- Saint Jack
Infobox Film | name = Saint Jack
caption = First edition cover (book)
director =Peter Bogdanovich
producer =Hugh M. Hefner Edward L. Rissien
writer =Peter Bogdanovich Howard Sackler Paul Theroux
starring =Ben Gazzara Denholm Elliott
George Lazenby
cinematography =Robby Müller
editing =William C. Carruth
distributor =New World Pictures
released =27 April 1979 (New York City ,USA )
runtime = 112 min.
language = English
budget =
music =
imdb_id = 0079843"Saint Jack" is a
1973 novel byPaul Theroux and a 1979 film of the same name. It tells the life of Jack Flowers, apimp inSingapore . Feeling hopeless and undervalued, Jack tries to make money by setting up his ownbordello , and clashes with Chinese triad members in the process.Ben Gazzara stars as Flowers in the film, directed byPeter Bogdanovich .Controversy about the film
"Saint Jack" was shot entirely on location in various places in Singapore in May and June of
1978 .As of 2006 , it is the onlyHollywood film to have been shot on location in Singapore. Places featured in the film include the former Empress Placehawker centre (now demolished) andBugis Street . The local authorities knew about the book, hence the foreign production crew did not tell them that they were adapting it, fearing that they would not be permitted to shoot the film. Instead, they created a fake synopsis for a film called "Jack Of Hearts", and most of the Singaporeans involved in the production believed this was what they were making.The film was banned in Singapore and
Malaysia on17 January 1980 . Singapore banned it "largely due to concerns that there would be excessive edits required to the scenes of nudity and some coarse language before it could be shown to a general audience," and lifted the ban only in March 2006cite news | title = Saint Elsewhere | first = Cheong | last = Suk-Wai | publisher =The Straits Times | date =29 March 2006 | work = Life! | page = 5] . It is now an M18-rated film."Saint Jack" was re-released in North America on
DVD in 2001.A book which details the development, production and aftermath of the "Saint Jack" film, entitled "Kinda Hot: The Making of Saint Jack in Singapore", was published by Marshall Cavendish in March 2006 and is written by Ben Slater.
In an interview with "
The New York Times " on15 March 2006 , Bogdanovich said, "Saint Jack" and "They All Laughed " were two of my best films but never received the kind of distribution they should have." ["Ibid." (A search of "The New York Times"' archive on29 March 2006 failed to find the text of the interview.)]References
External links
* [http://www.paultheroux.com/fiction/saint.jack.htm Saint Jack book description from a Paul Theroux fan website]
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* [http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/entertainment/view/198058/1/.html Saint Jack at Media Corp. News]
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