Leslie Halliwell
Encyclopedia
Robert James Leslie Halliwell (23 February 1929 – 21 January 1989) was a British
film
encyclopaedist and television
impresario
who in 1965 compiled The Filmgoer's Companion, the first one-volume encyclopaedia devoted to all aspects of the cinema. He followed it a dozen years later with Halliwell's Film Guide, another monumental work of effort and devotion. In an age long before the internet, Halliwell's books were regarded as the number one source for movie information, and his name became synonymous with film knowledge and research. Times
journalist Anthony Quinton wrote in 1977:
In his capacity as chief buyer for the ITV
network, Halliwell was further responsible for bringing to British television screens some of the most popular films and shows of the 1970s and 80s, including The Six Million Dollar Man
, Charlie's Angels
, The Incredible Hulk, The A-Team
, The Winds of War
, Jaws
, Star Wars
and the James Bond movies.
Halliwell's promotion of the cinema through his books and seasons of 'golden oldies' on Channel 4
won him awards from the London Film Critics' Circle and the British Film Institute
, as well as a posthumous BAFTA.
, Lancashire
in 1929, Halliwell was captivated by film
s from an early age. He grew up during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the period when the big studios churned out movies on a production line basis and wide-eyed cinemagoers packed the dream palaces. Halliwell and his mother Lily went almost nightly to the cinema as it offered them an escape from the grim reality of life in a soot-covered mill town
.
In 1939, Halliwell won a scholarship
to Bolton School
and after National Service
he studied English Literature
at St Catharine's College, Cambridge
. As a young man he was a cheerful, often ebullient individual who ran film societies, performed in amateur theatre productions and inspired those around him with his seemingly boundless enthusiasm for the cinema.
magazine in London before returning to Cambridge to manage the Rex Cinema from 1952 to 1956. Under his management the place became extremely popular with the Cambridge undergraduate community, showing classic and vintage films such as The Blue Angel, Citizen Kane
and Destry Rides Again
. The Cambridge Evening News
reported, 'students felt their periods at Cambridge were incomplete without the weekly visit to the Rex.'
In 1955, after the British Censor had banned the Marlon Brando
film The Wild One
, Halliwell arranged for Cambridge magistrates to assess the picture. They subsequently granted him a special licence and the Rex became the only cinema in England to show the film.
in 1956 on a three-year trainee course, after which he became a film publicist for the company. In 1958, he joined Southern Television
and was seconded to Granada Television
a year later, where he remained for the next thirty years at their offices in London
's Golden Square
. He married Ruth Porter in 1959 and they had one son.
Initially appointed Cecil Bernstein's assistant, Halliwell's reputation for vast cinema knowledge led to him gaining the role of Film Adviser to Granada
's show Cinema, which was the most popular arts programme on television during the 1960s. He was given responsibility for buying TV shows and in 1968 became the chief film buyer for the whole ITV
network, a role he maintained throughout the 1970s and most of the 1980s.
Travelling to Hollywood twice a year to view the latest TV pilots
and film offerings, and to trade fairs in Cannes
and Monte Carlo
, Halliwell became a major player in the television industry. TV mogul Sir Paul Fox said of him:
In 1982, at the personal invitiation of Jeremy Isaacs
, he became buyer and scheduler of U.S.
films for Channel 4
. In keeping with the channel's intention to appeal to specialist audiences, Halliwell focused primarily on the 1930s and 40s. Over the next few years the channel showed hundreds of vintage movies in dedicated seasons, with many titles introduced by film-makers such as Samuel Goldwyn Jnr, Frank Launder
and Sidney Gilliat
. Cinema fans and critics alike greatly appreciated Halliwell's efforts, with Jeremy Isaacs
saying he had made an 'unsurpassed contribution' to the channel's success. The British Film Institute gave Halliwell an award in 1985 'for the selection and acquisition of films with a view to creative scheduling.' Author and film historian Jeffrey Richards
wrote:
In addition, Halliwell presented two television series celebrating the British wartime documentary movement: Home Front, for Granada in 1982, and The British at War for Channel 4 two years later. Both featured classic Ministry of Information productions such as Listen to Britain, Desert Victory
and The True Glory
.
. Over the next ten years the book gained a reputation as the number one source for film information. Many critics raved about his work but others were less enthusiastic, detecting small slivers of subjectivity among the facts, as well as a bias towards older films.
Halliwell himself edited nine editions of the Companion.
Gene Siskel
wrote in 1975, "There is a well-developed consensus among film scribes that Leslie Halliwell's The Filmgoer's Companion is the single most valuable reference book on film."
Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times
wrote in 1979, "The referrer needs an iron will to look up only one fact."
TV presenter Denis Norden
said "The Filmgoer's Companion is to films what Wisden
is to cricket."
Halliwell's Film Guide First published in 1977, this book incorporated capsule information on some 8000 English-speaking titles. By the time of Halliwell's death in 1989, the Film Guide had doubled in size. He acknowledged his predecessors in the introduction to the first edition:
In addition to receiving much praise for his work, Halliwell came under fire from journalists and critics for his pithy comments and dismissive stance on more recent films. His devotion to the Golden Age of Hollywood left him increasingly out of touch with modern attitudes. Long-time Observer
film critic Philip 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.' Jim Emerson of the Chicago Tribune
called Halliwell 'something of a grumpy old English fuddy-duddy ... he rarely has anything good to say about any movie made after 1960'.
Halliwell's attitude was amply demonstrated by the star rating system he employed in the Film Guide. He rated films from zero stars to four, and the spread of four-star films across the decades clearly demonstrated a bias towards older films. Indeed, the most recent film to receive top marks was 1967's Bonnie and Clyde
. See the website lesliehalliwell.com for more information on the guide in general and the four-star films in particular.
Halliwell's Television Companion Halliwell's third encyclopaedic work began life as the Teleguide in 1979. Disappointed with the first edition, Halliwell teamed up with Sunday Telegraph
critic Philip Purser
to produce Halliwell's Television Companion, which ran for a further two editions.
in 1987 and published a number of historical and critical works about the cinema. In addition, he published three volumes of ghost stories inspired by M. R. James
.
of the oesophagus at the Princess Alice hospice in Esher
, Surrey
.
(1941) Trouble in Paradise (1932) The Bride of Frankenstein (1935) Le Million
(1931) A Matter of Life and Death (1946) Lost Horizon (1937) Sons of the Desert
(1933) The Philadelphia Story (1940) The Maltese Falcon
(1941) The Lady Vanishes
(1938)
accept … they have the on-off switch.”
“Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde [1931] has excitement and ingenuity in every frame: there is no way at all in which it could be improved by the techniques of the eighties.”
“Nostalgia is only a trendy word to describe something which people have at last learned to appreciate because it has been taken away from them.”
“Halliwell's Hundred and Halliwell's Harvest are dedicated to the proposition that art should not be despised because it is popular.”
British people
The British are citizens of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, any of the Channel Islands, or of any of the British overseas territories, and their descendants...
film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
encyclopaedist and television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
impresario
Impresario
An impresario is a person who organizes and often finances concerts, plays or operas; analogous to a film producer in filmmaking, television production and an angel investor in business...
who in 1965 compiled The Filmgoer's Companion, the first one-volume encyclopaedia devoted to all aspects of the cinema. He followed it a dozen years later with Halliwell's Film Guide, another monumental work of effort and devotion. In an age long before the internet, Halliwell's books were regarded as the number one source for movie information, and his name became synonymous with film knowledge and research. Times
Times
The Times is a UK daily newspaper, the original English language newspaper titled "Times". Times may also refer to:In newspapers:*The Times , went defunct in 2005*The Times *The Times of Northwest Indiana...
journalist Anthony Quinton wrote in 1977:
'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.'
In his capacity as chief buyer for the ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
network, Halliwell was further responsible for bringing to British television screens some of the most popular films and shows of the 1970s and 80s, including The Six Million Dollar Man
The Six Million Dollar Man
The Six Million Dollar Man is an American television series about a former astronaut with bionic implants working for the OSI...
, Charlie's Angels
Charlie's Angels
Charlie's Angels is a television series about three women who work for a private investigation agency, and is one of the first shows to showcase women in roles traditionally reserved for men...
, The Incredible Hulk, The A-Team
The A-Team
The A-Team is an American action adventure television series about a fictional group of ex-United States Army Special Forces personnel who work as soldiers of fortune, while on the run from the Army after being branded as war criminals for a "crime they didn't commit". The A-Team was created by...
, The Winds of War
The Winds of War
The Winds of War is Herman Wouk's second book about World War II, the first being The Caine Mutiny . Published in 1971, it was followed up seven years later by War and Remembrance; originally conceived as one volume, Wouk decided to break it in two when he realized it took nearly 1000 pages just to...
, Jaws
Jaws (film)
Jaws is a 1975 American horror-thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg and based on Peter Benchley's novel of the same name. In the story, the police chief of Amity Island, a fictional summer resort town, tries to protect beachgoers from a giant man-eating great white shark by closing the beach,...
, Star Wars
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, originally released as Star Wars, is a 1977 American epic space opera film, written and directed by George Lucas. It is the first of six films released in the Star Wars saga: two subsequent films complete the original trilogy, while a prequel trilogy completes the...
and the James Bond movies.
Halliwell's promotion of the cinema through his books and seasons of 'golden oldies' on Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
won him awards from the London Film Critics' Circle and the British Film Institute
British Film Institute
The British Film Institute is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to:-Cinemas:The BFI runs the BFI Southbank and IMAX theatre, both located on the south bank of the River Thames in London...
, as well as a posthumous BAFTA.
Early Life
Born in BoltonBolton
Bolton is a town in Greater Manchester, in the North West of England. Close to the West Pennine Moors, it is north west of the city of Manchester. Bolton is surrounded by several smaller towns and villages which together form the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, of which Bolton is the...
, Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
in 1929, Halliwell was captivated by film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
s from an early age. He grew up during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the period when the big studios churned out movies on a production line basis and wide-eyed cinemagoers packed the dream palaces. Halliwell and his mother Lily went almost nightly to the cinema as it offered them an escape from the grim reality of life in a soot-covered mill town
Mill town
A mill town, also known as factory town or mill village, is typically a settlement that developed around one or more mills or factories .- United Kingdom:...
.
In 1939, Halliwell won a scholarship
Scholarship
A scholarship is an award of financial aid for a student to further education. Scholarships are awarded on various criteria usually reflecting the values and purposes of the donor or founder of the award.-Types:...
to Bolton School
Bolton School
Bolton School is an independent day school in Bolton, in the North-West of England. It comprises a co-educational Nursery and Infant School and single sex Junior and Senior Schools . With almost 2,400 pupils it is one of the largest independent day schools in the country.-History:Bolton School...
and after National Service
National service
National service is a common name for mandatory government service programmes . The term became common British usage during and for some years following the Second World War. Many young people spent one or more years in such programmes...
he studied English Literature
English literature
English literature is the literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; for example, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Joseph Conrad was Polish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, J....
at St Catharine's College, Cambridge
St Catharine's College, Cambridge
St. Catharine’s College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1473, the college is often referred to informally by the nickname "Catz".-History:...
. As a young man he was a cheerful, often ebullient individual who ran film societies, performed in amateur theatre productions and inspired those around him with his seemingly boundless enthusiasm for the cinema.
The Rex Cinema, Cambridge
After graduating with a 2:1 honours degree, Halliwell worked briefly for PicturegoerPicturegoer
Picturegoer was a magazine published in the United Kingdom between 1913 and 1960. Its primary focus was contemporary films and the performers who appeared in them....
magazine in London before returning to Cambridge to manage the Rex Cinema from 1952 to 1956. Under his management the place became extremely popular with the Cambridge undergraduate community, showing classic and vintage films such as The Blue Angel, Citizen Kane
Citizen Kane
Citizen Kane is a 1941 American drama film, directed by and starring Orson Welles. Many critics consider it the greatest American film of all time, especially for its innovative cinematography, music and narrative structure. Citizen Kane was Welles' first feature film...
and Destry Rides Again
Destry Rides Again
Destry Rides Again is a western starring Marlene Dietrich and James Stewart. The supporting cast includes Mischa Auer, Charles Winninger, Brian Donlevy, Allen Jenkins, Irene Hervey, Billy Gilbert, Bill Cody, Jr., and Una Merkel. The original Max Brand novel was translated into an "oater" with the...
. The Cambridge Evening News
Cambridge Evening News
The Cambridge News is a British daily newspaper published each weekday and on Saturdays. It is distributed from its parent company Cambridge Newspapers Ltd's Milton base which was opened in 1991 as a print works, and became the Evening News main operational hub in 1998...
reported, 'students felt their periods at Cambridge were incomplete without the weekly visit to the Rex.'
In 1955, after the British Censor had banned the Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando, Jr. was an American movie star and political activist. "Unchallenged as the most important actor in modern American Cinema" according to the St...
film The Wild One
The Wild One
The Wild One is a 1953 outlaw biker film directed by László Benedek and produced by Stanley Kramer. It is famed for Marlon Brando's iconic portrayal of the gang leader Johnny Strabler.-Basis:...
, Halliwell arranged for Cambridge magistrates to assess the picture. They subsequently granted him a special licence and the Rex became the only cinema in England to show the film.
Television Career
Halliwell joined the Rank OrganisationRank Organisation
The Rank Organisation was a British entertainment company formed during 1937 and absorbed in 1996 by The Rank Group Plc. It was the largest and most vertically-integrated film company in Britain, owning production, distribution and exhibition facilities....
in 1956 on a three-year trainee course, after which he became a film publicist for the company. In 1958, he joined Southern Television
Southern Television
Southern Television was the first ITV broadcasting licence holder for the south and south-east of England from 30 August 1958 until the night of 31 December 1981. The company was launched as Southern Television Limited and the title Southern Television was consistently used on-air throughout its life...
and was seconded to Granada Television
Granada Television
Granada Television is the ITV contractor for North West England. Based in Manchester since its inception, it is the only surviving original ITA franchisee from 1954 and is ITV's most successful....
a year later, where he remained for the next thirty years at their offices in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
's Golden Square
Golden Square
Golden Square, Soho, London in the City of Westminster is one of the historic squares of Central London. The square is just east of Regent Street and north of Piccadilly Circus....
. He married Ruth Porter in 1959 and they had one son.
Initially appointed Cecil Bernstein's assistant, Halliwell's reputation for vast cinema knowledge led to him gaining the role of Film Adviser to Granada
Granada
Granada is a city and the capital of the province of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence of three rivers, the Beiro, the Darro and the Genil. It sits at an elevation of 738 metres above sea...
's show Cinema, which was the most popular arts programme on television during the 1960s. He was given responsibility for buying TV shows and in 1968 became the chief film buyer for the whole ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
network, a role he maintained throughout the 1970s and most of the 1980s.
Travelling to Hollywood twice a year to view the latest TV pilots
Television pilot
A "television pilot" is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell the show to a television network. At the time of its inception, the pilot is meant to be the "testing ground" to see if a series will be possibly desired and successful and therefore a test episode of an...
and film offerings, and to trade fairs in Cannes
Cannes
Cannes is one of the best-known cities of the French Riviera, a busy tourist destination and host of the annual Cannes Film Festival. It is a Commune of France in the Alpes-Maritimes department....
and Monte Carlo
Monte Carlo
Monte Carlo is an administrative area of the Principality of Monaco....
, Halliwell became a major player in the television industry. TV mogul Sir Paul Fox said of him:
'I cannot praise Leslie enough for his ethics, for his negotiating skills, and for his knowledge of the industry. The studios appreciated him as a fellow professional and had great, great respect for him at all levels.'
In 1982, at the personal invitiation of Jeremy Isaacs
Jeremy Isaacs
Sir Jeremy Isaacs is a British television producer and executive, winner of many BAFTA awards and international Emmy Awards. He was also General Director of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden .-Early life:...
, he became buyer and scheduler of U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
films for Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
. In keeping with the channel's intention to appeal to specialist audiences, Halliwell focused primarily on the 1930s and 40s. Over the next few years the channel showed hundreds of vintage movies in dedicated seasons, with many titles introduced by film-makers such as Samuel Goldwyn Jnr, Frank Launder
Frank Launder
Frank Launder was an English writer, director and producer, who made more than 40 films, many of them in collaboration with Sidney Gilliat....
and Sidney Gilliat
Sidney Gilliat
Sidney Gilliat was an English film director, producer and writer.He was born in the district of Edgeley in Stockport, Cheshire. In the 1930s he worked as a scriptwriter, most notably with Frank Launder on The Lady Vanishes for Alfred Hitchcock, and its sequel Night Train to Munich , directed by...
. Cinema fans and critics alike greatly appreciated Halliwell's efforts, with Jeremy Isaacs
Jeremy Isaacs
Sir Jeremy Isaacs is a British television producer and executive, winner of many BAFTA awards and international Emmy Awards. He was also General Director of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden .-Early life:...
saying he had made an 'unsurpassed contribution' to the channel's success. The British Film Institute gave Halliwell an award in 1985 'for the selection and acquisition of films with a view to creative scheduling.' Author and film historian Jeffrey Richards
Jeffrey Richards
Jeffrey Richards is a British historian.Educated at Jesus College, Cambridge, he is Professor of Cultural History at Lancaster University. A leading cultural historian and film critic, he is the author of over 15 books on British cultural history...
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.'
In addition, Halliwell presented two television series celebrating the British wartime documentary movement: Home Front, for Granada in 1982, and The British at War for Channel 4 two years later. Both featured classic Ministry of Information productions such as Listen to Britain, Desert Victory
Desert Victory
Desert Victory is a 1943 film produced by the British Ministry of Information, documenting the Allies' North African campaign against Field Marshal Erwin Rommel and the Afrika Korps. This documentary traces the struggle between General Erwin Rommel and Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, from the...
and The True Glory
The True Glory
The True Glory was a 1945 co-production of the US Office of War Information and the British Ministry of Information, documenting the victory on the Western Front, from Normandy to the collapse of the Third Reich. Although many individuals contributed to the film, British director Carol Reed is...
.
The Filmgoer's Companion
Published in 1965, Halliwell's pioneering work sold ten thousand copies on its first run, including four thousand in the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Over the next ten years the book gained a reputation as the number one source for film information. Many critics raved about his work but others were less enthusiastic, detecting small slivers of subjectivity among the facts, as well as a bias towards older films.
Halliwell himself edited nine editions of the Companion.
Gene Siskel
Gene Siskel
Eugene Kal "Gene" Siskel was an American film critic and journalist for the Chicago Tribune. Along with colleague Roger Ebert, he hosted the popular review show Siskel & Ebert At the Movies from 1975 until his death....
wrote in 1975, "There is a well-developed consensus among film scribes that Leslie Halliwell's The Filmgoer's Companion is the single most valuable reference book on film."
Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
wrote in 1979, "The referrer needs an iron will to look up only one fact."
TV presenter Denis Norden
Denis Norden
Denis Mostyn Norden CBE is a former English comedy writer and television presenter. After an early career working in cinemas, he began scriptwriting during World War II. From 1948 to 1959, he co-wrote the successful BBC Radio comedy programme Take It from Here with Frank Muir...
said "The Filmgoer's Companion is to films what Wisden
Wisden
The Wisden Group was a group of companies formed by John Wisden & Co Ltd, publishers of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack. As well as John Wisden & Co, the group included the The Wisden Cricketer magazine, Cricinfo – the world's highest traffic cricket website – and the Hawk-Eye computerised...
is to cricket."
Halliwell's Film Guide First published in 1977, this book incorporated capsule information on some 8000 English-speaking titles. By the time of Halliwell's death in 1989, the Film Guide had doubled in size. He acknowledged his predecessors in the introduction to the first edition:
Monthly Film Bulletin during the fifties and sixties.
I salute especially the work of Leonard MaltinLeonard MaltinLeonard Maltin is an American film and animated film critic and historian, author of several mainstream books on cinema, focusing on nostalgic, celebratory narratives.-Personal life:...
, James Robert Parish, Denis GiffordDenis GiffordDenis Gifford was a British writer. He specialized in the history of popular entertainments such as comic books and horror films...
, Douglas Eames and the unsung anonymous heroes who compiled the reviews of the BFIBritish Film InstituteThe British Film Institute is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to:-Cinemas:The BFI runs the BFI Southbank and IMAX theatre, both located on the south bank of the River Thames in London...
's
In addition to receiving much praise for his work, Halliwell came under fire from journalists and critics for his pithy comments and dismissive stance on more recent films. His devotion to the Golden Age of Hollywood left him increasingly out of touch with modern attitudes. Long-time Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
film critic Philip French
Philip French
Philip French is a British film critic and former radio producer.French, the son of an insurance salesman, was educated at the direct grant Bristol Grammar School, read Law at Oxford University. and post graduate study in Journalism at Indiana University, Bloomington on a scholarship.He has been...
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.' Jim Emerson of the Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
called Halliwell 'something of a grumpy old English fuddy-duddy ... he rarely has anything good to say about any movie made after 1960'.
Halliwell's attitude was amply demonstrated by the star rating system he employed in the Film Guide. He rated films from zero stars to four, and the spread of four-star films across the decades clearly demonstrated a bias towards older films. Indeed, the most recent film to receive top marks was 1967's Bonnie and Clyde
Bonnie and Clyde
Bonnie Elizabeth Parker and Clyde Chestnut Barrow were well-known outlaws, robbers, and criminals who traveled the Central United States with their gang during the Great Depression. Their exploits captured the attention of the American public during the "public enemy era" between 1931 and 1934...
. See the website lesliehalliwell.com for more information on the guide in general and the four-star films in particular.
Halliwell's Television Companion Halliwell's third encyclopaedic work began life as the Teleguide in 1979. Disappointed with the first edition, Halliwell teamed up with Sunday Telegraph
Sunday Telegraph
The Sunday Telegraph is a British broadsheet newspaper, founded in February 1961. It is the sister paper of The Daily Telegraph, but is run separately with a different editorial staff, although there is some cross-usage of stories...
critic Philip Purser
Philip Purser
Philip Purser is a British television critic and novelist.A contributor to the News Chronicle in the 1950s, he was television critic of The Sunday Telegraph from its launch in 1961 until he was sacked in 1987 by Peregrine Worsthorne, the then editor...
to produce Halliwell's Television Companion, which ran for a further two editions.
Retirement
Halliwell retired from the television industry in 1986 but continued to edit his film guides. He wrote a regular TV article for the Daily MailDaily Mail
The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982...
in 1987 and published a number of historical and critical works about the cinema. In addition, he published three volumes of ghost stories inspired by M. R. James
M. R. James
Montague Rhodes James, OM, MA, , who used the publication name M. R. James, was an English mediaeval scholar and provost of King's College, Cambridge and of Eton College . He is best remembered for his ghost stories, which are regarded as among the best in the genre...
.
Death
Halliwell died of cancerCancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
of the oesophagus at the Princess Alice hospice in Esher
Esher
Esher is a town in the Surrey borough of Elmbridge in South East England near the River Mole. It is a very prosperous part of the Greater London Urban Area, largely suburban in character, and is situated 14.1 miles south west of Charing Cross....
, Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
.
Halliwell's favourite films
This list of Leslie Halliwell's favourite films was originally published in the fifth edition of the Film Guide.Citizen Kane
Citizen Kane is a 1941 American drama film, directed by and starring Orson Welles. Many critics consider it the greatest American film of all time, especially for its innovative cinematography, music and narrative structure. Citizen Kane was Welles' first feature film...
(1941) Trouble in Paradise (1932) The Bride of Frankenstein (1935) Le Million
Le Million
Le Million is a 1931 French musical comedy film directed by René Clair. The story was adapted by Clair from a play by Georges Berr and Marcel Guillemand.-Plot:...
(1931) A Matter of Life and Death (1946) Lost Horizon (1937) Sons of the Desert
Sons of the Desert
Sons of the Desert is a 1933 American film starring Laurel and Hardy, and directed by William A. Seiter. It was first released in the United States on December 29, 1933 and is regarded as one of Laurel and Hardy's greatest films...
(1933) The Philadelphia Story (1940) The Maltese Falcon
The Maltese Falcon (1941 film)
The Maltese Falcon is a 1941 Warner Bros. film based on the novel of the same name by Dashiell Hammett and a remake of the 1931 film of the same name...
(1941) The Lady Vanishes
The Lady Vanishes (1938 film)
The Lady Vanishes is a 1938 British thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and adapted by Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder from the 1936 novel The Wheel Spins by Ethel Lina White...
(1938)
Quotes
“I know people think I’m old-fashioned. And I only hope I’m wrong about the way in which television today is headed. But the answer lies with the public and what they will finallyaccept … they have the on-off switch.”
“Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde [1931] has excitement and ingenuity in every frame: there is no way at all in which it could be improved by the techniques of the eighties.”
“Nostalgia is only a trendy word to describe something which people have at last learned to appreciate because it has been taken away from them.”
“Halliwell's Hundred and Halliwell's Harvest are dedicated to the proposition that art should not be despised because it is popular.”
Cultural references
- Halliwell's Film Guide is mentioned in Irvine WelshIrvine WelshIrvine Welsh is a contemporary Scottish novelist, best known for his novel Trainspotting. His work is characterised by raw Scottish dialect, and brutal depiction of the realities of Edinburgh life...
's short story Snuff, about an isolated man whose life is centered around watching every film from the book.