MONTE HELLMAN

(12 July 1929 - 20 April 2021)

The career of the film director Monte Hellman was erratic for, between 1959 and 2013, he directed, or partially directed, just 21 films. An independent spirit, he rarely found scripts that he liked and equally rarely got the crews he wanted. Still, early dismissal of his maverick talents later turned into willing acceptance. Born in New York, he grew up in Los Angeles and studied drama and film. While in the theatre he met the producer Roger Corman who helped him stage the LA premiere of Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. He then joined Corman’s brother Gene and his exploitation film company to make Beast from Haunted Cave and he worked uncredited on Roger Corman’s The Terror with Boris Karloff and a young Jack Nicholson (who was also in Hellman’s Flight to Fury, Back Door to Hell, The Shooting and Ride in the Whirlwind). He co-directed Cordillera with a script by Nicholson but, whereas Nicholson went on to mainstream Hollywood, Hellman stayed on the sidelines making films quickly and on tiny budgets. But Two-Lane Blacktop (1971) will be remembered as the high point of his career. It had the musicians James Taylor and Brian Wilson as two car freaks looking for a suitable race. Given its subject matter, Cockfighter was Hellman’s most controversial film. Shatter starred Stuart Whitman as a hitman in Hong Kong, but Hellman was uncredited. China 9, Liberty 37 had Warren Oates as another hitman out to save his own skin. Hellman made a few more films and helped out other directors (on The Wild Angels, Head, The Big Red One, RoboCop, etc). His last films were Road to Nowhere, a true crime story in 2010, and one section of Venice 70: Future Reloaded in 2013. Hellman, who has died aged 91 following a fall, was also an editor and producer (Reservoir Dogs), writer and actor. He married the actresses Barboura Morris and Jacqueline Ebjier, and the writer-producer Emma Webster. He has two children, Jared and Melissa.

MICHAEL DARVELL