Mike Hodges

For the U.S. football coach, see Mike Hodges (American football). For the U.S. music producer, see Michael Hodges (producer).

Mike Hodges
Born	Michael Tommy Hodges (1932-07-29)29 July 1932 Bristol, England
Died	Dorset, England
Occupation	Film director, screenwriter, television director

Michael Tommy Hodges (29 July 1932 – 17 December 2022) was a British screenwriter, film and television director, playwright and novelist. His films as writer/director include Get Carter (1971), Pulp (1972), The Terminal Man (1974) and Black Rainbow (1989). As director, his films include Flash Gordon (1980), Croupier (1998) and I'll Sleep When I'm Dead (2003). He wrote and narrated the biographical documentary ‘All At Sea’ in post production 2022.

Early life

Hodges qualified as a chartered accountant and spent two years of national service on the lower deck of a Royal Navy minesweeper.

Career

Hodges got a job in British television as a teleprompter operator. The job allowed him to observe the workings of the studios, and gave him time to start writing scripts. One of these was Some Will Cry Murder, written for ABC's Armchair Theatre series. Although never performed, it served to get him enough writing commissions to quit his job as a technician.

After that, he quickly progressed to producer/director status, with series such as Sunday Break for ABC Television, World in Action for Granada Television and the arts programmes Tempo and New Tempo for Thames Television. He wrote, directed and produced two filmed thrillers, Suspect (1969) and Rumour (1970), again for Thames Television. These films formed the basis for the creation of Euston Films, the influential television production company that continued into the 1980s. These two films also led to Hodges being asked to write and direct Get Carter (1971), which has been described as "one of the great British gangster films of all time." Hodges worked with Carter star Michael Caine again in Pulp (1972), before proceeding to make films such as the Michael Crichton adaptation The Terminal Man (1974) and the space opera Flash Gordon (1980). Some of Hodges' later films include A Prayer for the Dying (1987), Croupier (1998) and I'll Sleep When I'm Dead (2003).

Interspersed with his cinema work are some critically successful television films, including The Manipulators (1973), Squaring The Circle (1984; scripted by Tom Stoppard), Dandelion Dead (1994; scripted by Michael Chaplin), and The Healer (1994; scripted by G. F. Newman). Hodges also collaborated on the English language version of Federico Fellini's And the Ship Sails On (1983).

Theatre and radio

His theatre plays included Soft Shoe Shuffle (1985) and Shooting Stars and Other Heavenly Pursuits (2000), which was adapted for BBC radio. Other radio plays included King Trash (2004). His first novel, Watching The Wheels Come Off, was published first in French by Rivagse/Noir (Quand Tout Se Fait La Malle) in 2009 then in English in 2010. In 2018 his trio of novellas ('Bait', 'Grist' & 'Security') was published by Unbound.

Personal life and death

Hodges died in Dorset on 17 December 2022, at the age of 90.

Recognition

Retrospectives of his work in television and cinema have included the NFT (London) in 1980; MOMA (New York) in 1990; American Cinematheque (LA) in 1990; and Munich (Germany) in 1999. He was awarded the degree of 'Doctor of Letters" by the University of the West of England, Bristol in 2005.

Selected filmography

Feature films

• Get Carter (1971)
• Pulp (1972)
• The Terminal Man (1974)
• Damien: Omen II (1977 – screenplay)
• Flash Gordon (1980)
• Morons from Outer Space (1985)
• A Prayer for the Dying (1987)
• Black Rainbow (1989)
• Croupier (1998)
• I'll Sleep When I'm Dead (2003)

Television

• The Tyrant King (1968)
• Rumour (1969)
• Suspect (1970)
• The Manipulators (1972)
• Missing Pieces (1982)
• Squaring the Circle (1984)
• W.G.O.D. (1985)
• Florida Straits (1986)
• Dandelion Dead (1994)
• The Healer (1994)
• Murder by Numbers (2001 – documentary)

Further reading

• Steven Paul Davies: Get Carter And Beyond: The Cinema of Mike Hodges, Batsford, 2003, ISBN 0-7134-8790-9
• Douglas Keesey: Neo-Noir: Contemporary Film Noir From Chinatown to The Dark Knight Kamera Books, 2010, ISBN 978-1-84243-311-9
• Steve Chibnall & Robert Murphy: British Crime Cinema, Routledge, 1999, ISBN 978-0-415-16870-0
• Steve Chibnall: Get Carter (British Film Guides #6), I.B. Tauris, 2003, ISBN 978-1-86064-910-3
• Geoff Mayer: Guide to British Cinema (Reference Guides to the World's Cinema) Greenwood Press, 2003 ISBN 978-0-313-30307-4
• Interview with Mike Hodges
• Interview with Mike Hodges 2000
• The Telegraph, Film-makers on film-Mike Hodges 2004
• The National: Get Carter turns 40
• Interview with Mike Hodges 2010
• The Michael Klinger Papers; Interview with Mike Hodges by Tony Klinger and Andrew Spicer

External links

• Mike Hodges at the Internet Movie Database
• Mike Hodges at AllMovie
• Interview at The Guardian
• Interview by Dan Lybarger