Red, White and Zero

Red, White and Zero
Directed byPeter Brook (Ride of the Valkyrie)
Lindsay Anderson (The White Bus)
Tony Richardson (Red and Blue)
Screenplay byPeter Brook (Ride of the Valkyrie)
Shelagh Delaney (The White Bus)
Tony Richardson and Julian More (Red and Blue)
Produced byLindsay Anderson
Oscar Lewenstein
StarringZero Mostel (Ride of the Valkyrie)
Patricia Healey (The White Bus)
Vanessa Redgrave (Red and Blue)
CinematographyDavid Watkin (Ride of the Valkyrie)
Miroslav Ondricek (The White Bus)
Billy Williams (Red and Blue)
Edited byMarlene Fletcher (Ride of the Valkyrie)
Kevin Brownlow (The White Bus, Red and Blue)
Music byHoward Blake (Ride of the Valkyrie)
Misha Donat (The White Bus)
Stanley Black and Monty Norman (Red and Blue)
Production
companies
Woodfall Film Productions
Holly Productions
Distributed byUnited Artists
Release date
  • 1967 (1967)
Running time
98 minutes (Ride of the Valkyrie – 14 minutes, The White Bus – 46 minutes, Red and Blue – 36 minutes)
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

Red, White and Zero is a 1967 British anthology film made by Woodfall Film Productions. It consists of three segments, directed by Peter Brook, Lindsay Anderson and Tony Richardson.

Plot[edit]

The film is split into three sections of the following stories.

Ride of the Valkyrie[edit]

An opera singer (Zero Mostel), dressed in full costume and dress, must navigate through the busy city streets to get to the theater in time for his performance.

The White Bus[edit]

The main character, only referred to as 'the girl' (Patricia Healey) leaves London, goes north on a train full of football fans and takes a trip in a white double-decker bus in an unnamed city she is visiting, although it is clearly based on Manchester, Delaney was born and grew up in nearby Salford. The Mayor (Arthur Lowe), a local businessman, and the council's ceremonial macebearer (John Sharp) happen also to be taking the trip while they show the city to visiting foreigners.

Red and Blue[edit]

An english cabaret singer (Vanessa Redgrave) goes to Paris for a nightclub engagement, where the romantic image of her songs is very different from the reality of her solitary life. It's a musical film in which Vanessa Redgrave sings songs from Serge Rezvani.

Production history[edit]

It was originally commissioned by producer Oscar Lewenstein, then a director of Woodfall, with sections supplied by Lindsay Anderson, Tony Richardson and Karel Reisz.[1] When Reisz's planned segment evolved into the feature-length Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment, it was replaced by Peter Brook's Ride of the Valkyrie. The two other planned sections of the film developed into what became Richardson's Red and Blue and Anderson's The White Bus. Of these, only The White Bus received a theatrical release in the UK.[2]

Release[edit]

The rediscovered film was eventually released by the BFI on Blu-ray and DVD in 2018.[3]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Lindsay Anderson, Paul Ryan (ed) "Never Apologise: The Collected Writings", Plexus, 2004, p.105
  2. ^ Paul Sutton (ed.) The Diaries: Lindsay Anderson, London: Methuen, 2004, p.146n.
  3. ^ "BFI Shop – Red, White and Zero (Flipside 036) (Dual Format Edition)". Shop.bfi.org.uk. Retrieved 4 August 2022.