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Taste of Excitement
Taste of Excitement
	Spanish film poster
Directed by	Don Sharp
Screenplay by	Brian Carton; Don Sharp
Based on	Waiting for a Tiger; 1965 novel; by Ben Healey
Produced by	George Willoughby
Starring	Eva Renzi; David Buck; Peter Vaughan; Paul Hubschmid; Sophie Hardy; Kay Walsh; Francis Matthews; George Pravda; Peter Bowles
Cinematography	Paul Beeson
Edited by	Raymond Poulton
Music by	Keith Mansfield
Production; companies	Trio Films; Group W Films
Distributed by	London Independent Producers
Release date	16 November 1969;
Running time	89 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

Taste of Excitement, also known as Why Would Anyone Want to Kill a Nice Girl Like You?, is a 1969 British mystery thriller film directed by Don Sharp and starring Eva Renzi, David Buck and Peter Vaughan.^[1]^[2]^[3] It was written by Sharp and Brian Carton based on the 1965 novel Waiting for a Tiger by Ben Healey.

Plot

A series of attempts are made on the life of a young woman.

Cast

Eva Renzi as Jane Kerrell
David Buck as Paul Hedley
Peter Vaughan as Inspector Malling
Paul Hubschmid as Hans Beiber
Sophie Hardy as Michela
Kay Walsh as Miss Barrow
Francis Matthews as Mr Breese
George Pravda as Dr Forla
Peter Bowles as Alfredo Guardi
Alan Rowe as police inspector
Alan Barry as Mr Camot, French detective
Tom Kempinski as French police officer
Yves Brainville as hotel proprietor
Catherine Berg as receptionist

Original novel

Taste of Excitement was based on Brian Healey's novel Waiting for a Tiger (1965), the first of a series of thrillers about Paul Hedley. Reviewing the book in the New York Times, Antony Boucher wrote "the action is incessant and well varied."^[4]

Production

The film was a co production between Group W and Trio Films. It was shot during 1968 on location around Nice on the French Riviera, but not given a general release until 1970. It had an X certificate for violence and brief nudity.

Sharp says he was approached to make the film by producer George Willoughby, who had been recommended to use the director by John Terry of the National Film Finance Corporation. Sharp says it was "rather a nice thriller" with the original title of The Girl in the Red Mini. The film was being made for television and theatrical release; Westinghouse – through its company, Group W – was providing American finance. It was shot in France in 1968.^[5]

Sharp said it had "quite a nice cast without any big names" but four days before shooting was to begin Westinghouse announced it had done a survey of what had been successful of television that revealed comedy-thrillers rated better than straight thrillers. Accordingly it sent over a writer, Alec Coppel, to turn the film into a comedy-thriller. Sharp knew Coppel from Australia before the war and felt "he'd done some good work" like I Killed the Count (1939) and The Gazebo (1959) but "some time back". Sharp says Coppel would rewrite "out of context... reams of stuff" which the director had to rewrite and cut the night before filming "getting it into the right shape... You wouldn't believe the chaos and confusion", said Sharp, who says the parts of Peter Bowles, David Buck and Francis Matthews in particular were greatly reduced.^[5]

However Sharp "got along very well" with producer George Willoughby and the other producers from Group W, who hired him to make a second film, The Violent Enemy (1969), which would ultimately be released before Taste of Excitement. (In between Sharp worked on a film version of Till Death Us Do Part but was fired.)^[5]

Peter Bowles wrote in his memoirs that he had clashed with Don Sharp while making an episode of The Avengers but three weeks later Sharp offered the actor a role in Taste of Midnight. Bowles loved making the film because of its location.^[6]

Reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Standard mystery adventure which, apart from the opening sequence, rather surprisingly fails to make much of its Riviera setting. The title's promise of excitement is fulfilled only on the most conventional level, but though a little stale in appearance the film has enough twists and red herrings to keep it moving and the cast adequately meet the small demands made of them."^[7]

References

^ "Taste of Excitement". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 17 June 2024.
^ "Taste of Excitement". BFI. Archived from the original on 12 July 2012.
^ Vagg, Stephen (27 July 2019). "Unsung Aussie Filmmakers: Don Sharp – A Top 25". Filmink.
^ Criminals at Large By ANTHONY BOUCHER. New York Times 5 Sep 1965: BR21.
^ ^a ^b ^c Sharp, Don (2 November 1993). "Don Sharp Side 5" (Interview). Interviewed by Teddy Darvas and Alan Lawson. London: History Project. Retrieved 14 July 2021. - around 18 minutes in
^ Bowles, Peter (2012). Ask me if I'm happy. p. 139-139. ISBN 9780750534932.
^ "Taste of Excitement". The Monthly Film Bulletin. 37 (432): 17. 1 January 1970 – via ProQuest.