Anthony Harvey directed this adaptation of the controversial allegorical drama by African-American playwright Amiri Baraka (aka LeRoi Jones). Lula (Shirley Knight), a slatternly woman with a racist streak, encounters Clay (Al Freeman Jr.), a mild-mannered black man, on a New York subway car. Lula at first attempts to seduce Clay, who is initially resistant, but once he begins to respond in kind, she starts to taunt him viciously, goading him until he explodes into violence. This short feature was at once Harvey's last credit as an editor and first as a director. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
Anthony Harvey's Dutchman had a difficult birth as a movie and an even more difficult time in distribution. Harvey, then an editor, had seen Le Roi Jones' play while in New York working with Stanley Kubrick on Dr. Strangelove, and decided to make the film adaptation of Dutchman his debut as a director. The story's action was set aboard a New York City subway train, and Harvey asked permission to shoot some establishing shots and second-unit material in the subways. But the Office of the Mayor, which oversaw such matters, looked at the script and its racially inflammatory subject matter and denied him a permit. Undaunted, he came to New York and ventured into the subway system with a camera and shot around a number of stations until he was confronted by a police officer; when he was unable to produce a permit, he ran, jumped in a cab, returned to his hotel, and was on a plane that night. The actual filming of the actors was done on a British soundstage with the actors in a nearly perfect mock-up of a New York City subway car. Al Freeman Jr. and Shirley Knight (who was married to the movie's producer, Gene Persson) gave the best performances of their respective careers, all enhanced by Harvey's fluid camera positioning and his even better editing. The film opened to extremely positive reviews in England and got a good reception from the national film critics in America, but the New York film critics savaged it mercilessly. Dutchman won a jury prize at the Cannes Film Festival, Knight won the Best Actress Award at the Venice Film Festival, and the movie was impressive enough, as far as Peter O'Toole and Katharine Hepburn were concerned, to get Harvey the director's spot for The Lion in Winter, but it was scarcely seen or shown in America outside of college campuses. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
Robert Calvert; Frank Lieberman; Howard Bennett; Keith James; Sandy McDonald
Credit
Jim Morahan - Art Director, Herbert Smith - Art Director, Anthony Harvey - Director, Anthony Harvey - Editor, John Barry - Composer (Music Score), Gerry Turpin - Cinematographer, Gene Persson - Producer, Ian Whittaker - Set Designer, Le Roi Jones - Screenwriter, Le Roi Jones - Play Author
