Jamaica, the Land of Film 1443889911, 9781443889919

Table of contents :
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Appendix 1
Appendix 2
Appendix 3
Appendix 4
Notes
Bibliography

Citation preview

Jamaica, the Land of Film

Jamaica, the Land of Film By

Peter Polack

Jamaica, the Land of Film By Peter Polack This book first published 2017 Cambridge Scholars Publishing Lady Stephenson Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2PA, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2017 by Peter Polack Cover photo: Vanessa Polack – Blue Mountains, Jamaica All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-4438-8991-1 ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-8991-9

This book was inspired by my beautiful granddaughter, Victoria Israelle Polack, to whom it is dedicated with greatest love and affection.

CONTENTS

Preface ........................................................................................................ ix Acknowledgements ................................................................................... xii Introduction ................................................................................................. 1 Chapter One ............................................................................................... 14 The Earliest Years Chapter Two .............................................................................................. 50 Pre-World War Two Chapter Three ............................................................................................ 63 Post-War Chapter Four .............................................................................................. 89 The Roaring Sixties Chapter Five ............................................................................................ 113 The Decadent Seventies Chapter Six .............................................................................................. 127 The Exciting Eighties Chapter Seven.......................................................................................... 137 The Naughty Nineties Chapter Eight ........................................................................................... 150 The New Millennium Chapter Nine............................................................................................ 157 The Paradise Parishes Chapter Ten ............................................................................................. 169 The Future

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Contents

Appendix 1 .............................................................................................. 174 The Jamaica List of Films and Directors Appendix 2 .............................................................................................. 180 E. S. Martens, PhD thesis, “Welcome to Paradise Island: The rise of Jamaica’s cine-tourist image 1891-1951”, Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis, 2013 – Thesis Abstract and Overview of Foreign Feature Films Shot Entirely or Partially in Jamaica, 1913-2013 Appendix 3 .............................................................................................. 191 Colonial Film: Moving Images of the British Empire – Jamaica Appendix 4 .............................................................................................. 196 Undiscovered Jamaica Films Notes........................................................................................................ 197 Bibliography ............................................................................................ 206

PREFACE

Like many cinema patrons in Jamaica, I was a beneficiary of the Audley Morais-founded chain of Palace Amusement theatres that included the Regal, Carib, Premier, Odeon, Palace and others over the decades. Sitting in the balcony of the Regal at Cross Roads, now a haberdashery, clutching a piece of chicken and hard dough bread in the comfort of relatively new air conditioning, mesmerized by the big screen in front of me, was the acme of happiness.1 Years later my well-meaning wife propelled me into amateur film production, although her intention was to document our family history. Assisted by my chief and often only actor, Nasi-Menyelek Ben-Yisrr, we would careen around the Cayman Islands on a Saturday shooting our grand trilogy: War Party, Crackdown and Swamp Ninja. Like many artistic pursuits in the Cayman Islands, there was always a certain amount of misconception about Jamaicans staging what appeared to be faux illegal activity. As time passed and Jamaica continued to dominate international shorttrack events, as well as the popular musical genres of reggae and dancehall, it occurred to me that our century-long accomplishments in international film production were being overshadowed, if not forgotten altogether. Titans of our governmental and private-sector efforts, who have promoted Jamaica as the ultimate Caribbean film location, have often not received the credit they deserved – Sally Porteous, Natalie Thompson, Maxine Walters and Chris Browne among them. Historically, the head of the first Jamaica Film Unit in 1951, Martin Rennalls, is also remembered for his early and extensive work towards the establishment of local film production. At the end of the day, however many awards and medals we win on the international stages of music and athletics it will be for naught unless they translate into jobs and the improvement of our economy back home. Jamaica’s film-location status has accomplished just that for over a century. One of the best-regarded hits by the petite South African singer with a big heart, Brenda Fassie (unfortunately, no longer with us) was Vulindlela, or “Clearing the Way”.

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Preface

The topic of this book was the subject of immense research by Dr. Emiel Martens for the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis in his thesis “Welcome to Paradise Island: The rise of Jamaica’s cine-tourist image 1891-1951” (see Appendix 2), which is acknowledged with gratitude on behalf of the people of Jamaica. The verification of films that have, over the last century, used Jamaica as a location – many of which have disappeared – has been an onerous exercise. In one case, confirmation came in the form of a cancelled cheque to a local bank by a production company for a local supplier, which was offered for sale on the internet. I am unable to claim this work as a solo effort due to the many who have contributed to this publication in large and small ways, but they are all thanked profusely below. This is a long-overdue attempt to record most of the numerous film productions from abroad that made Jamaica their home for over a century, and to recognize the many directors and producers who journeyed to paradise while others merely pretended to visit. One disturbing element of my research for this book was the least being provided by those expected to contribute the most. There was a total lack of support from relevant elements of the Jamaican Government, who indulged in a protracted game of “pass the buck” or “pin the tail on the donkey”. Pre-eminent among these elements were JAMPRO (the relevant agency of the Government of Jamaica’s Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation) and the Film Commissioner, both of whom are yet to approve my request for the use of images from their website, and who also stated that “We do not physically visit many film sets and so, we would not have in our possession, images of production, cast and crew of film projects executed in Jamaica. Do have a wonderful day.”2

To be fair, a total lack of assistance also came from the National Library of Jamaica, Jamaica Information Service, the Ministry of Tourism and the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission. For use of a single image of an old Jamaica Railway locomotive, available on the internet, the National Library of Jamaica required a contract, payment, three free books and two in DVD format. The only omission was a partridge in a pear tree. If one were to bear in mind the Spartan nature of academic research and publication, especially in cases where many images are required, such a request borders on the insane.

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Shining exceptions were the Institute of Jamaica, led by their brilliant director Vivian Crawford; the National Water Commission, who helped with images of Hermitage Dam; the Urban Development Corporation, for Green Grotto; the Jamaica Housing Trust, for Emancipation Park; Dorrick Gray/Claudene Forbes of the Jamaica National Heritage Trust; and Joseph Powell of the University of the West Indies (UWI) Press. There can be no doubt about the existence of a massive bureaucratic disconnect, and about the question of why we have had no major international film productions come to Jamaica since 2010 – with none on the horizon, either. Instead of finger pointing, however, perhaps the clarion call can be heeded and “remedy instead of mouth” be applied.

Notes 1 2

“Mr. Audley Morais dies, funeral today”, Daily Gleaner, 19 July 1967. JAMPRO email, 6 October 2016.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My persevering mother Clarisse, who was wooed by my father, after he searched for her on bended knee in the half- light of the Palace Cinema in Kingston. Thank you, Palace – or I may have not been here. To Marc Banville, who gave me the pearl of the Banville family, my unwavering wife Monique, with love and appreciation. My greatest assistants, and sometime rivals, my daughters, Olivia the Pirate and Vanessa the Director. My family, including our new arrival, for constant love and support, with the occasional cognac. My brother George for his persistent kindness, assistance and love for nearly half a century – with his able crew: Cherry, Miss Maggie, Spike and Gina. A future leader of the Cayman Islands and the sharpest intellect of his generation, Leon Buckeridge, for considered advice and benevolent criticism. To the saving grace of the Polack family, Mrs. Doreen Hinds. The “Capability Brown” of the Cayman Islands, Robert Powell. The “head” and “arms” of the Polack family: my sisters, Janette and Angela. My brother, who has spent a lifetime dodging bullets and artillery fire, Nasi-Menyelek Ben-Yisrr, for encouragement in all things film. My gratitude to Victoria Carruthers, Amanda Millar and Cambridge Scholars Publishing for their confidence in bringing this record of Caribbean excellence to the fore. The generous photographer with a perfect eye for Frenchman’s Cove, Alice Gao. The two best Jamaican film-location super sleuths, George and Deborah Cumming, with apologies for stoning the Gibson family-home roof as a wayward child. Richard Kane, who took a chance and put me on the road less travelled. Sarah Uttridge of Amber Books, who allowed me to join an august group of contributors for the encyclopedia project. Respect to the great Jamaican patriot and JUTA driver, Nico Gray, the best Kingston tour driver (876-480-8736).

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The mighty Tiger and Junior, who are the masters of speed on the range. Thanks to a lawyer’s lawyer, Arthur Hamilton, the top man in his field in Jamaica. My dear friend Richard Buban, who gave me a treasure trove of filmhistory books that provided early knowledge on this topic. Joseph Powell of UWI Press, for extract permission. Learned assistance from Trident hotelier, Dwight Powell. Thanks to the following hotels for images: Trident Hotel, Round Hill Hotel and Villas, Sans Souci and Jamaica Inn. Congratulations to the outstanding collection of the Media History Digital Library by David Pierce and Eric Hoyt. My appreciation to Antoine Liddell of Noranda Bauxite for the amazing Port Rhodes photos. Timely assistance from Tony Dykes of the British Film Institute for the Colonial Film: Moving Images of the British Empire extract and images. The Sugar Barons author Matthew Parker for kind use of the Roaring River and Drax Hall pictures. Director of the Institute, and famous organist, Vivian Crawford, for invaluable assistance. Local actress, journalist and film historian Marguerite Gauron, who has enriched this publication by her contribution; in memoriam, fellow actor Claude Gauron. The bright stars and best examples of how government departments should operate: 1. James Pearson, assistant manager of Emancipation Park for extract permission. 2. Dorrick Gray and Claudene Forbes of the Jamaica National Heritage Trust for extract permission. 3. Karen Williams of the National Water Commission for the Hermitage Dam photo. Paul Catchpole, of World of Model Railways, for the Jamaica Railway pictures. Roy Page of Caribic Vacations, an example of our great Jamaican CEOs who daily carry water with a basket. The fire master, and emerging talent in many ways, Gadiel Piercy. The oak tree who helped an acorn, English master Ken Ryder of Denstone College. David Roper for allowing me the privilege of shining his shoes at boarding school, and his long-suffering wife Donna, whose taste in footwear is unrivalled.

xiv

Acknowledgements

Brian “the Bird” Roper and his mother Faith, who spirited me off to another world and changed my life. Hugh Small QC for photographic assistance. Sam Fleischner for the Wha Do Dem photos. With gratitude for our long-standing friendship with the Albisu family of Uruguay

INTRODUCTION

If Jamaica were an actor she would have appeared in more than 141 films, according to a popular internet database.1 The tally of “movies”, to use the American term, in which the name Jamaica plays a prominent part is probably closer to two hundred, but this number pares down substantially if it is limited to those films that were actually shot, in part or whole, in Jamaica. Very often films shot mostly in other countries, such as Fiji, would have additional footage coming from Jamaica and the Bahamas, which were two popular spots for tropicalisland footage.2 The earliest known such film was discovered quite by chance during overall research: the now-lost 1910 silent production comprising less than a thousand feet of footage, Between Love and Honor, produced at an unknown location in or near Kingston. Whilst there is a modern trend to protect Brand Jamaica – with the popularity of Bob Marley and the success, latterly, of athletic superstar Usain Bolt – Jamaica has been used in books and film for some time to promote a tropical or Caribbean flavour without significant economic revenue being collected for the benefit of the country. The producers and cinemas have long been able to keep the lion’s share of revenue from a genre unconnected to Europe or North America. Perhaps reparations, in the form of royalties, could begin here. There have been more benefits in recent years, as confirmed by a 1990 comment in the Hollywood Reporter that “Club Paradise was the foreign production that most benefited the local economy, adding US$5.3 million to the coffers.”3 One of the costliest films for its time, at US$1 million, was the 1916 drama A Daughter of the Gods, which not only saw substantial set construction in Kingston but also one of the earliest examples of nudity, from actress Annette Kellermann, in mainstream cinema. At least two

2

Introduction

early pictures bore titles sourced after a cash prize had been offered to the Jamaican public, including A Daughter of the Gods. Jamaica was associated with at least one other cinematic first, with The Devil’s Daughter in 1939 being the first American black feature film shot on location in Jamaica.4 A few films shot in Jamaica were startling at the time in their imagery of neo-colonialism, violence, black exploitation and even homosexual rape, such as the 1968 film Dark of the Sun – released in the UK as The Mercenaries, and in France as The Last Train From Katanga – which was about events in the Congo. Stars including Rod Taylor, Yvette Mimeux and Jim Brown performed for a film that also preserved useful historical footage of a working Jamaica Railway steam engine, used in aeroplane strafing shots at Frankfield and Suttons in Clarendon.5 The engine was eventually destroyed as part of the script. Jamaica has been home to at least one example of the horror genre, with the 1991 film Popcorn shot in part at the Ward Theatre in downtown Kingston – renamed Dreamland Theater for the production.

Dr. Carl J. Stratmann ARPS, courtesy of Mrs. Lyn Stratmann Fig. 0-1: Jamaica Railway locomotive No. 55 crashing in Clarendon, 1967

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Colonial Film: Moving Images of the British Empire Fig. 0-2: St. James Railway Station, 1913

Rosie McNamee Fig. 0-3: Ward Theatre, Kingston

4

Introduction

Rosie McNamee Fig. 0-4: Ceiling cupola, Ward Theatre, Kingston

The progression towards more made-for-television films also found Jamaica to be a useful location for ventures such as the Viacom production Scam with Christopher Walken in 1991. This video film also recorded the acting debut of Jamaican-descended reggae singer, Maxi Priest. Even documentaries found a home in Jamaica – such as The Land of Look Behind, produced in 1982 with a variety of locations including the Cockpit country. There have been a few unfortunate occasions when productions such as Island in the Sun, shot in Barbados and Grenada during 1957, have been mistakenly attributed to Jamaica even by official sources.6 The 1957 British film Heart Within, about a Jamaican immigrant in England, although listed as a film shot in Jamaica was in fact filmed entirely in England.7 The Italian produced Our Man in Jamaica of 1965 appears not only to have had no location in Jamaica but seemingly to have used some Haiti footage as background. The romantic adventure of a marooned boy and girl called The Blue Lagoon, with the young Brook Shields, released in 1980 by Columbia Pictures and directed by Randal Kleiser, saw the nubile Shields emulating Annette Kellermann by covering her upper nudity with long hair until she

Jamaica, the Land of Film

5

swam au naturel in a lagoon. However, that was the extent of the comparison with Jamaica: The Blue Lagoon was shot entirely in Fiji. Although several sources, even books, point to the Blue Lagoon in Portland, once known as Blue Hole, as the location, this is not the case.8 The lagoon recently came under the management of the Alligator Head Foundation, in collaboration with the University of the West Indies, to monitor the marine resources of east Portland. This promising development will hopefully preserve what could be an outstanding attraction and film location.9 One film, the 1970 jungle production Skullduggery, appears on some records to have been shot in Papua New Guinea and Samoa, when in fact it was filmed on location in Jamaica for safety reasons. Part of the reason appears to have been a late change in the production company.10 Jamaica was sufficiently popular as a location to have hosted several productions in one year, such as Live and Let Die as well as Papillon in 1973. Live and Let Die featured the new Bond, Roger Moore, while the popular and enduring Papillon led with the iconic Steve McQueen. Both used locations in Falmouth, while Papillon also had swamp scenes from Westmoreland. One’s heart could almost burst with pride to watch the many Jamaica scenes of Papillon in full display while ensconced in the luxurious seat of a premier London cinema, relishing the exclamations of pleasure by the assembled audience at various points. Jamaica-based productions have also provided a few substantial opportunities for local actors over the decades – pre-eminent among them being the outstanding Claudia Robinson in 1993’s Wide Sargasso Sea, described by the New York magazine as “A remarkable actress”.11 The popularity of earlier Jamaica-location film productions was a consequence of low production costs; in some cases, the proximity to Florida; the availability of extras, many with prior experience from the frequent productions on the island; and the exotic locale, with both producers and actors desirous of escaping colder climes. The trend has sputtered in later years, owing to competition by location countries prepared to offer a portion of financing and tax relief.

6

Introduction

Nevertheless, however much or little of the actual film footage from Jamaica ended up on the editor’s cutting-room floor, audiences were left with a taste of island paradise. A list of international film productions in Jamaica:

The Earliest Years 1. Between Love and Honor (1910) 2. Tom Cringle in Jamaica (1913) 3. The Old College Badge (1913) 4. A Flirtation at Sea (1913) 5. The Creole’s Love Story (1913) 6. The Overseer’s Revenge (1913) 7. The Planter’s Daughter (1913) 8. Lieutenant Daring and the Labour Riots (1913) 9. Lieutenant Daring and the Dancing Girl (1913) 10. The Favourite for the Jamaica Cup (1913) 11. Flame of Passion (1915) 12. The Pearl of the Antilles (1915) 13. A Daughter of the Gods (1916) 14. Queen of the Sea (1918) 15. Love’s Redemption (1921) 16. Satan’s Sister (1925)

Pre-World War Two 17. Ouanga (1935) 18. Obeah (1935) 19. The Devil’s Daughter (1939) 20. The Black Swan (1942)

Post-War 21. Island of Desire (Saturday Island) (1952) 22. All the Brothers were Valiant (1953) 23. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)12 24. Manfish (1956) – Jamaican Eric Coverley played police officer Chavez in in this production, also called Calypso in the UK 25. Sea Wife (1957) 26. Passionate Summer (Storm over Jamaica/Storm over Jamaica) (1958)

Jamaica, the Land of Film

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The Roaring Sixties 27. Dr. No (1962) – with parts by Reggie Carter, Marguerite Lewars and the UK transplant Timothy Moxon13 28. Lord of the Flies (1963) 29. Father Goose (1964) 30. The Confession (Seven Different Ways/Quick, Let’s Get Married) (1964) 31. A High Wind in Jamaica (1965) – with Charles Hyatt14 32. Come Spy With Me (1967) – with a part played by Jamaican actor Eric Coverley 33. In Like Flint (1967) 34. Oh Dad, Poor Dad Mamma’s Hung you in the Closet and I’m Feelin So Sad (1967) 35. Dark of the Sun (The Mercenaries) (1968) 36. Flatfoot (1968)

The Decadent Seventies 37. Skullduggery (1970) 38. Live and Let Die (1973) 39. Papillon (1973) 40. The Treasure of Jamaica Reef (1974) 41. Jamaican Gold (original title The Treasure Seekers) (1979) – with Dermot Hussey and Bobby Ghisays

The Exciting Eighties 42. Eureka (1983) 43. Club Paradise (1986) 44. Hammerhead (1987) 45. Clara’s Heart (1988) 46. Cocktail (1988) 47. The Mighty Quinn (1989) – with Carl Bradshaw

The Naughty Nineties 48. Marked for Death (1990) – with Jimmy Cliff 49. Treasure Island (1990) 50. Lord of the Flies (1990) 51. Popcorn (1991)

Introduction

8

52. Prelude to a Kiss (1992) – with Peter Lloyd15 53. Wide Sargasso Sea (1993) 54. Cool Runnings (1993) 55. Legends of the Fall (1994) 56. Fool’s Paradise (1997) 57. How Stella Got Her Groove Back (1998)16 58. Belly (1998) – with Mr. Vegas (Clifford Smith) and Sean Paul (Sean Henriques) 59. Shattered Image (1998) – with Leonie Forbes, Fay Ellington, Pablo Hoilett and Billy Wilmott 60. Instinct (1999)17

The New Millennium 61. Almost Heaven (2005) 62. Made in Jamaica (2006) 63. Nichts als Gespenster (Nothing but Ghosts) (2006) 64. Roots Time (2007) 65. License to Wed (2007) 66. Hanging in Hedo (2008) 67. A Perfect Getaway (2009) 68. Wah Do Dem (2009) – Reggae Film Festival 2010 International Feature Film Honour Award 69. Knight and Day (2010) This list, and book, does not include many local, independent, made-fortelevision or documentary productions that also found Jamaica to be an enticing location or subject. The prodigious output of films shot on location in Jamaica led the New York Times to proclaim: “An Island Rediscovers Its Role as the Little Hollywood Of the Caribbean” in a 1988 article. Jamaica also received the ultimate double accolade, with portions of the 1963 original Lord of the Flies and its 1990 sequel being filmed on location in Portland.18 Between 1992 and 2006, twelve international film productions came to Jamaica during the tenure of Prime Minister P. J. Patterson, including: Prelude to a Kiss (1992) Wide Sargasso Sea (1993) Cool Runnings (1993) Instinct (1999)

Jamaica, the Land of Film

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This was in the fullness of time, a great achievement that has outshone all his predecessors and successors – a record which, like that of Usain Bolt, is likely to remain unbroken. Patterson was also the architect of Highway 2000, a section of which was recently given his name, which provides a sizeable network of modern roads for any international film company coming to Jamaica.19 Apart from his many professional and extracurricular talents, Mr. Patterson excelled as host of the film production of local attractions, Jamaica: The Ultimate Tour, with travel journalist Peter Greenberg, which was unveiled to great acclaim in 2006.20 Much credit for bringing foreign film production to Jamaica should also go to Sally Porteous – now Custos of Manchester, but formerly with the film office of JAMPRO – for her extraordinary efforts.

Nico Gray Fig. 0-5: Police station and church, Manchioneal, Portland

It is surprising that these locations have not presented a worthwhile opportunity for a Jamaica film-location tour, not dissimilar to those active in other countries. In recent years, the Cayman Islands dock set for The Firm starring Tom Cruise provided an interesting stop for tourists before being destroyed by Hurricane Ivan in 2004. The Parish of Portland seems to have emerged as the historical and landscape favourite, followed by the port town of Ocho Rios, particularly

10

Introduction

Dunn’s River Falls, with Kingston becoming a local favourite recently for its dance halls, gangs, violence and music videos.

Nasi-Menyelek Ben-Yisrr Fig. 0-6: Highway 2000

Some film production used Jamaica not only for background footage but as part of the story line, such as the 1988 Clara’s Heart with Whoopi Goldberg playing a Jamaican housekeeper at a vacation resort helping a young American boy dealing with family difficulties. The converse position appeared the same year, with Milk and Honey. Although not shot in Jamaica, it featured a Jamaican theme of immigration to Canada; Jamaican actors, including the renowned Leonie Forbes; and a script co-written by the doyen of Jamaican playwrights, Trevor Rhone. This use of Jamaica for a story line in fact began much earlier, with the location for Captain Blood (1935) – portrayed as Port Royal. It was, in fact, Three Arch Bay in Laguna Beach, California, which perpetuated the subterfuge.21 The deception has been sufficiently complete to mislead even film archivists and academics.

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Its star, Errol Flynn, came to have a more realistic and enduring attraction to Jamaica, and Port Antonio in particular, later in life. His grandson, and rising star Luke Flynn, was born on the island.

Robert Florczak Fig. 0-7: Three Arch Bay, Laguna Beach, California: the actual location for Captain Blood

12

Introducction

Mediia History Digittal Library Fig. 0-8: Mottion Picture Herrald shot of Errrol Flynn and L Lili Damita at th he Captain Blood premieere, 1935

Nico N Gray Fig. 0-9: Errool Flynn Marinaa, Port Antonio

Jamaican-thhemed films noot shot on location also inclluded City Beeneath the Sea (1953), based on thee book Port Royal: R The G Ghost City Ben neath the Sea; Jamaicca Run (19533); Swashbuckkler (1976), ffilmed in Mex xico; and Home Againn (2012), shoot in Trinidad. This was a continuing worldwide w phenomenonn, with the laatest blockbuster Pirates off the Caribbea an: Dead Men Tell N No Tales beiing shot in Australia A andd its predeceessor, On Stranger Tiddes, using Haw waii.22 It is leeft to cinema aaudiences to reject r this visual “plaggiarism”.

Jamaica, the Land of Film

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Nico Gray Fig. 0-10: Port Royal

Nonetheless, the number of movies shot in Jamaica has grown exponentially post-2000, with the advent of relatively affordable camera gear that saw many amateurs with small or non-existent budgets entering the field – some with wild abandon, while others sought to perpetuate old clichés. Whilst this book has essentially been confined to early major productions, often where Jamaica or Jamaican actors played a substantial part, the future will be left to the next generation for self-dissection.

CHAPTER ONE THE EARLIEST YEARS

It would seem surreal that an American film-production company would decamp to the city of Kingston, Jamaica at the turn of the century not only to use this Caribbean urban community as a film location but also to spend $1 million dollars to accomplish this event. The production involved the creation of a Moorish city in an imagined India, and employed three thousand persons a day. This 1916-released film, A Daughter of the Gods, was produced by Hollywood pioneer William Fox for his Fox Film Corporation, which ultimately distributed the picture. 23 The Hungarian-born Fox, originally named Wilhelm Fried, had established his film-production company in 1915. It grew to include a chain of cinemas and still exists today as 21st Century Fox, owned by Rupert Murdoch.24

Media History Digital Library Fig. 1-01: A history of the movies: Annette Kellermann and Hal De Forest in A Daughter of the Gods, 1916

The Earliest Years

15

The prolific director of the film was another immigrant, the Irish-born Herbert Brenon, who angered producer Fox by massive exceeding the budget, which reached the unprecedented US$1 million-dollar mark. Fox initially refused to allow Brenon to receive his director credit, but conceded after the latter brought a lawsuit against him.

Media History Digital Library Fig. 1-02: Variety article on A Daughter of the Gods, August 1915

This silent-film production was all the more remarkable for containing footage of partial nudity, controversial for the time. Actress Annette Kellermann, a former Australian swimming star, appeared naked but veiled by very long hair, which acted as a cover for her bare body. A December 1915 report had half a million pounds sterling being spent in order to include locations rarely promoted today, or lost to memory, such as Rose Gardens,25 Oxford Cave and Cliffton Falls – the latter said to be in the White River Valley.26 The following February, 1916, Jamaicans were astonished to see a picture of a camel at Fort Augusta on the front page of their daily newspaper; the creature was among a sample of animals brought in to create caravans for the Middle Eastern-themed fantasy film. The biggest event had arrived, and Jamaicans flocked to support the venture.

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Chapter One

Nico Gray Fig. 1-03: Fort Augusta, Portmore

A few weeks prior on New Year’s Eve 1915, Jamaica’s daily newspaper, the Gleaner, confirmed that the film crew would be travelling to the Green Castle estate of Sir John Pringle near Annotto Bay, where Kellermann would perform her famous dive from the tower. At this time, no less than six miles of footage had been recorded – helped in no small part by Sir John Pringle, who gave the crew free run of his property. A few years later, the Jamaican release of the completed moving picture was announced while suggesting that the film had been named by an unknown Jamaican lady “who received three guineas for her effort drawn from the words of a poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson: ‘A daughter of the gods, divinely tall, And most divinely fair’.”27

The Earliest Years

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Media History Digital Library Fig. 1-04: Motion Picture News article on A Daughter of the Gods, October 1915

Chapter One

18

On 29 July 1916, the Gleaner repeated a report of the New Orleans Picayune of 12 July with a number of comments by the producer, in which he described the picture as a “fairy fantasy.” There was another report in the Gleaner on 25 October 1916, which repeated several American reviews that confirmed thousands of persons had been employed, no expense had been spared and the picture had been made on the coast of Jamaica.

Nico Gray Fig. 1-05: Fort Augusta, Portmore

One record of the production appeared in the book Bricks and Stones From the Past, Jamaica's Geological Heritage by Antony Porter, published by the University of the West Indies Press in 2006. It is reproduced here with the kind assistance of Dr. Joseph Powell from the Press. In a section entitled “Fort Augusta Revisited”, on the former women’s prison, Fort Augusta, located on the Port Henderson road close to the growing city of Portmore he disclosed: “What is not widely known, however, is that during an eight-month period between 1915 and 1916 a feature film, The Daughter of the Gods, starring Annette Kellermann, was shot in Jamaica by Fox Film Corporation and one of the main locations was Fort Augusta. In bidding farewell to the people of Jamaica in April 1916, Mr. Herbert Brenon, the director, remarked, ‘It has been my duty to handle many thousands some days at Fort Augusta, so all told I have handled close to 150,000. This is no exaggeration when one thinks of the many days I had 3,000 at a time. To these men I send a message of thanks.’ Unfortunately, this ten-reel blackand-white film from the silent-era days is lost, since no copy is known to exist – although one reel is believed to be present in a Russian archive.

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The movie is said to have cost about US$1 million to produce, and the studio head, William Fox, was allegedly so incensed that he removed Brenon’s name from the list of credits, but Brenon sued and won.”28

Nico Gray Fig. 1-06: Fort Augusta entrance road, Portmore

One of the few remaining images of Kellermann has her juxtaposed beside a tree, possibly at a spot with evergreen trees on the road to Stepping Stones at Greenwich, just past the Jamaica Defence Force camp at Newcastle near the Blue Mountains.

Deborah Cumming Fig. 1-07: Stepping Stones view of Kingston

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Chapter One

Rosie McNamee Fig. 1-08: Blue Mountains, Greenwich: southern view

George Giglioli Fig. 1-09: Blue Mountains and Mavis Bank

The Earliest Years

21

Rosie McNamee Fig. 1-10: Creighton Estate, Irish Town, Blue Mountains

Rosie McNamee Fig. 1-11: Creighton Estate walkway, Irish Town, Blue Mountains

22

Chapter One

The film was finally released in Jamaica in March 1919, when it was shown at the Palace Theatre.29 There was some commentary a few days afterward in the Gleaner on the price of seats for its showing at the Lyric Theater in New York, which was between twenty-five cents and two dollars.30 One report had thousands of people congregating outside Fort Augusta on several occasions to serve as extras and laborers, while complimenting them on their competent acting at short notice.31 The film has been the subject of modern and past commentary by historians and critics alike.

Nico Gray Fig. 1-12: Fort Augusta wall, Portmore

John T. Soister, in his book American Silent Horror, Science Fiction and Fantasy Feature Films, 1913-1929, reported that “Reviewers commented on the effective use of Jamaica as a stand-in for India and the impressive sets”.32 The New England Historical Society reported, in a piece on writer Hettie Gray Baker,

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“Brenon indeed wandered far in Jamaica. He constructed wild sets, including a Moorish city as a backdrop that went up in flames in the final scene of the film; he used crocodiles and camels were brought in from Connecticut where they were part of a circus for one short scene. He built a gnome village, using local children to play gnomes, and massive amounts of mosquito netting was required to control the insects. He employed more than 10,000 extras. Part of the buildup was Hollywood hype. But not all. After a year in the Jamaican jungle, Brenon had spent more than $1 million (the first time in history so much was spent on a movie). Fox was furious when he saw what Brenon had returned with. It was not so much a story as a collection of fantastic scenes of sheiks and princes and sultans, replete with harems and eunichs [sic], with the land of gnomes and a witch thrown in and exotic waterfalls. But it also had Annette Kellerman, the beautiful swimmer and diver from Australia who was famous – and not just for her swimming. She topped herself in Brenon’s film, A Daughter of the Gods, giving Fox one of the earliest nude scenes ever filmed – if he could somehow get it into shape to put on a screen.”33

Described as the only woman title writer in the country, with a salary of $15,000 a year, Baker wrote all the titles for A Daughter of the Gods.

Media History Digital Library Fig. 1-13: Hettie Gray Baker, screenwriter of A Daughter of the Gods, Film Daily Year Book, 1925

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Chapterr One

Mediia History Digittal Library Fig. 1-14: A Daughter of the Gods sea beauties in Jaamaica, Motog graphy, 16 September 19916

Mediia History Digittal Library Fig. 1-15: Annnette Kellermaann in A Daughtter of the Gods,, 1916

Australian hhistorian Angeela Woollacott provided keeen insight into o the film with this exxcerpt from her h book Race and the M Modern Exotiic: Three ‘Australian’’ Women on Global G Displayy:34 “That firrst silent film m was followed by severaal more, conffirming Kellermannn’s status as an internation nal star, particcularly with thee boxoffice succcess of the 1916 A Daughtter of the Godds. Produced by b the William F Fox Company and a written and d directed by H Herbert Brenon n (who had direccted Neptune’s Daughter), A Daughter of tthe Gods madee news even befoore it was releeased, because of its millionn-dollar costs, a vast

The Earliest Years budget in 1916. Filmed in Jamaica from August 1915 to April 1916, it incorporated the spectacular on several levels. Reports of it during filming included the note that ten camels had been shipped from Connecticut, where they were in winter rest from the circus, down to Kingston, Jamaica, to be used on the set. It was claimed that ‘the largest stage in the world’ had been constructed for the set, and that it was ‘equipped with dressing rooms for 2,000 players’. A ‘gnome village’ was built around a waterfall constructed by changing the local topography, and ‘native children’ were used to play the gnomes. Another report was that twenty thousand people had been used in one scene, and that a Moorish city had been built of steel and concrete for one background, then set on fire as part of the film’s drama. Moreover, it was credited with the first nude scene to be made on film, though in at least some scenes Kellermann actually wore a fleshcoloured body-suit designed to look as though nude. Late in life, Kellermann rated A Daughter of the Gods as the ‘best thing’ she ever did, because she ‘did many hair raising stunts & was never doubled – including doing a 72 ft. dive from a tower – being thrown to the crocodiles’. While the film was large on spectacle, its plot reportedly came adrift, and as a result it took extensive editing which delayed its release. Even when completed, the plot seems to have been rather vague: a loose Orientalist fantasy involving a sultan, a sheik, a prince, a harem, a witch, a land of gnomes, and Kellermann as ‘Anitia’ who dances before the sultan and escapes capture by her dive from the tower into the sea. The reviews were not unqualified. One described it as ‘a fanciful thing in which fairies, gnomes, and mythological characters appear’. At least one reviewer disapproved of the nudity, describing the film as: ‘a photoplay carefully calculated to shock the late Anthony Comstock and certain to please many others. There are long passages when Miss Kellermann wanders disconsolately through the film all undressed and nowhere to go … This business is carried rather far in the life in the palace of the Sultan where the picture suffers so from overexposure that you can scarcely say “A Daughter of the Gods” is merely released. It is positively abandoned’. However, most reviews raved in superlatives about the film’s spectacular effects (if not the plot) and described it as not to be missed. It was given substantial promotion. One advertisement, invoking the Harvard study, compared Kellermann’s statistics with those of Cleopatra and Venus de Milo, proclaiming Kellermann the ‘Most Perfect Woman in World’s History’ and as ‘a model for all the world’ before whom ‘criticism is dumb’. A Daughter of the Gods played in Australia, as elsewhere around the world, largely to positive reviews – though one jaundiced critic claimed that several of the young women competitors at the January 1917 New South Wales Ladies’ Swimming Association competition at the Domain Baths ‘far surpassed’ the one being hyped as ‘the most perfect woman in the world’. The film was such a phenomenon that The Green Room, which called itself Australia’s Greatest Stage Magazine, ran features on it for months ahead of its arrival. The first was in August 1916,

25

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Chapter One a three-page spread with five photographs, including one of the seemingly nude scenes, understatedly captioned ‘A Striking Study of Annette Kellermann’. The article began with a list of ‘Facts About the Film’, including its unprecedented million-dollar cost, Kellermann listed as the ‘star of the greatest motion picture spectacle ever seen’, its elaborate infrastructure (‘a city of more than 20,000 employees grew where a few hours earlier there had been nothing but tropical undergrowth’), and the fact that the 223,000 feet of film shot had been edited down to 12,000 feet for the picture. The magazine reminded readers (as if they needed it) that the star was ‘the well-known Australian’, and lauded her as ‘the greatest woman swimmer in the world, a graceful, creative genius’ whose work ‘in this new spectacular film will leave behind for all time a wonderful record of her daring attainments’. The magazine sought to encapsulate the plot (for which readers may have been grateful), mentioning its mermaids and ocean scenes. Consecutive issues carried more stills from the film. One article focused on William Fox, the producer, and his summary of his ambitions for the film: ‘I will make a picture so gigantic, so immense in its scope that not in the next ten years will there be a man – manufacturer, or financier – who will dare to expend so vast an amount of money on a single picture. All my life I have dreamed of doing something big … I have dreamed of doing something that perhaps cannot even be paralleled in the future. The realisation of my dream is found in “A Daughter of the Gods”’. After the film was finally screened in Australia in January 1917, the magazine gave it overwhelming praise. Not only did ‘Annette Kellermann, the swimming Venus’ add ‘thrill to thrill’, in one scene she seemed ‘to achieve the impossible’. In sum, The Green Room judged: ‘Anyone who misses seeing “A Daughter of the Gods” misses one of the greatest events that has ever happened in Australia. From the far-away sphere of the Unknown we are immediately borne, by this film, to a land of enchantment. Something of the wonder of the Arabian Nights, of the glory of the East, of our own war, of fairyland, of womanly power and eternal beauty, is manifested to us by this masterpiece of cinematography’.”

Kellermann returned to the silver screen in the 1918 John G. Adolfidirected Queen of the Sea, which was filmed in several locations including Jamaica and produced again by William Fox.35 There were earlier films shot in Jamaica for sure, especially short films by British interests, but none came even close to the length, expense and time spent in Jamaica by A Daughter of the Gods. Regrettably this ten-reel film has been lost to history and only a few images remain.

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Annette Kellermann, How to Swim, London, William Heinemann, 1918 Fig. 1-16: Annette Kellermann dives from a tower in A Daughter of the Gods, 1916

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Chapter One

Annette Kellermann, Physical Beauty and How to Keep It, London, William Heinemann, 1919 Fig. 1-17: Annette Kellermann in A Daughter of the Gods, 1916

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Media History Digital Library Fig. 1-18: Moving Picture World magazine promotion for A Daughter of the Gods, 1918, with Fort Augusta in the background

One silent film that apparently “fell through the cracks” was the 1910 production of Between Love and Honor produced by the Vitagraph Company of America in Kingston, Jamaica, about which very little is known except that it amounted to 917 feet of film. The description is of a drama of fisher-folk life, involving cinematic “heart throbs”, with a single known image, as below:

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Chapterr One

Mediia History Digittal Library Fig. 1-19: Bettween Love andd Honor, 1910, Kingston, The Film Index

An earlier ssample of this type of mo ovies was the eleven-minutte, silent, black-and-w white production Favourite for the Jama ica Cup, spon nsored by the Elders aand Fyffes bannana company y. In a remarkkable achievem ment, the director, Chharles Raymonnd, also comp pleted an addditional eight films for the British aand Colonial Kinematograp K h Company inn Jamaica in 1912 1 with many of the same actors:

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Tom Cringle in Jamaiica The Old College Badgge A Flirtattion at Sea The Creoole’s Love Stoory The Overseer’s Revennge The Plannter’s Daughtter Lieutenaant Daring andd the Labour Riots R Lieutenaant Daring andd the Dancing g Girl.36

Mediia History Digittal Library Fig. 1-20: Dirrector Charles Raymond, R Film m Daily, 28 Januuary 1924

British-bornn actor Harry Lorraine feattured in Favoourite for the Jamaica Cup, and w was previouslyy known for Harry Herd the World’s Youngest Handcuff Ki King followingg the popular trail t of escapoologist Houdiini at that time. The exxemplary Felbbridge and Diistrict Historyy Group had th his report on Harry:37 “From thhe surviving innternational film records Harrry Lorraine is i only credited w with the above two films in 19 912, but went oon to be crediteed with ten films the following year. The first Harry H Lorraine ffilm of 1913 wa as The Favouritee for the Jamaicca Cup releaseed on 4th May 1 913, followed shortly s after by T Tom Cringle in Jamaica. J On 144th December 1912, members of o British & Coolonial had a fa arewell dinner att the Café Monico M before departing from m Liverpool on 17th Decemberr bound for Kinngston, Jamaicca, on board meerchant ship th he S. S. Pacuare. Cast memberss included, actrresses Misses G Gladys Barnett, t, Elsie mfield, John Farrell, F Barone aand Dorothy Fooster, and actors Henry Bloom John Gloover, William Hulery, H Harry Lorraine (traveelling under his film name), JJohn Melville, Percey Mora an, William P Phillips and Charles C Raymondd. Besides shootting The Favourite for the Jam maica Cup, fourr other British annd Colonial film ms were shot on o location in JJamaica beforee their

32

Chapter One return, which include; Lieutenant Daring and the Dancing Girl, The Planter’s Daughter, A Creole’s Love Story and Tom Cringle in Jamaica. In The Favourite for the Jamaica Cup, which was classed as a thriller, Harry Lorraine took his first leading part as Headway playing opposite actors Dorothy Foster (Doris), Percey Moran (Doris’ brother), John Glover and John Melville. The synopsis for this film is that Doris overhears Lopez plotting with Headway to wreck the train in which her sweetheart’s race horse was travelling. Doris is kidnapped but manages to escape and rides with her brother to the railway points where Headway has overpowered the signalman. In a hand to hand struggle Headway falls from a high railway bridge into the river, Doris saves the train and her sweetheart’s horse wins the race. Writing about the exploits of Harry Lorraine in The Favourite for the Jamaica Cup, The Film Censor & Exhibitors Review, dated 13th March 1913, states: ‘…he [Harry Lorraine] had a most thrilling experience in fighting on the railway bridge. He was pushed between the sleepers and fell 30ft. into a raging torrent’. In Tom Cringle in Jamaica, Harry Loraine again had the leading part playing Tom Cringle opposite John Melville (Lt. Splinter), Percey Moran (Spaniard), John Glover (Admiral), and Elsie Barone. The film was classed as an adventure film and was based on the novel Tom Cringle’s Log written by Michael Scott that had been published in 1836, but unfortunately there is no available synopsis. It is evident from the reviews of Lieutenant Rose and the Train Wreckers, and The Favourite for the Jamaica Cup, that Harry Lorraine was building upon his former career as a dare devil stuntman, taking his daring and skill to a potentially larger audience in the silent movies. The Film Censor & Exhibitors Review of 13th March 1913 also stated: ‘…he [Harry Lorraine] has been taking several leads, both heavy and juvenile, and has accomplished some of the most daring feats imaginable and is one of the most venturesome of cinema artists’. Information supplied by Harry Lorraine’s son also includes that he had to dive into a pool of sharks whilst filming on location in Jamaica.”

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Colonial Film: Moving Images of the British Empire Fig. 1-21: St. James railway bridge, 1913

Media History Digital Library Fig. 1-22: “The Favourite for the Jamaica Cup”, Cinema News and Property Gazette, 2 April 1913

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Chapter One

Media History Digital Library Fig. 1-23: “Lieutenant Daring Quells a Rebellion”, Cinema News and Property Gazette, September 1912

Some concern was expressed about the labour-riot scenes in Lieutenant Daring and the Labour Riots, but this was dispelled by the approval of the British Censor and the deletion of any specific place name for the supposed riots’ location.38 The outstanding archive Colonial Film: Moving Images of the British Empire had this report:39 “On the evening of 1 January 1913, Mr. J. O’Neil Farrell and several members of the British and Colonial Kinematograph Company (B and C) arrived in Jamaica (Gleaner, 3 January 1913, 2). Over the next two months, they shot a series of films, showing ‘local industries and scenes’, but also produced fictional titles, such as The Favourite for the Jamaica Cup and Lieutenant Daring and the Labour Riots. The company met with strong opposition, as members of the Jamaican public, articulating their concerns through the press, condemned the company’s representation of Jamaica. “The Gleaner of 29 January 1913 contained a letter from the Reverend Ernest Price in which he directly criticized the work of B and C and argued that ‘the Jamaica public should resent the action of men who come here and enlist some of our poorer people in a show which libels their own race. The impression created on many who see this film [referring specifically to Lieutenant Daring and the Labour Riots]’, Price continued, ‘will be that the people of the island are half-savage, that “missionaries” here live in danger of their lives, and that Myrtle Bank hotel is the last outpost of civilization in this land’. Price further warned of the potential harm such a representation could cause to the tourist industry: ‘The way to

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Media History Digital Library Fig. 1-24: Cinema News and Property Gazette report, British and Colonial Kinematograph Company Jamaica, 5 March 1913 encourage tourists is not to allow cinematographers to suggest that Jamaicans “rush up” to houses “armed with cutlasses and pitchforks” and attack the people within’ (Gleaner, 29 January 1913, 4). Farrell attempted to counter these objections by arguing that British censors would not allow any picture to ‘over step the mark’, and that the scenic films would interest

36

Chapter One potential tourists (Gleaner, 29 January 1913, 4). He also emphasized that the exact location of the action would be unclear, but this argument was challenged in further published letters. ‘Why come to Jamaica for it?’, asked J. W. Graham, ‘but that the faces of the perpetrators must be black to satisfy the “realistic taste” of the author to the tragedy?’ Graham concluded, ‘The Government must move in this matter and have this outrage of the people of the island destroyed’ (Gleaner, 3 February 1913, 3). Further letters continued to question the company’s representation of local life. D. C. Beckford wrote on 29 January, ‘As a Jamaican and one who has lived abroad for many years, I desire to enter my emphatic protest against certain pictures that are now being taken by a moving picture company to be exhibited abroad’. Beckford urged a united public response against the producers, who he argued, were ‘only out for the money’. ‘For the good of the country and its people, especially the coloured race, all Jamaicans who have the welfare of their country at heart should rise as one and do something to prevent their country and themselves being shown to the world in such unfavourable light, which is not fact’ (Gleaner, 31 January 1913, 3). The Gleaner joined the debate, avoiding criticism of the company itself – which it suggested had been guilty only of ‘thoughtlessness’ – stating instead that ‘if we may make a suggestion to this company, it is that they should show Jamaica as a colony without a colour problem. That would be the truth. And surely that ought to be as interesting to foreign audiences as imaginary attacks upon imaginary missionaries’ (Gleaner, 1 February 1913, 3). This thus serves as a concrete example of local colonial populations resisting the filming and representation of local life on screen for foreign audiences. In an apparent attempt to foster goodwill amongst the community – and the readers of Gleaner – B and C organised, ‘with the usual generosity of the profession’, a performance at the Ward theatre for the ‘Gleaner’ charity fund at the start of February (Gleaner, 1 February 1913, 3). A few months later when the films were released in Britain, B and C arranged for Mr Aspinall of The West India Committee Circular to ‘inspect’ the films. He noted that the company had ‘courteously agreed to omit the name of the place in which the riots are supposed to have occurred’ and argued that the scenes were ‘really quite inoffensive’ when compared to other cowboy films. Aspinall concluded that the rest of the pictures ‘should prove a notable advertisement for Jamaica’ adding that the ‘scenes are characteristic and real, and breathe the very atmosphere of the tropics’ (Gleaner, 23 May 1913, 10). The Favourite for the Jamaica Cup played throughout the Empire, for example in New Zealand in July 1913 where it was advertised as a ‘superb drama, enacted amid the beautiful scenery of tropical Jamaica’ (Wellington Evening Post, 12 July 1913, 6). It also played in Jamaica in February 1914, when Farrell returned to the island and presented a series of Jamaican pictures, under the heading ‘Farrell’s Faultless Features’.

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The programme began with The Favourite for the Jamaica Cup, and also included Lieutenant Daring and the Labour Riots and The College Badge, a cricket tale (Gleaner, 16 February 1914, 4). The Favourite for the Jamaica Cup had been supported by Elders and Fyffes – as an opening title indicates – and by 1914 Farrell was working in a new role for the company ‘introducing moving pictures on all the United Fruit Company’s and Elders and Fyffe’s large passenger steamers, so that ocean-going travellers in future will be amused on different evenings with a moving picture show on board the steamers’ (Gleaner, 2 February 1914, 6). In writing about his experiences filming in the Caribbean, Farrell discussed the ‘difficulties of securing supers [extras] in a country (Jamaica, where there is hardly 10% of “Whites”)’. However he added that ‘the blacks proved themselves adaptable to the needs of the cameraman and appeared to thoroughly enjoy the pastime of “dying for the pictures”’ (The Cinema, 12 August 1915). Burton and Porter claimed that B and C not only used local actors in their Jamaica productions, but also returned from the Caribbean with ‘several local actors in its troupe’ (Burton and Porter, 2002, 20).”

A year earlier, in 1915, Tom Terriss had directed a romantic drama filmed in Jamaica called The Pearl of the Antilles that included Jamaican-born actress Tessie De Cordova appearing in her first and only film role. She was likely a relative of Rienzi De Cordova, who appeared in another Terriss film, Flame of Passion, also shot in Jamaica in 1915. Reinzi was the brother of two other actor directors, Leander and Rudolph, all of whom were Jamaicans.40 One description of Flame of Passion has Rienzi playing an early vampire plotting with a Southern belle to ruin a Northerner in an allegory of the earlier American Civil War.41 The film is also believed to have included some quatrains from Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat.42 Born in Jamaica to a sugar magnate, Tessie De Cordova may have been the Vera De Cordova who co-founded the Washington Square Players, later the Theater Guild, in 1914 as well as being a volunteer nurse during World War Two. After attending Hunter College, she eventually married and settled in Washington, DC.43 A Gleaner newspaper report published a rare picture of her and Reinzi de Cordova with the Tom Terriss Company at the Ward Theatre on 20 May 1915, where they performed four one-act plays in one night.44

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Chapter One

Media History Digital Library Fig. 1-25: Director Tom Terriss, Film Daily, 1923

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39

Monique Polack Fig. 1-26: Ward Theatre, Kingston, lobby

Media History Digital Library Fig. 1-27: Tom Terriss article, Motion Picture News, 1915

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Chapter One

Media History Digital Library Fig. 1-28: Ward Theatre, Kingston, c. 1900

It was reported that the film included a race at the oft-used film location Knutsford Park Racecourse; some local society people; and, surprisingly, a river baptism by the notorious Garveyite preacher, Alexander Bedward, at August Town.45 The piece included a review by the Morning Telegraph, which remarked, “The scenes are laid in Jamaica, and a wealth of tropical scenery is revealed in the photography with vivid effects. Views of swiftly flowing streams, waterfalls, rocky chasms and cliffs are in evidence, as well as excellent portrayals of plantation life as it exists in the West Indies”

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Institute of Jamaica Fig. 1-29: Alexander Bedward and church, August Town, Jamaica, 1905

It was to be six years before another Jamaica-based film emerged, with the adaptation of Love’s Redemption in 1921, directed by Albert Parker and starring Norma Talmadge. This was a story about a reformed alcoholic saved by a Jamaican orphan love interest, which moved between Jamaica and England, with an original working title of “Regeneration Isle”.46 One complaint aired in the Gleaner three years later was that house servants in the picture were dressed in rags when this was not so in Jamaica, but the review went on to say that the audience at the Palace Theatre cheered when Talmadge beseeched to return home to Jamaica.47

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Chapter One

Media History Digital Library Fig. 1-30: Norma Talmadge, Film Daily Year Book, 1925

The pirate-treasure-themed Satan’s Sister, directed by George Pearson and produced by the British B.W.P Films arrived on the Jamaican North Coast in 1925 for beach scenes with actress Betty Balfour. At the time it was the only British film production in progress – and that year was a particular low point for British cinema, its output having almost halved compared to that of the previous year. Part of the reason was the large number of American films released in Britain: no less than 620 in 1926 alone.48

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Nearly a decade later in 1935, as Hollywood left the silent era behind, came the George Terwilliger-written and directed Ouanga production: a romantic film with aspects of Haitian voodoo. This piece also went by the names The Love Wanga, Drums Of the Night and Drums of the Jungle.

Media History Digital Library Fig. 1-31: Advertisement for George Terwilliger, Film Daily Year Book, 1934

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Chapter One

Media History Digital Library Fig. 1-32: Audley Morais interview, Exhibitor’s Trade Review, 1924

The cast and crew of the Canadian film company arrived by ship on 3 October 1933, and were greeted by Mr. Audley Morais of Jamaica Theatres Ltd (later Palace Amusement Company). No time was wasted as the ship docked in Kingston for some footage to be shot of the pier that day.

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The Gleaner reported that the entire film would be shot in Jamaica, using many locals, and would be subsequently released by Paramount. The company set up a base at the Myrtle Bank Hotel with a cast led by Fredi Washington, Marie Paxton and Phil Brandon.49 The Myrtle Bank was once owned by the pioneer of the Jamaican hotel industry, Abe Issa, whose family went on to own many hotels including the outstanding Spanish Court Hotel in New Kingston today.50

Couples Fig. 1-33: Abe Issa, the father of modern Jamaican tourism

Described as the very first talking picture shot in Jamaica, the production was completed on 15 November 1933 when the cast and crew sailed for New York.51 Locations included the famous Gallows Point, where pirates had been hanged many hundreds of years ago, believed to be on the road to Port Royal.52

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Chapter One

Media History Digital Library Fig. 1-34: Fredi Washington and Jamaican drummer, Ouanga, Photoplay, 1934

One theory as to why producers selected Jamaica highlighted its fine weather conditions, landscape and even the availability of electricity, while the local populace endeared themselves as easy to work with compared to inhabitants of other locations. In some cases, productions had to be terminated and moved to Jamaica as a result of hostility from locals in other countries.53 The Jamaican word for black magic gave the title of the next film, Obeah, directed and produced by F. Herrick Herrick for the Arcturus Picture Corporation based in New York.

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Media History Digital Library Fig. 1-35: F. Herrick Herrick, Motion Picture News, 1925

Media History Digital Library Fig. 1-36: Advertisement for Obeah, Film Daily Year Book, 1935

Production was in full flow in June 1934 when the search began for an attractive Jamaican young lady to play a part in the sea-based film that included local interior locations at the Ice House Bar and Ocean Bar. Papine and the historical Port Royal were also included in the locations

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Chapter One

used by Mr. Herrick, who described the locals as being helpful in keeping quiet when necessary for sound production. Herrick confirmed that Port Royal was referred to as “The City of Death” in the film, and its character was a likely highlight of any release.54 Ice House Bar, which probably received its name from a nearby coldstorage facility, was located at the corner of Port Royal and Pechon streets in downtown Kingston.55

Nico Gray Fig. 1-37: Ice House Bar film location, corner Pechon and Port Royal streets, Kingston

Later in June, Obeah was referred to as White Sails when there was an accident resulting in some cast members being burnt. In one of the earliest recorded selections of a local actor, brewery worker Alexander McCatty was given a short, challenging role, in which he performed admirably.56

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The film production was reported as requiring several weeks on location in Jamaica. The screenplay was written by Robert Carse with a working and final title of Obeah, although director Herrick took great pains to explain that he was not diminishing Jamaica in any way by the name, which denoted a mythical story. The picture was released under the name The Mystery Ship in the United Kingdom.

Media History Digital Library Fig. 1-38: Kingston, Exhibitor’s Trade Review, 1924

CHAPTER TWO PRE-WORLD WAR TWO

The scandalous A Daughter of the Gods was superseded two decades later, in 1939, by the first American black feature film shot on location in Jamaica. This also used “daughter” in the title – The Devil’s Daughter – but had a listing, on occasion, of Pocomania as well.57 The cast included Nina Mae McKinney, Jack Carter and famous vocalist Ida James in her first film role. McKinney was described in one film-magazine report as being a member of the Harlem art movement, with the comment: “Art progresses but certain motifs remain the same”.58 This Lenwal Productions film was directed by Arthur Leonard and described as a tale of island voodoo with scenes commonly referred to in Jamaica today as “Pocomania”. The movie itself has seen some limited modern resurrection as a reference to Pocomania, which is a wellrespected part of the Jamaican cultural/social fabric rather than some kind of American zombie fantasy.59 Hopefully there would have been at least one person in Hollywood in 1939 who would have detected the deeper significance of this film. Leonard went on to direct First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt in her film debut, for a 1941 production entitled Hobby, Lobby about the hobbies of the White House family.60

Pre-World War W Two

51

Mediia History Digittal Library Fig. 2-01: “Poocomania”, Mootion Picture Heerald, 9 Decem mber 1939

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Chapter Two

Media History Digital Library Fig. 2-02: Nina Mae McKinney on the set of The Devil’s Daughter, Kingston, Motion Picture Herald, 1939

Media History Digital Library Fig. 2-03: First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and director Arthur Leonard on set, Screenland magazine, 1941

Pre-World War Two

53

Nico Gray Fig. 2-04: Hope Gardens, location of The Devil’s Daughter, Kingston, 1939

Rosie McNamee Fig. 2-05: Hope Gardens, location of The Devil’s Daughter, Kingston, 1939

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Chapter Two

Media History Digital Library Fig. 2-06: Director George Terwilliger, Moving Picture World, 1925

Another George Terwilliger story found him at the Manor House Hotel in Constant Spring, seeking the public’s suggestion for a title for the picture with a prize of one pound. This method was the same as that used for A Daughter of the Gods, but with a racier result.61 Scene locations included Knutsford Park Racecourse, Hope Gardens, Oracabessa, the Roaring River Falls, the Glass Bucket club, the swimming pool at the Constant Spring Hotel and the Manor House Hotel. An attempt was made to shoot the loading of bananas at Port Morant, but this was prevented by a labour leader, leading to the selection of another location.62

Colonial Film: Moving Images of the British Empire Fig. 2-07: Shipping Jamaica bananas, 1938

Pre-World War Two

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Nico Gray Fig. 2-08: Hope Gardens gate, Kingston

The Roaring River Falls, subsequently used in several other films, has since been downgraded for a hydroelectric project. Although a main feature of Jamaican tourism in the past – it was, for instance, used at times when Dunn’s River Falls was not accesible – the Roaring River Falls is sadly no longer in existence.63

Rosie McNamee Fig. 2-09: Hope Gardens, Kingston

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Chapter Two

Matthew Parker Fig. 2-10: Roaring River, St. Ann

There was a report of a number of setbacks in the production schedule of The Devil’s Daughter, including the illness of actress Ida James.64 James was better known for her trademark song, “Shoo Shoo Baby”, but this was her first, and commendable, outing as an actress, playing the heiress Sylvia Walton.65 Other aspects of this milestone film were the likely scarcity of pre-war productions at foreign locations and the fact that it was a black feature film on location in a West Indian colonial island, populated almost entirely by black people and dominated by a white British administration. The film was variously described in later press releases, posters and the media as: “Forbidden by law for years, Tropical Love in New Picture, Sex-ational Dance of the Damned, Blood Dance, Big Colored Cast, Sensational All Negro Drama”.

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Alexander Lamont Henderson Fig. 2-11: Knutsford Park Racecourse, c. 1900

The present-day location of the Knutsford Park Racecourse has been recorded in the history of its partial successor, the modern and beautiful Emancipation Park: “Before examining the history of Emancipation Park, we must first look at the history of the Liguanea Plain in St. Andrew where the Park now stands. After the devastating earthquake of 1692 in Port Royal, several English settlers recognized the enormous value of the Liguanea Plain in St. Andrew. Following the earthquake, a wealthy sugar plantation owner named Colonel Beeston sold 2,000 acres of the lands on the plain to the British colonial government for the re-development of Kingston. Before then, Port Royal had been the centre of Jamaica's bustling commercial activities. During the post-emancipation period and the decline of the sugar plantations, several Jamaicans living in the rural areas as well as immigrants from countries such as China, Lebanon, Syria and India, flocked the city of Kingston by the thousands in search of better working conditions and business opportunities. As Kingston's population mushroomed, many merchants who previously lived above their business places in central Kingston relocated to the upper circles of the Liguanea Plain now known as ‘uptown’. The earthquake of 1907, further encouraged migration from Downtown Kingston to St. Andrew – Kingston now being divided into two parishes (Kingston and St. Andrew) because of its immense growth. As the business activities and persons who were then considered being from the ‘upper crust of the society’ shifted to St.

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Chapter Two Andrew, there was now a need for social and sporting activities uptown. This major shift saw 85 acres of land including the long stretch of land from Knutsford Boulevard to Oxford Road being developed as the Knutsford Park Race Course where horseracing and polo matches were held. The racecourse was later bought out by a conglomerate of businessmen who envisioned this site as a ‘city built within a city’, hence the name New Kingston”.66

The tree-lined entrance to Hope Botanical Gardens at Mona in Kingston was also featured in the film, and is an even more beautiful film location today with new park areas and a recently renovated zoo. Hope Botanical Gardens is described by the Jamaica National Heritage Trust in the following terms: “In 1881, two hundred (200) acres of Hope Estate was purchased by the Government to establish an experimental garden. Fifty (50) acres of the land was devoted to the development and distribution of new varieties of sugar cane, and ten (10) acres for planting teak, Liberian Coffee, Trinidad Cocoa and pineapples. During the last fifty years Hope Gardens has been through periods of care and neglect. During the period of care the Garden became a place for pleasure, recreation, sightseeing and picnicking. The Garden is especially enjoyed by visitors including students from the nearby universities, who seek a quiet place to relax and study. Adjoining the Hope Botanical Gardens is the Hope Zoo which has many animals from several parts of the world. The Hope Botanical Gardens and the Hope Zoo are located on Old Hope Road in the parish of St. Andrew.”67

The film also included what appeared to be the famous Tom Cringle cotton tree on the way to Spanish Town, sadly no longer in existence having collapsed in 1971.

Cardcow.com Fig. 2-12: Tom Cringle cotton tree, looking east to Ferry Police Station, Spanish Town highway

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Nico Gray Fig. 2-13: Emancipation Park, formerly Knutsford Park, Kingston

Nasi-Menyelek Ben-Yisrr Fig. 2-14: New Kingston

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Colonial Film: Moving Images of the British Empire Fig. 2-15: Jamaica plantation, 1938

Nico Gray Fig. 2-16: Port Royal

The powerful attraction of a Jamaican film location was enough to surmount even the conflict and shortages of World War Two. The 1942 release The Black Swan, shot in part on location at the old pirate haven of Port Royal just a few miles from Kingston, was remarkable in the timing

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of a production at an exotic overseas location during a major international conflict.68 The underlying story was about a pirate, trying to reform his ways, who kidnaps a love interest to prevent her marriage to another during the time of Sir Henry Morgan. One review had the picture as one of the best portrayals of former privateer Morgan, who became Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica in 1673.69 The film – produced by the renowned producer Darryl Zanuck with one of his favourite directors, Henry King – was shot on location between April and June 1942.70 Not released until 1944 in Jamaica, it was held over by the Gaiety Theatre due to popular demand.71 The film included the famous Hollywood stars Maureen O’Hara and Tyrone Power. Unused footage from the production was subsequently used in the 1951 film, Anne of the Indies.72 A contemporary of Zanuck was David Selznick, who never used Jamaica as a film location but who was sufficiently entranced to acquire the High Hope Estate overlooking Montego Bay as a vacation home.73

Media History Digital Library Fig. 2-17: Tyrone Power in The Black Swan, Hollywood magazine, 1942

The Black Swan was Tyrone Power’s last movie before enlisting in the United States Navy in August 1942. Although one travel directory credits the 1941 Honeymoon for Three with exterior shots from Jamaica, confirmation of this event has eluded careful

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research – but then this record also has it as the first visit of Hollywood filmmakers to Jamaica.74 The four films produced in Jamaica in the decade following 1925 had names or themes of mysticism, black magic and even early zombie portrayals, which displayed the popularity of these topics in 1920s’ America. The Devil’s Daughter (1939) saw a sister using spells on her sibling, while The Love Wanga (also Ouanga [1935]) depicted a female voodoo priest using her powers to turn a competitor for the affections of a white plantation owner into a zombie. Obeah (1935), although one of several names for that film, used the Jamaican word for black magic or the equivalent of Haitian voodoo. Then there was Satan’s Sister (1925), which merely had the Devil in its name and no other satanic connection. Very often in these pictures, it could be discerned that romantic drama became intertwined with sorcery in a quest to obtain or keep a loved one – seemingly the perpetual stain of excessive influence of that complex emotion, love.

CHAPTER THREE POST-WAR

Some ten years later there was a burst of productions in Jamaica, with Island of Desire, more commonly, Saturday Island (1952); All the Brothers were Valiant (1953); and Sea Wife (1957), using locations in Ocho Rios and Oracabessa. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954) had some scenes shot in Negril, using the cave; Booby Cay; and Long Bay Beach Park. There was Manfish (1956), also called Calypso in the UK, which saw an appearance by Jamaican actor Eric Coverley. The final film of the fifties was Passionate Summer, which was also called Storm over Jamaica, released in 1958.75 The UK-produced Saturday Island, renamed Island of Desire for its US release, had beach scenes shot in part in Ocho Rios, which were similarly used by All the Brothers were Valiant – released a year later. Island of Desire was a 1952 wartime romance about three people marooned on a tropical island after their ship had been sunk, and featured the young, upcoming actor Tab Hunter, in only his second role, with Linda Darnell.76 The cast stayed at the Tower Isle Hotel near Ocho Rios, where they received regal hospitality on the Abe Issa-owned property – with occasional dance nights featuring celebrities on the Marine Roof, to the sounds of Baron Lewis and the Tower Islanders.77 Produced by David E. Rose and directed by Stuart Heisler for Coronado Productions of England, the cast and crew completed their task on 29 August 1951. Rose complimented the people of Jamaica and their government for their great assistance on the venture, which was filmed in what he described as an ideal location. It is noteworthy that the Gleaner also reported that day that English actress Gladys Cooper was building a home at Content near Montego Bay, now known as Highland.78

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Stuart Heisler directed Tab Hunter again in a 1956 western with the Louis L’Amour book adaptation, The Burning Hills, along with the classic beauty Natalie Wood.79 Later on came All the Brothers were Valiant, which was an adventure-flick remake of the 1923 silent film of the same name starring Lon Chaney, set in the South Pacific but shot in Jamaica. It was directed by Richard Thorpe and produced by Pandro Berman for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer with a budget of nearly US$2 million.

Media History Digital Library Fig. 3-01: Tab Hunter, Modern Screen magazine, 1953

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Couples Fig. 3-02: Tower Isle Hotel, Ocho Rios

Media History Digital Library Fig. 3-03: Stuart Heisler, Showmen’s Trade Review, 1947

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Media History Digital Library Fig. 3-04: Richard Thorpe, Film Daily Year Book, 1932

The story surrounded a whaling ship and two brothers, one of whom disappears but then shows up again only to end up fighting over the other brother’s wife and pearls. The film saw prominence in the 1954 Academy Awards, when it was nominated for best colour cinematography by George Folsey – unfortunately to be beaten in the end by the western Shane.80 Here was a Jamaican landscape being featured in an Academy Award nomination, although the script portrayal was of the South Pacific. Filming, by the California-based crew, began on 8 January 1953 at Ocho Rios and Oracabessa on the North Coast, with an expected duration of two weeks. It featured the stars Robert Taylor, Stewart Granger and Ann Blyth. Prior to the start of production, Stewart Granger was reported to have driven from the Tower Isle Hotel to visit the Myrtle Bank Hotel; the Jamaica Arms; and, finally, the Cathay Club for a Chinese dinner. Today, Kingston still has an outstanding reputation for Asian cuisine in several of its restaurants.81 One report had a crowd of two thousand local and tourist spectators sitting near the White River when filming began at Ocho Rios, which erupted in cheers when Stewart Granger drove up to the set. Some curiosity was directed at Betta St. John, who played the part of a South Pacific native girl – and a complete native thatched village, created by MGM workers,

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was soon beeset by gunfiree from Stewarrt Granger thaat sent Jamaiccan extras running throough the villagge. Director Thhorpe admitteed great pleasure at the ddiscipline and d general behaviour oof onlookers; he had encou untered manyy disturbancess on film locations in England and Tahiti. The film f demandedd the construcction of a whaling vesssel, the Nathan Ross, amo ong other connstruction worrk, which employed huundreds in ordder to service the movie’s tthirty-five-perrson cast. Thorpe alsoo complimenteed the ease of o access to thhe Jamaican locations, l which posseessed great beeauty blessed by good weaather, as he went w on to use a locatioon at Mammeee Bay, just weest of Ocho Riios.82

Mediia History Digittal Library Fig. 3-05: Roobert Taylor, Moodern Screen magazine, m Septeember 1953

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Media History Digital Library Fig. 3-06: Stewart Granger, Modern Screen magazine, 1953

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Media History Digital Library Fig. 3-07: Ann Blyth, Screenland magazine, 1949

This marine extravaganza was followed by another nautical film, the Walt Disney production of the Jules Verne classic 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea in 1954, which had a budget of $5 million dollars. The film was directed by Richard Fleischer and included renowned actor James Mason as Captain Nemo and the upcoming star, Kirk Douglas.83 Fleischer went on to direct many prominent films, including The Vikings with Kirk Douglas, Barabbas and Tora, Tora, Tora. In his 1993 memoir, Just Tell Me When To Cry, he revealed the aberrant on-set behaviour of many actors, such as Orson Welles, Kirk Douglas and Rex Harrison. This prodigious director, who came from a family of early cartoon producers before the Disney era, died in 2006.84

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Media History Digital Library Fig. 3-08: Grips working on underwater scenes, International Projectionist, August 1954

Media History Digital Library Fig. 3-09: Grips working on underwater scenes, International Projectionist, August 1954

Media History Digital Library Fig. 3-10: Director Richard Fleischer and cameraman Till Gabbani working on underwater scenes for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, International Projectionist, August 1954

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Using locations for caves in Negril and nearby Long Bay Beach Park for seagoing shots, this early film continued a trend that persists to the present day of Jamaica as the location for tropical, nautical and beach sites for exotic film productions.

Andrew Nish Fig. 3-11: Negril Caves

Andrew Nish Fig. 3-12: Negril Caves

Another nearby location used for this film was Booby Cay, which is located just offshore west of Negril beach and which apparently provided a backdrop. Named after a local bird, this small island still retains a great deal of its original attraction despite the growth of the nearby Negril beach as a popular holiday destination.85

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Andrew Nish Fig. 3-13: Booby Cay, Negril, Westmoreland

One book reported that the film had used “scenic Montego Bay”, but research has not uncovered any footage in Montego Bay, which may have only been used as a staging point or accommodation area for cast and crew.86 Underwater photography was taken by Till Gabbani, and ended up representing over 12,000 working hours – including those spent at the various Jamaican locations.87 The popularity of Jamaica as a film location, and of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea itself, was recently highlighted by United States Ambassador to Jamaica, Pamela Bridgewater, in a speech in 2012 to the Jamaica Exporters’ Association, when she remarked, “During the 1900’s, the relationship between Jamaica and the United States grew ever closer. In 1930, a flying boat operated by Pan American Airways landed in Jamaica, heralding this country’s first commercial flights with the outside world. In 1952, U.S. firm Reynolds Metals Limited, became the first commercial bauxite producer to operate in Jamaica. Within six years, Jamaica became the world’s largest bauxite producer. Around the same time, the Hollywood crowd began jetting into Jamaica. Movies such as 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Papillon were filmed in Jamaica.”88

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Media History Digital Library Fig. 3-14: Kirk Douglas, Screenland magazine, 1949

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Mediia History Digittal Library Fig. 3-15: Jam mes Mason, Scrreenland magazzine, 1949

In April 19555, another seaagoing adventture, Manfish,, was filmed entirely e in Jamaica by the Planet Filmplays F production com mpany. It starred Lon Chaney Junnior, who nevver quite rosee to his fatheer’s fame. Ju unior was mostly remeembered for playing p The Wolf W Man in tthe 1941 classsic of the same name, and Lennie in the 1939 movie m adaptatioon of John Steeinbeck’s Of Mice andd Men. Manfish, alsso called Calyypso in the UK K, was memoorable for the inclusion of Jamaicann overseas-bassed actress and d famous beau auty Tessa Preendergast. Local actorr Eric Coverlley – the hu usband of thee renowned Jamaican entertainer, M Miss Louise Bennett B – also o performed inn it. Production locations in Jamaica weere the Northh Coast; Porrt Royal; Morgan’s H Harbour; and Dunn’s Riveer Falls in O Ocho Rios, wh hich also provided som me underwateer footage.89

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Media History Digital Library Fig. 3-16: Lon Chaney Junior, Silver Screen magazine, 1940

Directed by low-budget specialist W. Lee Wilder, the film followed the overused Jamaica-location genre of the sea and treasure hunters. During the production, many extras came from Port Royal and the owner of nearby Morgan’s Harbour, Sir Anthony Jenkinson, lent his boat, which was renamed Manfish for the occasion. Manfish – which also featured the Jamaican musician Vere Johns, playing a wealthy merchant – was eventually released to the Jamaican public in November 1957. The picture also included some musical accompaniment provided by Clyde Hoyte and his Calypsos.90 Sea Wife was the film adaptation of the 1955 J. M. Scott novel Sea-Wyf and Biscuit, directed by Bob McNaught for Sumar Film Production in 1956, with Richard Burton and Joan Collins shooting on the same beach in Ocho Rios that had been used in Island of Desire and All the Brothers were Valiant. The popularity of this spot was boosted by the numerous high-quality tourist hotels nearby, which could admirably cater to cast and crew alike after a long day in the tropical sun. Produced by André Hakim – who was accompanied by his wife Susan, the daughter of Darryl Zanuck – it was shot in the summer of 1956 on the beaches of Ocho Rios, where the cast and crew were said to have contributed extensively to local businesses.

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The crew opperated from the Shaw Parrk Hotel, whille most stars stayed at the famed JJamaica Inn, ably a assisted at all times bby the Jamaicca Tourist Board. The cast included Guyanese acttor and musiciian Cy Grant, who was the regular ccentre of danccing accompaanied by calyppso entertaineer, Hubert Porter.91 Othher areas incluuded in the loccation schedulle were Kingsston, used to representt Singapore, and a Priory on n the St. Ann coast. Althou ugh there were some eelectrical probblems, shootin ng was able to continue at th he Cotton Wood homee of English inndustrialist Sirr Bernard Doccker.

Mediia History Digittal Library Fig. 3-17: Dirrector Bob McN Naught and Joaan Collins on thhe set of Sea Wif ife, Motion Picture Heralld, 1956

Colonial Film m: Moving Imaages of the Britiish Empire maica beach sceene Fig. 3-18: Jam

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Jaamaica Inn Fig. 3-19: Maarilyn Monroe and a writer husband Arthur Milller at Jamaica Inn, I 1957

Mediia History Digittal Library Fig. 3-20: Prooducer André Hakim H and wife Susan, Motionn Picture Herald d, 1956

The plot foollows a shipp sunk durin ng World Waar Two, with h several passengers, including an attractive a nun, marooned onn a Pacific islaand.92 Two directoors exited earrly, first Ronaald Neame theen Roberto Rossellini, R citing doubtts about a scrippt involving th hree men and a nun on a raft.93

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The famous Rossellini had been invited to direct the film by producer Spyros Skouras, whereupon he revised the script and cast Joan Collins. He arrived in Jamaica to a film that had already begun production, and producers demanding a move to a more adventurous picture whereas he sought a deeper story.

Andrew Nish Fig. 3-21: St. Ann’s Bay

Media History Digital Library Fig. 3-22: Joan Collins, Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin, 1955

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Additionally, and unsurprisingly, Richard Burton was making demands for an enlarged role.94 Twenty-three-year-old Joan Collins managed to go rafting on the Rio Grande and visit Brown’s Emporium in Ocho Rios to shop for locally made goods in her off-time. As the schedule progressed, producer Hakim complimented the Jamaican Government on their help and assistance in several respects.95

Andrew Nish Fig. 3-23: Rio Grande, Portland

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Media History Digital Library Fig. 3-24: Joan Collins and Richard Burton in Sea Wife, Motion Picture Herald, 1956

Media History Digital Library Fig. 3-25: Richard Burton, Sponsor magazine, 1964

In addition, the local engineering skills of Masterton Ltd were put to good use in the rapid construction of a camera-equipment raft, which was extensively used in production. 96 One report confirmed the use of the Laughing Waters property, where the Roaring River met the sea with many picturesque falls. Later, there was to be a scene of the torpedoed boat with hundreds of extras, but not before Richard Burton was able to participate in a local cricket match.97

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Passionate Summer was the last film of the fifties to be shot in Jamaica, and it was released in 1958. It was a UK Arthur Rank production that was also called Storm in Jamaica or Storm over Jamaica, about a British schoolteacher and romance on a tropical island. Images of the film suggest some locations on a beach on Jamaica’s North Coast and on the road to Greenwich near the Blue Mountains.98 99

Rosie McNamee Fig. 3-26: Blue Mountains, Irish Town: northern view

One report had production taking place at the eighteenth-century Temple Hall Great House in Golden Spring, St. Andrew in the hills behind Kingston. Shooting also took place at Bamboo Lodge near the Blue Mountains, now the home of prominent Jamaican philanthropist Danny Williams.100 Producer George Willoughby was joined by lead actors Virginia McKenna and her new husband, Bill Travers, under the direction of Rudolph Cartier that April to begin filming. 101 Cartier was known more as a television

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director, and the production was not nearly as successful as the earlier hits of Bill Travers.102

Crucial Hylton Fig. 3-27: Aqueduct: Temple Hall, St. Andrew

Danny Williams Fig. 3-28: Bamboo Lodge, St. Andrew

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Rosie McNamee Fig. 3-29: Blue Mountains, Greenwich: southern view

George Giglioli Fig. 3-30: Blue Mountain Peak

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The Rank Organisation representative in Jamaica, J. Stuart Smeeden, gave a cocktail party for the lead actors at his Barbican residence in Kingston on 3 April 1958 in order to introduce them to his society and business contacts. Smeeden was joined by Lloyd Alberga of the Palace Amusement chain of cinemas owned by Rank, and for which the former was the managing director. Also present were the founders of the Little Theatre Movement, Greta and Henry Fowler, the producers of Bluebeard and Brer Anancy for the West Indies Festival of Arts.103 104 The following Wednesday, a Rank production team of Rudolph Cartier, David Orton, Ernest Stewart and Robert Thomson arrived at the Palisadoes International Airport from London by BOAC in anticipation of the remainder of the crew, with equipment, coming on the weekend to begin production on Monday, 14 April 1958.105

Born Free Foundation Fig. 3-31: Virginia McKenna

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Rosie McNamee Fig. 3-32: Greenwich, Blue Mountains: western view

Paul Robbins (then a young boy), who was recruited from Up Park Camp in Kingston, had this recollection: “I remember being at the Garrison School in Up Park Camp in Jamaica. All the children were called to the club house and swimming pool to allow the film producers to select the children they wanted. A group of children, including me, were enlisted as extras for the film and bussed out each day for filming. They paid a small fee and provide a packed lunch. I cannot remember the actual location but do remember it was a very large house in some fabulous grounds. We had a great time. I do remember they bought my leopard skin patterned calypso shirt after filming for continuity purposes. I always regretted selling it and have spent nearly fifty years looking for a replacement. Most of our time was spent running down lawns

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Chapter Three as an aircraft flew overhead filming us. It was part of the scene where Bill’s plane crashes into the mountain side.106

Paul Robbins Fig. 3-33: Fun Sports Day, Garrison School, Up Park Camp, Kingston, Jamaica, c. 1958

Earlier in the decade, there had been the curious case of producer Robert Cumming, who claimed to have obtained a fifteen-year exclusive for the production of film in the then British colony. The Chicago lawyer stated that his Kingswood Films had convinced the government to pass a special law establishing the monopoly in exchange for a local spend of twenty per cent.107

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A later report had Cumming taking over the Vernamfield airfield in January 1950 for what was to be twelve films by Pathé, starting with Sunken Treasure by James S. Burkett.108

Scott Cumming Fig. 3-34: Robert ‘Bob’ Cumming and director Sir Carol Reed, Discovery Bay, c. 1949

Shares in Kingswood were offered to the people of Jamaica in a public offering published in the Gleaner on 6 June 1950. Among the company directors were several prominent Jamaicans including: Neville Ashenheim Chairman, Kingswood Films Charles Demercado D’Costa Managing Director, Lascelles Demercado Rudolph Henriques Managing Director, Kingston Industrial Agencies Noel Nethersole Solicitor

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Questions assked by R. L. M. Kirkwood d in the Legisllative Assemb bly forced Kingswood to issue a statement defending the experience and qualificationns of their staaff from Holllywood in thhe Gleaner on n 31 July 1950. Howeever, things appeared to be coming uunstuck the following f October, whhen both Cum mming and Neethersole travvelled overseaas to seek refinancing in a cinema market that had declinedd for several reasons, including thhe outbreak of the Koreaan War. 109 N Nethersole weent on to become a m minister of finannce, with a staatue of his imaage outside thee Bank of Jamaica buillding in downttown Kingston n. By August 11951, the entirre venture had apparenttly collapsed when w the David d Rose-led UK K Coronado Prroductions arrived in Occho Rios to beegin filming Sa aturday Island without any connection to Kingswoood – a clear breeach of the offiicially sanctionned monopoly.. This was nott the first timee that Jamaican ns had come cclose to ownin ng a major film studio. IIn 1935, Audlley Morais, wh ho controlled a chain of cineemas, had combined w with author H. G. DeLisser to attempt a film studio th hat would initially prodduce a moviee of DeLisser’s book, Whitte Witch of Rose R Hall. Audley Morrais – the giaant of Jamaiccan cinema enntertainment, who was equally know wn for his conntribution to horse h racing – died on 18 July J 1967 and was buriied at the Jewiish Cemetery on o Orange Strreet in Kingsto on.110

Mediia History Digittal Library Fig. 3-35: Mootion Picture Daaily, 6 July 193 35

CHAPTER FOUR THE ROARING SIXTIES

The sixties started with a bang for Jamaica with its first James Bond production, Dr. No, coming to the island. This movie – actually the original 007 production – ended up utilizing numerous locales and nativeborn actors. It was a homecoming of sorts for the Bond series, the original novels having been dreamed up and written by famous author Ian Fleming at his home, Goldeneye, near the quaint seaside town of Oracabessa. It was the first of nine other films to feature Jamaica in production locations during the sixties – a rate of almost one a year. A short distance away today is the Ian Fleming International Airport at Boscobel on the North Coast, named in recognition of his contribution to Jamaica.

Liguanea Club Fig. 4-01: Liguanea Club, New Kingston

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Many locations were used in the production, including Port Royal, Morgan’s Harbour, Palisadoes Road, Windward Road and other sites in Kingston such as the Liguanea Club, still in operation today. Dr. No marked the start of the successful James Bond series of films coproduced by the Albert R. Broccoli–Harry Saltzman partnership; it was released shortly after Jamaican independence in 1962. Agent 007 was played by Sean Connery, who had just finished World War Two epic The Longest Day before he began a series of James Bond appearances. In this first outing, he was cast opposite the sultry Swiss miss, Ursula Andress. Some of the most enduring images came at Laughing Waters beach just west of Ocho Rios, with the iconic scene of Ursula Andress coming out of the sea. Her stunning white bikini was designed by local beauty and actress Tessa Prendergast, who had also appeared in Manfish.111 At the start of the film, the “Three Blind Mice” assassins can be observed passing the statue of Queen Victoria located at the eastern entrance to St. William Grant Park, formerly Victoria Park. Later, they pass a statue on the waterfront that is often mistaken for Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson but in fact was Governor Sir Charles Metcalfe, whose statute was erected near Victoria Market on King Street. It is now located at St. William Grant Park, and Victoria Market is no longer in existence.

Nico Gray Fig. 4-02: Morgan’s Harbour

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Colonial Film: Moving Images of the British Empire Fig. 4-03: Queen Victoria statue, Kingston, January 1953

Nico Gray Fig. 4-04: Palisadoes Road at the western edge of the airport

Dr. No was directed by Terence Young and saw local actors Marguerite LeWars (Miss Jamaica 1961), Reggie Carter and lawyer William FosterDavis in his first film role, having previously appeared on Broadway in 1954. 112 113 The film also featured well-known Jamaican actors Eric Coverley, in his second major role, and Timothy Moxon as John Strangways as well as the musical group Byron Lee and the Dragonaires, with many more recognizable names in lesser positions on camera.114

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Nico Gray Fig. 4-05: Windward Road, Kingston, near Bournemouth Bath

Terence Young, who was born in Shanghai, China, ended up directing three James Bond films: Dr. No, From Russia with Love and Thunderball. He started in the trade as a screenwriter before graduating to directing films for the Rank Organisation. The director had done previous duties with Broccoli and Saltzman, and had even worked with the then unknown Sean Connery. Young directed his last Bond film in 1983. Perhaps it was fitting that this great director passed away in a city known worldwide for its association with film: Cannes.115 In a reversal of character assignments, African-American actor John Kitzmiller played the role of a fisherman from the Cayman Islands, and made a game attempt at a Caribbean accent before being burnt to death by a flame-throwing ersatz dragon on Crab Key.116 The part of James Bond was initially offered to Cary Grant, who, along with many others, refused it. Grant had been best man at Albert Broccoli’s wedding but, despite the producer’s urging, he declined. At the time, Grant was in his late fifties and was unable to commit to a series.117 A later Bond girl, almost cast in Dr. No, Martine Beswick, appeared in Thunderball and From Russia with Love. She was born in Port Antonio in 1941 to English parents, but Jamaica could still claim her. Footage for the 1963 film adaptation of the William Golding novel Lord of the Flies was shot on location in Port Antonio, with the same area being selected again for the 1990 remake. The original UK production was led by Lewis Allen and directed by Peter Brook for Two Arts Ltd, while the later version was a US production led by actor Balthazar Getty and directed by Harry Hook.118 Peter Brook had previously been in Jamaica in

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1954 seeking local talent for a Broadway show, and received a special floor-show presentation organized by Vere Johns at the Glass Bucket club.119 Brook has had a remarkable career of over seventy years, with only a few films but still being active in theatre production.

Media History Digital Library Fig. 4-06: John Kitzmiller (Quarrel in Dr. No), Motion Picture Herald, 1956

Media History Digital Library Fig. 4-07: “Dr. No”, Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin, 1963

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He spotted the lead child actor, James Aubrey, at a swimming pool at the Up Park army camp in Kingston, Jamaica just a few days before the start of production. The Austrian-born son of a British soldier, Aubrey attended the notable Wolmer’s Boys’ School, second only to Jamaica College as the ranking education institution in Jamaica. He went on to continue acting as a career, and predeceased the man who had put him on the road to film.120 Some other members of the cast of young boys were Tom Chapin, Hugh Edwards and Roger Elwin. Locations included the famed Frenchman’s Cove beach near Port Antonio, which was a major playground of Hollywood stars at one time.121

Alice Gao Fig. 4-08: Frenchman’s Cove, Portland

The 1964 Academy Award-winning Father Goose, directed by Ralph Nelson with a cast led by Cary Grant, was filmed on location at a coconut plantation in Ocho Rios to imitate a Pacific Ocean island. Winning the award for best screenplay, it centred on a coast watcher for Japanese activity during World War Two forced into the care of a schoolteacher, Leslie Caron, and several children.122 Cast and crew stayed at the Hilton hotel in Ocho Rios for the month-long filming schedule, which included excursions to Kingston for shopping and the Rose Hall Great House, famed as the haunted former residence of Annie Palmer, the White Witch.

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Grant was dating actress Dyan Cannon at the time, and she was a frequent visitor to the set in Jamaica.123 Another visitor to the set location was Warren Beatty, who was secretly involved with Leslie Caron but the relationship was exposed in a June 1964 article that led to a divorce and the temporary disappearance of Beatty. The actor was vilified in the press for breaking up a marriage with two small children.124

Media History Digital Library Fig. 4-09: Cary Grant, Motion Picture Herald, 1961

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The next feature film to visit Jamaica was The Confession, also called Seven Different Ways or Quick, Let’s Get Married, made in 1964 during the same period as the Father Goose production with footage from Bog Walk, Hermitage Dam and Spanish Town. Directed by German-born William Dieterle, the story line was about a bordello and a search for treasure; the production featured Ray Milland and Ginger Rogers.125 126

Colonial Film: Moving Images of the British Empire Fig. 4-10: Jamaica Coconut Plantation

Media History Digital Library Fig. 4-11: Director William Dieterle, Motion Picture Herald, 1940

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Media History Digital Library Fig. 4-12: Ray Milland, Cine-Mundial magazine, 1937

This effort was produced by Ginger Rogers’ husband, William Marshall, and featured a debut role for the young Elliot Gould, who is not commonly remembered by this picture. Filming took place between April and May 1964.127 Local actor Marguerite Gauron had this recollection of the film: “I did the part of an ‘extra’ as an Italian peasant girl in a movie filmed in Spanish town in 1964 with Ray Milland and Ginger Rogers filmed at the Cathedral in Spanish Town and around the Rodney Memorial. It was a wedding scene with an earthquake.”128

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Media History Digital Library Fig. 4-13: Ginger Rogers, Photoplay magazine, 1941

National Water Commission Fig. 4-14: Hermitage Dam

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Rosie McNamee Fig. 4-15: Hermitage Dam Falls

The adaptation of Richard Hughes’ book A High Wind in Jamaica (originally titled The Innocent Voyage), by Nunnally Johnson, followed in 1965 with Anthony Quinn and James Coburn. The plot concerns pirates who kidnap children on their way from Jamaica to school in England. This was a 20th Century Fox production directed by Alexander Mackendrick, which included a young Martin Amis who went on to become a bestselling author.129

Media History Digital Library Fig. 4-16: Anthony Quinn, Motion Picture Herald, 1956

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Marguerite Gauron/Antoinette Callum Fig. 4-17: Anthony Quinn and local actress Marguerite Gauron on location, Rio Bueno, Trelawny, 1965

Anthony Quinn also appeared in the 1953 City Beneath the Sea about Port Royal – filmed neither at Port Royal nor in Jamaica at all. This famous picture included many local actors, such as Charles Hyatt, Louise Bennett and Ranny Williams – all well known to Jamaican playhouse patrons. Picture footage included Rio Bueno and Discovery Bay as well as a call at the Cayman Islands to take on turtles, with several Caymanians ended up acting as extras in the film.130 131

Nasi-Menyelek Ben-Yisrr Fig. 4-18: Columbus Park, Discovery Bay

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One of the youngest actors was Deborah Carr, who gave this recollection: “I remember those days so well as they were always my days off of which I only had one per week. We always swam at the Runaway Bay Hotel and met up with all the other actors and crew members. My husband did take me back to Jamaica about 5/6 years ago and we revisited the location where the boats were moored. We saw a market seller on the highway above Rio Bueno and would you believe she remembers the film having been shot there. She used to walk past the location every day and feed the monkeys.”132

The spy-flick sequel to Our Man Flint, called In Like Flint, came next to Jamaica, with locations at Dunn’s River Falls and the fabulous Round Hill Hotel near Montego Bay.

Rosie McNamee Fig. 4-19: Round Hill: western view

Directed by Gordon Douglas for the 20th Century Film Corporation, and released in 1967, it was a tale about a spy trying to stop an organization of women from taking over the world.133 134

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Alamy Fig. 4-20: James Coburn drowning in women at Round Hill, summer 1966

Round Hill Hotel and Villas Fig. 4-21: Round Hill, Hanover

This was the second consecutive Jamaica-based film produced by the 20th Century Film Corporation starring James Coburn, who had also appeared in the 1965 release A High Wind in Jamaica. There were two more

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Jamaica-location film releases in 1967: Come Spy With Me and Oh Dad, Poor Dad Mamma’s Hung you in the Closet and I’m Feelin So Sad.135 James Coburn joined the exclusive club of high-profile actors with beautiful Jamaican wives when he married Paula Murad, the daughter of the first Rhodes Scholar for Kingston College and law professor Leroy Murad. Other actors who married Jamaicans included Peter Finch, Kevin Hart and Troy Donahue.

Panpiper Inc. Fig. 4-22: James and Paula Coburn, courtesy the James and Paula Coburn Foundation

Come Spy With Me utilized the talents of Jamaican actors Eric Coverley and Tim Moxon, appearing in international productions for the third and second time respectively. It was a murder mystery based in the Caribbean and directed by Marshall Stone, with popular actor Troy Donahue taking the lead.136 This was a secret-agent thriller not dissimilar to Dr. No, which took its soundtrack from the Smokey Robinson hit of the same name.137 Donahue was apparently so enamoured with Jamaica that he married a Jamaican resident of New York state, Alma Sharpe, on 15 November 1969

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in New York City after a brief courtship.138 Poor reviews led the movie into the dustbin of uncertainty, however, and it has rarely been seen commercially in recent years.139

Alma Sharpe Fig. 4-23: Troy Donahue and Alma Sharpe on their wedding day, 1969

Oh Dad, Poor Dad Mamma’s Hung you in the Closet and I’m Feelin So Sad was a UK Seven Arts Productions shot as a farce in Jamaica in 1965 with director Richard Quine. The story line concerns a woman going to a Caribbean resort with her son and dead, but preserved, husband; the picture included well-known local comedian Ranny Williams.140 The film starred Robert Morse, Barbara Harris and Rosalind Russell – who were met on arrival at Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay, along with several producers – by Arthur Eldemire, president of the local Chamber of Commerce. 141 It had been announced the previous January

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that it was to be shot by Paramount in April using locations at Round Hill and at the airport.142

Round Hill Hotel and Villas Fig. 4-24: Actress Rosalind Russell at Round Hill

Colonial Film: Moving Images of the British Empire Fig. 4-25: Sir Winston Churchill, Montego Bay Airport, January 1953

The next movie of the decade that used a Jamaica location was also the most violent: the MGM production Dark of the Sun, directed by Jack Cardiff and featuring Australian actor Rod Taylor, Yvette Mimieux and Jim Brown. Also called The Mercenaries, it had an African civil-war plot that took place in the Belgian Congo with much local excitement

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involving foootage of a traain in Clarendo on and St. Maary. The film, based on a Wilbur Sm mith novel, waas produced by George Engglund and wass released in 1968.

Mediia History Digittal Library Fig. 4-26: Rood Taylor, TV Radio Mirror, 19 960

Mediia History Digittal Library Fig. 4-27: Yvvette Mimieux, Motion M Picturee Herald, 1961

Filming beggan on 16 Jaanuary 1967 at the old Paalisadoes Inteernational Airport nearr Port Royal, now n Norman Manley M Internnational, with the Liner Diner there converted to represent a small African airport. Much h support

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came from Jamaica Defence Force soldiers, who played their Congolese equivalents, as well as from several hundred local extras.

Marguerite Gauron/Antoinette Callum Fig. 4-28: Local actor Claude Gauron on location at Palisadoes Airport, 1967

Other scenes were shot later, at the Jamaica Railway Corporation buildings in Kingston, Richmond in St. Mary, Frankfield in Clarendon and Port Antonio. The locomotive used was Jamaica Railway Corporation No. 55, masquerading as no. 54, which had been restored by the late Carl Stratmann.143

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Dr. Carl J. Stratmann ARPS, courtesy of Mrs. Lyn Stratmann Fig. 4-29: A crashed Jamaica Railway locomotive No. 55 in Clarendon, 1967

More detail on this amazing feat can be discerned from an extract from the Railways of Jamaica by Jim Horsford:144 “Locomotive 54 and the JRS [Jamaica Railway Society] had featured in articles in the UK’s Railway Magazine and the American Railroad Magazine. As a result, the JRS was approached by Metro Goldwyn Mayer who had wanted an operating steam train in a tropical setting for filming their projected feature movie, ‘Dark of the Sun’ (later released as ‘The Mercenaries’). In due course, Carl Stratmann was appointed Technical Consultant to the film unit which, in practice, meant communicating the film crew’s requirements to the JRC and acting as day-to-day liaison between the film people and the train crew. Carl wrote of the added bonus given to him by the many days he travelled on the footplate of locomotive 54, and by the opportunity to learn to drive it after the film crew had departed and whilst the empty train was returning to base. A special train was assembled, suitably disguised as the type of military train which might have been seen in the Congo. Locomotive 54 was adapted to look like a wood burner. The film’s story involved a train travelling into the interior of the Congo to collect some diamonds and to rescue a group of refugees from the advancing Simbas. The train was under the command of mercenaries played by Rod Taylor and Jim Brown, with a drunken doctor superbly portrayed by Kenneth Moore. On the way to the interior the train comes under attack but eventually reaches its destination safely, however, on leaving, it is again attacked and this time the locomotive is wrecked. In consultation with the Locomotive Operating Department, Carl had the responsibility of organising the wreck. The wreck itself was faked using no. 55 as a stand-in. Number 55 still existed but could not run under its own

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power, so it was disguised as no.54 and pushed by a diesel (out of the camera's view) onto a piece of undermined track in a siding near Grange Lane, just outside Spanish Town. Here it fell on its side with much special effects, smoke and flames. The film company had paid the JRS handsomely for the privilege of destroying no. 55 but later accepted a nominal amount from a scrap merchant to take away the wreck from the siding. It was then cut up. ‘The Mercenaries’ appears from time to time on late-night TV and is highly recommended viewing for [a] railway enthusiast. It affords the opportunity of seeing a steam train operating along some of Jamaica’s most picturesque railway lines.”

Nico Gray Fig. 4-30: Norman Manley International, formerly Palisadoes Airport, Kingston

Other local actors who participated were Claude Gauron; the first editor of the Jamaica Journal, Alex Gradussov, who played an immigration officer; and Norma Woon.145 The UK Caribbean Infrastructure Fund recently committed sixty million Jamaican dollars (J$60 million) for the re-development of a tourism steamengine railway for Portland and St. Mary, which will present new opportunities for film locations.146

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Rosie McNamee Fig. 4-31: Jamaica Defence Force camp, Newcastle

Colonial Film: Moving Images of the British Empire Fig. 4-32: St. James Railway Station, 1913

There was a recent attempt, in April 2011, to restart the Jamaican railway system on a limited basis for commuter communities close to Kingston; it operated for a short while, before being closed following a change of government. The railway ran from Pechon Street in Kingston, where a scene from the former Ice House Bar appeared in the 1935 Obeah, to Vernamfield.

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One report in early 2016 had a public–private partnership being explored to reopen the railway system.147 Earlier in the last century, the Jamaican railway system provided the island’s primary means of mass transportation before the extensive highway network in place today. There remains a vast network of rail line, tunnels and underpasses with supporting buildings and equipment, much of which is in a dilapidated but photogenic state. The old railway stations island-wide, along the coast and in interior towns, present a glimpse of a disappearing past available in the present.

Colonial Film: Moving Images of the British Empire Fig. 4-33: Jamaica railway tunnel, St. James, 1913

There is still some limited use of existing tracks by bauxite-ore companies for transportation of this aluminum base to shipping ports, such as Port Kaiser and Port Rhodes in Discovery Bay. These provide a vista of spacelike buildings reminiscent of the extraterrestrial mineral-mining genre that is prevalent in many science-fiction films. One last film for 1967, but released in 1968, was Flatfoot, directed by Mel Welles and starring Ray Danton. This was an Orbita production that mainly used Tower Isle and included our very own Marguerite Gauron, who helped to design the sets and support as an actress. Her husband Claude, who had just appeared as a UN official in Dark of the Sun, also appeared in this film.

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Described as an anti-Bond film, with a simple hotel detective coming to Jamaica to help a friend, it required three weeks’ shooting before continuing on to Spain for final footage. The production included Jamaica theatre personality, Buddy Pouyatt.148

Noranda Bauxite Fig. 4-34: Port Rhodes, Discovery Bay

Marguerite Gauron/Antoinette Callum Fig. 4-35: Flatfoot star Ray Danton and Marguerite Gauron at Tower Isle Hotel, July 1967

CHAPTER FIVE THE DECADENT SEVENTIES

The 1970 flick Skullduggery saw the return of In Like Flint director Gordon Douglas to Jamaica for a safari encounter with the missing link in a portrayed Papua New Guinea. The picture was based on an old French novel by Jean Marcel Bruller, pen name “Vercors”, called Les Animaux Denatures or You Shall Know Them. Bruller had been a wartime resistance fighter as well as a writer – hence, the necessity for a pseudonym. Originally bought for Saul David of the relatively new ABC Pictures, the movie rights ended up being passed on to Universal Pictures. Screen writer Nelson Gidding went to New Guinea, courtesy of a high-ranking Australian military friend-of-a-friend, to do research but the project had been passed on to Universal by the time he returned. Despite all the New Guinea preparations Universal decided it was too expensive, and the film ended up in Jamaica shortly thereafter. The screenwriter and director were acquaintances from London, and the approach to script and production was casual but with a close eye on production time and costs.149 Gordon Douglas was famous for the “Our Gang” shorts and some Laurel and Hardy flicks, one of which saw him win an Academy Award. 150 The cast included Deliverance star Burt Reynolds, who came to Jamaica for his first role there, and the screen return of Jamaica Journal editor Alex Gradussov.151 Burt Reynolds gave an extensive interview shortly after the crew began work in February 1969 in Montego Bay.152 Filming focused on sites between Montego Bay and Falmouth as well as Cinema City Productions, about which very little is known.153 Cinema City Productions was a US-owned Montego Bay-based Jamaican company involved with movie-equipment rental in 1968, which had to defend itself over malfunctions by explaining that the locations involved difficult terrain in wet conditions.154

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Happily, not only is modern and reliable film-accessory equipment easily available today in Jamaica but it is owned and operated by a young Jamaican with a proud heritage: Robert Bruce.155

Media History Digital Library Fig. 5-01: Burt Reynolds, TV Radio Mirror, 1960

Rosie McNamee Fig. 5-02: Montego Bay and Bogue Islands from Villa Masada

The eighth James Bond film, entitled Live and Let Die, saw a return to Jamaica for the spy franchise in 1972, to begin production of what turned out to be yet another successful film with new 007, Roger Moore.

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This 1973 release included the talented ensemble of Jane Seymour, Yaphet Kotto and Trinidadian dancer Geoffrey Holder as the Haitian voodoo king, Baron Samedi. In the picture, directed by Guy Hamilton, Bond goes to the fictional island of San Monique to investigate the deaths of several British agents and ends up confronting an evil drug dealer called Kananga, who is assisted by a voodoo master.

Colonial Film: Moving Images of the British Empire Fig. 5-03: Sir Winston Churchill at what is now Sam Sharpe Square, Montego Bay, January 1953

In the film, the son of Bond’s Dr. No boatman, Quarrel, was played by handsome bodybuilder Roy Stewart, who was born in Jamaica but lived and eventually died in England. Roy was a prolific actor and businessman, with most of his early movie participation being as a stuntman. He is also remembered for his gym at Powis Square in Kensington, used by Sean Connery, and his Caribbean-style restaurant, the Globe, in Bayswater.156 Local radio disc jockey Don Topping, whose catchphrase was “More soul than soup in a bowl”, played a role similar to his real-life persona as a San Monique announcer in the film. A cottage at the elegant Sans Souci Hotel in Ocho Rios, St. Ann was used by the producers of Live and Let Die for Miss Tarot’s Bungalow, against a backdrop of lush gardens and a pristine beach.

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Media History Digital Library Fig. 5-04: Roger Moore, TV Radio Mirror, 1960

Don Topping Fig. 5-05: Don Topping, c. 1972

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Couples Fig. 5-06: Miss Tarot cottage sign at Sans Souci, Ocho Rios

Rosie McNamee Fig. 5-07: Hanover highway and coast near Round Hill

Representatives of the production company met with the Hanover Parish Council on 7 October 1972 to discuss the closure of the Johnson Town road to Lucea in order to facilitate filming, as well as the employment of residents of the area. The film’s bus-chase scene also necessitated a closure of the highway just before the Lucea bridge.

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Eon Productions were able to facilitate closure of this area with the cooperation of the government, resulting in a newspaper notice: LUCEA WEST RIVER BRIDGE ROAD CLOSURE – 9th October-31st December, 1972 Eon Productions Ltd wish to inform the public that the Road will be closed at Lucea West River Bridge from 9th October to 31st December, 1972 for Construction Work. Detour will be via the Old Road. EON PRODUCTIONS LTD. Gloucester Avenue Montego Bay157

Roger Moore was filmed in several locations in Ocho Rios, including The Ruins waterfalls just before the Fern Gully turn-off road.158 This was, in fact, an extensive location schedule, which included: Green Grotto, Runaway Bay, which provided the cave scenes for Kananga’s underground lair159 Gun Point Wharf in Montego Bay, for the Quarrel boat trip Johnson Town, Hanover, for the overpass bridge that cuts off the top of the bus160 Jamaica Safari Village, Falmouth, for the crocodile bridge161 Cottage 10, Half Moon Hotel and Half Moon Bay, Montego Bay, for James Bond’s hotel room162 Rose Hall waterfall, Montego Bay163 Montego Bay–Lucea Highway, for the bus chase, which – along with many older, now rarely used, roads after the island-wide highway expansion – provide excellent road-location opportunities Ocho Rios, St. Ann, for Miss Tarot’s Bungalow164 The bus was driven by London Transport driver Maurice Patchett, who crashed the vehicle with a pre-fitted top section into an overpass near Johnson Town, Hanover. Roger Moore trained and drove the bus himself in the picture, except for the low-bridge crash.

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Nico Gray Fig. 5-08: Old sugar mill, Montego Bay–Lucea highway, Hanover

Urban Development Corporation Fig. 5-09: Green Grotto, Runaway Bay

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Guy Steuart III Fig. 5-10: Half Moon Hotel, Montego Bay

Colonial Film: Moving Images of the British Empire Fig. 5-11: Railway Overpass, St. James, 1913

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Jamaica Safari Village owner and part-Seminole Indian, Ross Kananga, was selected to be the stuntman for the crocodile-bridge scene, which required five takes including one where he was grabbed by his shoe but managed to escape. The charismatic Kananga, after whom the evil boss in the movie was named, appeared at the Denbigh Agricultural show in the early seventies with a hand-held lion on display.165 Director Guy Hamilton recently died in Majorca, Spain aged 93. It turns out that the director had been a spy in real life – and made several trips to Nazi-occupied France during World War Two.166 One of the most fondly remembered films to reach the shores of Jamaica was the French island-prison story, Papillon, the lead played by the iconic Steve McQueen. This Allied Artists vehicle was directed by Franklin J. Schaffner with a screenplay by the now famous – and once blacklisted – Dalton Trumbo. Dustin Hoffman played a very able supporting role as a widely hated forger in this 1973 release, which received critical and financial success. Its penal-colony scenes were shot in Falmouth, with an almost thousandfoot-long prison-set construction, while Ferris Cross in Westmoreland provided the locale for the film’s swamp footage.167 Many scenes in Papillon were shot on Main Street, Falmouth, which still boasts outstanding examples of Georgian architecture today.168 Negril again put in an appearance, with shots of caves near its Xtabi resort similar to those used in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea back in the early 1950s, while the port of Kingston was used for the prison-ship arrival.169A February 1973 report has the film cost at $7 million, with a production start that month at thirty-seven locations on the North Coast and in Kingston by Ted Richmond Productions. So much equipment and props needed to be imported that a freighter had to be retained to transport them. The production would employ eight hundred and sixty Jamaicans over a fourteen-week period.170 The cliché of the Caribbean treasure hunter was perpetuated by The Treasure of Jamaica Reef in 1974 by possibly the first female director of a Jamaica-based film, Virginia L. Stone. A high point of the production was the inclusion of the soon-to-be Charlie’s Angel, Cheryl Ladd, who appeared with her husband, David, son of famous actor Alan Ladd.

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Rose Hall Developments Ltd Fig. 5-12: Waterfall, Cinnamon Hill golf course, Montego Bay

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Simon Lewis Fig. 5-13: Swamp scene Westmoreland

Nasi-Menyelek Ben-Yisrr Fig. 5-14: Glistening Waters Lagoon, Falmouth

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Andrew Nish Fig. 5-15: Negril Caves

Media History Digital Library Fig. 5-16: Steve McQueen, Sponsor magazine, 1962

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Colonial Film: Moving Images of the British Empire Fig. 5-17: Jamaica shipping port

This Cheryl Ladd picture was followed in 1979 by yet another sunkentreasure yarn called Jamaican Gold, also released as The Treasure Seekers. Directed by Henry Levin, it saw the return of Rod Taylor, after an absence from Jamaica of over a decade, playing opposite the beautiful Elke Sommer. Happily, it was able to include local actors Bobby Ghisays; Paul Methuen; and Dermot Hussey, who also had location-manager duties. The highly regarded actor Bobby Ghisays had a career that mostly focused on the theatre and television, often as a director. He directed over 40 plays and musicals between 1970 and 1990 in addition to heading the Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation – the latter role including the production of several local television shows of which he was also the host.171

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Melanie Ghisays Fig. 5-18: Bobby Ghisays, 1988

CHAPTER SIX THE EXCITING EIGHTIES

One 2010 report estimated the parish input for Portland of a film production, then in excess of US$1 million, and employment for eighty Jamaicans. A 2004 reality series saw $7 million being pumped into the Jamaican economy while allowing many – such as taxi operators – to realize the dream of owning their own business. One major benefit of location filming over time is the transfer of technical skills to Jamaicans, who would then be able to use the expertise gleaned in future productions.172 These effects were already beginning to be appreciated in the 1980s. Under a new government, the Jamaica National Investment Promotions Film Unit was established in 1983 to encourage film production on the island. This was followed up by a visit to Los Angeles in March 1984 by a team including the Prime Minister of Jamaica and Sally Porteous, the head of the JNIP Film Unit. There were several meetings with film producers and the start of an annual programme to visit Los Angeles in order to promote Jamaica as a film-location destination. Subsequently, at the invitation of the JNIP Film Unit, fifty film-production executives were brought to Jamaica to tour the island and see its outstanding location possibilities as well as meet local filmmakers. The estimated revenue from film production increased from almost J$5 million in 1984 to nearly J$34 million in 1985, due to the location work in Portland of the crew of Club Paradise (see below), which employed nearly 500 persons.173 Gene Hackman came to Jamaica for a production based on the 1943 murder of Sir Harry Oakes in Nassau – a drama about gold and gangsters in the Caribbean with the appropriate name Eureka. Hackman had an earlier connection with Jamaica through honoured Jamaican musician Copeland Forbes, who had made a brief appearance in a bar scene for the 1971 crime drama The French Connection.174

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Colonial Film: Moving Images of the British Empire Fig. 6-01: Falmouth Harbour

Among the cast of Eureka, directed by Nicolas Roeg, were Theresa Russell, Rutger Hauer, Joe Pesci and a young Mickey Rourke in a period piece set in 1945 and released in 1983. It was shot at locations all over the island, including Roaring River Great House, Great Hope Estate, Agualta Vale, Montego Bay and Falmouth – the last-named famous for its Georgian architecture, especially its courthouse. 175 The crew and cast stayed at Turtle Towers and the Inter-Continental hotel in nearby Ocho Rios.176 The film represented a rare instance for British producer Jeremy Thomas of being shut down by studio executives because of a studiomanagement change then restarted for an eventual release in a minimum of cinemas. 177 Production lasted for ten weeks after moving from the colder climes of British Columbia for frozen-north footage.178 Production activities involved the painting of several buildings as well as the local police station and a new wharf into Falmouth harbour under the direction of Jamaican location manager, Matthew Binns. 179 The famous limbo dancer Miko Blanco played the part of the obeah man during the ceremony in the old hospital at Good Hope Estate. Jeremy Thomas, a great friend of Jamaica who still visits the island today, remarked in a recent interview, “Jamaica is a brilliant place with a special vibe. It is wonderful to work in such beautiful locations with fabulous light and the helpful people who provided much assistance.”180

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Jeremy Thomas Fig. 6-02: Director Nicolas Roeg and producer Jeremy Thomas on the set of Eureka, North Coast, Jamaica, 1982

Director Nicolas Roeg had a friendship with Mickey Rourke, who proclaimed in an interview that he took the role so he could have a vacation in Jamaica.181 In 1985, Warner Brothers came to Portland for four months to start production of a comedy directed by Harold Ramis, of Ghostbusters fame, who repeatedly wrote in new locations as he saw more and more beautiful spots. In a story line similar to Herman Wouk’s Don’t Stop the Carnival, Robin Williams joined up with singer Jimmy Cliff for Club Paradise using the old Dragon Bay resort in Portland.182 Jimmy Cliff included his Oneness band in the picture, which was about a retired firefighter and a local singer who start their own resort. Later on, Robin Williams reportedly received a head injury from a cricket ball while attempting to indulge in this popular local sport. Other off-camera activities included Harold Ramis playing guitar with musician Earl ‘Chinna’ Smith for his song Home Grown.183

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Marguerite Gauron/Antoinette Callum Fig. 6-03: Peter O’Toole and Twiggy at Dragon Bay, 1985

Sandals Fig. 6-04: Dragon Bay, Portland

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Other musicians included on the film soundtrack were Bob Marley, Yellowman and the Mighty Sparrow.184 The picture had the experienced support of Peter O’Toole, with several local actors including Louise Bennett, Carl Bradshaw, Bobby Ghisays, Charles Hyatt and Leonie Forbes. The Portland film locations included Winnifred Beach, San San Beach and the Blue Lagoon.185 Following the well-worn practice of fictitious place names, beautiful Jamaica was renamed St. Nicholas. One review revealed a US$36 million budget as well as a prevailing opinion that experienced actor Jimmy Cliff gave the best performance of the show, including his singing ability.186 This was a boom time for Portland after the depressed seventies, with the employment of hundreds of local people, multiple donations by the crew and cast to local institutions and charities plus the heavy occupation of bars and hotels. Club Paradise took on a wider dimension to help create a paradise for producers; cast; crew; Jamaicans; and, ultimately, the audience.187 Shortly after 2000, the Dragon Bay resort was acquired by Sandals Resorts, and has remained closed until now. An enduring problem for Portland has been the limitations of the small Ken Jones Aerodrome, which is in dire need of expansion, as well as the connection of the parish to the all-island highway system.188 Interestingly, the old Chatham Beach hotel in Montego Bay was purchased and renamed Paradise Beach Club, then Club Paradise, before being offered for sale again in 1988.189 The following year, 1987, saw an Italian-produced detective flick entitled Hammerhead, which used Kingston as a location and was hardly heard of again. The film was written and directed by Enzo G. Castellari with a cast led by Daniel Greene that also included repeat local performer Bobby Ghisays, joined by comedians Oliver Samuels and Tony Hendriks.190 Dragon Bay beach was again selected as a film location for the 1988 Tom Cruise bar-romance story Cocktail, which also included the delightful Elisabeth Shue. It was directed by Roger Donaldson with a screenplay by Heywood Gould for a Touchstone Pictures production that also saw the Australian actor Bryan Brown play a bartender mentor.191

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The local production saw the Trident, Goblin Hill and Dragon Bay hotels filled for three weeks with actors and production crew, with the main stars staying at the Trident.192 There are several references to a steamy waterfall scene in the movie being filmed at Dunn’s River Falls, but the location was in fact the little-known but equally scenic Reach Falls in neighbouring St. Thomas. 193 The production lasted for several weeks, and one report has Tom Cruise and his then wife, Mimi Rogers, staying at the Trident Hotel during filming. Cocktail gave Tom Cruise his best opening revenue at the time, despite several prior hits. By one estimate, the blockbuster earned US$300 million. The Cocktail soundtrack included the Beach Boys’ Kokomo, which ran up to number one on the charts after a release two weeks before the film. Another outfit featured in the production was the Canadian reggae band Messenjah, who went on to extended success after their film appearance.194 Production companies continued to use Jamaica as a picture location, with Clara’s Heart in 1988 also starting at Dragon Bay just a week after Cocktail had finished. Its lead was played by Whoopi Goldberg, as a Jamaican housekeeper at a vacation resort who befriends a young American boy with family difficulties. Directed by Robert Mulligan, it included a young Neil Patrick Harris – now a rising star.195 The picture included the classy Trident Hotel, which has since changed ownership and been beautifully renovated by Jamaican and Portlander Michael Lee Chin and the Musgrave Market in Port Antonio.196 Director Mulligan, best known for his work on the 1962 classic To Kill a Mockingbird, was a well-regarded, sensitive director with a long career in cinema. Clara’s Heart was his penultimate film.197 The following year, MGM produced The Mighty Quinn, originally Finding Maubee, at Port Antonio with actors Denzel Washington, Jamaican-born Sheryl Lee Ralph and frequent local screen actor Carl Bradshaw. They were under the direction of Carl Schenkel at various sites including Folly ruins, the Port Antonio waterfront, Port Antonio Police Station and Trident Castle, where Denzel’s character was seduced by Mimi Rogers.198

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Sandals Fig. 6-05: Dragon Bay, Portland

The Trident Hotel Fig. 6-06: Trident Hotel, Port Antonio

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Marguerite Gauron/Antoinette Callum Fig. 6-07: Denzel Washington and Charles Hyatt at the Trident Hotel

Among the many local actors were Miss Jamaica 1983 Cathi Levy, Bobby Ghisays, Charles Hyatt, Cedella Marley, Rita Marley and her daughter, Sharon Marley Prendergast. The film received praise for having nearly twenty Jamaicans with some lines whereas Clara’s Heart had included only a few. Jamaican film critic Michael Reckord remarked about the footage, almost completely shot in Jamaica, that the island was indeed a filmmaker’s dream.199

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Marguerite Gauron/Antoinette Callum Fig. 6-08: Denzel Washington, extreme left, with Sally Porteous and Charles Hyatt at the Trident Hotel

The Trident Hotel Fig. 6-09: The Trident Castle

Carl Bradshaw, a homegrown son of Jamaica, has been one of the island’s leading actors for major international film productions that have come to Jamaica, including Wah Do Dem (2009), Almost Heaven (2005), The Mighty Quinn (1989) and Club Paradise (1986). In the most recent of

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these, Wah Do Dem, he began to receive some international media attention for his craft as he made the frequent local journey of avoiding stereotype while embracing the great platform of character given to every single Jamaican at birth. The Mighty Quinn was released in 1989 under the name of a Bob Dylan song, believe it or not, about an Eskimo, which had seen earlier popularity when covered by Manfred Mann in 1968.

Nico Gray Fig. 6-10: DeMontevins Lodge, Port Antonio

CHAPTER SEVEN THE NAUGHTY NINETIES

The following decade kicked off with more than one film production location in Jamaica per year, in a development that bade well for the future of this local creative industry. In Marked for Death, Steven Seagal led a cast that included Jimmy Cliff as a US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent out to kill a stereotypical Jamaican drug gang led by Screwface, the original title of the movie before it was renamed, played by Jamaican-born Basil Wallace. Directed by Dwight H. Little, the movie did well at the box office in 1990 but that did not stop Seagal from fighting with the original screenwriters for a credit for his input.200 The film included three songs by Jimmy Cliff, with other tracks including Roots and Culture from Shabba Ranks, I Joke but I Don’t Play from Tone-Lǀc and Stepping Razor from Peter Tosh.201A local review of the film described it as making a powerful statement that Jamaicans were light-hearted, dangerous people.202 Another release that year was the Charlton Heston-led Treasure Island, an adaptation written and directed by his son, Fraser C. Heston, with a cast that included the young and future superstar Christian Bale, well supported by the perennial Oliver Reed. Described as the lead actor’s son’s directorial debut, with a mostly British $6 million film, the crew also included several relatives of experienced Hollywood crew members, who used a twenty-nine-year-old imitation pirate ship renamed the Hispaniola. The production came to Jamaica in May 1989 for seagoing footage that included explosions at sea and a vessel originally made for the 1960 Mutiny on the Bounty with Marlon Brando, which berthed on 29 May.203 Fraser Heston arrived for the filming in Kingston on 26 May 1989 in order to go to Portland, then described as the movie capital of the world, to begin work on 30 May with a crew and cast of over forty persons. He was met at Norman Manley Airport by Sally Porteous, director of the JAMPRO Film Office with a gift from the people of Jamaica.

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Lydia C. Heston Fig. 7-01: Charlton Heston and Michael Halsey in Treasure Island

Andrew Nish Fig. 7-02: Rio Grande, Portland

He went on to say that the variety of scenery offered by Jamaica made an easy match with the script. Charlton Heston had been to Jamaica three times previously as a tourist, but had also been given many positive reports by producers who had worked on the island before.204 Director Fraser Heston commented on his time in Jamaica, “My memories of filming in Jamaica are most pleasant, though it was a tough shoot, with a lot of water, beach and jungle filming. We shot mostly around Port Antonio, using the old ‘HMS Bounty’ (which Ted Turner had

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acquired from MGM when he bought that studio) to stand in for the ‘Hispaniola’. We found some spectacular locations, including Dragon Bay, with a lovely clear-water stream which flowed through jungle to a white sand beach; a fantastic series of sea caves where the treasure was hidden in ‘Ben Gun’s Cave’; and we even used Port Antonio to stand in for ‘Bristol Harbour’. All in all it was the perfect location for our production of ‘Treasure Island’. Infrastructure and support was excellent, with great co-operation and assistance from the Jamaica Film Office and very good local hotels and condos. I fell in love with the local people, who were extremely hospitable, and especially with Jamaican cooking. Bunny’s jerked chicken was so good my wife and I took home a huge jar of his ‘secret’ marinade. We had a mixed crew of Brits, Americans and Jamaicans, and we all worked together quite well. We even had a cricket match for charity, and I found out just how good Jamaicans are at that game! I wouldn’t hesitate to return.”205

Nico Gray Fig. 7-03: Portland sea view, Manchioneal

Christian Bale stayed at Cross Winds, the house of journalist and Portland native Marguerite Gauron in San San, with his sister, Louise, and father, David. Marguerite became a friend of the Bale family and visited them in Bournemouth, England after the production ended.206 She had this recollection: “Portland was chosen as location for yet another major motion picture. Produced by M.F.S Films, based in Britain for Turner Network television, the remake of Treasure Island was written and directed by Fraser Heston and stars his famous father, Charlton Heston, who plays Long John Silver, opposite blonde British teenage actor, Christian Bale in the demanding

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Chapter Seven role of young Jim Hawkins. Charlton Heston (Chuck to his friends) told me, that it was the first time the Robert Louis Stevenson classic had been filmed ‘on a real island, with a real ship’. He was enchanted with Jamaica and ‘overwhelmed’ by the friendliness of the people and the excellent cooperation he had enjoyed here. Meanwhile, the magnificent three-masted galleon, ‘The Bounty’, owned by CNN’s Ted Turner, was brought in from the U.S. and the picturesque vessel became a familiar sight, as she plied the Portland coastline from Burlington to Fairy Hill daily during the course of filmmaking. Charlton Heston quipped that he had been put in charge of the weather since, as Moses, he had done ‘such a good job parting the Red Sea in “The Ten Commandments”!’ As luck would have it the weather was fine but not even ‘Moses’ magic could quell the heavy sea wind and high seas that put some actors on the sick list for several days at a time. As Christian Bale told me, ‘the Bounty just doesn’t rock, she rolls as well’. Younger sister, Louise Bale, and late father, David Bale, were allowed to accompany Christian on board the galleon and helped with the ‘detailing’ of the shots. Christian was 16 at the time. The weather was otherwise perfect with a brilliant sun shining for almost the entire 6 weeks of filming. Meantime one hundred & fifteen local film personnel were employed on the set and 87 hotel rooms were filled by persons connected with the movie that were actually headquartered between Goblin Hill Resort & Villas and the Jamaica Palace Hotel. As the filming continued into its last week, David Bale, Christian’s father set about organizing a fund-raising cricket match in aid of basic schools in the parish of Portland,. With the help of the late Dr. Neville Antonio of the Port Antonio Rotary Club, Police Supt. Basil Dixon, the sporting event was arranged for the Fairy Hill Cricket Pitch with the ‘Treasure Eleven’ in black Treasure Island polo shirts and the local members of the movie set, with the ‘Island Eleven’ in Turner Television Network (TNT) tee shirts. Of course, the local team won!”207

The 1990 sequel or remake of Lord of the Flies, depending on the point of view, took place again in Port Antonio, always reliable for the lushest background footage. Producer Lewis M. Allen and director Harry Hook managed an ensemble cast led by the billionaire grandson, the young Balthazar Getty, and heartthrob James Badge Dale for Castle Rock Entertainment. The cast consisted of twenty-four unknown American actors aged between eight and thirteen, with Getty shining the most in the eventual release. This updated version, in keeping with the times, featured numerous swear words that would have been considered taboo in the earlier production.208 The footage from Jamaica was actually shot in 1988, but the film was not released until 1990.

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The cast and crew stayed at the Frenchman’s Cove Hotel near Port Antonio with the younger members residing in a dormitory in the Great House. There was also a classroom with teachers to prevent any educational delinquency during the filming, which began on 22 August 1988. The crew used sites that included caves, Reach Falls, hillsides, and beaches west of Port Antonio before and after Hurricane Gilbert, which also provided useful footage for director Hook.209

Alice Gao Fig. 7-04: Frenchman’s Cove, Portland

Following that tropical island picture, the (for Jamaica) rare horror genre took the forefront with the release of Popcorn in 1991. Directed by Mark Herrier, this told the story of the killing of teenagers during a horror-film marathon at an abandoned cinema, the famous Ward Theatre in downtown Kingston. As was a common feature in past Jamaica-location films, a former Miss Jamaica, Cindy Tavares-Finson had a small part. Unfortunately, the producers did not draw on a pool of available and experienced local talent, many of whom had made multiple appearances in prior productions.210 Horror was followed by romance, with Prelude to a Kiss, which arrived in theatres in 1992 starring prominent actors Alec Baldwin, Kathy Bates and

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Meg Ryan under the direction of Norman René. This love story had a paranormal tinge, with a honeymoon in Jamaica that featured performances by local singer Peter Lloyd as a waiter and a band that included musicians Brian Jobson and Peter Couch.211 The film was shot mostly at the majestic Sandals Royal Plantation hotel in Ocho Rios. 212 Director René unfortunately passed on from AIDS-related complications in 1996 after a well-regarded career in film and Broadway productions.213

Sandals Fig. 7-05: Sandals Royal Plantation, Ocho Rios

The film adaptation of Wide Sargasso Sea, directed by John Duigan, was released in 1993 with a strict rating due to its depiction of male frontal nudity. The lead was played by Karina Lombard, who was a descendant of the Lakota Indian tribe of North America, her features drawing her closer to the Caribbean creole character that she represented. The film included footage from the Blue Hole Plantation at Flower Hill above Montego Bay, owned by former Jamaican tennis star Robert Hale.214 An outstanding performance was declared in two New York reviews from our regal Jamaican, Claudia Robinson, who clearly stole the show.215 Ms. Robinson is remembered more locally for the satire series 8 O’clock Jamaica Time, which “roasted” many politicians and later purveyors of transparency.216 The 1966 book by Jean Rhys, originally from Dominica, was set in the imaginary Coulibri Estate and Mount Calvary Convent School near Spanish Town.217

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Robert R Hale Fig. 7-06: Bluue Hole Plantattion, Flower Hilll, St. James, 19993

One of the m most popular films that useed Jamaica as a setting was the 1993 comedy aboout a local bobbsled team, named after thhe Jamaican ex xpression meaning everything is finne: Cool Run nnings. In a vversion of art imitating life, the Dissney picture was w able to rid de on the maassive publicitty offered by the entryy of a Jamaicann bobsled team m in the 19888 Winter Olym mpics, led by Jamaicann Defence Forrce officer Dud dley Stokes. The lead, Joohn Candy, was directed by y Jon Turteltau aub, but much attention focused on the son of a Jamaican fath her known ass Doug E. Do oug in his 218 role as Sankka, the team comedian. c No N Jamaican was on this imaginary team but seeveral made appearances, including Chharles Hyatt, Winston Stona and Pauline Stone-M Myrie. The film souundtrack had several Jamaiican artists abboard – such as a Jimmy Cliff, with I Can See Cleearly Now; To ony Rebel, witth Sweet Jamaica; and the Bob Maarley cover Sttir It Up from m a classic Jaamaican beautty, Diana King. The efficieent engine of local touriism, the Jam maica Tourisst Board, organized seeveral events to promote th he island withh the film release, and arranged forr the original Jamaica J Olym mpic bobsled tteam to visit New N York for publicityy events.219

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Andrew Nish Fig. 7-07: Flint River Great House, Hanover

One actor – Leon Robinson, or “Leon” – followed the enduring love affair of Hollywood personalities with Jamaica and became part-owner of the original bar and grill used in the production, named Momma Coffie’s restaurant.220 Most of the production sites were in Hanover, near Montego Bay, including the Flint River Great House and the Sandy Bay Primary School, which was repainted for the occasion. 221 The primary school has since been joined by a multi-level junior high school, which adjoins the older single-storey building.

Andrew Nish Fig. 7-08: Sandy Bay Primary School, Hanover

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Tom Wilsey Victorian Web Fig. 7-09: Flint River Great House, Hanover

One film production with an unlikely Jamaica connection was the 1994 masterpiece Legends of the Fall, directed by Edward Zwick, which featured some footage from Ocho Rios in St. Ann parish to resemble the Pacific coast of the United States. The majority of the location shots took place in 1993, aboard a 97-foot schooner coordinated by master seaman Bruce Epke.222 Cinematographer John Toll won one of his two consecutive Oscars for his outstanding work on this picture.

Nasi-Menyelek Ben-Yisrr Fig. 7-10: Rio Bueno port on the Trelawny–St. Ann parish border near Bengal

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A romantic comedy came out in 1997 that used Jamaica as a setting but also had several prominent local actors appearing in different roles. The Richard Zakka-directed Fool’s Paradise not only included Munair Zacca and Timothy Moxon but also the now very popular American comedian, Jim Gaffigan. Production was started in April 1996 in Jamaica by Zakka, who was a first-time director.223 The film was part produced by Inga Galiullina, who was more famously known as Inga Banasewycz, the former girlfriend of PaineWebber executive Orhan Sadik-Khan, who had their own romantic comedy that ended in a court settlement.224 There was a gap in production activity in Jamaica for several years before the film adaptation of the successful Terry McMillan novel, How Stella Got Her Groove Back, in 1998. Lead Angela Bassett was directed by Kevin Rodney Sullivan in this romantic reinvention of a middle-aged professional woman. Art again imitated life when Terry McMillan met and married a young Jamaican, which unfortunately did not turn out well. The film was produced by a great friend of Jamaica with many credits to her name, Deborah Schindler, who worked with Natalie Thompson of the Creative Production and Training Centre. Schindler described the local crew that she worked with as amazing and wonderful during an interview at her favourite Round Hill Hotel. She and her family have been visiting Jamaica since 1962, now with the third generation.225 The luxurious Round Hill Hotel set encouraged a return by love interest Taye Diggs for a wedding on the beach to Broadway star Idina Menzel.226 Among local actors in the cast were former beauty queen turned politician, Lisa Hanna and extra Francois Lucchesi. The starkly filmed but very realistic Belly – featuring rap stars DMX, Nas and Method Man with a script by Anthony Bodden under the direction of Hype Williams – exposed many scenes from Kingston ghetto life. Released in 1998, its soundtrack included Bam Bam by Sister Nancy and Sucky Ducky with Mr. Vegas – real name, Clifford Smith. An outstanding performance came from one of Jamaica’s first dancehall recording artists, Louie Rankin or Teddy Brukshot, born Leonard Ford, who played a convincing New York-transplanted drug don called Lennox.227

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Round Hill Hotel and Villas Fig. 7-11: Villa 11, Round Hill Hotel and Villas: the “Stella villa”

The film was able to record a performance by the great Jamaican modern dancer and choreographer Bogle, or Gerald Levy, who created such memorable moves as Bogle Dance, Willy Bounce and Wacky Dip before he was slain in 2005.228 Director Williams had a number of budget problems with production company Artisan over the cutting of scenes, eased by the success of the DMX album, It’s Dark and Hell is Hot, when more money came in for additional and important scenes. Williams had to even dig into his own pocket for the dance-hall scenes in Kingston with DMX.229 The poorly received Shattered Image, released in 1998 – a surreal drama involving rape, revenge and an assassin directed by Chilean Raul Ruiz – came to Port Antonio for footage with William Baldwin. Jamaican actors included in the picture were Leonie Forbes, musician Billy Wilmott, Fay Ellington and Pablo Hoilett. The filming started in September 1997, and a report had an aircraft from local company Tropical Airlines involved in the script based on a story by Peter Benchley. Graham Greene, the Canadian First Nations actor more remembered for Dances with Wolves, also appeared as a detective.230

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Matthew Parker Fig. 7-12: Ancient water mill, Drax Hall Estate, St. Ann

Andrew Nish Fig. 7-13: Rio Grande, Portland

Regrettably, Raul Ruiz died in 2011 after completing over a hundred films that mostly dealt with the human psyche in a cryptic manner.231

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Director Jon Turteltaub returned to Jamaica for the 1999 murder drama Instinct with a heavy lineup of actors led by Sir Anthony Hopkins, Cuba Gooding Jr. and Donald Sutherland. The production, by Michael Taylor, was assisted by two well-known local managers Maxine Walters and Natalie Thompson and was set in what purported to be Africa but was in fact several locations.232 The main locations were Roaring River, Drax Hall Estate and Sussex Estate in St. Ann, and a bluff above the Rio Grande river, Portland.233

CHAPTER EIGHT THE NEW MILLENNIUM

Although suffering no shortage of locally produced video efforts, Jamaica went through a dry spell of international film production from 1999 until 2005, when the German production Almost Heaven broke the spell. The picture included stationary and mobile footage of Kingston Airport, downtown Kingston, Mona, Old Hope Road, Bog Walk Gorge and Snow Hill Bridge, Portland.234 Local participation came from Carl Bradshaw, Charles Hyatt and the now famous Jolly Boys under the direction of Ed Herzog. This strange story of a German wannabe country singer ending up in Jamaica instead of Nashville received mixed reviews.

Rosie McNamee Fig. 8-01: University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, Kingston

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Nasi-Menyelek Ben-Yisrr Fig. 8-02: Downtown Kingston

Colonial Film: Moving Images of the British Empire Fig. 8-03: St. James railway bridge, 1913

The film premiered at the 2006 Flashpoint Film Festival held at The Caves in Negril, in which the lead, Heike Makatsch, performed well by one account. Carl Bradshaw managed to move away from the stereotypical role for Jamaican actors, with a nuanced portrayal as Leach.235 The following year saw another music-based effort with a Jérôme Laperrousaz film that sought to provide a visual guide to reggae music in Jamaica, featuring a plethora of prominent reggae artists that included Capleton; Sly Dunbar; Elephant Man; Toots Hibbert; Gregory Isaacs; the now imprisoned Vybz Kartel; Bounty Killer; and the king of love lyrics, Beresford Hammond. Although in its essence Made in Jamaica is a

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documentary of musical clips and interviews, it is best remembered here for the musical talent that is available in Jamaica for nearly any film soundtrack. Another German production followed in 2006, with Nichts als Gespenster, or Nothing but Ghosts, a compilation of five tales in different countries directed by Marten Gypkens for ARTE. Roots Time, a 2007 film about two Rastafarians selling records from their car, was directed by Argentine Silvestre Jacobi, receiving much exposure and appreciation in Latin America. This first feature by Silvestre was produced by Mistika Films and distributed by Pachama Cinemas before going on to win Best First Feature at the Portobello Film Festival.236 The 2007 Warner Brothers release License to Wed – with Mandy Moore, John Krasinski and Robin Williams – was a marriage-based comedy with honeymoon footage shot in Jamaica at the deluxe Sandals Royal Plantation in Ocho Rios. Williams acted as the minister who repeated the pronunciation of official matrimony, in one form or another, down the length and breadth of the wedding paradise of Jamaica. The director, Ken Kwapis, was more known for his work in television movies and series.237

Sandals Fig. 8-04: Sandals Royal Plantation Hotel

The film had its Jamaican premiere at the Carib cinema in July 2007, and one report had the chairman of Jamaica Trade and Invest, Robert Gregory, announcing that Jamaica had earned J$900 million in 2006 from film

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production – an outstanding progress report by any measure. This was more than double the reported revenue from film production on the island in 1985. In continuation of a growing trend, a number of local suppliers were able to place their products in the picture, similarly to the Red Stripe beer promotion in Cocktail. A Sandals representative said it best: that Jamaica was well recognized for love and lovemaking, while Wayne Armond of Chalice distinguished himself in the familiar reggae music-band footage. The prescient line in the Air Jamaica jet scene that passengers could smoke their choice in Jamaica ultimately came true with the legalization of ganja in 2015.238 Greg Cannizzaro directed the comedy Hanging in Hedo, which was shot at the Hedonism 11 resort in Negril before release in 2008, although produced in 2004. The high point came with the addition of Sherman Hemsley, better known as George Jefferson from The Jeffersons television series. Hemsley was entranced by Jamaica and its people, describing in one interview a country with a “love vibration” and exuberant people.239 In 2009, there was an explosion of both large and small productions in Jamaica. There was A Perfect Getaway, with an ensemble cast of Milla Jovovich, Steve Zahn and Timothy Olyphant fleeing murderers, putatively on a Hawaiian island, under the direction of David Twohy, who also wrote the script. The film included footage of the caves at Negril, where the lead couple goes kayaking to some sea caverns. They were following a long line of location use in that spot – from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea in 1954, fifty-five years previously. A chance win of two cruise-ship vacations forms the plot of the 2009 independent comedy Wah Do Dem, produced and written by young Ben Chace and Sam Fleischner. Starring Kevin Bewersdorf, Sean Bones and Jamaican Carl Bradshaw, it unfolds as a story of romantic angst on a cruise ship to Jamaica with extensive footage around the island, shot guerilla-style.

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Sam Fleischner Fig. 8-05: Filming Wah Do Dem on location, 2006

Sam Fleischner Fig. 8-06: Sean Bones 2006

Bradshaw’s performance was described by an international media outlet as compelling, and there was a sublime musical performance by reggae virtuosos, The Congos.240 After nearly thirty years as an international actor, Carl won an Honour Award at the Reggae Film Festival held at the now closed Kingston Hilton in February 2010. Wah Do Dem won the International Feature Film Honour Award at the festival, while actor Mark Gibbs was selected for special mention.241

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Sam Fleischner Fig. 8-07: Carl Bradshaw and Sean Bones, 2006

The following year saw the return of Tom Cruise for the spy/romance blockbuster Knight and Day with Cameron Diaz, released in February 2010. It had been nearly two decades since superstar Cruise acted in Cocktail at Dragon Bay in 1988, but time had not diminished the acclaimed beauty of Portland. Extensive footage was shot by director James Mangold at Frenchman’s Cove, with the production estimated to have pumped J$121 million into the local economy while employing eighty persons including local production manager, Natalie Thompson. The JAMPRO Film Commission, led by president Sancia Bennett Templer, hosted a screening of the film at the Carib cinema, which included a reception for invited guests – among them, upcoming filmmaker Storm Saulter – in June 2010. JAMPRO had facilitated a fourday scouting mission in 2009 by 20th Century Fox personnel, during which Portland and Frenchman’s Cove had been selected.242

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Knight and Day was a third turn on the international film stage for Frenchman’s Cove, which had featured in two previous versions of Lord of the Flies (in 1963 and 1990), seconded only by Dragon Bay further east, with appearances in Club Paradise in 1986 and Cocktail in 1988.

Alice Gao Fig. 8-08: Frenchman’s Cove, Portland

CHAPTER NINE THE PARADISE PARISHES

Portland has seen several major international film productions over the years, as a tried and trusted location with a variety of landscapes and experienced local personnel available at short notice. These include, with dates and directors: Lord of the Flies Dark of the Sun Club Paradise Cocktail Clara’s Heart The Mighty Quinn Treasure Island Lord of the Flies Shattered Image Instinct Knight and Day

1963 1968 1986 1988 1988 1989 1990 1990 1998 1999 2010

Peter Brook Jack Cardiff Harold Ramis Roger Donaldson Robert Mulligan Carl Schenkel Fraser C. Heston Harry Hook Raul Ruiz Jon Turteltaub James Mangold

Many actors have had the benefit of a Portland film location – including Charlton Heston, Rick Moranis, Twiggy, Eugene Levy, Whoopi Goldberg, Neil Patrick Harris, Tom Cruise, Bryan Brown, Elisabeth Shue, Denzel Washington, Robert Townsend, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Balthazar Getty, Anne Parillaud, William Baldwin, Graham Greene, Christian Bale, Oliver Reed and Cameron Diaz. The parish of Portland is the most easterly of the northern parishes of Jamaica and holds the undisputed title of the most beautiful due to a lush and varied landscape, which is helped by its frequent rains. Shortly after the British took control of Jamaica from the Spanish in 1664, the entire island was divided into seven parishes: Clarendon, St. John’s, St. Andrew’s, St. Katherine’s, Port Royal, St. David’s and St. Thomas. Later on, the parishes of St. Dorothys, St. Thomas in the Vale, Vere, St.

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George’s, St. Marie’s, St. Ann’s, St. James and St. Elizabeth’s were added, to make a total of fifteen.

Hugh Small Fig. 9-01: Frenchman’s Cove Portland

Jamaica was then further divided in 1758, into three counties that still exist on paper today: Surrey, Middlesex and Cornwall in the west. Later still, in 1867, some parishes were discarded by the then governor, Sir John Peter Grant, to leave a modern-day total of fourteen (down from twenty-two).243 Portland was created in 1723 and named after the first Duke of Portland – a title held by Henry Bentinck, whose father was born in the Netherlands but became a member of the British nobility through the Prince of Orange. He was made Marquess of Titchfield in 1716, and Governor of Jamaica from 1721.244 Along with many other investors, the duke sustained heavy losses in the South Sea Bubble, which would be called a “pump and dump” stock scheme today. His move to Jamaica, like many before him, probably arose from financial distress, and he ended up dying there in 1726.245 The name Titchfield exists today not only as a local school but also in the Titchfield Peninsula, which separates Port Antonio harbour into two sections – east and west. The peninsula saw the first settlement by British

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colonists, and would flood at high tide – not unlike parts of Port Royal, until that area was filled. As the town has developed, its buildings have reflected various types of architectural styles over the centuries, such as the Georgian and Victorian styles.246 The main town of Port Antonio with its coastal background does not, despite recent improvements to its road network, enjoy the best of many locations available in the parish. Nonetheless, it offers a substantial list of prime film locations, running west to east: The 1814 St. George’s Anglican Church at Buff Bay, with its Georgian architecture, was the original parish church before Portland was developed.247 The Charles Town Maroons are descendants of slaves who escaped to the interior from Spanish plantations when Jamaica was taken by the British in 1655, but many were deported to Nova Scotia and Sierra Leone after protracted conflict. 248 Their history is somewhat similar to that of the Seminole tribe of Florida. The northern side of the Blue Mountains presents a magnificent and varied panorama when approached from Portland. These peaks were placed on the UNESCO World Heritage Site List in 2015. The Spanish River bridges at Orange Bay offer old and new structures as well as a river delta. Orange Bay Point juts out as a peninsula into the Caribbean Sea, offering an almost three-hundred-and-sixty-degree coastline of both wild waves and calmer seas to the east. The old wooden Orange Bay railway station offers a glimpse into the past, when the stationmaster lived upstairs, with windows, doors and pillars that invoke images of the era when the railway was “king”. A scenic drive affords footage through Black Hill, rising to give distant views of the Portland interior and hills. Hope Bay and points east and west offer large tracts of coconut plantations that could depict any tropical isle. Somerset Falls near Hope Bay is a small but picturesque spot with cascades descending into a pool of water at the bottom that presents an opportunity for background to a river- or boat-related script.

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Likkle Portiie, across from m Somerset Falls, F is a neaat stopping po oint, with rafting availlable on the Daniel D River. The Ken Joones Aerodrom me on the western w side oof St. Margarret’s Bay, beyond Som merset Falls, parallels thee coastline a short distance away, hub. providing a location and transportation t River Grandde, the mightyy river and bassin with attenddant rafting an nd bridge, has providedd a popular atttraction for deecades. The Snow Hill pedestriian and vehiicle bridges were used in n Almost Heaven. An agricultuural college is sited at Paassley Gardenns with a maagnificent collection off breadfruit vaarieties and seeveral campuss compound bu uildings. Navy Islandd, a short distaance offshore, was once own wned by Errol Flynn F but is now contrrolled by the Ports P Authoritty of Jamaica. Nearby is thhe recently developed d Errrol Flynn Maarina on the Titchfield T Peninsula, w which offers exxtensive and modern m dockiing space with h adjacent facilities. A set of ruinedd mansion stru uctures existss at Folly Poiint, on its own peninsuula with a smaall islet offsho ore to the east..

Nico N Gray Fig. 9-02: Errrol Flynn Marinna, Port Antonio o

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Frenchman’s Cove, featured in so many films, has retained the beauty that has drawn such large numbers for decades.

Hugh Small Fig. 9-03: Frenchman’s Cove, Portland

Goblin Hill offers breathtaking views of the coast to the west and tiny Pellew Island is within swimming distance of the shore, providing a sense of isolation seaward. San San, once the playground of celebrities and actors, even has its own police station against a backdrop of lush hills and beaches. Blue Lagoon, near San San, has a perfect blue swimming opportunity out to the sea, with many luxurious villas on the waterfront nearby for rent. Dragon Bay provided a spot for several films but is currently closed under new owners, Sandals. Boston Beach is not only a source of great jerk meals but also provides a kaleidoscope of structures familiar to modern, rural Jamaica in a beach setting. Just after Boston Beach is Long Bay – as the name implies, a lengthy crescent of crisp, white sand.

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The Boston Bay–Manchioneal road traverses extensive, sparsely populated scenery between verdant hills and scenic coastline as far as the border with St. Thomas parish – itself, the home of Reach Falls. Hectors River, in Portland, boasts extensive coastline, bay and river locations. In terms of accommodation for cast and crew, the Jamaican North Coast is replete with high-standard hotels, all-inclusive resorts and even boutique inns catering to the most discerning need. Portland has the deluxe Trident Hotel, with a number of stately villas, but higher-volume hotels are less than an hour away on the new highway from Ocho Rios. There is also the highly regarded Goblin Hill Villas on an exhilarating hilltop location in the former celebrity retreat of San San, or the simpler Hotel Jamaican Colors further east. For some time, an international-quality recording studio with accompanying accommodation has been available at the Geejam Studio near Port Antonio. Jamaica has been home to many early film productions, several of which were not only encouraged by word of mouth from those in the trade but by the endorsements of professional magazines that mightily sang the praises of Portland and other well-regarded spots.

Simon Lewis Fig. 9-04: Bamboo Avenue, Holland Estate, Westmoreland

The Blue Lagoon and several other prominent location spots were highlighted in the February 1938 edition of Movie Maker magazine.

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moviemaker.com Fig. 9-05: Movie Maker magazine, February 1938

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Although Portland has emerged as the island’s most popular film location in recent years, Ocho Rios was the standard bearer for decades until its star started to fade with the development of the new Falmouth “super port”. Falmouth has seen its own share of films, mostly from the seventies, including, with their directors: Skullduggery Live and Let Die Papillon Eureka

1970 1973 1973 1983

Gordon Douglas Guy Hamilton Franklin J. Schaffner Nicolas Roeg

Further west, the second city, Montego Bay, has seen its fair share of films of films dating back to 1958 or perhaps even earlier. They were: Passionate Summer In Like Flint Oh Dad, Poor Dad Live and Let Die Skullduggery Wide Sargasso Sea Cool Runnings How Stella Got Her Groove Back

1958 1967 1967 1973 1970 1993 1993 1998

Rudolph Cartier Gordon Douglas Richard Quine Guy Hamilton Gordon Douglas John Duigan Jon Turteltaub Kevin Rodney Sullivan

On the western tip of Jamaica lies Negril, another town with a long, beautiful crescent beach that has drawn tourists for decades, and which now boasts varied resorts and attractions. Prime among the Negril locations are the caves and Booby Cay, which has featured in several films, drawing productions away from even distant Hawaii in search of sea-cave footage. Such productions date back as far as 1954, and include: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea Hanging in Hedo A Perfect Getaway

1954

Richard Fleischer

2008 2009

Greg Cannizzaro David Twohy

Surprisingly for such a rural area, the parish of Hanover has had its fair share of film productions – the most memorable being the London-bus chase by an old Jamaica Constabulary patrol car near Lucea in the belowlisted Bond picture: Live and Let Die Cool Runnings

1973 1993

Guy Hamilton Jon Turteltaub

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Another North Coast town with some history of films, accompanied by hotels and luxury villas that have accommodated even royalty, was Runaway Bay. Somewhat isolated from the hubbub of Ocho Rios and Montego Bay, it is an oasis of calm and relaxation. One of the young actors in A High Wind in Jamaica, Deborah Baxter, recently recalled in an interview that she was once in a pool at Runaway Bay with Martin Amis, now a successful novelist.249 This film footage appeared in: Live and Let Die A High Wind in Jamaica

1973 Guy Hamilton Green Grotto, Runaway Bay 1965 Alexander Mackendrick Runaway Bay coast, Rio Bueno

Ocho Rios and its environs have seen a string of film productions from early in the previous century, from 1939’s The Devil’s Daughter to License to Wed in 2007. Once Jamaica’s tourist capital, this town has seen a decline with the emergence of the Falmouth cruise-ship super port and the growth of Spanish-owned mega-hotels that stretch along the northern coastline. What have been left are many prominent attractions such as Dunn’s River Falls and more modern entries for the adventurous at heart. The impressive list of films with footage from Ocho Rios promises a secure future in providing excellent film locations: The Devil’s Daughter 1939 Arthur Leonard Oracabessa, Roaring River Falls Island of Desire 1952 Stuart Heisler Ocho Rios All the Brothers 1953 Richard Thorpe were Valiant Ocho Rios, Oracabessa Manfish 1956 W. Lee Wilder Dunn’s River Falls, Ocho Rios Sea Wife 1957 Bob McNaught Ocho Rios, Jamaica Inn Priory, St. Ann Dr. No 1962 Terence Young Laughing Waters, Bauxite building Father Goose 1964 Ralph Nelson Ocho Rios Come Spy With Me 1967 Marshall Stone Ocho Rios In Like Flint 1967 Gordon Douglas Dunn’s River Falls

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Live and Let Die Eureka Prelude to a Kiss Legends of the Fall Instinct License to Wed

1973 Guy Hamilton Sans Souci, The Ruins 1983 Nicolas Roeg Roaring River Great House, Great Hope Estate 1992 Norman Rene Sandals Royal Plantation Inn 1994 Edward Zwick Ocho Rios 1999 Jon Turteltaub Ocho Rios 2007 Ken Kwapis Sandals Royal Plantation

The nearby parish of St. Mary has not been left out when it comes to joining a century of film production in Jamaica, being notable for several productions that reflect the adventurous spirit of director and producer alike. Once the home of Ian Fleming, Oracabessa also revealed some history of film footage with Dr. No and All the Brothers were Valiant. Deeper inland, railway footage came from the now almost deserted town of Richmond for Dark of the Sun and the lush coastal flat lands and rivers of Agualta Vale for Eureka. All the Brothers were Valiant Dr. No Dark of the Sun Flatfoot Eureka

1953

Richard Thorpe Oracabessa

1962 1968 1968 1983

Terence Young Jack Cardiff Mel Welles Nicolas Roeg

Oracabessa Richmond Tower Isle Agualta Vale

Two relatively little-known parishes that also have to be recorded are Clarendon and Westmoreland, with footage for one apiece: Dark of the Sun Papillon

1968 Jack Cardiff Frankfield, Suttons Clarendon Jamaica Railway 1973 Franklin J. Schaffner Ferris Cross, Westmoreland

The least will soon become one of the most prominent, and although St. Thomas has only one film to its credit – frequently misidentified as Reach Falls in Portland – the future is limitless for one location manager to sing its praises or preach its magnificent vistas. This solo, but important, effort was:

The Paradise Parishes

Cocktail

1988

167

Roger Donaldson

Reach Falls

The grand old dame, Kingston, has retained her dignity over the years, as befits an elder who was visited by the oldest international commercial film production in the history of Jamaica: the 1910 silent picture, Between Love And Honor. The vastly larger subsequent production A Daughter of the Gods outshone later films for several decades in terms of its sheer grandiosity and expenditure. The history of Kingston film production speaks to a great record, still to be expanded: Flame of Passion A Daughter of the Gods Obeah

1915

Tom Terriss

1916

Herbert Brenon

1935

The Devil’s Daughter

1939

F. Herrick Herrick Arthur Leonard

The Black Swan Manfish

1942

Henry King

1956

W. Lee Wilder

Passionate Summer

1958

Rudolph Cartier

Dr. No

1962

Terence Young

The Confession

1964

William Dieterle

Dark of the Sun Papillon

1968

Jack Cardiff

1973

Hammerhead

1987

Franklin J. Schaffner Enzo G. Castellari

Knutsford Park Racecourse Fort Augusta Port Royal, Papine Knutsford Park Racecourse Hope Gardens, Kingston Glass Bucket club Constant Spring Hotel Manor House Hotel Port Royal Port Royal Morgan’s Harbour Bamboo Lodge Greenwich North Coast Temple Hall Kingston Port Royal Morgan’s Harbour Hermitage Dam Bog Walk Spanish Town Jamaica Railway Palisadoes Airport Kingston Port Kingston

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Popcorn Belly Almost Heaven

1991 1998 2005

Mark Herrier Hype Williams Ed Herzog

Ward Theatre Kingston Kingston Kingston airport Downtown Kingston Mona Old Hope Road Bog Walk Gorge

CHAPTER TEN THE FUTURE

The enterprise of film production sits at the junction of business and art, making it an unusual self-contradiction that has continued for over a century in Jamaica and the wider world. Artists, usually screenwriters, have a vision that they wish to materialize in the visual medium of film through directors. It is this creative process that causes so many conflicts, with those wishing to take the lonely road to near perfection being blocked by the powerful seeking a path to profit. Furthermore, governments tend to make efforts to promote their local filmmaking businesses without fully understanding these contradictions in the industry. There has been no major international film production in Jamaica since 2010, and there is none known to be on the horizon. Smart and erudite Australian Government officials enticed away the latest episode in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, with its anticipated $100 million of scarce foreign currency for local economies. A media report described this move as a reallocation of a government incentive.250 What is called for is a paradigm shift in the present mind-set from a film commission under a business-promotion portfolio – which is, in turn, under a ministry related to economic development, industry, investment or commerce – to an independent body connected to government departments only in the fulfilment of a strong mandate: the return of Jamaica to being “Little Hollywood”.251 The Jamaican Office of the Film Commissioner should not have a series of post holders as the political tides rise and recede but rather an independent appointee who can carry out a promotion plan with incentives for an extended period – utilizing the vast expertise we already have in Natalie Thompson or Lennie Little-White, whether in a deputy or a committee format. Thompson and her Jamaican crew have been referred to as amazing and wonderful.252

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Jamaican film-location managers with experience over several decades that have enjoyed the praises of foreign producers and directors alike can be counted on the fingers of one hand. However, they have regularly embraced the vision of a director with the aim of the practical fulfilment of the image to be created and immortalized. Competent and well-regarded film directors can be the most powerful people on the planet. They can move heaven and earth in search of their art, their film. It is these select few that should be sought out by the people of Jamaica, in order that they come and find the best locations for their film productions on the island. If the Jamaican assistant of the great opera tenor Luciano Pavarotti could facilitate a concert in Jamaica by the great man in March 1995 at Kings House, then surely there is no limit.253 To begin, there must be recognition of the past in order to progress to the future. Two directors have had the unique experience of shooting two films in Jamaica at separate times: Jon Turteltaub, with Cool Runnings in 1993 and Instinct in 1999; and Gordon Douglas, with In Like Flint in 1967 and Skullduggery, 1970. Such devotion requires recognition, for although they may not sing or run in an exemplary manner much contribution has been made to Jamaica, its economy and employment through their efforts. Charles Raymond wins the silent-movie, century-old category: he seems to have remained on location for nine films at once back in 1913. The producer category must go to Lewis Allen, who led the 1963 production of Lord of the Flies following up with a more Americanized version in 1990.254 Among actors who have come to Jamaica, Rod Taylor and Tom Cruise are standouts not only in talent but as repeat visitors to the island. Taylor appeared in Dark of the Sun and Jamaica Gold while Cruise featured in Cocktail in 1988 and the similar genre flick, Knight and Day, released in 2010. James Coburn also joined this elite group with A High Wind in Jamaica and In Like Flint. Much effort and promotion needs to go into the future of the Jamaican film industry, and in the fullness of time it must be a national effort. Every

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Jamaican citizen – at home and abroad, in direct or indirect contact with international film producers and directors – should trumpet the past achievements and future possibilities of their homeland. Every hotel chain, resort and business with a foreign element should board the film train, and use their extensive assets and connections to promote their respective locales. In this matter there is the bright shining star, Usain Bolt, who has the ability, in addition to his track prowess, to be humble and endearing, and is highly regarded – especially in the foreign-film community. As recorded previously, Jamaica has seen at least two attempts to establish local movie studios with international capability, with Audley Morais in 1935 and Kingswood Films in 1950. The Morais–DeLisser endeavour withered on the vine, but there are some enduring facets of Kingswood that could be revisited. The Kingswood arrangement enjoyed the complete support of both the local and United Kingdom governments, which development saw the grant of a production monopoly and the invitation for public subscription for the project, to be sited at Vernamfield. Vernamfield in Clarendon, about thirty-five miles west of Kingston, has served in many capacities: first as a United States Air Force base during World War Two; then as a raceway for cars; and, more recently, as a proposed logistics hub.255 It has many attributes – such as wide open spaces, extensive runways and a nearby labour force – which would render it attractive as an international film studio or location facility for perpetual use. In the grand old days before globalization, when countries other than China actually manufactured products, there was a Goodyear tyre factory in the eastern part of the island near White Horses, St. Thomas. Long since closed down, the site has seen several attempts by successive governments to repurpose both its buildings and its more than twenty acres of land. The last attempt was in 2015 by the then Minister of Industry, Investment and Commerce to transform the property into a filmproduction facility under a private–public partnership. This, too, was unsuccessful.256

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Nasi-Menyelek Ben-Yisrr Fig. 10-01: Long Pond Sugar Factory, Clark’s Town, Trelawny

Whilst both Vernamfield and the Goodyear site have their positive attributes, the “golden thread” that has run through major international film productions in Jamaica has been sea, sun and lush landscapes – in other words, Portland. Portland presently has another asset that would meet the criteria of stars being in alignment for a significant shift in the scope of the Jamaican film industry. The energetic and long-standing member of parliament for West Portland, Daryl Vaz, was appointed minister of economic growth and job creation, which bodes well for a quantum leap by film-industry stakeholders in Jamaica. Portland offers a plethora of locations – especially the Ken Jones Aerodrome area, where a minimum of facilities could be created to encourage foreign-film production in Jamaica. One enterprising resident who has started in this direction is Jon Baker of Geejam Studios, which have seen many prominent artistes come to Portland not only for the professional studio but also for the cool vibe that filmmaker Jeremy Thomas remarked on in regard to his Eureka production back in 1983. It would only require an enterprising mind with powerful

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economic or political connections to make the next step in a natural progression. The world outside Jamaica has become an unstable place, with numerous conflicts in many places impacting on Europe and North America, making filmmaking with large crowds and foreign crews no longer a cautious exercise but a perilous undertaking even at the best of times. Jamaica’s variety of landscapes – from the sea caves or jagged cliffs of Negril to sand-dune-like seascapes near Treasure Beach, running east to the vast open areas of Vernamfield and on to the lush Blue Mountains with several picturesque valleys that flow down to the magnificent North Coast with its unspoiled rivers and coastline – makes a compelling case for more visits, soon.

APPENDIX 1 THE JAMAICA LIST OF FILMS AND DIRECTORS

Title Between Love and Honor

Year 1910

Location Kingston

1913

Director The Vitagraph Company of America Charles Raymond

The Favourite for the Jamaica Cup Tom Cringle in Jamaica The Old College Badge A Flirtation at Sea The Creole’s Love Story The Overseer’s Revenge The Planter’s Daughter Lieutenant Daring and the Labour Riots Lieutenant Daring and the Dancing Girl Flame of Passion

1913

Charles Raymond

Various

1913 1913 1913

Charles Raymond Charles Raymond Charles Raymond

Various Various Various

1913

Charles Raymond

Various

1913

Charles Raymond

Various

1913

Charles Raymond

Various

1913

Charles Raymond

Various

1915

Tom Terriss

1915

Tom Terriss

Knutsford Park Racecourse Various

The Pearl of the Antilles A Daughter of the Gods Queen of the Sea Love’s Redemption

1916

Herbert Brenon

Fort Augusta

1918 1921

John G. Adolfi Albert Parker

Various Various

Various

Jamaica, the Land of Film

Satan’s Sister Ouanga

1925 1935

Obeah

1935

The Devil’s Daughter

1939

George Pearson George Terwilliger F. Herrick Herrick Arthur Leonard

The Black Swan Island of Desire All the Brothers were Valiant

1942 1952 1953

Henry King Stuart Heisler Richard Thorpe

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea Manfish

1954

Richard Fleischer

1956

W. Lee Wilder

Sea Wife

1957

Bob McNaught

Passionate Summer

1958

Rudolph Cartier

175

North Coast Myrtle Bank Hotel Port Royal, Papine Knutsford Park Racecourse Hope Gardens, Kingston Oracabessa Roaring River Falls Glass Bucket club Constant Spring Hotel Manor House Hotel Port Royal Ocho Rios Ocho Rios Oracabessa Negril Port Royal Morgan’s Harbour Dunn’s River Falls Ocho Rios Ocho Rios Jamaica Inn Priory, St. Ann Bamboo Lodge Greenwich North Coast Temple Hall

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176

Dr. No

1962

Terence Young

Lord of the Flies Father Goose The Confession

1963 1964 1964

Peter Brook Ralph Nelson William Dieterle

A High Wind in Jamaica Come Spy With Me In Like Flint

1965 1967 1967

Alexander Mackendrick Marshall Stone Gordon Douglas

Oh Dad, Poor Dad Mamma’s Hung you in the Closet and I’m Feelin So Sad Dark of the Sun

1967

Richard Quine

1968

Jack Cardiff

Flatfoot Skullduggery

1968 1970

Mel Welles Gordon Douglas

Live and Let Die

1973

Guy Hamilton

Kingston Port Royal Morgan’s Harbour Liguanea Club Oracabessa Frenchman’s Cove Ocho Rios Hermitage Dam Bog Walk Spanish Town Various Ocho Rios Dunn’s River Falls Round Hill Round Hill Montego Bay Airport Richmond St. Mary– Clarendon Jamaica Railway Palisadoes Airport Port Antonio Tower Isle Montego Bay Falmouth Montego Bay Falmouth Ocho Rios Green Grotto, Runaway Bay Gun Point Wharf,

Jamaica, the Land of Film

Papillon

1973

Franklin J. Schaffner

The Treasure of Jamaica Reef Jamaican Gold Eureka

1974

Virginia L. Stone

1979 1983

Henry Levin Nicolas Roeg

Club Paradise

1986

Harold Ramis

Hammerhead

1987

Enzo G. Castellari

177

Montego Bay Johnson Town, Hanover Jamaica Safari Village, Falmouth Half Moon Hotel, Half Moon Bay Rose Hall Great House Montego Bay– Lucea Highway Sans Souci Hotel, Ocho Rios Falmouth Ferris Cross Westmoreland Kingston Port Negril Various Various Roaring River Great House Great Hope estate Agualta Vale Montego Bay Falmouth Dragon Bay, Portland Winnifred Beach San San Beach Blue Lagoon, Portland Kingston

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178

Cocktail

1988

Roger Donaldson

Clara’s Heart The Mighty Quinn

1988 1989

Robert Mulligan Carl Schenkel

Marked for Death Treasure Island Lord of the Flies Popcorn

1990 1990 1990 1991

Dwight H. Little Fraser C. Heston Harry Hook Mark Herrier

Prelude to a Kiss Wide Sargasso Sea

1992 1993

Norman René John Duigan

Cool Runnings

1993

Jon Turteltaub

Legends of the Fall Fool’s Paradise How Stella Got Her Groove Back

1994 1997 1998

Edward Zwick Richard Zakka Kevin Rodney Sullivan

Belly Shattered Image Instinct Almost Heaven

1998 1998 1999 2005

Hype Williams Raul Ruiz Jon Turteltaub Ed Herzog

Dragon Bay, Portland Reach Falls Port Antonio Trident Hotel, Port Antonio Various Portland Port Antonio Ward Theatre Kingston Ocho Rios Blue Hole Plantation, Flower Hill, St. James Momma Coffie’s Restaurant, Hanover Flint River Great House Sandy Bay Primary School Ocho Rios Various Round Hill Montego Bay Kingston Port Antonio Ocho Rios Kingston airport Downtown Kingston Mona Old Hope Road Bog Walk Gorge

Jamaica, the Land of Film

Made in Jamaica

2006

Nichts als Gespenster Roots Time License to Wed

2006 2007 2007

Jérôme Laperrousaz Marten Gypkens Silvestre Jacobi Ken Kwapis

Hanging in Hedo

2008

Greg Cannizzaro

A Perfect Getaway Wah Do Dem

2009 2009

Knight and Day

2010

David Twohy Ben Chace Sam Fleischner James Mangold

179

Snow Hill Bridge, Portland Various Various Various Sandals Royal Plantation, Ocho Rios Hedonism 11, Negril Negril Various Frenchman’s Cove

APPENDIX 2 E. S. MARTENS, PHD THESIS, “WELCOME TO PARADISE ISLAND: THE RISE OF JAMAICA’S CINE-TOURIST IMAGE 1891-1951”, AMSTERDAM SCHOOL FOR CULTURAL ANALYSIS, 2013

Please note: Some dates and titles of films may differ slightly from those given in the main text, above.

Thesis Abstract In recent years considerable scholarly attention has been devoted to examining the interconnections between film and tourism in general and the phenomenon of film-induced tourism or film tourism, more specifically. The focus of most studies in the field of film tourism has been on the recent booming of tourists visiting places where movies have been filmed and the potential and experience of film-induced tourism in predominantly Western, (newly) industrialized countries. The historical context of film (and) tourism and its interactions with (the places and peoples on the fringes of) empire have often remained unexposed. At the same time, current studies of visual representation have demonstrated that outsiders have long imagined the Caribbean as a region of paradoxical islands of both tropical beauty and danger. In particular, several studies have examined the endless – and often ruthless – pursuit of the myth of tropical paradise for the sake of colonial (agricultural) modernization and postcolonial (tourism) development. So far, these studies have almost exclusively focused on print media – written, painted or photographed – and tended to overlook the moving images of the region produced by film. This thesis tries to fill at least some of these research gaps by chronicling the history of popular cinema in Jamaica from the 1890s until 1951 and by showing how practices of film and filming were instantly, constantly and intimately entangled with the island’s tourism interests and colonial

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agendas during this period of sixty years. In doing so, this project seeks to provide the first in-depth exploration of Jamaica’s commercial film history, from early cinema (1891-1914), via late silent cinema (19151927), to classical sound cinema (1928-1951), and to demonstrate its close associations and affiliations with the island’s tourism history from the end of the nineteenth century through the first half of the twentieth century, which I have jointly dubbed the history of Jamaica’s “cine-tourist” image. Throughout my research into Jamaica’s early film history, I have been guided by three principal questions: (1) how have practices of film and filming in Jamaica evolved from cinema’s beginnings in the 1890s up to the 1950s?; (2) how have practices of film and filming contributed to the island’s tourism industry – practices and discourses – during this period?; and (3) how have practices of film and filming from cinema’s beginnings in the 1980s up to the 1950s helped lay the foundation of Jamaica’s modern tourist image of tropical paradise that continues to shape the island – its environment and its people – until the present day? Aligning my work with the spatial turn in media studies and the media turn in geography, I have drawn upon a wide body of literature related to both of these fields. While the first two questions are mainly addressed through the historical analysis of the political economy of popular cinema and the politics of film location practices (“new film history” / “postcolonial film historiography”), the answer to the third question is largely in the historical analysis of visual images and the politics of geographical representation (“postcolonial popular geopolitics” “touristic tropicalization studies”). Besides the study of academic literature, this thesis is heavily based on primary sources, particularly articles from the Jamaica Gleaner, Jamaica’s leading newspaper during the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century colonial period. Through the method of archival research, collecting and examining thousands of newspaper articles, I have been able to survey the island’s film history and to reveal the many early links and linkages between film location productions (“location films”) and the island’s imperial tourism industry. The thesis is divided into four chapters, which generally follow a chronological progression. In the first chapter, “Tourism Beginnings, 1891-1914,” I begin by discussing the emergence of Jamaica’s imperialtourist industry and the pre-cinema culture in which the medium of film would emerge. While charting the close nexus between the island’s tourism industry and the broader imperial project (“leisure imperialism”), I argue that the creation of Jamaica as a new travel destination for wealthy

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Europeans and North Americans was built upon longstanding colonial practices. Jamaica’s tourism industry came into existence at the turn of the previous century, when the island’s Crown government began to emphasize tourism as a development strategy and encourage foreign investment in the industry by providing several incentives for hotel projects. The hosting of the Great Exhibition of Jamaica in 1891 marked the official launch of the “New Jamaica,” i.e. the government-supported vision of national development and modernization through (foreign investments in) tourism and trade. While spawning the birth of a largely foreign-owned and foreign-controlled tourism industry, the New Jamaica was largely based on images of colonial prosperity and exotic difference that were mediated through the literary lens of travel writing and, increasingly, the visual lens of photography. In the second chapter, I continue to explore the nexus between leisure and the imperial enterprise, and the visual lens at work in early touristic depictions of Jamaica, but here I specifically focus on the, at the time, novel medium of film. I first show how early cinema was configured as part and parcel of imperial-tourist modernity, and how travel films became one of the most popular genres in the period of the cinema of attractions (1894-1908), a period that coincided with the height of colonialism. I then trace the beginnings of motion picture projection and production in Jamaica to the same period and chronicle the establishment of empire cinema – as practice and discourse – on the island in the first decade of the twentieth century. After exploring the ways early travelogues “captured” – i.e. imagined and produced – tropical landscapes and exotic natives for British-American tourist consumption, I discuss the arrival of the first fictional filmmakers on Jamaica from the 1910s and their immediate interaction with local tourism stakeholders. I specifically focus on the series of short fiction films shot on the island by the British and Colonial Kinematograph Company in 1913, which sparked a controversy among the readers of the Gleaner. What triggered this heated debate in the local newspaper concerning these story films? And how were these films, offering fictional accounts, related to tourism and empire? After considering the early years of tourism and cinema in Jamaica (1891-1914) in the two previous chapters, and concluding that both industries emerged on the island as forms of leisure imperialism, in the third chapter I turn to the period of late silent cinema (1915-1928). This period saw the American takeover of the world’s film markets and the move to the Hollywood studio system and classical cinema, which would form the basis for commercial filmmaking for decades. During this

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era of the silent feature picture, the first slate of feature length fiction films was shot in Jamaica, confirming and solidifying the image of the island as a colonial possession and tourist attraction. In the third chapter, I look closely at the production of these popular movies during the late silent cinema period and demonstrate that these location shootings were not only recognized as tourist attractions after their release (providing indirect economic benefits as tourist advertisement) but also, for the first time, during their production (providing direct economic benefits as business tourism). I first discuss the feature-length fiction films shot in Jamaica during the 1910s, Pearl of the Antilles (1915), Flames of Passion (1916) and, most extensively, A Daughter of the Gods (1916), and show how they were thought to serve as valuable advertisements for the island as both international tourism resort and film location. Also, while documenting their production stories, I explore the imperial politics of location filming of the three films and propose to consider Jamaica’s early film location industry as another (highly ephemeral and volatile) colonial economy dependent on outside capital and enterprise, much like the island’s tourism industry that from the start relied so much on foreign operators and costumers. Then, I examine the small number of moving pictures shot on the island in the 1920s. Despite the much-trumpeted desire to become a regular film studio for American and British runaway productions, throughout this decade only two feature films were made in Jamaica: Love’s Redemption (1921) and Satan Sister (1925). Why were not more movies shot on the island during this period? And how where these two films discussed by local tourism promoters? Apart from discussing the production of these two films in the context of tourism promotion, I explore their tropical (izing) narratives in the context of empire cinema. How did these stories participate in the imperialist popular culture (including tourism imagery) of the time? What kind of images of empire and race did they produce? In the fourth and final chapter, I turn to the so-called “golden age” of empire cinema of the 1930s and 1940s and discuss the role of the romance adventure genre in negotiating the imperial frontier at a time when the British Empire started to wane and the American Empire was still on the rise. First, I address the proliferation of the genre in both Britain and Hollywood in general terms, arguing that the majority of the imperial adventure films made during this period overtly celebrated colonial conquest and imperial power. Then I specifically discuss the pirate adventure film, the sub-type of the imperial adventure genre that became most popularly associated with Jamaica (and the wider Caribbean).

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Appendix 2

Although most Hollywood pirate films were shot in studio sets, such as Captain Blood (1935), the island (and the region) existed in the EuroAmerican imagination as a setting for the “romantic” tales of swashbuckling buccaneering on the high seas (standing in high contrast with the actual, brutal history of piracy and slavery as remembered by most African-Caribbean people). As such, these films chiefly confirmed and perpetuated colonial fantasies about white men’s privileged access to land and other resources in the Caribbean. Finally, I examine the (often independently produced) slate of horror adventure films that were laid in the Caribbean during the 1930s and 1940s. Three of them three, Ouanga (1935), Obeah (1935) and The Devil’s Daughter (1939), were shot in Jamaica, once more breeding the hope that Jamaica could become a thriving film location. Furthermore, while connecting these films to the historical demonization of Afro-creole religions by colonial elites and the continuing suppression of voodoo and obeah practices during the early twentieth century, I suggest that they not only manifested colonial desires and anxieties but also presented a moralizing view of the British Empire. In a period when the island experienced a boom in tourism arrivals and raised its profile as a destination of choice, popular cinema solidified the image of Jamaica as a place of romantic adventure and dangerous mystery – an image that has continued to this day. While the focus of this project is on the past, it also aims to trace and make connections to the vexed postcolonial predicament of visual representation and tourism development in contemporary Jamaica. As such, this thesis is meant as a contribution to the field of tropicalization studies on the Caribbean, one that calls for a historical and critical understanding of film (and) tourism and aims to engage in the timely debate on how Caribbean small island developing states (SIDS) could develop effective sustainable development strategies beyond the prevailing images of tropical paradise.

Overview of Foreign Feature Films Shot Entirely or Partially in Jamaica, 1913-2013 Year Title Director Credited Production Company [Country] 1901 Jamaica’s Poor Guy Bradford Warwick Trading Company [UK] Entering Relieving Officer’s House; Gang of Negro Women Transport Coal; Gathering and Leading Bananas onto Ox Wagons; Phantom Ride through Dense Palm Forests; Negro Women Coaling a Vessel; On an Electric Tram through Main Street, Kingston; Hauling Sea Turtles; Negro Women Carrying Bananas aboard Ship; Jamaica

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Urchins Raking Leaves; West India Regiment Marching; Panoramic Ride along the Road; Sugar Cane Industry 1903 Railway Panorama near James White Edison Company [USA] Spanish Town, Jamaica 1906 The Principal Industry is Alfred J. West “Our Colonies” [UK] Banana Growing; The Bundles of Bananas; Kingston; The Victoria Market; On the Road to the Market; Husking Coconut Competition; Sugar Cane Eating Competition; Washing Clothes Competition; Sunday Morning in the Mountains; Nigger Children Leaving School; West India Regiment 1907 A Ride through Kingston on an Alfred J. West West’s “Our Colonies” [UK] Electric Car after the Earthquake 1910 Between Love and Honor Unknown Vitagraph Company [USA] 1913 Favourite for the Jamaica Cup; Jack O’Neill Farrell B & C Kinematograph Company [UK] Tom Cringle in Jamaica; The Old College Badge; A Flirtation at Sea; The Creole’s Love Story; The Overseer’s Revenge; The Planter’s Daughter; Lieutenant Daring and the Labour Riots; Lieutenant Daring and the Dancing Girl 1915 Pearl of the Antilles Tom Terriss Terriss Feature Film Company [USA] 1916 Flame of Passion Tom Terriss Terriss Feature Film Company [USA] A Wife’s Sacrifice J. Gordon Edwards Fox Film Corporation [USA] The Spider and the Fly J. Gordon Edwards Fox Film Corporation [USA] The Marble Heart Kenean Buel Fox Film Corporation [USA] The Ruling Passion James C. McKay Fox Film Corporation [USA] A Daughter of the Gods Herbert Brenon Fox Film Corporation [USA] 1918 Queen of the Sea John Adolfi Fox Film Corporation [USA] 1921 Love’s Redemption Albert Parker Norma Talmadge Film Corporation [USA]

186

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1925 Satan’s Sister George Pearson B.W.P. Film [UK] 1935 Ouanga George Terwilliger Ouanga Productions [Canada] aka Drums of the Jungle aka The Love Wanga Obeah F. Herrick Herrick Arcturus Picture Corporation [USA] aka South of the Sun aka Mystery Island/Ship 1939 The Devil’s Daughter Arthur H. Leonard Linwal Productions [USA] aka Daughters of Jamaica aka Pocomania 1950 Treasure Island Byron Haskin Walt Disney Productions [USA]; Walt Disney British Films [UK] 1952 Saturday Island Stuart Heisler Coronado Productions [UK] 1953 City beneath the Sea Budd Boetticher Universal International Pictures [USA] All the Brothers were Valiant Richard Thorpe MGM [USA] 1954 20.000 Leagues under the Sea Richard Fleischer Walt Disney Productions [USA] 1956 Manfish W. Lee Wilder W. Lee Wilder Productions [USA] aka Calypso 1957 Island in the Sun Robert Rossen Darryl F. Zanuck Productions [USA]; Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation [USA] Sea Wife Bob McNaught Alma Productions [UK]; Twentieth CenturyFox Film Corporation [USA] 1958 Passionate Summer Rudolph Cartier The Rank Organisation [UK] aka Storm over Jamaica 1960 The Islanders [TV Series] Herman Hoffman MGM Television [USA] 1962 Dr. No Terence Young Eon Productions [UK]

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1963 Lord of the Flies Peter Brook Two Arts Ltd. [UK] 1964 Father Goose Ralph Nelson Grenox Compoany [USA]; Universal Pictures [USA] The Confession William Dieterle William Marshall Productions [USA] aka Quick, Let’s Get Married 1965 A High Wind in Jamaica Alexander Mackendrick Twentieth Century-Fox Productions [UK] 1967 In Like Flint Gordon Douglas Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation [USA] Oh Dad, Poor Dad Richard Quine Seven Arts Productions [UK] 1968 The Mercenaries Jack Cardiff MGM [UK] aka Dark of the Sun 1973 Live and Let Die Guy Himilton Eon Productions [UK] The Devil’s Garden Bob Chinn Roland Miller [USA] Vudu Sangriento Manuel Caño Mingyar P.C. [Spain] aka Black Voodoo Exorcist Papillon Franklin J. Schaffner Allied Artists Pictures [USA]; CoronaGeneral [USA] 1976 Evil in the Deep Virginia L. Stone D & R Film Project [USA]; Producers Group Inc [USA] aka The Treasure of Jamaica Reef 1979 The Treasure Seekers Henry Levin Halart Productions [USA] aka Jamaican Gold 1981 Piranha Part II: The Spawning James Cameron Brouwersgracht Investments [Netherlands]; Chako Film Company [USA] Eureka Nicolas Roeg JF Productions [USA]; Recorded Picture Company [UK]; Sunley Productions Ltd. [UK] 1985 Return to Treasure Island Alan Clayton Harlech Television [UK]; Prime Time [TV Series] Television [UK]; Walt Disney Pictures [USA] In Like Flynn [TV Film] Richard Lang Twentieth Century-Fox Television [USA]; Astral Film Enterprises [Canada]; Glen A. Larson Productions [USA]

188

Appendix 2

1986 Club Paradise Harold Ramis Warner Bros. Pictures [USA] Return to Treasure Island Alan Clayton Harlech Televison [UK]; Primetime Television[TV Series] [UK]; Walt Disney Pictures [USA] V.Y. Vihdoinkin yhdessä Kari Kyrönseppä Skandia Filmi [Finland] aka Together at Last Furia en Jamaica Jesús Franco Fevri Films [Spain]; Herminio Garcia Calvo aka Orgasmo perverso [Spain] aka Furia en el tropic aka Fury in the Tropics aka Agent 077: Operation in Jamaica 1987 Hammerhead [TV Film] Enzo G. Castellari Filmmustang [Italy]; INIP [Italy] Cocktail Roger Donaldson Interscope Communications [USA], Silver Screen Partners [USA]; Touchstone Pictures[USA] 1988 Clara’s Heart Robert Mulligan MTM Enterprises [USA]; Warner Bros. [USA] 1989 The Mighty Quinn Carl Schenkel A&M Films [USA]; MGM [USA]; Start Partners II [USA] Passion and Paradise [TV Film] Harvey Hart Leonard Hill Films [USA]; Picture Base Int.[UK], Primedia Productions [USA]; Westbourne Productions [UK] Golden Eye [TV Film] Don Boyd Anglia Films [UK] Popcorn Mark Herrier Century Films [UK], Movie Partner [UK]; Trans-atlantic Pictures [USA] 1990 Marked for Death Dwight H. Little Victor & Grais [USA]; Steamroller Productions [USA] Treasure Island [TV Film] Fraser Clark Heston Agamemnon Films [USA]; British Lion Film Corporation [UK]; Turner Network Television [USA] Lord of the Flies Harry Hook Castle Rock Entertainment [USA] Jack’s Camp [USA]; Nelson Entertainment [USA] Signal Hill Entertainment [USA] 1992 Prelude to a Kiss Norman René Gruskoff/Levy Company [USA]; TwentiethCentury-Fox Film Corporation [USA]

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1993 Cool Runnings Jon Turteltaub Walt Disney Pictures [USA] Wide Sargasso Sea John Duigarn Laughing Kookaburra Productions [Australia] and Sargasso Productions [Australia] Legends of the Fall Edward Zwick Bedford Falls Productions; Pangaea; TriStar Pictures Sankofa Haile Gerima Channel Four Films [UK]; Diproci [Burkina Faso]; Ghana National Commission on Culture [Ghana]; Mypheduh Films [USA]; Negod-Gwad Productions [Ethiopia]; NDR [Ger]; WDR [Ger] Scam [TV Film] John Flynn Viacom Productions [USA] 1996 White Squall Ridley Scott Hollywood Pictures [USA]; Largo Entertaiment [USA]; Scott Free Productions [USA] 1997 The Man Who Knew too Little Jon Amiel Warner Bros. Pictures [USA]; Regency Enterprises [USA]; Polar Productions [UK];Taurus Film [Germany] Fool’s Paradise Richard Zakka Fools Paradise Productions [USA] 1998 Belly Hype Williams Big Dog Films [USA] How Stella Got her Groove Back Kevin Rodney Sullivan Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation [USA] Shattered Image Raoul Ruiz The Artists’ Colony [USA]; Fireworks Entertainment[Canada]; Schroeder Hoffman Productions [USA]; Seven Arts Productions[UK] 1999 Instinct Jon Turteltaub Spyglass Entertainment [USA]; Touchstone Pictures [USA] 2005 Almost Heaven Ed Herzog Egoli Tossell Film [Ger]; Medienfonds GFP [Ger]; Studio Babelsberg [Ger]; Deutsche Columbia TriStar Filmproducktion [Ger] The Slavery Business [TV Film] Michael Samuels BBC Bristol [UK] 2006 Nichts als Gespenster Martin Gypkens ARTE [Ger]; Box! Film- und Fernsehproduktions GmbH [Ger]; Marco Polo High Definition [Ger]; Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg[Ger]; Senator Film Produktion [Ger] Roots Time Silvestre Jacobi Mistika Films [Argentina] Wide Sargasso Sea [TV Film] Brendan Maher BBC Wales [UK]; Kudos Film and Television [UK]

190

Appendix 2

2007 License to Wed Ken Kwapis Warner Bros. [USA] 2008 Hanging in Hedo Greg Cannizzaro Indie Gems Films [USA]; Spanky Film Works [USA] 2009 A Perfect Getaway David Twohy Rogue [USA]; Relativety Media [USA]; QED International [USA]; Davis Entertainment [USA]; Tooley Productions [USA] Wah Do Dem Ben Chace and Wah Do Dem [USA] Sam Fleischner Legendary David Huey Cine Excel Entertainment [USA] Small Island [TV Series] John Alexander BBC [UK]; Ruby Films [UK] 2010 Knight and Day James Mangold Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation [USA]; Regency Enterprises [USA]; PinkMachine [USA]; Three Line Films [USA] Not released Sunken Treasure [production: 1950] Robert Cumming Kingswood Films [USA]; later Flynn Enterprises [USA] The Zaca Jamaica Adventure [1951] Errol Flynn Flynn Enterprises [USA] Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar [1964] Sandy Howard Unknown [USA] Brown-Eyed Picapie [1965] Unknown William Marshall Productions [USA] Although feature-length fiction films are included in the list, this overview also contains the early travelogues and short fiction films shot in Jamaica from 1901-1913 which have been discussed in this thesis. The years listed are the years of theatrical release.

APPENDIX 3 COLONIAL FILM: MOVING IMAGES OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE – JAMAICA

BANANA CALYPSO (1958) Biography of a banana, from Jamaican plantation to greengrocer’s stall BRITAIN'S BIRTHRIGHT (1924) The goodwill tour of the Royal Navy’s special service squadron around the world, November 1923 to September 1924 BRITISH CALENDAR NO. 41 - JAMAICAN INDEPENDENCE (1962) DOCUMENTARY. A record of Jamaica at the time of its independence BRITISH NEWS NO. 263 (1945) For a detailed shot list, contact the National Film and Television Archive (NFTVA) CAPTAIN BLOOD (1935) Story of English doctor accused of treason in the time of King James II and deported to Jamaica CARGO FROM JAMAICA (1933) INSTRUCTIONAL. The banana industry in Jamaica Credits (30). Views of the hillside and banana plantations (76) CARIBBEAN PLAYGROUND (1954) Travelogue of Jamaica

192

Appendix 3

CHURCHILL VISITS JAMAICA (1953) The visit of Winston Churchill to Jamaica in January 1953

FARMER BROWN LEARNS GOOD DAIRYING (1951) The care and management of dairy herds in Jamaica in order to maximize milk yields FAVOURITE FOR THE JAMAICA CUP (1913) A gambler plots to sabotage a train carrying a racehorse FLAME IN THE STREETS (1961) Melodrama dealing with racism; centres on domestic difficulties that develop in a working class family

FROM CANE TO CUBE (1950) An industrial process film for Tate and Lyle, showing the growth and processing of sugar cane FRUIT IN JAMAICA (1937) Documentary on banana growing in Jamaica, filmed during Frank Bundy’s trip to the West Indies

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GREAT FIRE AT KINGSTOWN DOCKS, JAMAICA (1912) Main title. Men and uniformed firemen in open area directing a hose, man waving, onlookers waving back HEART WITHIN (1957) Jamaican dockside worker, suspected of killing spiv compatriot, hides from the police in panic but is befriended by paper-boy HMS AJAX IN THE SOUTH AMERICAN SQUADRON, 1938-1940 (1940) (Reel 1) Scenes in Bermuda, HMS Cumberland and HMS Exeter in harbour, ashore in Jamaica (Reel 2) Goodwill voyage round South America HMS DRAGON (1935) Part One. (B&W) “Atlantic crossing”: HMS Dragon running swiftly in choppy seas. “Drills at Bermuda” INDUSTRIES OF JAMAICA (1913) JAMAICA 9 HOURS (1958) Travelogue JAMAICA I (1946) Amateur footage of a journey made from Britain to Jamaica Threshing and haystack making. Docks. Salisbury Cathedral. The voyage, Newcastle to New York JAMAICA II (1950) Amateur footage featuring Noel Coward in Jamaica JAMAICA II (1946) Amateur footage of a visit to Jamaica by Society of Friends JAMAICA PROBLEM (1947) Economic problems of Jamaica today and the struggle for survival JAMAICA - THIRD TEST (1960) Coverage of the third Test at Sabina Park, during the 1959/60 MCC tour of the West Indies

194

Appendix 3

JAMAICA VISTA (1952) A travelogue about Jamaica with emphasis on Kingston

JAMAICAN HARVEST (1938) The cultivation and export of bananas in Jamaica KINGSTON, JAMAICA: A WONDERFUL WELCOME PATHÉ GAZETTE ... (1931) LET US BREAK BREAD TOGETHER (1959) Made to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Methodist work in the West Indies and Central America METHODIST JOURNEY IN JAMAICA AND HONDURAS (1935) Record of journey made by Reverend G.E. Hickman Johnson and his wife to see work being done by missionaries

MONTEGO BAY TO WILLIAMSFIELD, JAMAICA (1913) Scenes in Jamaica, featuring shots from a train A title introduces ‘Montego Bay. The Market Square and Main Street’ PANAMA CANAL AND JAMAICA MILLAR PERSONAL FILM 6 (1938) Amateur film of a trip along the Panama Canal, and to Jamaica Pelicans and guanos off Lobos de Afuera (Peru) The ROYAL HAMPSHIRES IN THE CARIBBEAN (1961) An ‘on the spot’ report by Julian Pettifer showing the role of the Royal Hampshire Regiment

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ROYAL TOUR NO. 1 The WEST INDIES (1954) The Canopus touching down in Montego Bay; the visit to Kingston, the American naval reception at Panama SPRING CRUISE (1956) Ships of the British Home Fleet pay goodwill visits to islands in the West Indies SPRING HOLIDAY 1956 (1956) New York; “Florida” - Fort Pierce - Miami; “Caribbean Islands”; Cuba; Montego Bay airport; St Kitts URBAN MOVIE CHATS NO. 6 (1920) Cinemagazine: includes items on Cuba, ice manufacture in N. America, fiddler crabs in the Mississippi River, the sugar cane industry WEST INDIES (1938) Amateur film of the Bahamas, Jamaica, and Antigua, with some shots of Miami and Havana

WEST INDIES CALLING (1943) The production of sugar cane in the West Indies, contrasting old and new methods

APPENDIX 4 UNDISCOVERED JAMAICA FILMS

Jamaica Produce Media History Digital Library Title: Close Up Date: Mar-Dec 1933 Author: Kenneth Macpherson, ed. Publisher: Pool Volume: 10 Language: eng Subjects: Film Theory, Motion Pictures

... 32( I CLOSE UP “Jamaica Produce.” An E.M.B. film by Wright and Grierson. “Produit de Jamalque.” Un film E. M. B. de Wright et Grierson. The photo at the top of the opposite page is from “Air Engine,” an E.M.B …

NOTES

1

See Internet Movie Database (IMDb) for references on films. Emily Smith, Five of the best seaside film locations, CNN, 20 October 2011. 3 Hollywood Reporter, Volume 312, 1990. 4 Stephanie Leigh Batiste, Darkening Mirrors: Imperial Representation in Depression-era African American Performance, Durham, NC and London, Duke University Press, 2012, p. 213. 5 The Railways of Jamaica - The Friendliest Line in the World, Documentary, 1993. The Complete Rod Taylor Site: www.rodtaylorsite.com. 6 JAMPRO, The Jamaica Film Commission, Film Jamaica, Filmography, Island in the Sun, 1957, p. 4. 7 Colonial Film: Moving Images of the British Empire, Heart Within, 1957. 8 Email, office of Randal Kleiser, 3 March 2016. 9 Jamaica Information Service, Govt Welcomes Partnerships to Protect Environment, 24 March 2016. 10 Roger Greenspun, “Screen: ‘Skullduggery’: Jungle Movie Turns to Social Commentary”, New York Times, 12 March 1970. 11 David Denby, “Lust at Sea”, New York magazine, 3 May 1993, p. 64. 12 Brian Taves, Jules Verne: The Father of Science Fiction on Screen, Lexington, KY, University Press of Kentucky, 2015, p. 58. 13 Jill Williams, “Remembering Timothy Napier Moxon”, Jamaica Observer, 21 December 2006. 14 Clayton Goodwin, “Charle Hyatt: a broadcaster who symbolised Jamaica”, Guardian, 24 February 2007. 15 Vincent Canby, “A Kiss Turns Into the Unexpected”, New York Times, 10 July 1992. 16 Round Hill Hotel and Villas history archive. 17 Jeff Howard, “Film director Turteltaub has right ‘Instinct’”, Las Vegas Sun, 7 June 1999. 18 Joseph Treaster, “JAMAICA; An Island Rediscovers Its Role as the Little Hollywood Of the Caribbean”, New York Times, 12 June 1988. 19 “Section of Highway 2000 named after P. J. Patterson”, Jamaica Observer, 17 April 2000. 20 “Jamaica: The Ultimate Tour Screened in Canada”, Jamaica Information Service, 23 February 2006. 21 theerrolflynnblog.com 22 Maria Lewis, Mail Online, 5 August 2014. 23 A Daughter of the Gods, IMDb. 24 Ibid. 25 Palaceamusement.com. 26 “A Daughter of the Gods”, Daily Gleaner, 20 December 1915. 2

198

27

Notes

Gleaner, 28 February 1919. Anthony Porter, Bricks and Stones From The Past, Jamaica's Geological Heritage, Kingston, University of the West Indies Press, 2006, p. 52. 29 Advertisement, Gleaner, 1 March 1919. 30 Letter from J. K. Whittingham, Gleaner, 7 March 1919. 31 “Come at Last”, Gleaner, 28 February 1919 32 John T. Soister, American Silent Horror, Science Fiction and Fantasy Feature Films, 1913-1929, Jefferson, NC, McFarland, 2012, p. 747. 33 “Hettie Gray Baker,” New England Historical Society, 1925. 34 Angela Woollacott, Chapter 1: “Annette Kellermann Mermaids and South Sea Islanders”, in Race and the Modern Exotic: Three ‘Australian’ Women on Global Display, Clayton, VIC, Monash University Publishing of Australia, 2011. 35 E. S. Martens, “Welcome to Paradise Island: The rise of Jamaica’s cine-tourist image 1891-1951”, PhD thesis, Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis, 2013 – Overview of Foreign Feature Films Shot Entirely or Partially in Jamaica, 19132013. 36 IMDb. 37 www.felbridge.org.uk/index.php/publications/harry-lorraine/ 38 “The British and Colonial Kinematograph Coy, Scenes of Jamaica”, Gleaner, 23 May 1913. 39 www.colonialfilm.org.uk/node/4450 40 American Film Institute, IMDb. 41 Larry Langman, American Film Cycles: The Silent Era, Santa Barbara, CA, ABC-CLIO, 1998, p. 349. 42 TCM.com notes. 43 “Vera deCordova Sanville, 98, Helped Found Stage Group”, Washington Post, 6 June 1980. 44 “Some Leading Players of Mr. Tom Terriss’ Coy. who Appeared at Ward Theatre Last Night”, Gleaner, 21 May 1915. 45 “At The Palace, Showing To-Night Long Looked for Terris Picture Made in Jamaica”, Gleaner, 14 November 1916. 46 American Film Institute (AFI), The 1921–1930 American Film Institute Catalog of Motion Pictures Produced in the United States, Berkeley, CA, University of California Press, 1997, p. 464. 47 Gleaner, 20 June 1924. 48 John Trumpbour, Selling Hollywood to the World: US and European Struggles for Mastery of the Global Film Industry, 1920-1950, Cambridge Studies in the History of Mass Communication, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2007, p. 120. 49 “Drums Of The Night”, Gleaner, 4 October 1933. 50 Merrick Needham, “The Great Exhibition of 1891 and the birth of Jamaica's hotel industry”, Jamaica Observer, 1 February 2015. 51 “Movie Folk Sail in Haiti for New York”, Gleaner, 16 November 1933. 52 Photoplay, 1934, p. 79. 28

Jamaica, the Land of Film

53

199

Daniel Tannehill Neely, “Mento, Jamaica’s Original Music: Development, Tourism and the Nationalist Frame”, PhD thesis, New York University, January 2008, p. 133. 54 “A Lovely Lady Wanted For The Silver Screen”, Gleaner, 8 June 1934. 55 “Thefts Reported”, Gleaner, 23 August 1926. 56 “A Setback To Film Caused By Accident”, Gleaner, 28 June 1934. 57 Stephanie Leigh Batiste, Darkening Mirrors: Imperial Representation in Depression-era African American Performance, Durham, NC and London, Duke University Press, 2011, p. 213. 58 “This Week, Motion Picture Herald, 2 December 1939, p. 10. 59 Glenn Kay, Zombie Movies: The Ultimate Guide, Chicago, Chicago Review Press, 2008, p. 4. 60 “First Lady”, Screenland, November 1940–April 1941, p. 26. 61 “Name Sought for Film Prize is Offered”, Gleaner, 28 August 1939. 62 “Picture People Push Production”, Gleaner, 26 August 1939. 63 Brian J. Hudson, The Waterfalls of Jamaica: Sublime and Beautiful Objects, Kingston University of the West Indies Press, 2001, p. 47. 64 “Illness of Actress Holds Up Picture”, Gleaner, 31 August 1939. 65 Bob McCann, Encyclopedia of African American Actresses in Film and Television, Jefferson, NC, McFarland, 2009, p. 177. 66 “History of Emancipation Park”, Government of Jamaica website, http://jis.gov.jm/government. 67 “Hope Botanical Gardens”, Jamaica National Heritage Trust website: www.jnht.com/site_hope_botanical_garden.php 68 The Black Swan, IMDb. 69 Christine Lampe, The Book of Pirates, Layton, UT, Gibbs Smith, 2010, p. 41. 70 Amy Dunkleberger and Patricia King Hanson (eds), American Film Institute Catalog of Motion Pictures, Volumes 1-2; Volume 4, Berkeley, CA, University of California Press, 1999, p. 236. 71 Gleaner, 11 September 1944. 72 TCM.com notes. 73 “‘High Hope’ Up For Auction”, Gleaner, 2 November 2014. 74 Frommers, Jamaica Recommended Books, Films & Music. 75 Passionate Summer, IMDb. 76 “Rock-and-roll spoof next at Music Circus”, Gridley Herald, 12 August 1977. 77 Kitty Kingston, Gleaner, 13 July 1951. 78 “Saturday Island Company Delighted With Jamaica”, Gleaner, 24 August 1951 79 Henryk Hoffmann, Western Movie References in American Literature, Jefferson, NC, McFarland, 2012, p. 25. 80 All the Brothers were Valiant, IMDb 81 “All the Brothers were Valiant filming commences today”, Gleaner, 8 January 1953. 82 John H. Rothwell, “Cameras Over The Caribbean”, New York Times, 8 February 1953. 83 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, IMDb.

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Notes

84 Campbell Robertson, “Richard Fleischer, Director of Popular Films Is Dead at 89”, New York Times, 27 March 2006. 85 Robin Gauldie, Jamaica, Cape Town, New Holland Publishers Ltd, 2007, p. 95. 86 Stephen Youngkin, The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre, Lexington, KY, University Press of Kentucky, 2012, p. 376. 87 Taves, Jules Verne, p. 58. 88 Pamela Bridgewater, United States Ambassador to Jamaica, Speech to the Jamaica Exporters’ Association, 29 November 2012. 89 “Manfish Top Stars Arrive Today”, Gleaner, 9 April 1955. 90 “Manfish opens here Wednesday”, Gleaner, 4 November 1957. 91 “On The North Coast With The Stars of Sea Wife”, Gleaner, 19 June 1956. 92 Sea Wife, IMDb. 93 John Howard Reid, Big Screen Bible Lore, Raleigh, NC, Lulu.com, 2013, p. 124. 94 Dileep Padgaonkar, Under Her Spell: Roberto Rossellini in India, London, Penguin, 2008, p. 22. 95 “Co-Operation Feature of Sea Wife Unit”, Gleaner, 3 July 1956. 96 “Filming of Sea Wife Begins”, Gleaner, 14 June 1956. 97 “Sea Wife Crew Shifts to Laughing Waters”, Gleaner, 26 June 1956. 98 Passionate Summer, IMDb. 99 Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin, 1958. 100 “The Passionate Summer”, Gleaner, 20 April 1958. 101 “Team comes to film Passionate Summer”, Gleaner, 1 April 1958. 102 David Shipman, “Obituary: Bill Travers”, Independent, 31 March 1994. 103 “Virginia McKenna, Bill Travers meet locals at party”, Gleaner, 8 April 1958 104 Kellie Magnus, “Jamaica’s pantomime, upstaging tradition”, Caribbean Beat, Issue 76, November/December 2005. 105 “Team comes to film ‘Passionate Summer’”, Gleaner, 11 April 1958. 106 Paul Robbins emails, 23–24 November 2016. 107 “Exclusive Rights to Films of Jamaica Go to Producer”, Spokane Daily Chronicle, 8 December 1949. 108 “This Day In Our Past, 1950”, Gleaner, 5 April 2012. 109 “Kingswood Films Refinancing From Sterling Sources”, Gleaner, 24 October 1950. 110 “Mr. Audley Morais dies”. 111 Terry Rowan, Bikini, Surfing & Beach Party Movies, Raleigh, NC, Lulu.com, 2014, p. 13. 112 “James Bond marathon begins with JA”, Jamaica Observer, 17 June 2012. 113 Jet magazine, 25 November 1954, p. 62. 114 Dr. No, IMDb 115 David Shipman, “Obituary: Terence Young”, Independent, 15 September 1994. 116 Raymond Benson, The James Bond Bedside Companion, New York, Dodd, Mead, 1988. 117 Amanda Holpuch, “How Cary Grant nearly made Global James Bond day an American affair”, Guardian, 5 October 2012. 118 Lord of the Flies, IMDb.

Jamaica, the Land of Film

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201

“Stage and Screen Director to look over local talent”, Gleaner, 31 August 1954. Anthony Hayward, “James Aubrey: Actor who began his career as Ralph in Peter Brook’s Lord of the Flies”, Independent, 15 April 2010. 121 frenchmanscove.com 122 Ibid. 123 Carygrant.net, interview Stephanie McNutt, 2 September 2005. 124 Peter Biskind, Star: How Warren Beatty Seduced America, New York, Simon and Schuster, 2010, pp. 71–3. 125 Quick, Let’s Get Married, IMDb. 126 William J. Mann, Hello, Gorgeous: Becoming Barbra Streisand, Boston, MA, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012, p. 474. 127 Jocelyn Faris, Ginger Rogers: A Bio-Bibliography, Westport, CT, Greenwood, 1994, p. 152. 128 Marguerite Gauron email, 13 December 2016. 129 Marc Lee, “Alexander Mackendrick: creator of unsettling films galore”, UK Telegraph, 28 October 2012. 130 Clayton Goodwin, “Charles Hyatt: A broadcaster who symbolised Jamaica”, Guardian, 24 February 2007. 131 Marguerite Gauron, email 17 November 2016. Anecdote: Caymanian house painter. 132 Deborah Carr, email 4 January 2017. 133 In Like Flint, IMDb. 134 Santa Clara Weekly, February 2013, Issue 8. 135 Craig Hamrick and R. J. Jamison, Barnabas & Company: The Cast of the TV Classic Dark Shadows, Bloomington, IN, IUniverse, 2012, pp. 134–5. 136 Come Spy With Me, IMDb 137 Wesley Britton, Onscreen and Undercover: The Ultimate Book of Movie Espionage, Westport, CT, Praeger Publishers, 2006, p. 149. 138 “Movie Star Marries Jamaican”, Gleaner, 19 November 1969. 139 Harry M. Benshoff, Dark Shadows, Detroit, MI, Wayne State University Press, 2011, p. 57. 140 “Ranny Williams-crowd favourite”, Sunday Gleaner Magazine, 19 August 1979. 141 “This Day in Our Past”, Gleaner, 11 April 2013. 142 “This Day in Our Past”, Gleaner, 10 January 2009. 143 Paul Catchpole email, 1 December 2016. 144 Jim Horsford, The Railways of Jamaica, St. Austell, Paul Catchpole Ltd, 2010. 145 “Filming of Dark of the Sun starts”, Gleaner, 17 January 1967. 146 “UK Caribbean infrastructure fund approves steam engine railway for Portland, St. Mary”, Gleaner Hospitality Jamaica, 15 June 2014. 147 “Public-Private Partnership Being Explored To Expand Train Service”, Gleaner, 7 March 2016. 148 “Anti-Bond movie being filmed here”, Gleaner, 3 May 1967. 149 Tom Weaver, I Was a Monster Movie Maker: Conversations with 22 SF and Horror Filmmakers, Jefferson, NC, McFarland, 2001, pp. 69–71. 120

202

Notes

150 Obituary: “Gordon Douglas, 85, Our Gang Director”, New York Times, 2 October 1993 151 Skullduggery, IMDb. 152 “Insatiable desire to reach the top”, Gleaner, 11 February 1969. 153 Ivan L. Flynn, A Checkered Path to Destiny, Bloomington, IN, AuthorHouse, 2012, p. 97. 154 Virginia Smith, Cinema City Equipment, letter to the editor, Gleaner, 26 February 1968. 155 Falcon, Robert Bruce, [email protected] 156 Gavin Gaughan, “Roy Stewart”, Guardian, 4 February 2009. 157 Gleaner, 9 October 1972. 158 Gleaner, 19 November 1972. 159 Gleaner, 9 February 2002. 160 Gleaner, 9 October 1972. 161 “Sheba is safely locked away”, Gleaner, 6 October 1988. 162 Alexander Britell, “Searching for 007 at Half Moon Jamaica”, Caribbean Journal, n.d.: www.caribjournal.com/2015/07/25/james-bonds-caribbean-cottage/# 163 royalportfolio.com/port-of-call/montego-bay 164 couplesresorts.co.uk/resorts/couples-sans-souci 165 Damien Buckland, Collection Editions James Bond, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2016, p. 138. 166 “Bond director Guy Hamilton dies aged 93”, BBC News, 21 April 2016. 167 “Off-Season rates Enhance Colourful Jamaica”, Gleaner, 7 August 1979. 168 Harry S. Pariser, Jamaica: A Visitor’s Guide, West Palm Beach, FL, Hunter Publishing, 1990, p. 111. 169 Steve Blount, “Sun Screenings: Famous film locations in the Caribbean”, USA Today, 11 September 2015. 170 “Equipment come for shooting of $7m film”, Gleaner, 3 February 1973. 171 Melanie Ghisays email, 27 November 2016. 172 “Overseas film projects boost Port Antonio economy”, Jamaica Observer, 29 August 2010. 173 “Focus on the JNIP Film Unit”, Gleaner, 23 March 1987. 174 “Forbes Happy With Canadian Honour”, Gleaner, 17 June 2011. 175 Interview, Jeremy Thomas, 29 September 2016. 176 Robert Ward, “The Stacks: Think You Know Gene Hackman? Think Again”, Daily Beast, 7 May 2016. 177 Tim Robey, “Jeremy Thomas: Britain’s auteur film producer”, UK Telegraph, 31 March 2014. 178 Interview: Jeremy Thomas, Cinephile, 3 May 2014. 179 “Eureka’s Filming in Falmouth”, Gleaner, 16 May 1982. 180 Jeremy Thomas email, 5 October 2016. 181 Pat Hackett, Interview Magazine, 18 August 1985. 182 Brooke Comer, The Secret Caribbean: Hideaways of the Rich and Famous, West Palm Beach, FL, Hunter Publishing, 1999.

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Howard Campbell, “Robin Williams & Jamaica”, Jamaica Observer, 13 August 2014. 184 “Robin Williams Found Paradise In Jamaica”, Gleaner, 13 August 2014. 185 Marguerite Gauron email, 30 December 2016. 186 “Dud Paradise or Club Paradise”, Flair magazine, 5 August 1986. 187 “Portland: The movie centre of Jamaica”, Gleaner, 16 July 1990. 188 “Continued shuttering of Dragon Bay Resort pains Portland residents”, Gleaner, 1 March 2015. 189 “Club Paradise being sold”, Gleaner, 25 July 1988. 190 Treaster, “An Island Rediscovers”. 191 Matt Gross, “Jamaica: After the Stars and the Storms, a Place to Relax”, New York Times, 19 March 2006. 192 Marguerite Gauron email, 4 January 1917. 193 Brian J. Hudson, Waterfalls of Jamaica: Sublime and Beautiful Objects, Kingston, University of the West Indies Press, 2001, p. 32 194 John R. Kennedy, “Cruise’s made-in-Canada movie ‘Cocktail’ celebrates 25 years”, Global News, 29 July 2013. 195 “Portland: The movie centre of Jamaica”, Gleaner, 16 July 1990. 196 thetridenthotel.com; Marguerite Gauron email, 4 January 2017. 197 Brian Baxter, “Robert Mulligan”, Guardian, 23 December 2008. 198 Frommers, East of Portland. 199 Michael Reckord, “The Mighty Quinn-Mighty Good”, Gleaner, 31 March 1989. 200 David J. Fox, “Fighting Words: Movie: The writers of ‘Marked for Death’ and Steven Seagal are still feuding over script credit, Los Angeles Times, 16 October 1990. 201 “Cliff off on South American Tour”, Gleaner, 14 November 1990. 202 “Posses invade the big screen”, Gleaner, 1 November 1990. 203 Susan Schindehette, “Charlton Heston’s Son Has Come a Long Way from the Bulrushes: Baby Moses Is Now Dad’s Director”, People, 3 July 1989. 204 “Charlton Heston arrives for filming in Jamaica”, Gleaner, 1 June 1989. 205 Fraser Heston, Agamemnon Films email, 28 November 2016. 206 Marguerite Gauron email, 22 November 2016. 207 Marguerite Gauron email, 6 January 2017. 208 Peter Travers, “Lord of the Flies”, Rolling Stone, 16 March 1990. 209 “Creating a motion picture blockbuster”, Guardsman, 27 March 1989. 210 Kevin Thomas, “Popcorn: A Nifty Tribute to Its Genre”, Los Angeles Times, 1 February 1991. 211 Vincent Canby, “A Kiss Turns Into the Unexpected”, New York Times, 10 July 1992. 212 John Bigley, Jamaica - Montego Bay, Port Antonio and Ocho Rios, West Palm Beach, FL, Hunter Publishing, 2010. 213 Stephen Holden, “Norman Rene, 45, Director, Dies; He Elicited Naturalistic Acting”, New York Times, 26 May 1996. 214 Telephone confirmation, Robert Hale, Cayman Islands, 4 October 2016.

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Notes

215 Vincent Canby, “Mrs Rochester No.1, Long Before Jane Eyre”, New York Times, 10 July 1992. 216 Tony Gambrill, “The More Things Change”, Gleaner, 24 March 2013. 217 Lizabeth Paravisini-Gebert, Literature of the Caribbean, Westport, CT, Greenwood, 2008, p. 192. 218 Michael H. Price, “Cool Runnings: Serious comedy for Doug E. Doug”, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 6 October 1993. 219 “Cool Runnings has big impact on tourism”, Gleaner, 10 November 1993. 220 Entertainment section, Gleaner, 30 December 1997. 221 hanoverchamberofcommerce.com 222 Bruce Epke, Marine Coordinator, Legends of the Fall, 1993. 223 Joseph Steuer, “Dayne finding film ‘Paradise’”, Tennessean, 31 March 1996. 224 “From Russia with Sex”, New York magazine, 10 August 1998. 225 Janet Silvera, “Deborah Schindler In love with an island paradise”, Outlook, 25 January 2004. 226 Melanie Reffes, “Where to stay in Montego Bay”, USA Today, 11 October 2013. 227 “ACT OF DARING: Louie Rankin talks fame, family, and the latest on Shottas 2”, Tallawah magazine, 27 March 2014. 228 “JaRIA to recognize Bogle’s contribution to choreography”, Gleaner, 4 February 2015. 229 Jeannine Amber, “Belly of the Beast”, Vibe magazine, January 1999, p. 131. 230 Nation section, Gleaner, 11 September 1997. 231 William Grimes, “Prolific Director of Cryptic Films, Dies at 70”, New York Times, 19 August 2011. 232 Michael Taylor email, 30 September 2016. 233 Maxine Walters email, 15 October 2016. 234 George Cumming email, 5 October 2016. 235 “Almost Heaven not quite heavenly”, Gleaner, 22 November 2006. 236 “Caribbean Beat”, Film Buzz, May/June 2007. 237 Melanie Reffes, “Worth the splurge: Caribbean resorts that will spoil you rotten”, USA Today, 4 October 2016. 238 “License to wed premieres at Carib 5”, Gleaner, 26 July 2007. 239 “Celebrity Extra”, Gleaner, 5 January 2004. 240 Sheri Linden, “Wah Do Dem a dynamic portrait of Jamaica”, Reuters, 24 June 2009. 241 “Reggae Film Festival ends with high honours”, Gleaner, 3 March 2010. 242 “Knight and Day”, Gleaner, 26 June 2010. 243 “St. Georges Anglican, Portland”, Jamaica National Heritage Trust website: www.jnht.com/site_st_georges_anglican.php. 244 Bernard Bolingbroke Woodward, William Leist Readwin Cates, Encyclopedia of Chronology: Historical and Biographical, London, Longmans, Green and Co., 1872, p. 1,157. 245 UK National Archives, Papers of Henry Bentinck, 1st Duke of Portland (1682– 1726).

Jamaica, the Land of Film

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“Titchfield Peninsula”, Jamaica National Heritage Trust website: www.jnht.com/site_titchfield_peninsula.php. 247 “St. Georges Anglican, Portland”, JNHT website. 248 National Library of Jamaica, History Notes, Origins of the Jamaican Maroons, Kingston, National Library of Jamaica, n.d.: www.nlj.gov.jm/historynotes/The%20Maroons%20edited%20final.htm 249 James M. Tate, High Wind and the Lion: An Interview with Deborah Baxter, cultfilmfreak.com 250 Jason Hughes, “Pirates of the Caribbean 5 to Film in Australia”, Wrap, 1 October 2014. 251 Treaster, “An Island Rediscovers”. 252 Silvera, “Island paradise”. 253 “Tutto Pavarotti”, Gleaner, 10 March 1995. 254 “The Lord Of Flies Remake”, Entertainment Weekly, 16 March 1990. 255 “Government Eyes Vernamfield for Second Logistics Hub Location”, Gleaner, 13 May 2016. 256 Balford Henry, “Lights, Camera, Goodyear!”, Jamaica Observer, 13 May 2015.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Angela Woollacott, Modern Exotic: Three ‘Australian’ Women on Global Display, Clayton, VIC, Monash University Publishing of Australia, 2011. 2. Stephanie Leigh Batiste, Darkening Mirrors: Imperial Representation in Depression-era African American Performance, Durham, NC and London, Duke University Press, 2012. 3. Brian Taves, Jules Verne: The Father of Science Fiction on Screen, Lexington, KY, University Press of Kentucky, 2015. 4. Bob McCann, Encyclopedia of African American Actresses in Film and Television, Jefferson, NC, McFarland, 2009. 5. Amy Dunkleberger and Patricia King Hanson (eds), American Film Institute Catalog of Motion, Volumes 1–2; Volume 4, Berkeley, CA, University of California Press, 1999. 6. Anthony Porter, Bricks and Stones From The Past, Jamaica’s Geological Heritage, Kingston, University of the West Indies Press, 2006. 7. John T. Soister, American Silent Horror, Science Fiction and Fantasy Feature Films, 1913-1929, Jefferson, NC, McFarland, 2012. 8. Robin Gauldie, Jamaica, Cape Town, New Holland Publishers Ltd, 2007. 9. Raymond Benson, The James Bond Bedside Companion, New York, Dodd, Mead, 1988. 10. William J. Mann, Hello, Gorgeous: Becoming Barbra Streisand, Boston, MA, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012. 11. Jocelyn Faris, Ginger Rogers: A Bio-Bibliography, Westport, CT, Greenwood, 1994. 12. Craig Hamrick and R. J. Jamison, Barnabas & Company: The Cast of the TV Classic Dark Shadows, Bloomington, IN, IUniverse, 2012. 13. Wesley Britton, Onscreen and Undercover: The Ultimate Book of Movie Espionage, Westport, CT, Praeger Publishers, 2006. 14. Harry M. Benshoff, Dark Shadows, Detroit, MI, Wayne State University Press, 2011. 15. American Film Institute (AFI), The 1921–1930: American Film Institute Catalog of Motion Pictures Produced in the United States, Berkeley, CA, University of California Press, 1997.

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