American writer-producer-director Andrew L. Stone made THE PASSWORD IS COURAGE in England, the last of four pictures he had contracted for with MGM. In this comedy-drama, British N.C.O. Sergeant-Major Charles Coward (Dirk Bogarde) escapes from the Stalag VIII-B P.O.W. camp, and is mistakenly awarded the Iron Cross by the Germans when Coward is inadvertently thought to be a wounded German soldier. Reincarcerated, he is more determined than ever to make his escape.
The 1962 film was based on John Castle's biography of Sergeant-Major Coward. Coward served as technical advisor during the filming, and also had a cameo in the film during a party scene. Mark Eden had a small part as a prisoner of war in the film. The film had an uncredited score. The picture took in a mediocre $1 million at the U.S. box office.
Bryan Forbes directed the 1962 drama THE L-SHAPED ROOM. Leslie Caron starred as "Jane," a young French woman, pregnant and unmarried, who takes a room in a seedy London boarding house, which is inhabited by an assortment of misfits. The 27-year-old Jane has no intention of marrying the man “Terry” (Mark Eden) who both deflowered and impregnated her, and she also ignores the advice of everyone who’s pushing her to have an abortion. She makes friends with the mixed and impoverished occupants of her rooming house and starts a romance with one of them, the young writer “Toby” (Tom Bell).
Mark Eden and Leslie Caron in THE L-SHAPED ROOM
Douglas Slocombe shot the film at Shepperton Studios and at a boarding house in the Notting Hill section of London. John Barry provided two jazz themes for the film, which also had a rendition of Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 1 on the soundtrack, played by the Sinfonia of London under Muir Mathieson. The only release of the film’s music came with the 2017 Twilight Time Blu-ray release, which has an isolated score track. The British production grossed a reasonable $2.9 million at the U.S. box office.
In SÉANCE ON A WET AFTERNOON, “Myra” (Kim Stanley) is a psychic who makes a living holding séances in her front room. Her meek and compliant husband “Billy” (Richard Attenborough) has learned to stay out of the way, even though he’s stuck at home on disability. The couple had a son together, but he passed away at a young age, leaving a hole in their lives. Myra still talks to him in spirit, however, and he inspires her with a dastardly idea; to prove that she really is psychic by kidnapping a child and then “revealing” clues about the crime that she has ostensibly learned from the spirit world. The girl they choose to kidnap is “Amanda” (Judith Donner), young daughter of the wealthy “Charles” (Mark Eden) and “Mrs. Clayton” (Nanette Newman).
Mark Eden in SÉANCE ON A WET AFTERNOON
This was Mark Eden’s second film for director Bryan Forbes. A six-minute suite from John Barry’s score was re-recorded by Nic Raines and The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra for a 2000 Silva Screen Barry compilation CD. The low-budget film (£139,000) barely broke even in the UK and grossed a meager $300,000 in the U.S.
I remember his time in Coronation Street. A proper boo-hiss villain, and that tram incident is still one of the most famous highlights in the show's history. Massive at the time. And his daughter in the series has been back for some time now running the Rover's Return pub.
What a great shame his Doctor Who story, Marco Polo is missing. It's one of the top wish list entries for most fans of the Classic series. Even as an audio only recording (or even better a reconstruction using photos) it comes across very well.
In THE PLEASURE GIRLS, “Sally” (Francesca Annis) arrives in London to pursue a modeling career. She moves in with “Angela” (Anneke Wills) and “Dee” (Suzanna Leigh) who immediately introduce her to two of their neighbors, “Marion” (Rosemary Nicols) and “Cobber” (Colleen Fitzpatrick). Sally also meets the only man in the building, “Paddy” (Tony Tanner), who, like the rest of the girls, likes men. Later on, during a wild party in the city, Sally encounters “Keith” (Ian McShane), a young and ambitious photographer, who immediately tries to get her to sleep with him. In the following days Sally also meets “Nikko” (Klaus Kinski), the shady landlord who has a gambling problem and likes spending time with Dee, and “Prinny” (Mark Eden), Marion's abusive boyfriend, who has some very serious money problems.
The film was written and directed by Gerry O’Hara on a micro-budget of £30,000. The picture has an unreleased score by Malcolm Lockyer.
DOCTOR ZHIVAGO is set against a backdrop of World War I, the Russian Revolution of 1917, and the Russian Civil War. A narrative framing device, set in the late 1940s or early 1950s, involves “Lieutenant General Yevgraf Zhivago” (Alec Guinness) searching for the daughter of his half-brother, “Dr Yuri Zhivago” (Omar Sharif), and “Larissa (‘Lara’) Antipova” (Julie Christie). Yevgraf believes a young woman, “Tanya Komarova” (Rita Tushingham), may be his niece, and tells her the story of her father's life. Mark Eden appeared in the initial sequence as an engineer at the dam where Tanya Komarova works.
Mark Eden and Alec Guinness in DOCTOR ZHIVAGO
David Lean directed the 1965 film. The $11 million production was one of the most expensive films of its time, but it was the second-highest grossing film of its year (behind THE SOUND OF MUSIC), with a U.S. gross of $127 million. By 2014, the film was ranked the eighth highest-grossing movie in history, with earnings (adjusted for inflation) of nearly $2.1 billion. Maurice Jarre's score was last released by Sony Classical in 2010.
I'LL NEVER FORGET WHAT'S 'ISNAME stars Oliver Reed as “Andrew Quint,” a conscience-stricken adman who smashes up his desk and quits the business for an honest life in literature, but is won back to the media fray by manipulative tycoon “Jonathan Lute” (Orson Welles). Mark Eden had a small role as “Kellaway” in the 1967 comedy-drama.
During filming, Orson Welles said to producer-director Michael Winner, "Michael, you know, I usually re-write the script. I wrote the Ferris wheel scene in THE THIRD MAN (1949)." To which Winner said, "Orson, dear, if you wrote the Ferris wheel scene in THE THIRD MAN, it's one of the greatest speeches in the history of cinema, please have a go at the script. Be my guest." And every day, Winner’s secretary, Miss Rogers, would sit on the set and retype the script. Winner was waiting for these marvelous additions or changes from Orson Welles, and after about three weeks, Winner said, "Orson, darling, the pages come via Miss Rogers from you, and you're doing our exact same script. Where are these wonderful changes you were going to make?!" Welles replied, "Well, the script is so good, I don't need to make any changes Michael. She just takes out the stage directions for me."
Maybe Welles should have made some changes. The film grossed just $400,000 in the U.S. Francis Lai's score was released on a Decca LP, and was reissued on CD by Quartet in 2019.
Based upon a true story, ATTACK ON THE IRON COAST is a World War II film in which commando leader Major Jamie Wilson (Lloyd Bridges) leads a group of soldiers on a suicide mission to destroy a Nazi naval stronghold on the French coast. Mark Eden played Lt. Cmdr. Donald Kimberly in the picture.
Paul Wendkos directed the 1968 film. Eight minutes from Gérard Schurmann’s score appeared on a 1993 Cloud Nine Schurmann compilation CD. The $1 million production grossed just $700,000 at the U.S. box office.
Mark Eden co-starred with Boris Karloff and Christopher Lee in 1968’s CURSE OF THE CRIMSON ALTER. Christopher Lee had not worked with Karloff since CORRIDORS OF BLOOD in 1958. This was Karloff’s last completed film (although ones he had made earlier would be released after this one). This film was a co-production of American International Pictures and Tigon British Film Productions.
Based on (but not credited to) H.P. Lovecraft's The Dreams in the Witch-House, the film finds “Robert Manning” (Mark Eden), a London antiquities dealer, travelling to a remote rural hamlet in search of his missing brother. There, he discovers a black magic cult led by “Morley” (Christopher Lee), who intends to avenge the death of his sorceress ancestor “Lavinia Morley” (Barbara Steele). The wheelchair-bound “Professor John Marsh” (Boris Karloff) is an occult expert who aids Manning.
Mark Eden and Rosemarie Reede in CURSE OF THE CRIMSON ALTER
Vernon Sewell directed the film, which had an unreleased score by Peter Knight.
When American International set the film for U.S. release in 1970, they edited the film by two minutes to remove enough nudity and violence to garner a [GP] rating. AIP first considered calling the picture THE CRIMSON ALTER, but eventually settled on THE CRIMSON CULT. The film did poor business in the U.S., grossing just $400,000.
For most of the next decade, Mark Eden appeared in British television series and TV movies. His next major international role was a small part in the final episode of JESUS OF NAZARETH, an epic re-telling of the story of Jesus Christ, made as a television mini-series. Robert Powell starred in the title role, and the film featured nearly two dozen well-known actors and actresses in other roles. Eden played “Quartus of Berytus,” an early Christian who was numbered among the Seventy Disciples. He became Bishop of Beirut and suffered for the faith. However, he converted many to the Christian faith.
At a cost estimated between twelve and twenty million dollars, this mini-series had a budget equivalent to many feature films of the time, and was by far the most expensive made-for-television movie at the time of production, a record it would hold for several years.
The mini-series premiered on NBC as "The Big Event" in two three-hour installments with limited commercials on Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday (April 3 and April 10, 1977). Additional footage was added for a 1979 re-run, which was broadcast in four two-hour installments. The film has been released on VHS and DVD as one complete presentation with one set of credits.
The film received Emmy Nominations for Outstanding Special and for James Farentino as Outstanding Supporting Actor, for playing Simon Peter. Director Franco Zeffirelli received a BAFTA nomination for Best Direction of a Single Play. Maurice Jarre’s score for the film was released on an RCA LP in the U.S., and on Pye Records in the UK. The first CD release came from RCA Italy in 1996. An expanded release was issued in Italy by Legend in 2010.
In RICHARD’S THINGS, following her husband's death, “Kate Morris” (Liv Ullmann) discovers and confronts her husband's lover, “Josie” (Amanda Redman). Their mutual pain, love, envy, and jealousy bring them together in an unexpected emotional and physical relationship. Mark Eden played the husband, “Richard Morris,” in flashback scenes in the film.
Anthony Harvey directed the 1980 film, which was scripted by Frederic Raphael (Oscar-winner for DARLING), who adapted his own novel. Other than the main title, Georges Delerue’s score has not had a release. The British production was one of many imports to the U.S. by Roger Corman’s New World Pictures.
American writer-producer-director Andrew L. Stone made THE PASSWORD IS COURAGE in England, the last of four pictures he had contracted for with MGM. In this comedy-drama, British N.C.O. Sergeant-Major Charles Coward (Dirk Bogarde) escapes from the Stalag VIII-B P.O.W. camp, and is mistakenly awarded the Iron Cross by the Germans when Coward is inadvertently thought to be a wounded German soldier. Reincarcerated, he is more determined than ever to make his escape.
The 1962 film was based on John Castle's biography of Sergeant-Major Coward. Coward served as technical advisor during the filming, and also had a cameo in the film during a party scene. Mark Eden had a small part as a prisoner of war in the film. The film had an uncredited score. The picture took in a mediocre $1 million at the U.S. box office.
The film is available on the Warner Archive label.
“Coronation Street” is the world's longest-running television soap opera. It was created by Granada Television in Britain and has aired on ITV since 1960. The program centers around a cobbled, terraced street in Weatherfield, a fictional town based on inner-city Salford. “Coronation Street” is noted for its depiction of a down-to-earth, working-class community, combined with light-hearted humor and strong characters. Originally broadcast twice weekly, the series began airing six times a week in 2017.
Mark Eden in “Coronation Street”
Between 1986 and 1989, the show focused on the story of “Rita Fairclough” (Barbara Knox) who suffered psychological abuse at the hands of “Alan Bradley” (Mark Eden). Rita was a mother figure to a number of the street’s residents. Alan eventually met his death under the wheels of a Blackpool tram in December 1989. This storyline gave the show its highest combined viewing figure in its history with 26.93 million for the episode that aired on 15 (and 19) March 1989, where Alan is hiding from the police after trying to kill Rita in the previous episode. The story arc was so popular that in 2009, Eden unveiled a plaque at the tram stop in Blackpool where his character was run over. In all, Mark Eden appeared as Alan Bradley in 222 episodes of the series.
