilia.
I didn't tell you it was a movie about necrophilia? Well it is.
Actually, to be more accurate it's a movie about the problems of unrequited love in teenage youth. Who hasn't been there? You meet someone, see someone, you fall in love. The only problem is that they don't want to know.
It's tragic, it's heartbreaking... but it happens to us all.
Back to the movie. So Howard loves this girl but it ain't going to happen. She has this beautiful girl problem in that she can't quite seem to see any further than the captain of the football team - and that ain't Howard. Fortunately the fickle finger of Fate seems to be on Howard's side. Christine then goes and dies and suddenly there's no one else interested in her.
You can see how this is developing?
You see Howard isn't a necrophiliac so much as a young man in love whose
relationship with a young girl forces him to perform acts of necrophilia.
It's kind of a picky semantic point but an important one nevertheless.
Now the problem is that necrophilia is a somewhat dodgy subject, even
to a producer like Dick Randall. So, whereas my script had a guy sleeping
(oh let's not be bashful, he was fucking her) with a dead girl, it was felt
that this was not a good thing to be showing to people.
The way, therefore, to make Howard a more sympathetic character and not
some flesh crawling pervert was to show Christine through his eyes as still
alive.
Now I can go along with that but I was never keen on the idea that he actually
thought she had been buried alive and it was his duty to save her from a
premature burial.
The resulting movie managed to get a big thumbs down from most people,
which to be fair to all concerned, it probably deserved.
However, it did actually hit at least some of its goals and made money for
someone.
Released by MGM/UA Home Video in the UK on March 6th 1990, it did actually
reach a peak of number 11 in the UK rental video charts.
If anyone has any information on it being released anywhere else then please
let me know.
I spoke to MGM/UA at the time and they said that for a title such as
this, ie one with no stars or saleable names either in front of, or behind,
the camera then they would expect to ship about 2-3,000 units in the UK.
Even the casting coup of dragging Eartha Kitt onboard for two days wasn't
considered enough to guarantee us a sale - but then in all the tv and press
she did at the time she never mentioned it once.
'Living Doll' actually managed to ship 7,300 units and I believe there are
a couple of people, apart from myself, who have actually seen it more than
once.
So where I hear you ask does such a top quality motion picture actually get filmed?
'Living Doll' was shot in the UK. The main location was an old operating
theatre in Hammersmith Hospital in West London.
Howard's apartment was constructed in a small studio in Vauxhall - South
London. When he opens the door to the fire escape and you see the New York
skyline behind him that was just a large piece of wood, painted black with
holes drilled in it and a light shone through from behind (aahh! the magic
of the movies).
The directors did actually go to New York for a couple of days to shoot the lead actor (Mark Jax) wandering around and sitting in the back of a taxi. However, such was my standing in the industry at the time they didn't take me with them.
Due to the extreme low-budget nature of the project, most of the crew
had to double as extras. I was actually in two shots.
My first - a long Steadicam shot thru the hospital corridors - was fortunately
cut from the movie but it is actually me as the priest at Christine's funeral.
That's not my voice - most of the cast were dubbed.
So, was it all a great success, a stepping stone for numerous successful Hollywood careers?
Peter Litton runs a production company in London and has directed a couple of movies including 'To Die For'.
George Dugdale is currently... somewhere... he was married to Caroline Munro at the time.
Mark Jax had a supporting role in the LWT (London Weekend Television) tv series 'The Two of Us'.
Gary Martin was appearing on the London stage in 'Cats' when we filmed the movie. He's since to be found doing voiceovers in various television commercials.
Katie Orgill did appear topless in several editions of 'The Sun' newspaper. She also did a spread in 'Penthouse' but currently she can be seen on the cover of several crossword and puzzle magazines - although I believe she's been out of the modelling game for several years now.
STOP PRESS!
I know a lot of you have emailed me over the years asking how to get hold of a copy of 'Living Doll' outside of the UK. (These are genuine testimonials).
I must have this video (Living Doll). I have not seen it in the U.S.
I
will pay you anything if I can have a copy.
- James DukeJimmy@hotmail.com
Are copies of Living Doll for sale? I'm in the USA and haven't seen
it
available at any video stores, so i thought i might buy a copy.
-- John Flukas