[dir. DONNELLY, Dennis] FRIEDENN, Neva; EASTER, Robert, KINDBERG, Ann
The Toolbox Murders
Los Angeles: Tony DiDo/Cal-Am Artists, 1977
124 pp. in black stiff paper wrappers, secured with three split pins to left edge. Title in red to front wrapper, and inked to spine. Inked number ‘28’ to first page. Wrappers creased and chipped, but a well preserved copy.
Revised screenplay for the controversial, gory, important but terrible 1978 film starring (for reasons best known to themselves) Cameron Mitchell, Pamelyn Ferdin and Wesley Eure.
The UK ‘video nasty’ panic of the early 1980s was triggered by the advent of home video, and the fear that children would now be exposed to unsuitable material which had hitherto been safely confined to cinemas. The resulting moral seizure saw the seizure of more than seventy films alleged to be in breach of the Obscene Publications Act. Among the films seized was The Toolbox Murders (1978), in which a maniac in a ski mask combines murder and DIY to increasingly nauseating effect. In 1979 the British Board of Film Classification had passed the film for UK cinema release — but with cuts, including the instruction to ’[c]onsiderably reduce nail-gun murder by deleting most shots of nude victim being chased round flat.’ But the film was banned for home release, and although never prosecuted, The Toolbox Murders was not released uncut in the UK until 2017.
Director Dennis Donnelly never made another film like The Toolbox Murders — thank you, Dennis — and instead went on to enjoy a distinguished career in US television, with directing credits on Dallas, Hawaii Five-O, Hart to Hart and Charlie’s Angels.
A scarce survivor.
[dir. DONNELLY, Dennis] FRIEDENN, Neva; EASTER, Robert, KINDBERG, Ann
The Toolbox Murders
Los Angeles: Tony DiDo/Cal-Am Artists, 1977
124 pp. in black stiff paper wrappers, secured with three split pins to left edge. Title in red to front wrapper, and inked to spine. Inked number ‘28’ to first page. Wrappers creased and chipped, but a well preserved copy.
Revised screenplay for the controversial, gory, important but terrible 1978 film starring (for reasons best known to themselves) Cameron Mitchell, Pamelyn Ferdin and Wesley Eure.
The UK ‘video nasty’ panic of the early 1980s was triggered by the advent of home video, and the fear that children would now be exposed to unsuitable material which had hitherto been safely confined to cinemas. The resulting moral seizure saw the seizure of more than seventy films alleged to be in breach of the Obscene Publications Act. Among the films seized was The Toolbox Murders (1978), in which a maniac in a ski mask combines murder and DIY to increasingly nauseating effect. In 1979 the British Board of Film Classification had passed the film for UK cinema release — but with cuts, including the instruction to ’[c]onsiderably reduce nail-gun murder by deleting most shots of nude victim being chased round flat.’ But the film was banned for home release, and although never prosecuted, The Toolbox Murders was not released uncut in the UK until 2017.
Director Dennis Donnelly never made another film like The Toolbox Murders — thank you, Dennis — and instead went on to enjoy a distinguished career in US television, with directing credits on Dallas, Hawaii Five-O, Hart to Hart and Charlie’s Angels.
A scarce survivor.
