David Grant (producer)
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David Grant (1937-1991) sometimes billed as David Hamilton Grant was an English porn producer during the late 1960s and 1970s. Originally a photographer, Grant first entered the film world with Love Variations (1969) a sex education film that was based on a ‘marriage manual’ Grant had photographed/published a year earlier. Grant’s sex film empire grew in the 1970s, he opened up a number of adult cinemas, distributed foreign sex films through his "Oppidan" company, and produced his own British sex comedies (Girls Come First, The Office Party, Under the Bed) that were also filmed in hardcore versions for overseas release. Grant liked to refer to himself as the ‘King of Porn’, or the ‘King of Sexploitation’, people who worked with him however would come to nickname the bearded, diminutive Grant ‘The Poison Dwarf’ or 'The Gnome'. Grant enjoyed giving himself Hitchcock like cameos in his own films, as well as personally supervising the hardcore scenes for his films. During the making of The Office Party, Grant got into a furious row with actor Johnny Briggs, after Briggs refused to bare all for the film. Briggs feared such exposure could damage his reputation, and a furious Grant threatened to fire him. After the intervention of Briggs’ agent, a compromise was reached and Briggs performed the offending scene with his underpants on. Briggs later recalled this story in his autobiography, noting that after the film he vowed never to work with Grant again. As well as his sex films Grant also produced X-rated cartoons like Sinderella (1972) which ends with the ugly sisters being gang raped by the three bears, and comedy shorts like Escape to Entebbe (1976) a parody of Idi Amin featuring a browned up John Bluthal as a Pakistani TV reporter. In 1978 it was announced Grant’s company would produce Love is Beautiful, a British sex film that was to have been directed by Gerard Damiano and was to star Harry Reems and Mary Millington. The film was never made.
In the early eighties Grant turned to video, forming the World of Video 2000 label with fellow 1970s sex film mogul Malcolm Fancey. Grant held the position of company secretary, while Fancey was head of marketing. The company launched onto the video market with several soft porn titles in December 1981. In 1983 Grant noted that Steven Spielberg’s film ET had yet to be released on home video in the UK, and responded by releasing an old sixties 'B' movie called Night Fright (1968) on video under the title E.T.N - The Extra Terrestrial Nastie, with video artwork that parodied the E.T poster. Universal International Pictures threatened legal action, and the tape was withdrawn then later re-released with different artwork. In 1984 Grant was imprisoned for distributing ‘video nasty’ Nightmares in a Damaged Brain (1981) on video. Grant was sentenced to 18 months in prison (reduced to 12 months on appeal) for being in "possession of over 200 copies of an obscene article for publication for gain", he was found guilty under section two of the obscene publications act. Grant’s defense lawyer during the trial was Geoffrey Robertson. After Grant’s imprisonment, World of Video 2000 (and its parent company April Electronics) were placed into liquidation.
One of Grant’s final works in film was ‘Who Bears Sins’, a 1987 video compilation that included clips from his 1970s sex films, mixed in with newer shot on videotape porn vignettes, probably also filmed by Grant. A resident of Cyprus for most of the 1980s, he left the island under a dark cloud in 1988 when he was deported after assaulting a love rival with a spade. Around the same time The Sun newspaper alleged that Grant had been a drug dealer, and had also “corrupted thousands of children”, during his time in Cyprus. He died in mysterious circumstances in the early 1990s.
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[edit] Filmography
- Love Variations (1969, director as ‘Terry Gould’)
- Sex, Love and Marriage (1970, director as ‘Terry Gould’)
- Sinderella (1972, co-producer, writer)
- Au Pair Girls (1972, story)
- Snow White and the Seven Perverts (1973, co-producer, writer)
- Secrets of a Door to Door Salesmen (1973, producer)
- The Over Amorous Artist (1974, producer)
- The Great McGonagall (1974, producer)
- Pink Orgasm (1975, uncompleted, footage later edited into ‘Who Bears Sins’ (1987))
- Girls Come First (1975, co-producer)
- Dear Marjorie Boobs (1976, producer)
- The Office Party (1976, director,producer, writer)
- Escape to Entebbe (1976 co-director,producer)
- Under the Bed (1977, director, co-producer)
- Over Exposed (1977, unreleased, footage later edited into ‘Who Bears Sins’ (1987))
- The Kiss (1977, co-producer)
- End of Term (1978, producer)
- Marcia (1977, script/co-director)
- You’re Driving Me Crazy (1978, director, co-writer)
- Love is Beautiful (1978, unfilmed)
- Electric Blue 001 (1980, video, includes Grant's "Snow White and the Seven Perverts", no other Grant involvement)
- Who Bears Sins (1987, director, video compilation)
[edit] Films distributed by David Grant
- Easy Virtue (1972, rejected)
- Succubus (1973)
- The Apprentice (1973, rejected)
- Wet Dreams (1974 rejected)
- Confessions of a Sex Maniac (1974)
- A Man of Our Time (1974)
- The Last House on the Left (1974, rejected)
- The Growling Tiger (1974)
- Best of the New York Film Festival (1975)
- Woman’s Best Friend (1975, rejected)
- Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS (1975, rejected)
- Take an Easy Ride (1975)
- Far Gone- Too Far Gone (1975)
- Crimson Acceleration (1975)
- Submission aka Pets (1975)
- The Bruce Lee Story (1975)
- No Mercy Man (1975)
- My X Wife (1976, rejected)
- The Coming of Seymour (1976, rejected)
- Late Night Trains (1976, rejected)
- The Younger the Better (1976)
- Divine Obsession (1976)
- Bad Man (1976)
- Only in Denmark (1976)
- Cathy’s Curse (1977)
- What a Performer (1977)
- Dreams of Thirteen (1977)
- Depraved (1976)
- Exhibition (1976, rejected)
- Linda Lovelace for President (1976)
- Sensations (1977)
- Draws (1977)
- Through the Looking Glass (1977)
- Private Collection (1977)
- Good Taste (1977)
- Desperate Living (1977, rejected)
- Pelvis (1977)
- Pussy Talk (1977)
- His Model Wife (1978, rejected)
- The Young Tycoon (1978)
- Memories within Miss Aggie (1978)
- Dark Star (1978)
- Days in London (1978)
- Soft Places (1978)
- Shock Waves (1978)
- Lebanon Why? (1978)
- Take Off (1979)
- Feel My Love (1979)
- Big Ones (1979)
- Video Blue aka The Double Exposure of Holly (1980)
- Nightmares in a Damaged Brain (1982)
Titles marked ‘rejected’ were refused classification by the british censor and therefore banned. Dates refer to the year of distribution, rather than the films actual production dates.
[edit] References
- Simon Sheridan Keeping the British End Up: Four Decades of Saucy Cinema 2007 (third edition) (Reynolds & Hearn books)
- Simon Sheridan Come Play with Me: The Life and Films of Mary Millington 1999 (FAB Press, Guildford)
- Johnny Briggs and Pat Codd “Johnny Briggs: My Autobiography” 1998 (Blake Publishing)
