Leslie Halliwell | |
|---|---|
| Born | Robert James Leslie Halliwell 23 February 1929 |
| Died | 21 January 1989(1989-01-21) (aged 59) |
| Occupation(s) | Film critic,encyclopaedist |
| Years active | 1952−1987 |
Robert James Leslie Halliwell[1] (23 February 1929 – 21 January 1989) was a Britishfilm critic,encyclopaedist and television rights buyer forITV, the British commercial network, andChannel 4. He is best known for his reference guides,Filmgoer's Companion (1965), a single volume film-related encyclopaedia featuring biographies (with credits) and technical terms, andHalliwell's Film Guide (1977), which is dedicated to individual films.
Anthony Quinton wrote in theTimes Literary Supplement: "Immersed in the enjoyment of these fine books, one should look up for a moment to admire the quite astonishing combination of industry and authority in one man which has brought them into existence."[2]
Halliwell's promotion of the cinema through his books and seasons of "golden oldies'"onChannel 4 won him awards from theLondon Film Critics' Circle, theBritish Film Institute and a posthumousBAFTA.[3][4][5]
Born inBolton,Lancashire in 1929, Halliwell enjoyed films from an early age. He grew up during theGolden Age of Hollywood, a period when film production was at its peak, with new releases debuting in cinemas with great regularity. Halliwell went almost nightly to the cinema with his mother, Lily, which provided an escape from the at times tough reality of theirmill town.[6] In 1939, Halliwell won a scholarship toBolton School. Afternational service, he went on to studyEnglish Literature atSt Catharine's College, Cambridge.
After graduating with a 2:1honours degree from St Catharine's, Halliwell worked briefly forPicturegoer magazine in London, before returning to Cambridge to manage the Rex Cinema from 1952 to 1956. Under his management, the cinema became extremely popular with the Cambridge undergraduate community, showing classic films such asThe Blue Angel,Citizen Kane andDestry Rides Again. TheCambridge Evening News reported that "students felt their periods at Cambridge were incomplete without the weekly visit to the Rex."[7] In 1955, after the British Censor had banned theMarlon Brando filmThe Wild One, Halliwell arranged for Cambridge magistrates to assess the picture. They subsequently granted him a special licence, and so the Rex became one of the few cinemas inBritain to show the film.[8]
After leaving The Rex, Halliwell joined theRank Organisation in 1956 on a three-year trainee course. He was then employed as a film publicist for the company.[citation needed] In 1958, he joinedSouthern Television, and was seconded toGranada Television a year later, where he remained for the next thirty years, at their offices in London'sGolden Square.[9][10] He married Ruth Porter in 1959 and they had one son.[11] Initially appointed as Cecil Bernstein's assistant, Halliwell gained the role of Film Adviser toGranada's showCinema, which was the most popular arts programme on television during the 1960s.[12]
Halliwell was given responsibility for buying TV shows and in 1968 became the chief film buyer for theITV network, a role he maintained throughout the 1970s and most of the 1980s.[13] Travelling to Hollywood twice a year to view the latest TV pilots and film offerings and to trade fairs inCannes andMonte Carlo, Halliwell became a major player in the television industry. In his capacity as chief buyer for the ITV network, he was responsible for bringing toBritish television screens some of the highest rated shows of the 1970s and 1980s, includingThe Six Million Dollar Man,Charlie's Angels,The Incredible Hulk, andThe A-Team, as well as theJames Bond film series,Jaws, andStar Wars.[14]
In 1982, at the invitation ofJeremy Isaacs, he became buyer and scheduler of films forChannel 4. In keeping with the channel's intention to appeal to specialist audiences, Halliwell focused primarily on films from the 1930s and '40s. Over the next few years, the channel showed hundreds of vintage movies in seasons, with many titles introduced by filmmakers such as Samuel Goldwyn Jnr,Frank Launder andSidney Gilliat. Isaacs later wrote that Halliwell had made an "unsurpassed contribution" to the channel's success.[15] TheBritish Film Institute gave Halliwell an award in 1985 'for the selection and acquisition of films with a view to creative scheduling.'[4] Author and film historianJeffrey Richards wrote:
For lovers of the golden age of the cinema like myself, Channel 4 became a source of unalloyed delight as time and again one encountered films one had only ever read about and never expected to see.[16]
During this period, Halliwell also presented two television series celebrating the British wartime documentary movement:Home Front, for Granada in 1982 andThe British at War for Channel 4 two years later. Both featuredMinistry of Information productions such asListen to Britain,Desert Victory andThe True Glory.[17]
First published in 1965,The Filmgoer's Companion sold ten thousand copies on its first run, including four thousand in the United States. In all, Halliwell edited nine editions of theCompanion,[18] which is now known asHalliwell's Who's Who in the Movies. The book was highly influential and critically acclaimed, with TV presenterDenis Norden comparing the companion to theWisden Cricketers' Almanack.[19]Gene Siskel wrote in 1975:
There is a well-developed consensus among film scribes that Leslie Halliwell'sThe Filmgoer's Companion is the single most valuable reference book on film."[20]
Others were less enthusiastic, criticising Halliwell's subjectivity and occasionally reactionary opinions on the films included, as well as the bias towards older films.Charles Champlin of theLos Angeles Times wrote in 1979 that "the referrer needs an iron will to look up only one fact,"[21] in reference to the perceived density of the book.
First published in 1977 and regularly updated,[citation needed]Halliwell's Film Guide originally incorporated capsule reviews and information on over 8,000 English-speaking titles. He used a four-star rating system similar in appearance to the system used bySteven Scheuer and (with slight modification)Leonard Maltin.[citation needed] However, in Halliwell's system even a one-star rating was a definite recommendation.[citation needed] Poor or mediocre films which other critics would rate one or two stars were equally missable to him, so they received no star.[citation needed] By the time of Halliwell's death in 1989, theFilm Guide had doubled in size. He acknowledged his predecessors in the introduction to the first edition,
I salute especially the work ofLeonard Maltin, James Robert Parish,Denis Gifford, Douglas Eames and the unsung anonymous heroes who compiled the reviews of theBFI'sMonthly Film Bulletin during the fifties and sixties.[22]
This second work also came in for as much criticism as it did praise. Halliwell came under fire from journalists and critics for the brevity of his assessments, and his dismissive stance on more modern films.[citation needed] His devotion to theGolden Age of Hollywood left him increasingly out of touch with modern attitudes.[citation needed]Observer film criticPhilip French wrote that Halliwell "isn't a scholar, critic or cineaste, but rather a movie buff, a man who knows the credits of everything but the value of very little".[23] Jim Emerson of theOrange County Register called Halliwell "something of a grumpy old English fuddy-duddy [who] rarely has anything good to say about any movie made after 1960".[24]
Halliwell's third encyclopaedic work began life as theTeleguide in 1979. Disappointed with the first edition, he joined withSunday Telegraph criticPhilip Purser to produceHalliwell's Television Companion, which ran for a further two editions in 1982 and 1986.[citation needed] The third edition, published by Grafton in 1986, included over 12,000 entries.
Halliwell retired from the television industry in 1986 but continued to edit his film guides.[25] He wrote a regular TV article for theDaily Mail beginning in 1987, and published a number of historical and critical works about the cinema. He also published three volumes of ghost stories inspired byM. R. James.[26][27]
Halliwell died ofesophageal cancer at the Princess AliceHospice inEsher,Surrey, a month before his 60th birthday.[28]
This list of Leslie Halliwell's favourite films was originally published in the fifth edition of theFilm Guide.[29]
A biography,Halliwell's Horizon, written by Michael Binder, was published in 2011.[30]
