| A Matter of Choice | |
| Director: | Vernon Sewell |
| Producer: | George Maynard |
| Story: | Derren Nesbitt Vernon Sewell |
| Starring: | Malcolm Gerard Michael Davis Anthony Steel Jeanne Moody Ballard Berkeley |
| Cinematography: | Arthur Lavis |
| Editing: | Lee Doig |
| Music: | Robert Sharples (composed & conducted by) |
| Studio: | Holmwood Productions |
| Budget: | £23,671[1] |
| Runtime: | 79 minutes[2] |
| Country: | United Kingdom |
| Language: | English |
A Matter of Choice is a 1963 British black and white drama film directed by Vernon Sewell and starring Malcolm Gerard, Michael Davis, Anthony Steel, Jeanne Moody and Ballard Berkeley.[3] The screenplay was by Paul Ryder based on an original story by Sewell and Derren Nesbitt.
It was one of a number of low budget British films Steel made in the 1960s while based in Rome.[4]
Mike and Tony are two youths out looking for girls and entertainment. After a chaotic evening, they accidentally knock a policeman into the path of a car. As they flee the scene the male passenger, John Crighton, runs after them. Mike throws a brick at Crighton and he collapses unconscious. Panicking, they move him to the unlocked garage of a nearby house, owned by businessman Charles Grant, and anonymously call an ambulance. Crighton, a diabetic, subsequently dies in hospital. When the police arrive Grant discovers that his wife Lisa has been having an affaire with Crighton.
Sewell called the film "a disaster":
I had been working with this man and, I had said, "I won't work with you again." And he writes to me, he says, "Look here, I've got a contract, I can make your story, 'Matter of Choice.'" I said, "No, absolutely out, absolutely out!" He said, "Well, would you sell me the script?" I said, "That, I will do," and I sold him the script. Then his wife rings me up and says, "Vernon, I'm in a desperate position. George can't get the film floated without you, and if he doesn't do it, this is our last chance, he's going to kill himself." I should have said, "Well let him do it" but I didn't. I said, "Well now, OK, if I do this, is it going to be, (this, this, this and this?)?" She said, "Yes, it's all wonderful." Of course when I got to it, the sets were terrible, the whole thing was a disaster, disaster. I don't think it appeared at all, I don't think it was ever shown. The idea of the story was good, but, you see, it had to be – he said he had a find, a wonderful new star, and I gave her the sack the first day, couldn't work. Tony Steel was in it and was pissed all the time. Oh it was a disaster... a bloody awful movie, because the thing was buggered up.[5]
The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "This very moral tale, dependent for its dénouement on the thundering coincidence that assembles all five characters in the same mews flat, is slow as a thriller and despite its incursions into social realism, notably in the portrayal of Mike and Tony, unexciting on any other level."[6]
The film was released on DVD, paired with Jungle Street (1960), by Odeon Entertainment in 2008.