Goodnight, My Love
Please do not use {{Infobox television film}} directly. See the documentation for available templates. Goodnight, My Love is a 1972 American television film. It was the directorial debut of Peter Hyams.
Hyams had just made T.R. Baskin, which he produced and had written the script but did not direct. He was finding it difficult to get the chance to direct a feature film so moved into television. "It was at a time when television was considered like a bath of sulfuric acid, and if you stuck your toe in it you’d pull out a stump," he says.[1]
He later recalled:
Barry Diller was head of Movies of the Week at that point over at ABC. Barry green-lit Duel for Steven Spielberg, a movie called Binary for Michael Crichton, and gave a lot of us our first breaks. I said to Barry 'I've got two ideas. The first is about the U.S. government faking a moon shot, then trying to cover it up.' He said "What's the other one?" I said, 'I'm a Raymond Chandler freak. I want to do a 1940s detective story about a private eye and his dwarf sidekick.' He said "Do that one."[2]
The film starred Richard Boone and Michael Dunn. Hyams:
Richard Boone was a terrific actor. He had one of the most amazing faces. He, uh, liked to drink a bit. (laughs) I remember the first shot he did for me; we literally had to prop him up. But when we cut it all together, it worked great... Michael was one of the most gifted people I ever met, just a remarkable man. He also sang like an angel... He was in terrible pain constantly. It was a real gift to have made my first movie with him. I wish we could have done more.[2]
Reception
Hyams later said the film was "over-praised. One of the trades called it the Citizen Kane of television movies, which, trust me, it wasn't."[3] However it did launch his career.
References
- ^ "Directors Special: Peter Hyams Film by Film", Empire Magazine accessed 30 July 2014
- ^ a b Peter Hyams Interview, The Hollywood Interview January 2014 accessed 27 July 2014
- ^ Luke Ford, Peter Hyams interview accessed 27 July 2014
