Ken Russell's Dracula
Ken Russell was a successful photographer before being hired as an independent filmmaker by the BBC. Between 1959 and 1970 he made thirty-five 35mm films for the BBC which advanced the art of filmmaking in England. His 1971 feature film The Devils is inceasingly recognised as being the boldest and finest film made by an Englishman, but the film’s American owners, Warner Brothers, do not allow Russell’s version to be shown outside London. Ken Russell had worldwide box-office success with Women in Love (1969), The Music Lovers (1970) and Tommy (1975). In the 1970s, he had more number-one hit films in Britain than any filmmaker. He directed the last great M.G.M musical, The Boy Friend (1971). Paul Sutton, an historian and photographer in Cambridge, has worked as a screenwriter in Wyoming, and as a script doctor in Hollywood. He was the founding editor of the Cambridge University Film Journal. His books include: ‘Lindsay Anderson, The Diaries’ (Methuen & Bloomsbury), and 'Becoming Ken Russell', the first volume of the five-volume biography of Ken Russell.