George Harrison Presents Little Malcolm released on DVD & Blu-Ray

George Harrison presents
Little Malcolm and his Struggle Against the Eunuchs
A film by Stuart Cooper

A mesmerising and furious performance from John Hurt, as delusional revolutionary Malcolm Scrawdyke, is at the heart of this chillingly dark comedy. Rarely seen in almost 40 years, it is released by BFI Flipside in a Dual Format Edition with thematically related archival short films and an extensive booklet with essays and contributions from Stuart Cooper and Mike Leigh.

Expelled art student Scrawdyke leads his Party of Dynamic Erection – with devoted followers Wick (John McEnery), Irwin (Raymond Platt) and Nipple (David Warner) – in an enraged battle against an unseen nemesis. Rosalind Ayres is both sensitive and ferocious as Malcolm’s would-be girlfriend Ann.

Based on the celebrated 1965 stage play by David Halliwell, Little Malcolm was filmed in 1974 on location in bleak, wintry Oldham by director Stuart Cooper (Overlord, The Disappearance) and cinematographer John Alcott (A Clockwork Orange, The Shining).

Financed by George Harrison, who had admired John Hurt’s lead performance in the play at the Garrick Theatre in 1965 (and preceding the launch of Harrison’s HandMade Films by five years), Little Malcolm was winner of the Silver Bear at the 1974 Berlin Film Festival. Music is by Stanley Myers (The Deer Hunter) with incidental music by George Harrison, and the film also features performances by Harpoon and Splinter.

Special features

Presented in both High Definition and Standard Definition

Original Little Malcolm trailer

Put Yourself In My Place (Francine Winham, 1974, 25 mins): fraught gender relations trigger a startling role reversal in this polemical comedy starring Judy Geeson (Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush)

The Contraption (James Dearden, 1977, 7 mins): in a final act of defeat or defiance, a man (Richard O’Brien) builds a sinister contraption in a dark cellar

Illustrated booklet featuring original artwork and contributions from Stuart Cooper, John Hurt, Mike Leigh (who directed the debut stage production of Halliwell’s play) and Yvonne Tasker from the University of East Anglia

Release date: 24 October 2011
RRP: £19.99 / cat. no. BFIB1123 / Cert 15
UK / 1974 / colour / English, optional hard-of-hearing subtitles / 111 mins
Original aspect ratio 1.85:1 / Region 0 / BFI Flipside title no. 020
Disc 1: BD50 / 1080p / 24fps / PCM mono audio (48k/24-bit)
Disc 2: DVD9 / PAL / PCM mono audio (48k/16-bit) (Extras Dolby Digital 320 kbps)
Available from DVD retailers & the BFI Filmstore