MR. TOWERS OF LONDON, A LIFE IN SHOW BUSINESS: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF HARRY ALAN TOWERS by Harry Alan Towers
Here, in his own words, are the illustrious adventures of HARRY ALAN TOWERS, rascal and raconteur, a notorious figure in the world of cinema of whom it was said he could go into any production office in the world and walk out with a movie deal. After establishing himself in 1940s radio with The Lives of Harry Lime and The Black Museum, both starring Orson Welles, Towers produced more than 100 feature films all around the world. He worked in 40 countries from Austria to Zimbabwe, starring the likes of Michael Caine, Christopher Lee, Jack Palance, Klaus Kinski and many more. A lifelong lover of literature, he brought to the screen the works of authors as revered as H. G. Wells, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie—and as reviled as the Marquis De Sade and Leopold Von Sacher-Masoch. And as a lifelong lover of women, he made friends and stars, national news and international scandals.
"Harry Alan Towers is one of the great unsung producers of post-1960 cinema. Every film he produced carries his distinct personality, as with Selznick or Bronston, but Harry's metier was exploitation. What he uniquely brought to his films was the sense of a connoisseur, and a sense of someone who loved pulp; he appreciated the finer things and smuggled them into some wonderful movies... and some unlikely ones, too. I'm delighted to learn he wrote his memoirs, and I can't wait to read them!"
-- TIM LUCAS, editor of VIDEO WATCHDOG
"It can be interesting indeed when people you know only as names in credits
turn out to be famous, or infamous, or sometimes both, as is the case with
Harry Alan Towers: MR. TOWERS OF LONDON: A LIFE IN SHOW BUSINESS
(Albany: BearManor Media, 2013; 157 pp., $19.95) is his autobiography (subtitled "a
life in show business"). Sherlockians may remember him as the producer of
the 1954 radio series that starred John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson, and Orson
Welles, the and two films in the 1992 television mini-series "The Golden Years
of Sherlock Holmes" with Christopher Lee and Patrick Macnee, and
as writer and producer of the 1994 television mini-series "The Lost World"
starring John Rhys-Davies as Challenger. Towers knew and worked with just
about everyone in the business during six-decades career, and tells enjoyable stories about them."
- Sherlockians and Doyleans Newsletter
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