I am very happy today to welcome back screenwriter David Sale to CINEMATIC REVELATIONS. David has been on the blog previously elaborating about his screenwriting for the NUMBER 96 movie, and many other topics; the interview can be found here. In this post David will be discussing his experiences with Hollywood, documented in his book Number 96, Mavis Bramston and Me, specifically writing his first novel, Come to Mother, which was picked up by Universal Studios for the movie rights after its publication.
Welcome back to CINEMATIC REVELATIONS David!
Athan: Before the immense success of NUMBER 96 on television, you wrote your first novel, Come to Mother, the book being quickly optioned by Universal Studios after its publication. What circumstances led you to write your first book?
David: We were just into the ’70’s. My stage revue “Lie Back and Enjoy It” was in a successful run at the Richbroke Theatre in Sydney. I had been a journalist, an actor, a satirical writer, and now a producer/director for both Television and the stage. I needed to try something different. “What should I do now?” I asked my literary agent, Peter Grose of Curtis Brown. “Write a book,” he replied. “Write a book that has nothing to do with Australia and make it a sure-fire movie property.”
I had recently read “Rosemary’s Baby” by Ira Levin and was knocked out by its thrilling originality. I knew that I wanted to equal its originality, not write some hackneyed plot about a serial killer on the loose, beautiful women being stalked and menaced, or a cliche ‘who-dunnit’. Even in those days these themes had been exploited endlessly.
Instead, I looked towards recent scientific developments - not science fiction, but the world of science fact and actual developments that prompted the question “I wonder what would happen if…..”
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Athan: Your novel had the topic of cryogenics, something which was not talked about much in the early 1970s, as its basis. How much research into the subject did you undertake in order to write about this very sensitive subject?
David: I have to confess research isn’t one of my strong points, but in the case of cryogenics it took just a couple of articles to background me in the theory. The idea of freezing someone who’d died from a fatal disease, keeping the body from deteriorating with zero temperatures and then ‘thawing it’ when a cure for the fatal disease is found and restoring the patient to healthy life, totally intrigued me. I thought: “I wonder what would happen if…the body was kept frozen for years, then restored to life looking exactly the same as when it died to find the world it knew had moved on. In other words, like “Rip Van Winkle.” In my plot, a beautiful young wife and mother with two toddler daughters is afflicted with a fatal disease. Her already-wealthy young husband has her cryogenically frozen. Sixty years later, yes, sixty! , she is returned to life, still young and beautiful, to be confronted by two elderly daughters and a senile millionaire husband. In screen casting of the era, I imagined, say, a young and beautiful Mia Farrow as the mother of Bette Davis and Joan Crawford (in their “Baby Jane” images.). A bizarre situation to say the least!
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Athan: The book cover of Come to Mother featured a model barely concealing her chest, which is indeed a provocative image. How much creative input did you have into the type of cover that would be produced for your novel?
David: I had absolutely no say in what went on the cover of this or any of the other novels I wrote. In my experience, that was entirely the domain of the publisher. Athan, you obviously saw the paperback cover of “Come to Mother” which featured a naked girl (her breasts discreetly covered) encased in a block of ice, which at least was a nod to the theme of cryogenics. The hard-back cover, which of course came out first, featured - for no reason - an actual picture of a naked adult girl (again with private parts cleverly hidden) sitting cross-legged like a naughty child and ripping a doll to pieces! Don’t ask me why.
Strangely, neither of these covers raised a murmur, although they may have influenced the excellent sales.
The only controversy associated with “Come to Mother” came from one of its sub-plots which had a black guy, George, having an affair with a white woman. The publishers insisted that I turn George white, to “ensure the book’s successful distribution in South Africa.” Not being a racist, I said “To hell with that” and refused to make the change.
The dispute made the newspapers, with one memorable headline: “George turned White, David saw Red!”
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Athan: Your novel was made into an American TV movie, LIVE AGAIN, DIE AGAIN (1974) with many changes that altered the course of the story considerably. How did it feel to see your novel in such a different form from your original vision?
David: Universal’s Story Executive, Michael Ludmer, who’d been responsible for the studio buying the screen rights to “Come to Mother” invited me to visit them in Hollywood. On my next trip to London (for the publication of my second novel “The Love Bite” - I was on a roll!!), I did exactly that and did a stopover in Los Angeles. To my astonishment, I was given the full celebrity treatment - limousines to the hotel, a private escorted tour of working sets at the Universal Studios, etc. etc. I suspected this special treatment was NOT just because they’d bought my book, but by then “Number 96” had been launched and become immensely popular in Australia, its fame had spread far and wide, and there’s nothing that impresses Americans more than success. And at Universal, they’d all heard about it.
There was a negative side. Michael Ludmer confided that the great Alfred Hitchcock. then in his declining years, had shown a brief interest in my book, but that came to nothing. The property had been passed from producer to producer but all had ‘script problems.’ So, I was prepared for the worst when it eventually emerged as a “Movie of the Week” titled “Live Again, Die Again” (which to me sounded more like a James Bond movie!). It bore little resemblance to my book. Not only had they changed the title, they’d changed the plot, the characters, the location, the lot. The bizarre plot was gone. They’d shot it mainly on location at the ‘luxurious’ Harold Lloyd Estate with a cast that included Donna Mills, Vera Miles, Geraldine Paige and Walter Pigeon.
The ‘Variety’ crit summed it up: “A good, original idea turns sour in the hands of director Joseph Stefano…..” and ended: “a shocking waste of talent and a good original idea.” This, at least, gave me some justification for the disappointment I felt.
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Athan: What did you take away from this experience in hindsight?
David: It prepared me for future encounters with the fickle world of screen adaptations. When my second novel “The Love Bite” was optioned by British producer/director Douglas Hickox (“Theatre of Blood”) he also hired me to do the first draft screenplay. At least I could keep this movie faithful to my book, I thought. The option contract included a flight to London to collaborate with Douglas Hickox on this first draft screenplay, which was a wonderful experience. Unfortunately, he then went broke, sold off his option, and now the screen rights to “The Love Bite” reside with an untouchable shelf company in Switzerland! The basis for yet another interview?
At least these projects brought me sizeable amounts of money to make up for the dissatisfaction at the results. As veteran Hollywood screenwriter Casey Robinson once told me: “It’s the amount on the cheque that matters. Take that and then walk away!"
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It has been a pleasure having you again on the blog David, and I thank you for giving readers a great insight into your first novel, and the process by which it was made into a television movie. It has been a revealing, and very interesting discussion. You are always welcome to return whenever you wish.
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David Sale links
*Number 96, Mavis Bramston and Me on Amazon US
*Number 96, Mavis Bramston and Me on Amazon AUSTRALIA
