Howard has a secret - he is in love with Christine. There's only one problem. Christine is DEAD.
A grave was no place for Christine. The only place for her was at Howard's side as his wife. At least she was finally his - his to dress, his to feed, and his to care for. In his mind he had his very own 'Living Doll'. In reality, her lifeless body was slowly decomposing. But he would go to any length to keep her, even murder.

That's the blurb from the back of the video sleeve. I hope MGM don't mind, but what the Hell, I did write the movie.

"Living Doll", takes me back a few years... but then I guess, it was a few years ago. I wrote the script while I was working on the Michael Winner movie, 'A Chorus of Disapproval' up in Scarborough in the north of England in mid-1988. At the time, I didn't have much of a clue about how to go about getting a film made and so showed the script to a few people I knew... but no one seemed too keen on the idea.

I was aware of Dick Randall through such cinematic wonders as 'Pieces' and 'April Fool's Day' but that was all I knew about him - he made horror movies and fortunately for me... was based in London. There's no big secret... no big mystery... If you're looking to get into the business or find out the 'secrets' of people who have been there before... sorry, but there's not much (if any) wisdom I can impart. I took the script along to Dick Randall's office and he picked up on it straight away. I guess he must have read the script (don't take it as an essential requirement of the industry though), but it seemed as though he decided to run with it right there and then. There was a follow-up meeting where we had a minimal discussion on how things were going to take place.

I'd already decided that my career in the movie business was going to be as a director, and so... with a producer interested in my material, I asked to direct my movie. The answer was a swift 'no'. See, Dick had experimented with first time directors in the past... he'd chosen someone who'd worked as an actor in dozens of movies and, therefore, thought he'd be at least competent at pointing a camera... but the whole thing had turned into a complete disaster... so... no directing gig for me.

Then I asked for some kind of back-end deal on the picture. Again, the answer was a swift and decisive 'no'. See Dick refused to allow anyone the luxury of looking into his books... so there'd be no way to check whether I'd be owed any money or not.
So... I guess you're all sitting there going 'no way man!' 'fight for your rights...' 'tell him to stick it where the sun don't shine'. Trust me... I hear you all... but you got to be realistic about this. I was 22 years old... I'd shown the script to everyone I knew who had any connection with the business and no one wanted anything to do with it. Here I was, sitting in front of a man who was offering to take my script and to make it into a movie... a movie... a bona-fide movie... just like I always wanted. Sure... I could have picked up my script and stormed out of the office... and gone... where exactly? That's the point, see. At the time... in my circumstances, with my limited knowledge of the business, there was nowhere else to go - at least in the UK.
So I figured... it'll do me a whole lot more good having a movie out there with my name on it than it would with yet another bundle of papers piling up in the corner of my bedroom.

Like I said, this was my first venture into the business side of the industry and it taught me a lot of valuable lessons. My original screenplay was extensively re-written by George Dugdale and Mark Ezra (shit happens, you know). It had been agreed with Dick that I'd be involved in all that side of things but as happens, things didn't turn out quite as expected.

I called Mark and George to introduce myself and explain to them that Dick had said I could be a part of the rewriting process... and so I sat by the phone waiting for them to call me and tell me we could get started. Yep... you guessed it... no phone call was forthcoming. So... plucking up all me courage... I called them... and they said... 'it's okay... we've finished the rewrite.'

Huh? Excuse me? Nice. that's how it happened... When I finally got to see it... the script had changed quite dramatically although the essential storyline remained intact. The major change was in putting the characters in a hospital morgue (I wish I'd thought of that) and that worked okay.
The second major change, which I didn't like too much, but I could see their point, was in their approach to the necrophilia.
I didn't tell you it was a movie about necrophilia? Well it is. Well, to be more accurate, it's a movie about the problems of unrequited love in teenage youth. I mean... who hasn't been there? You meet someone, see someone, you fall in love. The only problem is that they don't want to know.
It's tragic, it's heartbreaking... but it happens to us all.

Back to the movie or at least the script part of it. So Howard loves this girl but it ain't going to happen. Then she dies and there's no one else is interested in her.
You can see how this is developing?

Point being... Howard isn't a necrophile so much as a young man in love whose relationship with a young girl forces him to perform acts of necrophilia. It's kind of a picky semantic point but an important one nevertheless.

Now the problem is that necrophilia is a somewhat dodgy subject, even to a producer like Dick Randall. So, whereas my script had a guy sleeping (oh let's not be bashful, he was fucking) with a dead girl, it was felt that this was not a good thing to be showing to people.
The way, therefore, to make Howard a more sympathetic character and not some flesh crawling pervert was to show Christine through his eyes as still alive.
Now I can go along with that but I was never keen on the idea that he actually thought she had been buried alive and it was his duty to save her from a premature burial.


Initially production was scheduled to begin within a month of the meeting at which he decided to go with the project but due to various shenanigans that I don't have the energy to go into... we eventually started on November 7th.
And it was here that I received another introductory kick in the teeth from the business that I love. Hey... life's a rollercoaster, right? You don't get to enjoy the 'ups' unless you've had a few 'downs' right?

Being as I hadn't been allowed to direct my movie... and as I'd been kinda sidelined from the rewriting process... and let's not forget... life... and the movie business is all about learning, so I wanted to be a part of things as they developed... I wanted to be there when the movie was made. That's why on my first ever job in the industry a couple of years earlier... "Deathwish III" with the late Charles Bronson... I'd managed to wangle myself a job in pre-production as a production runner... then onto a production runner on the floor during the shoot and then as a job working in the edit suites during the post-production process... you see... you got to understand all the business if you're gonna be a good director.

So, I agreed with Dick that I'd be the Assistant Director.. oh how we laugh at the naivety of it all looking back thru the rose-tinted glow of 20/20 hindsight.

Then I got the call... they had an Assistant Director. Hmmmmm this is going good... Thanks guys... did no one mention to you about my deal with Dick? The compromise was that I would still be involved... but as the Third Assistant Director... or as they're known in the U.S. - the Second Second Director.

Okay... we're off and running right? Wrong. I turn up on set on the first day of filming... I'm more excited than anyone ever in the history of mankind.

"Who are you?"
"I'm Paul... I'm the Third Assistant Director."
"You are? We already have a Third Assistant."

Oh great... here we go again. This was my introduction to Frank... the Second Assistant. Well, to cut a long story short... I was kinda bummed (devastated would be a closer description of things) but I hung around... and as the fickle finger of fate would have it... the Third Assistant didn't bother to turn up... and so hey presto... there I was... on set... part of the crew... making MY movie.

Obviously this is the end of the story... the big Hollywood happy ending... but.

See... As the production went on... I tried to introduce myself to people, but as soon as I mentioned to them that I was the writer (hey... whaddaya gonna do? I was proud damnit!!!) they all kinda clammed up and took a step away.

You see... it never occurred to me that a writer would be treated with such a degree of suspicion on a film set. Why is he here? What does he want? Who's he spying for? I got all of that.

But did I let it get me down? You're goddamn right I did... it's hard to suddenly get the cold slap of reality in the face... but you knuckle down and soldier on. I was the damn Third Assistant Director and I wasn't gonna let anyone take that away from me.

Anyway... eventually... I found a sympathetic ear on the set and slowly but surely got the chance to work my way back into the crew's favor.


But where I hear you ask does such a top quality motion picture actually get filmed?
'Living Doll' was shot in the UK. The main location was an old operating theatre in Hammersmith Hospital in West London.
Howard's apartment was constructed in a small studio in Vauxhall. When he opens the door to the fire escape and you see the New York skyline behind him, that was just a large piece of wood, painted black with holes drilled in it and a light shone through from behind (aahh the magic of the movies).
The directors did actually go to New York for a couple of days to shoot the lead actor (Mark Jax) wandering around and sitting in the back of a taxi. However, such was my standing in the industry at the time they didn't take me with them.



Due to the extreme low-budget nature of the project (and possibly cos most people, given the chance, would want to be in a movie) most of the crew had to double as extras and as a matter of fact... I was actually in two shots.
My first was fortunately cut from the movie but it is actually me as the priest at Christine's funeral (in fact... if you squint really, really hard... that's the scene over there on the right... second pic down). Fortunately, that's not my voice - the movie might have all been my idea... I might have had to suffer innumerable slings and arrows and all that... but when it came to the bottom line... oh yes... I was dubbed.