Scalawag (film)

{{No plot|date=April 2021}}

File:Scalawag 1973 cast.jpeg

{{Cast listing|

• Kirk Douglas as Peg
• Mark Lester as Jamie
• Neville Brand as Brimstone / Mudhook
• George Eastman as Don Aragon
• Don Stroud as Velvet
• Lesley-Anne Down as Lucy-Ann
• Danny DeVito as Fly Speck
• Mel Blanc as Barfly the Parrot (voice)
• Phil Brown as Sandy
• Davor Antolic as Rooster
• Stole Arandelovic as Beanbelly
• Fabijan Sovagovic as Blackfoot
• Shaft Douglas as Beau

}}

The film was based on an original story by Albert Maltz. It was announced in 1966 and was going to be a co production between Kirk Douglas' Joel Production and Malcolm Stuart's Coldwater Productions. Douglas would star. It would be the first time Maltz would receive screen credit in 19 years.{{cite news |last1=Martin |first1=Betty |title=Kirk Douglas will produce and star in 'Scalawag' |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |date=24 June 1966 |page=c13}}

Filming was delayed. Douglas raised the money. He hired his wife as producer, his son as stills photographer and another son as office boy. "So if this film stinks we've got the whole Douglas family to blame," said Douglas. He added, "My phone doesn't ring any more. I have to find my own work."{{cite news |first=Rex |last=Reed |title=Rex Reed reports: Doin' what comes naturally, Kirk takes on Mr. Hyde |newspaper=Chicago Tribune |date=4 March 1973 |page=e8}}

In 1972 Douglas said he would produce and direct it as well as star and that the script was by Sid Fleischman. Filming was to start in Yugoslavia in June 1972.{{cite news |last1=Haber |first1=Joyce |title=New Hollywood even in London |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |date=28 May 1972 |page=f10}} By May the cast included Mark Lester, Lesley Anne Down and Danny DeVito.{{cite news |last1=Murphy |first1=Mary |title=MOVIE CALL SHEET: Katharine Ross in 'Kill' With Garner |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |date=31 May 1972 |page=h10}} Douglas said he rewrote the screenplay.

"I wanted to get back the old feeling of movies I experienced as a kid," said Douglas, "pirates, derring-do, people getting killed, but you don't see any blood."

"It's a version of Treasure Island set in the old West on horseback," said Douglas. "There's adventure, violence, and there's romance - a girl sings a romantic song while dreaming of a good looking guy. Yes it's old fashioned but that's what I liked as a kid. I guess I haven't lost either my love of romance or my sense of innocence."{{cite news |last1=Siskel |first1=Gene |title=Kirk's Innocent |newspaper=Chicago Tribune |date=17 October 1973 |pages=b8}}

Douglas said, "There was no pretentiousness about" the shoot. "We lived under primitive conditions with no toilets and learned one Yugoslavian phrase to save our lives - 'Bex bela luka'. That means 'no garlic'. You see old movies on the Late Show and everybody asks why they don't make movies like that anymore. Critics have made it fashionable to be pretentious and incoherent."

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{{Bryna Productions}}

Category:1973 films

Category:1970s adventure films

Category:British adventure films

Category:Bryna Productions films

Category:Films directed by Kirk Douglas

Category:Films produced by Kirk Douglas

Category:Films scored by John Cameron (musician)

Category:Films set in the 1840s

Category:Paramount Pictures films

Category:Treasure Island films

Category:1973 directorial debut films

Category:1970s English-language films

Category:1970s British films

Category:English-language adventure films