All Creatures Great and Small (film)

Infobox_Film
name = All Creatures Great and Small


caption =
director = Claude Whatham
producer =
writer = James Herriot (book) Hugh Whitemore(Script)
starring = Simon Ward Anthony Hopkins Brian Stirner Lisa Harrow
music =
cinematography =
editing =
distributor = EMI Films
released =27 July 1975
runtime = 87 minutes
country = United Kingdom
language = English
budget =
amg_id =
imdb_id = 0071118|

All Creatures Great and Small is a feature film directed in 1974 by Claude Whatham.

It was based on the book "All Creatures Great and Small" which was a compilation volume first published in 1972 comprising James Herriot's first two novels, "If Only They Could Talk" and "It Shouldn't Happen to a Vet", which were considered too short to publish individually in the U.S. market. The title is in turn derived from a punning suggestion by Herriot's daughter, who thought the volume should be titled "Ill Creatures Great and Small".

Cast

Simon Ward stared as James Herriot, Anthony Hopkins as Herriot's eccentric employer, Siegfried Farnon, Brian Stirner as Farnon's errant younger brother Tristan, and Lisa Harrow as James's love-interest and then wife, Helen.

cript

The script by Hugh Whitemore, focused very much on James, and played down Siegfried's eccentricity; for example, a speech he makes early in the film rebuking James for refusing to attend a call during the middle of the night is delivered straight, while in the book it was highly hypocritical, as Siegried himself had earlier told James that he was 'spoiling' the farmers by coming out at all hours.

Music

The film's incidental music was by Wilfred Josephs.

DVD

The film has been released on DVD for both Region 2 PAL and Region 1 NTSC.

equel

A second film, " It Shouldn't Happen to a Vet" was made in 1975. John Alderton took over the role of James and Colin Blakely that of Siegfried, while Lisa Harrow returned as Helen. The film was directed by Eric Till from a script by Alan Plater.

References in other Popular Culture

*"...and we will be speaking to the disillusioned vet who, in James Herriot style, is writing his memoirs, under the working title of 'All Creatures Grunt and Smell'". [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4307540.stm] (The Two Ronnies, BBC)

*An episode of the television series SCTV included a spoof entitled "All the Long-Leggedy Beasties," in which a British veterinarian pays a number of house calls and proceeds to put all of his clients' pets (and one client) to sleep.

*There is a pet shop called "All Creatures Great and Cheap" on The Simpsons.

References

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[http://www.worldofjamesherriot.org/ Official James Herriot Website]

External links

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