Withnail & I

 

 (1987)

 

 

Gallery

 

 

 

link to this page: www.cannon.org.uk/withnail.htm

 

 

 

 

 

Cannon handled Withnail & I (1987) and released it on VHS rental  and sell-through.

 

Cannon fell out with George Harrison’s Handmade Films and there was a court case and a counter case. From what I can tell (information is very limited) Handmade hadn’t been paid for something (and had tried to cancel their contract with Cannon) and they eventually lost out badly as they lost some of their film catalogue.

 

I recall Cannon selling off some of their rights and that’s why so much Handmade product is almost invisible on home video. Not that Handmade needed Cannon to argue with as they argued within themselves, with the partnership eventually collapsing and business being sold off. Their film catalogue is so fucked up, their films appear free in newspapers here in the UK or to download free from Channel4 VOD. I suppose that’s better than no releases/”lost” films but not very good for the people who made the film (I saw Richard Griffiths (Uncle Monty) getting interviewed and he was asked why he'd not recorded a commentary track for the Withnail DVD and he said "Because they refused to pay me". Good point. I don't know how these "free" DVDs work (every week in the UK in all the newspaper you get a “free” DVD actually inside the paper) but there can't be much in it for the creative people who actually made the film.

 

As for Cannon and Handmade, Cannon’s logo still appears on some of their films.

 

There’s a few pictures from the film below (many images are available as limited edition signed 'giclee' archival prints from www.murrayclose.com  -sincere thanks to Murray Close for the kind permission to use some of his beautiful images here).

 

Note the classic (and perfectly composed) photo with Withnail (Richard E. Grant) leaning on the fence, and “I” (Paul McGann), sitting. As used in the original UK cinema release artwork, by Cannon at least twice and of course, Anchor Bay UK in their DVDs.

 

 Trailer here

 

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UK VHS rental

2nd image

 

 

   UK retail/sell-through

 

 

 

 

 

USA first release VHS/Laserdisc

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Many of these images are ©2009 Murray Close www.murrayclose.com

 All rights reserved.

 

 

 

 

 

“I feel like a pig shat in my head.“

 

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