After writing for television for 5 years, including multiple episodes of “The Doctors and the Nurses” and “The Defenders,” Larry Cohen created his first television series—”Branded”. The show starred Chuck Connors as "Jason McCord," a United States Army cavalry captain who had been court-martialed and drummed out of the service following an unjust accusation of cowardice.
The NBC-TV series debuted on 24 January 1965 as a replacement for "The Bill Dana Show," on Sunday night at 8:30 PM. “Branded” was an immediate hit, coming in as the #14-rated show of the year, and besting its time-slot competition, “The Ed Sullivan Show,” which finished in 15th place.
A three-part episode of the half-hour series, entitled "The Mission," was aired on March 14, 21, and 28, 1965. These episodes were filmed in color, as opposed to the rest of the season, which was in black and white. In 1966, the three parts were combined (with additional footage) into a theatrical feature called BROKEN SABER for distribution overseas.
"Branded" had one of the longest (and most memorable) opening sequences of any half-hour show on television. The show's theme was by Dominic Frontiere with lyrics by lyric by Alan Howard Arch:
For its second season (1965-66) “Branded” was produced in color and retained its Sunday time-slot. CBS's “The Ed Sullivan Show” held strong at #17 for the year, and “Branded” faced new competition from ABC, in the form of its new series “The F.B.I.” “Branded” dropped out of the top 30 shows and was cancelled at the end of its second season, after 48 episodes.
Larry Cohen’s second television series was “Blue Light”, which he created along with Walter Grauman. The show starred Robert Goulet and Christine Carère in the adventures of “David March,” an American double agent in Nazi Germany during World War II.
ABC premiered the series on 12 January 1966 as a mid-season replacement for “Gidget.” Perhaps ABC felt that the show would be good counter-programming against the CBS hit comedy “The Beverly Hillbillies” (#7), but audiences already had the well-established western “The Virginian” (#23) on NBC for that. “Blue Light” never found an audience, and after its half-season order of 17 episodes, it was not renewed for another season.
Lalo Schifrin provided the series’ short theme:
Following the cancellation of “Blue Light,” its first four episodes, which told a continuous story of David March's efforts targeting a German super-weapon facility at Grossmuchen, Germany, were edited together to create a movie. Entitled I DEAL IN DANGER, it was released theatrically in the United States in October 1966 and in other countries in 1967 and 1968.
Larry Cohen wrote the screenplay for the 1966 western RETURN OF THE SEVEN. This first sequel to THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN found two survivors of the initial outfit, “Chris” (Yul Brynner) and “Vin” (now played by Robert Fuller), recruit four new members in order to re-form the group and defend a village--where the third survivor, “Chico” (now played by Julián Mateos) lives--from attacks by vicious bandits.
Burt Kennedy directed the film. The picture was shot along the southern coast of Spain. When an unscheduled Alicante coastal sandstorm threatened to interrupt production, Kennedy responded by writing the incident into the screenplay.
In June 1966, composer Elmer Bernstein finished recording the score with the London Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. The score was adapted from that of the 1960 film, also written by Bernstein, earning him an Academy Awards nomination for “Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment.” Bernstein told the 18 January 1967 Variety that, while he believed his recycled score was not deserving of a second nomination, he would not insult his colleagues on the board of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) by refusing the nomination. He added that “the concept of adaptation must be clarified” by AMPAS within the year.
In any event, Bernstein lost the Oscar to John Barry’s BORN FREE. [EDIT: The loss was actually to Ken Thorne's adaptation for A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM. See posts further down in this thread.] RETURN OF THE SEVEN was released on a United Artists LP. The LP was re-issued on CD by Rykodisc in 1997.
Larry Cohen received a credit at the end of each episode of the 1967 western series “Custer” reading “Series Suggested by Larry Cohen.” But he otherwise had no other connection to the production of that series. The show lasted 17 episodes.
Larry was the creator, however, for the series ”Coronet Blue”. The show starred Frank Converse as “Michael Alden,” an amnesiac in search of his identity, who realizes that people are out to kill him. Brian Bedford co-starred. The show's 13 episodes were filmed in 1965 and were originally intended to be shown during the 1965–66 television season. But CBS put the show on the back burner when they reversed an earlier decision to cancel the drama “Slattery's People.”
The network had plans to show “Coronet Blue” the following year, and CBS head of programming Michael Dann said that, "there still is enormous enthusiasm" for it. But the show was not on CBS’s Fall 1966 schedule, and it would take nearly another full year before the network aired it as a summer replacement series, in place of airing reruns of the failed “The Jean Arthur Show.” “Coronet Blue” premiered on 29 May 1967.
Due to a number of preemptions, only 11 of the 13 episodes were shown during the initial run. Nevertheless, the show proved moderately popular and developed a cult following. According to Frank Converse, CBS wanted to renew it, but by then Converse had signed to do another series, for ABC, “N.Y.P.D.”, which premiered the day after the last airing of “Coronet Blue.”
The theme song for the show was performed by R&B singer Lenny Welch.
Because the show ended so abruptly, no one ever found out what “Cornet Blue” meant. Larry Cohen, in his autobiography The Radical Allegories of an Independent Filmmaker, explained the mystery behind the series' title: “The actual secret is that Converse was not really an American at all. He was a Russian who had been trained to appear like an American and was sent to the U.S. as a spy. He belonged to a spy unit called 'Coronet Blue'. He decided to defect, so the Russians tried to kill him before he can give away the identities of the other Soviet Agents, and nobody can really identify him because he doesn't exist as an American. ‘Coronet Blue’ was actually an outgrowth of 'The Traitor' episode of ‘The Defenders’ (1963)."
“Coronet Blue” took so long to get on the air, that a later series created by Larry Cohen, “The Invaders”, actually began airing before it. In “The Invaders,” Roy Thinnes stars as “David Vincent,” a man who tries to thwart an in-progress alien invasion, while hampered by doubting officials and the public. The series was a Quinn Martin Production.
For many viewers, the theme of paranoia infusing “The Invaders” often appeared to reflect Cold War fantasies of communist infiltration that had lingered from the McCarthy period a decade earlier. Larry Cohen acknowledged that this was intended, along with a political theme for the series. Cohen said his knowledge of the blacklisting of Hollywood screenwriters for their communist connections inspired him to make "a mockery" of the fear of the infiltration of society, by substituting space aliens for communists.
Cohen also acknowledged he was not the first to turn Cold War fears into science-fiction drama; such fears had influenced such films as INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS and especially I MARRIED A MONSTER FROM OUTER SPACE. Cohen also stated that the political intent inherent in some of his creations, including “The Invaders,” was not always appreciated or shared by left-wing producers and actors. The character "David Vincent" was ranked #6 in TV Guide's list of the "25 Greatest Sci-Fi Legends" (August 1, 2004 issue).
ABC premiered the series on Tuesday, 10 January 1967, as a mid-season replacement for the failed sitcoms “The Rounders” and “The Pruitts of Southhampton.” Although “The Invaders” faced the same withering competition as did those series—CBS’s #2-rated “The Red Skelton Show”—it was better counter-programming to Skelton than were the sitcoms. So, “The Invaders” was given a full-season pickup for the 1967-68 season.
In its second season, even though “Skelton” dropped a little in the ratings to #5 overall, the competition on NBC heated up, as that network’s “Tuesday Night at the Movies” broke into the top 30 shows to claim the #18 spot. In an attempt to save “The Invaders,” at mid-season ABC moved it to the later 10 PM slot, where it faced the news program “CBS Reports.” But it was hard to get audiences to switch over from the in-progress NBC movie, which started an hour earlier, and “The Invaders” aired its last episode on March 26, 1968. A total of 43 episodes were produced.
Dominic Frontiere composed the theme for the show’s explanatory opening. The music was originally heard in “The Outer Limits: The Form of Things Unknown” in 1964.
In 1969, Larry Cohen and Lorenzo Semple, Jr. co-wrote the screenplay for DADDY'S GONE A-HUNTING, a violent melodrama centering around abortion. Mark Robson directed the film. John Williams' score has not had a release.
Director John Guillermin made his first western with 1970’s EL CONDOR, in which an escaped convict (Jim Brown), and a loner gold prospector (Lee Van Cleef), team up with a band of Apache Indians in 19th century Mexico to capture a large, heavily armed fortress for the millions of dollars in gold that are rumored to be stored within.
A detail-perfect facsimile of a Mexican fortress was constructed for the film, measuring 110,000 square-feet with eighty-foot-high walls. It was considered to be the largest outdoor set ever constructed at Almeria, Spain. Future productions had reportedly already expressed interest in renting it; thus, the structure remained intact after shooting.
Steven Carabatsos wrote the original screenplay for EL CONDOR. But, having built the “El Condor” fort, the producers were so taken with it, they had Larry Cohen re-write the script to have the story focus more on the impressive set. Niven Busch was also reportedly brought on for a re-write, but ultimately only Carabatsos and Cohen received screenwriting credit.
Although the film's posters claimed that the original soundtrack to the film was available on National General Records, that release never happened. Maurice Jarre’s score was finally released by Universal Music France in 2011.
Larry Cohen wrote, produced, and directed his first film in 1972's BONE. In this comedy-drama, "Bone" (Yaphet Kotto) breaks into the home of a wealthy, happily married Beverly Hills couple (Andrew Duggan and Joyce Van Patten). He soon finds out, though, that the couple is neither as wealthy as he thought they were and are not as happily married as they appeared.
Cohen personally financed BONE. In addition, he used his own house in which to shoot the picture, the German Shepherd seen in the film was his own dog, and a red sweater sported by Yaphet Kotto in latter portions of the movie was also Cohen's--which Kotto then took and never gave back.
Susan Sarandon came in to audition for the part played by Jeannie Berlin, but was intimidated by Cohen's normally docile German Shepherd, so much so that the audition had to be canceled.
Gil Mellé's score for the film has not had a release.
Larry Cohen created the television series “Cool Million”, which starred James Farentino as a private detective who charged a million dollars per case for his services. The series aired as part of the “NBC Wednesday Mystery Movie,” along with “Madigan” and “Banacek”, during the 1972-73 season. “Cool Million” was the least successful of the three, producing only five episodes.
Larry Cohen wrote, produced, and directed the 1973 Blaxploitation feature BLACK CAESAR for his own company, Larco Productions. In the film, “Tommy Gibbs” (Fred Williamson) becomes a successful mob boss in Harlem, but he clashes with the rival Mafia and his old enemy, dirty cop “McKinney” (Art Lund).
When filming in Harlem, Cohen was accosted by local gangsters who threatened to disrupt the shoot unless they were paid off. Instead, Cohen offered them small roles in the film. They helped so enthusiastically that they attended the premiere to sign autographs.
BLACK CAESAR marked the first of only two film scores credited to renowned R&B singer and songwriter James Brown. In actuality, according to Gergely Hubai’s book Torn Music, Brown only wrote about 30 percent of the score, with the balance written by Brown’s long-time musical director Fred Wesley. The score was released on a Polydor LP and re-issued on CD in 1992.
Larry Cohen created the television series “Griff”, in which Lorne Greene starred as “Wade Griffin,” who quits the police force after three decades to become a private eye. ABC aired the show beginning in September 1973, on Saturday nights opposite CBS's “The Carol Burnett Show” (#27) and “NBC Saturday Night at the Movies”. “Griff” couldn’t compete and was cancelled after 12 episodes.
The February 1973 release of BLACK CAESAR was a big success, and American International Pictures head Samuel Z. Arkoff contacted Larry Cohen and instructed him to get on with a sequel immediately. So, Cohen hastily wrote, produced and directed HELL UP IN HARLEM, which American International had in theaters by the end of 1973.
It is clear that “Tommy” (Fred Williamson) dies at the end of BLACK CAESAR. The film ended with the wounded Tommy being attacked and killed by a gang of teenaged youths while he staggers through the remains of his childhood Harlem home. HELL UP IN HARLEM opens with footage from BLACK CAESAR, which is slightly re-edited and includes additional footage to introduce the new characters and establish that Tommy is rescued by his father.
In addition to Williamson, cast members Julius W. Harris, Gloria Hendry and D'Urville Martin reprised their roles from the earlier film. Unfortunately, Fred Williamson was filming THAT MAN BOLT (1973) during the week from Monday to Friday, and Larry Cohen was busy making IT’S ALIVE (1974), but they made HELL UP IN HARLEM concurrently by filming the majority of it on weekends.
Cohen began the film without a completed script, and filmed some of the scenes with the same crew and equipment as IT’S ALIVE. Due to Fred Williamson's other commitments, Cohen had to make most of the film with a stand-in, with Williamson himself only really appearing in the close-ups. The close-ups were filmed in L.A., where Williamson was based, and the rest of the film was shot on location in New York. According to Cohen, Fred Williamson did not like his double's physical appearance, remarking that "his butt was too big."
James Brown was retained to write the music for the sequel, in which Fred Wesley again assisted. But when Larry Cohen heard the score, he deemed it to be “not funky enough,” and rejected the music Brown had recorded. Subsequently, Motown artist Edwin Starr was brought in to perform songs written by Fonce Mizell and Freddie Perren, and Brown's rejected music was used for his album, "The Payback". Starr’s songs were released on a Motown LP, which was re-issued on CD in 2001.
The ending of HELL UP IN HARLEM leaves open the possibility of a sequel. Although a sequel was considered, the film’s poor reviews and mediocre box-office grosses prompted the filmmakers to drop the idea. In 1975, BLACK CAESAR and HELL UP IN HARLEM were re-released in Chicago as a “continuous three-hour film” entitled GODFATHER OF HARLEM, according to a 5 May 1975 Box Office news item, with plans for the Chicago engagement to be followed “by a massive nationwide saturation booking of the combined films.” There is no indication that this ever happened, however.
Larry Cohen wrote, produced, and directed the 1974 horror film IT’S ALIVE. In the film, "Frank and Lenore Davis" (John Ryan and Sharon Farrell) expect a baby, which turns out to be a monster with a nasty habit of killing when it's scared. And it's easily scared.
For the design of the baby monster, Cohen drew a picture of what he wanted it to look like and gave it to makeup artist Rick Baker. With an oversized forehead and pulsating veins running through the head, Cohen and Baker based it off the Starchild from 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968) and a wolf. Baker, who was working out of his garage at the time, needed a model to make an oversized body cast of the infant monster, so he used his wife.
The estimated budget for the film was $500,000. When IT’S ALIVE was released in Los Angeles in October 1974, in twenty-four theaters, it grossed an unimpressive $210,480 in two weeks. But it later performed well in Paris, France, and Singapore, and Larry Cohen urged Warner Bros. to re-release it in the U.S. if a spring 1975 release in London proved successful. But it would be two years before a domestic re-release happened.
Finally, a spring 1977 re-release was set after the film took in $255,000 in one week of test engagements in Baltimore and Washington, D.C. IT’S ALIVE eventually enjoyed a successful re-release in southern U.S. states, ranking eighth on Variety’s list of top-grossing U.S. releases. New York magazine speculated that the “ridiculous” film was “making millions” due to the popularity of films like ROSEMARY’S BABY (1968) and THE EXORCIST (1973).
Critical reception was mixed. In response to a negative Variety review on 16 October 1974, in which Variety questioned why illustrious composer Bernard Herrmann agreed to score IT’S ALIVE, Cohen defended the picture in a 26 November 1974 letter published by Daily Variety, stating that Herrmann willingly accepted the job after Cohen reached out to him personally and was paid his usual fee, “one of the highest in the industry.” Herrmann’s score was released by Film Score Monthly in 2012.
Tony Lo Bianco and Sandy Dennis starred in the horror thriller GOD TOLD ME TO. Larry Cohen wrote, produced, and directed the film, which follows a New York City detective (Lo Bianco) as he investigates a series of murders committed by random New Yorkers who claim that "God told them to."
The film was shot in New York City and at Pinewood Studios, England. Larry Cohen did not have a permit to film a scene at the New York St. Patrick's Day parade, but he did it anyway. During that scene, Cohen was organizing the crew, only to see comedian Andy Kaufman (in his first film), dressed in his costume (a policeman's uniform), antagonizing and making faces at the crowd. Some of the crowd members then attempted to jump the barricades and beat Kaufman, and Cohen had to hold them back.
Tony Lo Bianco sued Larry Cohen, Big Hit Productions, Edgar J. Scherick and Associates, and New World Pictures. Lo Bianco claimed that he was promised $75,000 if the film’s advance sales or guarantees totaled more than $1,000,000, but was only paid $4,125. Also, Lo Bianco claimed that he was told he would receive 5% of the film’s total profits, while Cohen countered that it was 5% of the producers' profits. A third contention was Lo Bianco’s claim of damages to his reputation due to the inclusion of scenes he demanded be cut from the film. GOD TOLD ME TO was produced for $300,000 and grossed $1.3 million in the U.S. The outcome of the lawsuit is not known.
Composer Bernard Herrmann, Larry Cohen's first choice to score the film, died the night after seeing the film without music. When Cohen then asked Miklós Rózsa to score the picture, Rozsa reportedly replied, "God told me not to." Frank Cordell ultimately provided the unreleased score. The film’s end credits include the statement that "This motion picture is dedicated to the memory of Mr. Bernard Herrmann."
Aw no! I always thought It's Alive was a better movie than given credit for, and not just for Bernard's somewhat experimental and excellent score. There was some social commentary there that most people missed the first time (and the second, and....)
RIP Larry, you had a lot of talent as a director, and it's apparent at least two of the greatest film composers agreed.
Larry Cohen wrote the screenplay for the 1966 western RETURN OF THE SEVEN. This first sequel to THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN found two survivors of the initial outfit, “Chris” (Yul Brynner) and “Vin” (now played by Robert Fuller), recruit four new members in order to re-form the group and defend a village--where the third survivor, “Chico” (now played by Julián Mateos) lives--from attacks by vicious bandits.
Burt Kennedy directed the film. The picture was shot along the southern coast of Spain. When an unscheduled Alicante coastal sandstorm threatened to interrupt production, Kennedy responded by writing the incident into the screenplay.
In June 1966, composer Elmer Bernstein finished recording the score with the London Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. The score was adapted from that of the 1960 film, also written by Bernstein, earning him an Academy Awards nomination for “Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment.” Bernstein told the 18 January 1967 Variety that, while he believed his recycled score was not deserving of a second nomination, he would not insult his colleagues on the board of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) by refusing the nomination. He added that “the concept of adaptation must be clarified” by AMPAS within the year.
In any event, Bernstein lost the Oscar to John Barry’s BORN FREE. RETURN OF THE SEVEN was released on a United Artists LP. The LP was re-issued on CD by Rykodisc in 1997.
Bob, sorry to nitpick, but Bernstein actually lost (in the adaptation category) that year to Ken Thorne for A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. John Barry's wins for Born Free were in the original score and song category.
The story of the late J. Edgar Hoover, who was head of the FBI from 1924 to 1972 was told in the 1977 Larry Cohen film THE PRIVATE FILES OF J. EDGAR HOOVER. The film follows Hoover (Broderick Crawford) from his racket-busting days through his reign under eight U.S. presidents. Cohen wrote, produced, and directed the film.
Cohen cast Lloyd Nolan as real-life Attorney General Harlan F. Stone because of Nolan's work in such films about the FBI as 'G' MEN (1935), THE HOUSE ON 92ND STREET (1945) and THE STREET WITH NO NAME (1948), noting that he couldn't imagine making an FBI film without him. As Attorney General under President Calvin Coolidge, Harlan Stone was responsible for the appointment of J. Edgar Hoover as head of the Department of Justice's Bureau of Investigation, which later became the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Stone directed Hoover to remodel the agency so it would resemble Britain's Scotland Yard and become far more efficient than any other police organization in the country.
Cohen wanted to film at various authentic locations, but was repeatedly turned down for permission. However, when First Lady Betty Ford - a former dancer - found out that Dan Dailey was in Washington to make a film, she invited him and Broderick Crawford to the White House for lunch, as she had always liked Dailey's films and work. Larry Cohen then started calling locations such as the FBI's training facility in Quantico, Virginia, and said that he wanted to film there but couldn't do so the next day because the cast was having lunch at the White House.
Likely supposing that the film had official backing, other locations soon made themselves available, including the Attorney General’s office in the Department of Justice building. Nevertheless, when Cohen sought permission to recreate the 5 June 1968 assassination of Robert F. Kennedy at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, he was turned down by hotel management.
In truth, as early as January 1976, sequences for the film had already been shot on location at the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., with actor Robert Forster. These initial scenes were personally financed by Cohen, who wanted to shoot in the former FBI offices before the agency relocated to a building across the street, and because he did not yet have backing in place to complete the film. Forster does not receive screen credit in the film, but he has confirmed that he is the person in silhouette. His feet are seen in the initial scenes depicting a man walking through the recently vacated offices.
THE PRIVATE FILES OF J. EDGAR HOOVER initially received an [R] rating from the Motion Picture Association of America but the Code and Rating Appeals Board re-rated the film [PG] after Cohen filed an appeal. The film was ready to be released in April 1977, but it was not until October 1977 that it was announced the film had been acquired by American International Pictures for distribution. A five-city test engagement that included Kansas City, KS, and Washington, DC was not well received. The film had a formal screening at the Kennedy Center, but members of both parties in the largely political audience were irritated by the film's unflattering depiction of not only Republicans such as Richard Nixon, but also Democrats such as the Kennedys and Franklin D. Roosevelt.
According to the director of Filmex (The Los Angeles International Film Exposition), Gary Essert, Cohen entered the film in the 1978 exposition, but the print did not arrive in time to be considered. Essert later saw the picture at the London Film Festival, and allowed Cohen to bypass committee judgment and resubmit for Filmex 1979. But the film did not receive any wide distribution in the U.S.
The film was the final picture for actors Dan Dailey (who played Associate Director of the FBI Clyde Tolson) and Jack Cassidy (who played newspaperman and writer Damon Runyon). This time, Miklos Rozsa did score a Cohen film. A 26-minute suite from Rozsa’s score appeared on a 1990 Bay Cities CD. A 1998 Citadel re-issue broke the suite up into 23 tracks.
Bob, sorry to nitpick, but Bernstein actually lost (in the adaptation category) that year to Ken Thorne for A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. John Barry's wins for Born Free were in the original score and song category.
Not a nitpick at all. You are correct. After I re-read what I had written, I meant to recheck it, but I got sidetracked and didn't. What happened was, I was just quickly scanning the Oscar nominees' list, saw Bernstein's name below Barry's winning one and wrote what I did. In fact, Bernstein was also nominated in 1966 for his original score for HAWAII, and it was that Bernstein score that lost to Barry. And we might as well mention that Bernstein's song for HAWAII, "The Wishing Doll," was a song that lost to Barry's "Born Free."