Michael Klinger (producer)

For the Australian cricketer, see Michael Klinger.

Michael Klinger (1 November 1921 – 15 September 1989^[1]) was a British film producer.

Klinger was born in London. His father was a Polish-born tailor.^[2] Klinger was initially the owner of a strip club, but began a business association with Tony Tenser in 1960 after they had met following a publicity stunt organised by Tenser at a cinema he managed.^[3] The two men opened a private members cinema, the Compton Club that year, apparently with John Trevelyan, then head of the British Board of Film Censors, as a founder member.^[4] A distribution firm Compton Cameo Films was established.^[5] Both enterprises were originally dedicated to imported exploitation films, but undertook its own films in the 'nudie' genre from 1961, though their first Naked as Nature Intended, directed by Harrison Marks, was marketed as a documentary. For a time, Klinger and Tenser owned the Windmill Theatre, after its original nude reviews had ended turning it into a cinema,^[6] and using it as a setting for Secrets of a Windmill Girl (1966).^[3]

It was Klinger though who persuaded Tenser to back the first English language feature films of Polish director Roman Polanski. Despite the success of Repulsion (1965) and Cul-de-Sac (1966) Klinger and Tenser ended their business connection in 1967.

Klinger sent the Ted Lewis novel Jack's Return Home to director Mike Hodges, asking whether he would be interested in adapting and directing a film version. Hodges agreed. The result starring Michael Caine, Get Carter, was released early the following year.^[7] Klinger, Hodges and Caine formed a production company to make Pulp which followed in 1972.

Klinger was the executive producer of the Confessions series of sex comedies (Window Cleaner/Pop Performer/Driving Instructor/Holiday Camp) during the period 1974-78. He continued with big budget action films, such as Gold (1974) and Shout at the Devil (1976), both starring Roger Moore and based on novels by Wilbur Smith, aimed an international market.^[8] He died in Watford.

References

1. ^ The imdb website gives these dates, but his year of birth is given as 1920 on the website of the University of Western England where Klinger's archive is held.
2. ^ Brian MacFarlane The Encyclopedia of British Film, London: Methuen/BFI, 2003, p.367
3. ^ ^{a b} Obituary: Tony Tenser, The Times, 17 December 2007
4. ^ Matthew Sweet "The lost worlds of British cinema: The horror", The Independent, 29 January 2006
5. ^ Gavin Gaughan Obituary: Tony Tenser, The Guardian, 13 March 2008
6. ^ Tom Vallance Obituary: Tony Tenser, The Independemt, 20 December 2007
7. ^ Maxim JakubowskI "A Conversation with Writer/Director Mike Hodges", Mulholland Books, 1 November 2010
8. ^ Andrew Spicer "The Creative Producer – The Michael Klinger Papers",

External links

• Michael Klinger at the Internet Movie Database

Persondata
Name	Klinger, Michael
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1920
Place of birth
Date of death	15 September 1989
Place of death