London: Goodtimes Enterprises/Gladiole Films, 1973

102pp. screenplay, bound in red stiff paper wrappers secured with two split pins, window to front wrapper displaying title page beneath.

GRAHAM CROWDEN'S WORKING COPY OF THE FINAL DRAFT SCREENPLAY FOR THE FINAL PROGRAMME, WITH HIS UNDERLININGS, AMENDMENTS AND ANNOTATIONS THROUGHOUT.

Directed by Robert Fuest and adapted from Michael Moorcock's 1969 futuristic fantasy novel of the same name, The Final Programme stars Jon Finch, Sterling Hayden, Julie Ege as Miss Dazzle -- and Graham Crowden as Dr. Smiles, a mad professor hot on the heels of a microfilm. Narrative cohesion is not the film's strong point but Fuest, hot from his recent successes with the still frightening And Soon the Darkness (1970), and the two Vincent Price camp classics The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971) and Dr. Phibes Rises Again (1972), throws everything at the film's design, and it's hard to dislike a film which features a phalanx of nuns playing fruit machines and a walk-on part for Hawkwind. It's now become (naturally enough) a minor cult classic.

There was always going to be a role in a film like this for Graham Crowden [1922-2010]. Part of the Royal Court's repertory company under George Devine, Crowden was a leading member of the legendary Old Vic/National Theatre company of the 1960s, and always a scene-stealing presence on screen, with nearly two hundred credits to his name.

In this script Crowden has underlined his part in red throughout and boxed in ink his character's name wherever it appears, and many of his scenes have been struck through in blue ink to denote that filming on them has been completed. More substantial annotations and amendments are found in Crowden/Smiles's later scenes, strongly suggesting the production knew during the shoot that the film was in danger of terminal narrative breakdown. (The danger was not averted.)

A rare survivor from the shop floor of one of the most 1970s of all 1970s films; we can find no record of anything comparable ever having been offered for public sale.