Catch My Soul (film)
| Catch My Soul | |
|---|---|
 Promotional poster
| |
| Directed by | Patrick McGoohan |
| Produced by |
Jack Good Richard M. Rosenbloom |
| Written by |
William Shakespeare (play) Jack Good (musical) |
| Starring |
Richie Havens Lance LeGault Season Hubley Tony Joe White Susan Tyrrell |
| Music by | Tony Joe White, Emil Dean Zoghby |
| Cinematography | Conrad Hall |
| Edited by | Richard A. Harris |
Production company |
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| Distributed by |
Cinerama Releasing Corporation (USA) 20th Century Fox (UK) |
Release date |
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Running time |
97 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Catch My Soul is a 1974 film produced by Jack Good and Richard M. Rosenbloom, and directed by Patrick McGoohan. It was an adaptation of Good's stage musical of the same title, which itself was loosely adapted from William Shakespeare's Othello. It was not a critical success.
Shakespeare's tragedy of revenge and racism had been retitled for the London stage and relocated from Venice to Piccadilly; for the film, the location of the drama was moved to the New Mexico desert; filming took place in Española and Santa Fe. The title comes from Act III, Scene III of Shakespeare's play, in which Othello declares his love for Desdemona, "Perdition catch my soul, but I do love thee; and when I love thee not, chaos is come again."
Although much of the plot remains intact, Othello, the "noble Moor" becomes the pacifist leader of a hippie commune,Iago appears to be the Devil incarnate who "fits all the negative stereotypes of dropouts with his scruffy beard and unwashed look" and Desdemona becomes a "white round-faced girl with granny glasses".
Patrick McGoohan had earlier starred in the successful 1962 modernisation of the Othello story, All Night Long, which had been moved to 1960s London and fuelled by jazz music. AllMovie's reviewer points out that "perhaps he thought lightning would strike twice in moving it to a gospel show in the Southwest. He was terribly wrong."Catch My Soul would be the only film to be directed by McGoohan, although he later directed some episodes of Columbo. In an interview with Premiere magazine in 1995, McGoohan gave some insight into why the film had failed:
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