Taste of Excitement

1970 film

16 November 1969 (1969-11-16)

Running time

89 minutesCountryUnited KingdomLanguageEnglish

Taste of Excitement is a 1969 British mystery thriller film directed by Don Sharp and starring Eva Renzi, David Buck and Peter Vaughan.^[1]^[2] It was shot during 1968 on location around Nice on the French Riviera, but not given a general release until 1970. It had an X certificate for violence and brief nudity. In the United States it was released under the alternative title Why Would Anyone Want to Kill a Nice Girl Like You?.

Premise

A series of attempts are made on the life of a young woman.

Cast

Jane Kerrell - Eva Renzi
Paul Hedley - David Buck
Inspector Malling - Peter Vaughan
Hans Beiber - Paul Hubschmid
Michela - Sophie Hardy
Miss Barrow - Kay Walsh
Mr Breese - Francis Matthews
Dr Forla - George Pravda
Alfredo Guardi - Peter Bowles
Police Inspector - Alan Rowe
Mr Camot, French Detective - Alan Barry
French Police Officer - Tom Kempinski
Hotel Proprietor - Yves Brainville
Receptionist - Catherine Berg

Original novel

Taste of Excitement was based on Brian Healey's novel Waiting for a Tiger (1965), the first of a series of thrillers about Paul Hedley. Reviewing the book in the New York Times, Antony Boucher wrote "the action is incessant and well varied."^[3]

Production

The film was a co production between Group W and Trio Films.

Sharp says he was approached to make the film by producer George Willoughby, who had been recommended to use the director by John Terry of the National Film Finance Corporation. Sharp says it was "rather a nice thriller" with the original title of The Girl in the Red Mini. The film was being made for television and theatrical release; Westinghouse - through its company, Group W - was providing American finance. It was shot in France in 1968.^[4]

Sharp said it had "quite a nice cast without any big names" but four days before shooting was to begin Westinghouse announced it had done a survey of what had been successful of television that revealed comedy-thrillers rated better than straight thrillers. Accordingly it sent over a writer, Alec Coppel, to turn the film into a comedy-thriller. Sharp knew Coppel from Australia before the war and felt "he'd done some good work" like I Killed the Count and The Gazebo but "some time back". Sharp says Coppel would rewrite "out of context... reams of stuff" which the director had to rewrite and cut the night before filming "getting it into the right shape... You wouldn't believe the chaos and confusion", said Sharp, who says the parts of Peter Bowles, David Buck and Francis Matthews in particular were greatly reduced.^[4]

However Sharp "got along very well" with producer George Willoughby and the other producers from Group W, who hired him to make a second film, The Violent Enemy, which would ultimately be released before Taste of Excitement. (In between Sharp worked on a film version of Til Death Do Us Part but was fired.)^[4]

Peter Bowles wrote in his memoirs that he had clashed with Don Sharp while making an episode of The Avengers but three weeks later Sharp offered the actor a role in Taste of Midnight. Bowles loved making the film because of its location.^[5]

Reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin called it "a standard mystery adventure."^[6]

References

^ "Taste of Excitement". BFI. Archived from the original on 12 July 2012.
^ Vagg, Stephen (27 July 2019). "Unsung Aussie Filmmakers: Don Sharp – A Top 25". Filmink.
^ Criminals at Large By ANTHONY BOUCHER. New York Times 5 Sep 1965: BR21.
^ ^a ^b ^c Sharp, Don (2 November 1993). "Don Sharp Side 5" (Interview). Interviewed by Teddy Darvas and Alan Lawson. London: History Project. Retrieved 14 July 2021. - around 18 minutes in
^ Bowles, Peter (2012). Ask me if I'm happy. p. 139-139. ISBN 9780750534932.
^ TASTE OF EXCITEMENT Monthly Film Bulletin; London Vol. 37, Iss. 432, (Jan 1, 1970): 17.