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Lindsay Shonteff is a Director, Scriptwriter and Producer Canadien born on 5 november 1935 at Toronto (Canada)

Lindsay Shonteff

Lindsay Shonteff
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Birth name Lindsay Craig Shonteff
Nationality Canada
Birth 5 november 1935 at Toronto (Canada)
Death 11 march 2006 (at 70 years)

Lindsay Craig Shonteff (5 November 1935-11 March 2006) was a Canadian born film director, film producer and screenwriter who achieved fame for low-budget films produced in England.

Biography

Lindsay Shonteff was born in Toronto, Ontario and made his directing, producing, editing and screenwriting debut in 1959 with a Canadian made Western The Hired Gun/The Last Gunfighter that he edited in his own home. After the film's release, Shonteff went to England following his friend fellow Canadian Sidney J. Furie.

Shonteff's English debut was Devil Doll (1964) that Furie was originally scheduled to direct. Furie was offered a more prestigious film so recommended his fellow Canadian Shonteff. Richard Gordon said Furie advised Shonteff throughout the making of the film. Shonteff had to re-edit the horror tale of a ventriloquist's dummy to avoid an X rating from the British Board of Film Censors.

This film led to interest from Columbia Pictures for a contract but Shonteff argued over the matter and the contract did not come through.

Shonteff then filmed the "African horror adventure" Curse of Simba/Curse of the Voodoo for Richard Gordon again starring Bryant Haliday with outdoor sequences filmed in Regents Park in London.

In 1965 Shonteff co-wrote and directed a James Bond type film for producer S.J.H. "James" Ward Licensed to Kill with Tom Adams as agent Charles Vine. The film was picked up for American and international release by Joseph E. Levine; re-edited and retitled The Second Best Secret Agent in the Whole Wide World with a new title song written by Sammy Cahn and James Van Heusen and performed by Sammy Davis Jr. The American publicity campaign for the James Bond exploitation film echoed the 'Number 2, but tries harder' advertising of the Avis Rent a Car System prevalent at the time. Reportedly Shonteff was offered a contract by 20th Century Fox but disagreed on conditions. Adams reprised Charles Vine in two more films without his Mauser C96 or Shonteff though Shonteff collaborated again with producer James Ward in Run With the Wind with Francesca Annis in 1966.

Shonteff directed Harry Alan Towers's The Million Eyes of Su-Muru with Shirley Eaton and George Nader based on a story by Sax Rohmer the following year.

In 1970 Shonteff directed the cult film Permissive which explored the ruthless world of the 'groupie'.

With the publicity battle between the rival James Bonds of Albert R. Broccoli's The Spy Who Loved Me and Kevin McClory's projected James Bond of the Secret Service in 1976, Shonteff returned to the secret agent fold with his superspy now calling himself Charles Bind in Number One of the Secret Service (with Nicky Henson) that was originally titled 008 of the Secret Service, Licensed to Love and Kill (with Gareth Hunt) (1979) and Michael Howe in Number One Gun (1990). Shonteff also directed Len Deighton's Spy Story in 1976 and filmed How Sleep the Brave, a Vietnam war filmed in England in 1981.

Shonteff died on the last day of production of his final film Angels, Devils, and Men.
When Lindsay Shonteff died, he was married to his wife of over 44 years Christina Shonteff.

Usually with

Source : Wikidata

Filmography of Lindsay Shonteff (11 films)

Display filmography as list

Director

How Sleep the Brave, 1h30
Directed by Lindsay Shonteff
Origin United-kingdom
Genres War
Themes Political films
Actors Thomas M. Pollard, Billy Campbell
Rating57% 2.864462.864462.864462.864462.86446
During the Vietnam War of Christmas 1969, a group of fresh young American soldiers who arrive at an army camp in Vietnam are sent to patrol in a nearby jungle. Once they have killed a few Viet Cong soldiers and losing a couple of their comrades in the battle, they return to camp. They are now sent on a mission, which is to destroy a Viet Cong village. After they destroy the village, they embark on a hazardous journey through a jungle to board a helicopter and return to camp. But, it's only a matter of who will survive the Viet Cong's gunshots and make it to the helicopter.
Licensed to Love and Kill, 1h34
Directed by Lindsay Shonteff
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Comedy, Action
Themes Spy films
Actors Gareth Hunt, Nick Tate, Geoffrey Keen, Don Fellows, John Arnatt, Toby Robins
Rating44% 2.21692.21692.21692.21692.2169
Secret Agent Charles Bind is called in to investigate the disappearance of Lord Dangerfield, a British diplomat. The trail leads Bind to Dangefield’s daughter Carlotta Muff-Dangerfield who is called “Lotta Muff”, an ambitious American Senator named Lucifer Orchid, and Bind’s counterpart in the forces of evil, Ultra One.
No. 1 of the Secret Service, 1h31
Directed by Lindsay Shonteff
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Comedy, Action, Crime
Themes Spy films
Actors Nicky Henson, Richard Todd, Aimi Macdonald, Geoffrey Keen, Dudley Sutton, Sue Lloyd
Rating45% 2.2854452.2854452.2854452.2854452.285445
Eccentric Arthur Loveday decides to do his bit for world peace by having influential financiers assassinated. With regular law enforcement agencies powerless to prevent their deaths, Her Majesty's Government sends in their top agent Charles Bind who is licensed to kill.
The Swordsman
Directed by Lindsay Shonteff
Genres Action
Actors Linda Marlowe, Alan Lake, Noel Johnson, Peter Halliday, David Robb
Rating52% 2.6249952.6249952.6249952.6249952.624995
Harriet Zapper est une femme aux talents de combattante uniques : elle est spécialiste du maniement de l'épée et peut pratiquer le karaté, la boxe et le judo. Et elle porte deux revolvers magnum .357 pour une protection supplémentaire. Lorsqu'une série d'assassinats sanglants a lieu, elle doit retrouver le cerveau derrière ces crimes. Elle se retrouve dans le sud de la France, dans un nid de corruption, de trahison et de meurtre...
Big Zapper
Big Zapper (1973)
, 1h32
Directed by Lindsay Shonteff
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Comedy, Action, Adventure
Actors Linda Marlowe, Richard Monette, Jack May, William Hootkins, John Salthouse, Carl Forgione
Rating48% 2.4409452.4409452.4409452.4409452.440945
Harriet Zapper est une femme détective privé. Un vieil homme l'emploie pour qu'elle lui retrouve ses enfants disparus.
Permissive
Permissive (1970)

Directed by Lindsay Shonteff
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Drama
Rating53% 2.6623752.6623752.6623752.6623752.662375
Suzy (Maggie Stride) arrives in London with nowhere to stay. She meets a friend, Fiona (Gay Singleton), a groupie who has settled into a relationship with Lee (Alan Gorrie), bass player and singer with the band Forever More. At first Suzy is just one of many girls who follow the groups and make themselves sexually available to musicians and their hangers-on (a type represented by Forever More's road manager Jimmy, played by Gilbert Wynne). When the band go on tour she is left behind. For some time she lives on the streets with Pogo (Robert D'Aubigny, credited as "Robert Daubigny"), a gentle hippie drifter who is eventually killed in a road accident.
The Million Eyes of Sumuru, 1h35
Directed by Lindsay Shonteff
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Action, Adventure, Spy, Crime
Themes Spy films, Films about music and musicians, Musical films
Actors Frankie Avalon, George Nader, Maria Rohm, Shirley Eaton, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Klaus Kinski
Rating36% 1.820931.820931.820931.820931.82093
Sumuru is a beautiful but evil woman who plans world domination by having her sexy all-female army eliminate male leaders and replace them with her female agents.
Curse of the Voodoo, 1h17
Directed by Lindsay Shonteff
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Horror
Themes Films set in Africa
Actors Bryant Haliday, Dennis Price, Lisa Daniely, Ronald Leigh-Hunt, Mary Kerridge, John Witty
Rating38% 1.9116251.9116251.9116251.9116251.911625
When White hunter Mike Stacey kills a lion in Simbazi country in Africa, he is cursed by the tribal chief. When the curse that manifests itself with hallucinations follows him to England he consults an expert on the subject. The expert informs Stacey the only way to remove the curse is to return to Africa and personally kill the man who put it on him.
Licensed to Kill, 1h36
Directed by Lindsay Shonteff
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Thriller, Comedy, Action, Adventure, Spy
Themes Spy films
Actors Tom Adams, Karel Štěpánek, Sammy Davis Jr., Veronica Hurst, Peter C. Bull, John Arnatt
Rating57% 2.860142.860142.860142.860142.86014
Facing numerous assassination attempts, a Swedish scientist who has invented an anti-gravity device and his daughter seek to provide the invention to the United Kingdom. With James Bond unavailable, H.M. Government provides Agent Charles Vine (Tom Adams), a former mathematician, as a bodyguard and exterminator.
Devil Doll
Devil Doll (1964)
, 1h21
Directed by Lindsay Shonteff
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Horror
Themes Jeu, Films about music and musicians, Musical films, Films about toys
Actors Bryant Haliday, William Sylvester, Yvonne Romain, Sandra Dorne, Karel Štěpánek, Sadie Corré
Rating48% 2.403042.403042.403042.403042.40304
Devil Doll begins with a performance by hypnotist/magician "The Great Vorelli" (Bryant Haliday) and his dummy Hugo before a packed audience in London. The audience observes tension between the ventriloquist and his dummy. American reporter Mark English (William Sylvester) becomes fascinated with Vorelli while attending the performance. English solicits his girlfriend Marianne Horn (Yvonne Romain) to go with him to another show. From the beginning, the film drops strong hints that the dummy, Hugo, is actually alive and mobile.

Scriptwriter

No. 1 of the Secret Service, 1h31
Directed by Lindsay Shonteff
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Comedy, Action, Crime
Themes Spy films
Actors Nicky Henson, Richard Todd, Aimi Macdonald, Geoffrey Keen, Dudley Sutton, Sue Lloyd
Rating45% 2.2854452.2854452.2854452.2854452.285445
Eccentric Arthur Loveday decides to do his bit for world peace by having influential financiers assassinated. With regular law enforcement agencies powerless to prevent their deaths, Her Majesty's Government sends in their top agent Charles Bind who is licensed to kill.
Licensed to Kill, 1h36
Directed by Lindsay Shonteff
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Thriller, Comedy, Action, Adventure, Spy
Themes Spy films
Actors Tom Adams, Karel Štěpánek, Sammy Davis Jr., Veronica Hurst, Peter C. Bull, John Arnatt
Rating57% 2.860142.860142.860142.860142.86014
Facing numerous assassination attempts, a Swedish scientist who has invented an anti-gravity device and his daughter seek to provide the invention to the United Kingdom. With James Bond unavailable, H.M. Government provides Agent Charles Vine (Tom Adams), a former mathematician, as a bodyguard and exterminator.

Producer

No. 1 of the Secret Service, 1h31
Directed by Lindsay Shonteff
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Comedy, Action, Crime
Themes Spy films
Actors Nicky Henson, Richard Todd, Aimi Macdonald, Geoffrey Keen, Dudley Sutton, Sue Lloyd
Roles Associate Producer
Rating45% 2.2854452.2854452.2854452.2854452.285445
Eccentric Arthur Loveday decides to do his bit for world peace by having influential financiers assassinated. With regular law enforcement agencies powerless to prevent their deaths, Her Majesty's Government sends in their top agent Charles Bind who is licensed to kill.
Devil Doll
Devil Doll (1964)
, 1h21
Directed by Lindsay Shonteff
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Horror
Themes Jeu, Films about music and musicians, Musical films, Films about toys
Actors Bryant Haliday, William Sylvester, Yvonne Romain, Sandra Dorne, Karel Štěpánek, Sadie Corré
Roles Producer
Rating48% 2.403042.403042.403042.403042.40304
Devil Doll begins with a performance by hypnotist/magician "The Great Vorelli" (Bryant Haliday) and his dummy Hugo before a packed audience in London. The audience observes tension between the ventriloquist and his dummy. American reporter Mark English (William Sylvester) becomes fascinated with Vorelli while attending the performance. English solicits his girlfriend Marianne Horn (Yvonne Romain) to go with him to another show. From the beginning, the film drops strong hints that the dummy, Hugo, is actually alive and mobile.