MR. TOWERS OF LONDON by Malcolm Hunter / cannon.org.uk

MR. TOWERS OF LONDON

Malcolm Hunter

The Colourful Life of the Extraordinary Harry Alan Towers

'The world will hear from me again'

-Fu Manchu

Harry Alan Towers was one of the most colourful producers the film industry has ever seen. Part master showman/part wheeler-dealer/part fly-by-night maker of schlock, he made numerous films all over the world. In fact he claimed many times, that he'd made so many he'd forgotten the exact number he had been involved with. Some still get played; a lot languish in deserved obscurity. Rarely interviewed-except as some wits would have it by the authorities, he remains little known outside the film business.

He was born in London on the 19th October 1920, and after studying at the Italia Conti stage school, he started his career as a child actor. In his late teens Towers switched to being a prolific radio writer. During World War 2 he served with the RAF, becoming controller of their overseas broadcasting service. In the post war years he formed his company, 'Towers of London', to produce radio drama for the BBC and Radio Luxembourg, which he would then syndicate internationally. During the late 1940s-mid 1950s, he produced a version of Gone With The Wind starring Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier and two series with Orson Welles, Black Museum and The Lives of Harry Lime. Further series included The Secrets Of Scotland Yard starring Clive Brook and Michael Redgrave as CS Forester's Horatio Hornblower. A notable series was Theatre Royal. Hosted on an alternate basis by Laurence Olivier and Ralph Richardson, it featured various play lets based on classic literature. A rich selection of big names was heard in them, such as Alec Guinness, Orson Welles, Robert Morley, John Gielgud and Robert Donat. In 1953 Towers produced a now classic radio Sherlock Holmes series starring John Gielgud as Holmes, Ralph Richardson as Dr Watson and in one memorable episode, Orson Welles as the evil Professor Moriarty.

In 1955 and with the coming of commercial television to Britain, Towers joined the Lew Grade-Val Parnell ATV company as its first programme director. In 1956 he resigned his post after a row with Grade and Parnell over a current affairs program; he had both hosted and produced. He then through his Towers of London company moved into independent television production. He produced the first British TV movie, a 90 minute special The Anatomist (1956) starring Alistair Sim and George Cole. Based on a play by James Bridie, it concerned Dr Robert Knox and the infamous body snatchers Burke and Hare. Sim had already performed the play on stage to great acclaim. Towers went on to produce various TV drama series for ITV, The Scarlet Pimpernel starring Marius Goring, Lilli Palmer Theatre, The Adventures of Martin Kane and Dial 999, amongst others. One highlight was Tales Of Dickens, a throwback to Towers radio show, Theatre Royal. Hosted by Hollywood star Fredric March, once again big names featured heavily such as Robert Morley, Donald Wolfit and Basil Rathbone as Scrooge. Then disaster struck when in the late fifties Towers went bankrupt.

By 1960 Harry Alan Towers had moved to the U.S. and was trying to establish himself there. He had hit on a new project, a plan to make a trans-continental TV series based on the Leslie Charteris character Simon Templar AKA The Saint. Negotiations between Towers and Charteris were a slow and long process. Towers was living in New York, while the author was a long term resident of Florida, so negotiations had be largely conducted by telephone. Then things went wrong. In March 1961 Towers was arrested and charged with procuring and operating a call girl racket. It was alleged that he had been supplying girls to U.N. diplomats and unnamed U.S. senators. Towers then jumped bail and went on the run, a situation he remained in for nearly 20 years. It has since been claimed that one the senators was the then President elect John F. Kennedy and that Towers was encouraged to jump bail by Kennedy's brother-in-law, actor Peter Lawford. Several of the ladies involved would surface again in London two years later as part of the fashionable Stephen Ward vice ring. Two of them were S and M specialist and alleged love of JFK, Maria Novotny and Suzy Chang, who was said to have been a leading player in Towers own vice ring.

Coming back to Europe Harry Alan Towers moved into film production. In 1963 he set up a system of film production, now long since deemed illegal, using money lodged in various tax havens such as Liechtenstein. He began with a version of Sanders of the River, called Death Drums along the River starring Richard Todd and Jeremy Lloyd. He then embarked on a series of similar action adventures starring either a British or American leading man such as Mickey Rooney, Leo Genn, Dale Robertson and Steve Cochran, usually supported by a cast of various nationalities. Towers would often write the scripts himself under the pen name 'Peter Welbeck', a non de plume he had first used in his radio days.

In 1965 he produced the first in his series of Christopher Lee/Fu Manchu films, Sax Rohmer's The Face of Fu Manchu. Shot in Ireland by the Australian director Don Sharp, it co-starred Lee with Chinese actress Tsai Chin as Fu's equally evil daughter Lin Tang and Nigel Green as Scotland Yard detective Nayland Smith. It was a fast moving genuinely good adventure taking a lot of its style from the then recently launched James Bond series. The film ends with Fu Manchu supposedly meeting his doom, only for the final shot to feature Lee intoning the words 'The world will hear from me again.' And the world did indeed hear from him again, a further four times, The Brides of Fu Manchu (1966), The Vengeance of Fu Manchu (1967), The Blood of Fu Manchu (1968) and The Castle of Fu Manchu (1970). The last two were directed by Spanish director Jess Franco. Franco has in the past couple of decades has developed quite a cult following, mainly because his movies tend to have rather a confusing and almost bad dream like quality about them. A particular trademark is the director's over use of zooming in and out of the on-screen action. Towers said of him in the early 1990s, 'Franco was a terribly nice man but he shouldn't have been allowed to direct traffic.' Jess Franco, who had been assistant to Orson Welles on his Shakespeare film, Chimes at Midnight (1966), would go on to direct nine films in all for Towers.

In 1966 Towers made a version of Agatha Christie's Ten Little Indians. Shot in England at Bray Studios, It featured an all-star cast headed by Hugh O'Brien, Shirley Eaton, Dennis Price, Wilfrid Hyde-White and Stanley Holloway. The voice of 'Mr U.N. Owen' was supplied by Christopher Lee. Nearly thirty years later Lee was sent a letter by a fan asking him about the film, he replied that he had not worked on it. The fan sent a further letter saying that he was positive that is was the actor's voice that had been used. Christopher Lee replied that the fan should send him a copy of the film and then he could tell him for certain. The fan duly did so. A few days later the fan received a phone call from Lee. He said yes, the fan had been right all along, it was his voice. Christopher Lee told him, that he had forgotten about working on the film and that Harry Alan Towers must have had him record the voice during the making of one of the Fu Manchu films.

Next up from Towers was a re-teaming with Don Sharp, Our Man in Marrakesh (1966), a comedy spy thriller of the would-be Bond kind. Another all-star cast signed on the dotted line lead by Tony Randall, Herbert Lom, Wilfrid Hyde-White, John Le Mersurier and Terry-Thomas. It benefitted from some excellent performances especially from the great Mr Thomas as well as a rather witty script. Towers followed this with Circus of Fear (1966). A personal favourite of this writer from the producers CV, it has a great cast (Christopher Lee, Leo Genn, Victor Maddern, Suzy Kendall, Cecil Parker), a colourful setting and an enjoyable script (Peter Welbeck). It's a pity it's not more widely known, it deserves it.

Towers stayed with Don Sharp for their last screen collaboration, Jules Verne's Rocket to the Moon (1967). A would-be movie epic with an all star cast, this was very much the producer's attempt to do his version of the then recent big box office hit, Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines (1965). Despite failing to secure Bing Crosby for the lead part of U.S. showman P.T. Barnum, Towers still managed to put together some great actors for his film: Terry-Thomas, Lionel Jeffries, Burl Ives, Gert Frobe, Dennis Price, Hermione Gingold, Graham Stark and even little Jimmy Clitheroe.

By the late sixties, Harry Alan Towers was making between seven and eight films a year, taking in everything from horror (House of 1000 Dolls,1967) to rather sweet family films (Sandy the Seal 1969) to movie rip offs (The Bloody Judge, 1969) to out and out exploitation films (99 Women, 1969) to more Sax Rohmer (Sumuru 1967). He was at this stage keen on arranging multi-national co-productions for his films usually involving four or more countries. One story from this time concerns Tower's cunning, it happened when he made House of 1000 Dolls, starring Vincent Price. It was being shot on location in Spain, and a visitor to the set asked how a character he had spotted in a stovepipe hat with a beard and a wart on his face fitted into the story. Towers explained that in order to get permission to film in the country he had to submit a script to the Spanish censors. Realising that the then very strict censorship laws in Spain would almost certainly mean the film being banned before it had even been shot ' it was a tale about white slavery ' he had to come up with an alternative screenplay called Abe Lincoln in Illinois which passed their approval. But of course he had to have an Abe Lincoln there just in case the censor sent anyone to check up on him! Another story from this period is told by Christopher Lee in his autobiography 'Tall, Dark and Gruesome'. Eugenie-The Story of Her Journey into Perversion (1968), directed by Jess Franco, Lee was cast as the film's on-screen narrator only when first choice George Sanders pulled out of the film because of illness and then the German actor Wolfgang Preiss who had been hired to replace him was also forced to withdraw after his wife had been killed in a car crash. Lee filmed his scenes, only to find that Towers and Franco had used close ups of him to give the impression that he appeared in some of the more sexier scenes in the film which had been in fact shot later without him being present.

At the beginning of the 1970s, Harry Alan Towers was still continuing to make a diverse range of films, now including soft porn flicks (Venus in Furs (1970)). In 1970 Towers teamed up once more with Christopher Lee and Jess Franco, this time to make what he billed would be the definitive version of Dracula. Originally announced as a multi-million dollar film, co-starring Lee with Vincent Price as vampire hunter Van Helsing and veteran Hammer film director Terence Fisher helming, this turned into one of the most boring versions of the story ever committed to celluloid. The film entitled El Conde Dracula (AKA Bram Stoker's Dracula) ended up featuring a good selection of regular Towers actors, Herbert Lom as Van Helsing, unpredictable German actor Klaus Kinski as the fly-eating Renfield and Towers actress wife Maria Rohm ( very much the most regular of regulars in her husbands films of the period). Both Lee and Kinski gave very good performances but could not save the film. Interestingly the crafty Towers had only got Kinski to appear in the film by telling him he was not appearing in a Dracula film when he shot his scenes, Kinski having previously turned the picture down.

What ruined it was undoubtedly Jess Franco's eccentric direction, a rather bizarrely cast Spain failing to be disguised as Victorian England and some painfully obvious attempts to skimp on the budget. Harry Alan Towers continued his run of movies with The Secret of Dorian Gray (1970) Starring Helmut Berger (once dubbed 'The most beautiful man in Europe'), Herbert Lom, Maria Rohm and Richard Todd. It was a version of Oscar Wilde's story that would have had him spinning in his grave. Black Beauty (1971), a long-planned adaptation of Anna Sewell's famous novel, starring Mark Lester, Patrick Mower, Maria Rohm and veteran Hollywood baddie Walter Slezak. Shot by Born Free director James Hill in Ireland and Spain, it turned out to be quite a good film. Night Hair Child (1971), a controversial sex drama-thriller, again starring Mark Lester. Also featured was Britt Ekland as his stepmother, who Lester's 12 year old character has less than innocent designs on. Harry Andrews and Hardy Kruger also appeared and then a very underrated version of Jack London's Call of the Wild (1972) starring Charlton Heston and Maria Rohm.

One fierce critic of the film proved to be its star. Heston loathed it, having numerous rows with Towers, who he would describe as 'untrustworthy' and a 'shadowy' individual. The star's main criticisms were about the chaotic shooting of the film, saying that the mix of a French, German, Spanish and Italian crew was like the 'United Nations' with lots of shouting, no-one understanding anyone and not a lot work getting done. Constant budgetary problems did not help, with Towers nearly running out of production funds several times. Heston would get his revenge by persuading Paramount Pictures (the US rights holder) to abandon their planned release of the film.

Another long gestating film Treasure Island (1972) finally saw the light of day in 1972.Towers had been seriously considering it as a viable option since the late 1960's. His interest came from a suggestion by his friend Orson Welles. Welles had started shooting a version from his own screenplay in 1964, got into trouble and ran out of money. The production consequently collapsed but Welles still hoped to try again. Whilst Black Beauty had been still in production, Towers announced Treasure Island Starring Mark Lester with Welles as a follow up, only to have quite a bit of trouble raising the finance. One logical place was Black Beauty's main backer, Tigon British Films. The company was led by Tony Tenser, very much a kindred spirit for Towers. The producer's hopes were dashed when Tenser refused to do the same in Treasure Island's case. Towers did not take this refusal for granted so he sent Orson Welles to see Tenser to try and persuade him to reverse his decision but to no avail. Tenser told him a white lie, Tigon was fully invested production wise for the next two years. So no it was.

Towers eventually stitched together the budget, though as often in these cases he ended up with less cash than needed. The delay had meant the loss of Mark Lester, though, Orson Welles stayed on board. Towers had acquired a re-written screenplay by Irish writer Wolf Mankowitz and Walter Slezak and as usual Maria Rohm had joined the cast. As with Call of the Wild the shooting of the film would prove to be a very bumpy affair and it must have been a great relief to all concerned when production was finally completed. Financial limitations had caused many a compromise, all to the disadvantage of the finished product. The largely poor reviews reflected this. Still Towers staged one coup of sorts by beating into the cinemas a Kirk Douglas version of the story Scalawag (1973) starring Douglas, ironically, alongside Mark Lester.

By 1973 disaster had struck again when Towers was forced to go on the run a second time, the reason to avoid being bankrupted by American Express. Not that this would stop him, in October 1973, from his new base of Lichtenstein, he announced his second remake of Ten Little Indians to be entitled And Then There Were None. He intended to hire an all star cast ' Oliver Reed and James Mason were in talks with him ' and to shoot the film in Spain and Iran. Production began in early 1974, with, it has to be said a great cast, Oliver Reed, Elke Sommer, Richard Attenborough (James Mason having dropped out), Herbert Lom, French singer Charles Aznavour, Adolfo Celi and Orson Welles as the voice of 'Mr U.N. Owen'. It was again a multi-national co-production, shot as it turned out entirely in Iran, thanks to a generous tax incentive by the Iranian government.

On his return to Europe, Towers found a new genre to exploit: so-called 'Porn chic'. Following very much the style set by Last Tango in Paris (1973), Emmanuelle (1974) and The Story Of O (1975), he made two films almost back to back: Blue Belle (1976) starring former page 3 model Felicity Devonshire and in her last acting role Maria Rohm followed by Black Cobra (1976). Filmed in Rome and Hong Kong, it had an unlikely Jack Palance in one of the leading roles. Towers was on his travels again and settled in Canada. He was soon back at work making more movies, La Notte dell'alta Marea (1977) Starring Anthony Steel and cult actress Pam Grier, King Solomon's Treasure (1978) starring Patrick Macnee, David McCallum and Wilfrid Hyde-White who stood in for an ill Terry-Thomas, The Shape of Things to Come (1978) starring Jack Palance and Carol Lynley and Jack London's Klondike Fever (1980) starring Rod Steiger and Angie Dickinson. These movies reflected Towers long-held interest in material based on out-of-copyright literary works.

In 1981 Harry Alan Towers decided to give himself up to the American authorities and answer the charges made against him in 1961. They were dropped when he agreed to pay a fine of £4,200 for jumping bail. 1982 saw Towers return to Britain to shoot a British-Canadian co-production, a version of John Cleland's notorious novel Fanny Hill (1983). Long-delayed, he had been able to hire an all star cast including Oliver Reed, Shelley Winters, Alfred Marks and in his last screen appearance Wilfrid Hyde-White. It had not been worth the wait. Throughout the 1980s to the mid 1990s he continued to churn out films from his base in Canada. One of his most regular sponsors became Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus's Cannon Group. Films for the two Israelis included Gor (1987) starring Oliver Reed, a sequel, made in typical Towers fashion back to back with the first one, Outlaw of Gor (1987) starring Jack Palance and former Captain Birdseye, bit part actor Larry Taylor. River of Death (1988) starring Robert Vaughn, Herbert Lom and Donald Pleasence and a third remake of his old stand-by Ten Little Indians (1989), this time set in Africa with Herbert Lom, Donald Pleasence, Frank Stallone (yep, the brother of the more famous Sylvester) and veteran actress and aristocrat Moira Lister. The majority of these films were shot in the pre-Nelson Mandela-South Africa, a then favourite of not just Towers but Cannon as well.

One of his oddest films from this time, was a rather bizarre remake of the story of Jekyll and Hyde, Edge Of Sanity (1988). Shot in Hungary and over the course of a single weekend in Clapham, London, it starred a hopelessly typecast Anthony Perkins as Jekyll and as a very over-the-top Mr Hyde. Taken the unoriginal idea of having Hyde being the infamous killer, Jack the Ripper, it even gave Hyde the first name 'Jack' rather than Edward as in the original work by Robert Louis Stevenson. Directed by French pornographer Gerald Kikoine, the film gives a laughable depiction of Victorian London and revels in sex and sadism in a style guaranteed to give a seizure to lovers of the Merchant/Ivory style of costume drama. Perkin's outlandish performance only adds to the bizarre high camp nature of the production. Towers said in a 1991 magazine interview 'Many people have brought up the fact that the film is supposed to be set in Victorian times and yet some of the characters are dressed in a contemporary fashion and use pound coins!, but ninety per cent of video sales are in places where it wouldn't matter at all if they had five pond notes made of toilet paper'. Towers also a produced a series of Edgar Alan Poe films including House of Usher (1990) starring Oliver Reed and Donald Pleasence and Buried Alive (1990) with Robert Vaughn, Donald Pleasence and John Carradine. Carradine's scenes were shot in Rome nearly a year and a half before the rest of filming took place. This turned out to be his last work. Two items in this series which Towers failed to get off the ground were The Black Cat Dead'' (co-written by 'Peter Welbeck'), which he planned for Peter Cushing to star in and a remake of The Raven starring Donald Pleasence.

The Phantom of the Opera(1989) had been in the planning stages at Cannon for some time. The company had bought in 1986 the film interests of Britain's Thorn EMI including the world famous Elstree Film Studios. Now it needed to keep the studios busy. Menahem Golan was working on a project of his own, a production of Mack the Knife, intending to shoot it at Elstree. When Towers offered The Phantom' Golan agreed, So, why not shoot them back to back at the studios. Hammer films veteran John Hough was lined up by Towers to direct. The screenplay was provided by Gerry O'Hara, a regular collaborator of the producer since O'Hara directed Fanny Hill. Then things went wrong, in nearly fatal fashion. Cannon had paid too much for EMI's interests, way too much, and sailed close to bankruptcy. The company was then bought into by a supposed saviour Giancarlo Parretti, this led to a split for the two cousins Golan and Globus. One reason for this was Parretti's insistence on the closure and sale of Elstree. Golan, to his credit, strongly opposed this move. Globus stayed with Cannon and Golan took over, at a price, a company Parretti had owned, 21st Century Film Corporation. The Israeli took with him around twelve projects he had been developing at Cannon, Mack the Knife and The Phantom of the Opera included. Golan briefly looked at buying a studio complex of his own to go with his new company. The British Bray Studios and the Irish, Ardmore Studios were high on the list before he looked to the post Communist Hungary instead. 21st Century soon put Mack the Knife and The Phantom'into production. Both were rather lesser films than originally intended, Anthony Hopkins dropped out of Golan's film to be replaced by the less expensive Richard Harris and Towers had to order a re-write of the screenplay to reduce the budget and scope of his project. He also lost John Hough who was then replaced by action director Dwight Little. None the less Towers sensed success, at least, for his film. So much so that he had already planned a sequel: The Phantom of New York. However fate would intervene, when the cinema release in late 1989 saw neither film find an audience and Towers was forced to abandon all ideas of a further 'Phantom' film.

A Multi-national co-production The Golden Years of Sherlock Holmes (1991) was issued in various formats including two separate TV movies and as a Mini-series. It starred Christopher Lee as Holmes and Patrick Macnee as Dr Watson. Macnee had inherited the role after Towers first two choices for the part, Nigel Stock and Gordon Jackson had both passed away. Shot in Luxembourg and Zimbabwe, it featured guest stars ranging from Joss Ackland and Richard Todd (who had replaced Sir John Mills in the part of the real life Lord Roberts) to Claude Akins, one time girlfriend of Michael Winner Jenny Seagrove and the singer Engelbert Humperdinck cast imaginatively as a singer (how's that for counter casting!). The two stories were original works rather than being based on anything by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Towers belying his age, continued making films at a brisk rate, adding Russia to the countries where had shot films, with the horror movie Dance Macabre (1991). After failing to get a new Fu Manchu film, The Secret of Fu Manchu with David Carradine playing the arch villain, into production, he shot two low budget films back to back based on the HG Wells novel, The Lost World. Made in 1992 in Zimbabwe, The Lost World and Return to the Lost World starred David Warner and bulky Welsh actor John Rhys Davies. They were scripted once more by Towers under his 'Peter Welbeck' pseudonym.

Tobe Hooper's Night Terrors(1993) and The Mummy Lives (1993) followed. Towers made these for Cannon/Global Pictures (Global, an associate company of Cannon, was run by Yoram Globus and former Cannon executive, Christopher Peace.) The Mummy Lives starred Tony Curtis and was written by Nelson Gidding, author of the classic ghost movie, The Haunting (1963). It was first announced in 1990 with Ken Russell to direct and Anthony Perkins to star but was postponed when the bisexual Perkins was diagnosed with Aids. With Russell still on board, Oliver Reed was announced as the film's new star, but this fell through when Russell withdrew from the production at the last moment and was replaced by Gerry O'Hara, who had been due to direct Night Terrors, a horror about the Marquis De Sade. Tobe Hooper, director of the infamous The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) was swiftly drafted in to take O'Hara's place at the helm of that film. O'Hara found The Mummy Lives a deeply unsatisfying project. Unable to cast the more ideal Christopher Lee in the lead part of a vengeful, reincarnated mummy, he was stuck with the Cannon imposed Tony Curtis. The tanned, overweight Curtis was an obvious piece of miscasting that even the film's unstoppable producer would later admit was a 'mistake'. This was one that at its conception had promised much but ultimately delivered nothing. Which was more than could be said for other Towers/ Cannon/Global/ collaborations such as The Hitman (1991) and The Delta Force 3: The Killing Game, both very much the fag end of Cannon's fast fading action product.

Towers next flick was The Mangler (1995) for British company Allied Vision. It was also directed by Tobe Hooper and co-scripted by Towers yet again as 'Peter Welbeck', The film, a rather formulaic horror, was based on a short story by the acclaimed Stephen King. It concerned a factory machinethat startskilling the inhabitants of a small American town. Towers next two films were shot back to back in Russia, this time with a major star in tow. Michael Caine returned after a gap of 27 years to the part of Len Deighton's secret agent Harry Palmer. Bullet to Beijing (1995) and Midnight in St Petersburg (1995) co-starred Jason Connery, Patrick Allen and Michael Gambon. Towers scripted both one more time as 'Peter Welbeck'.

The first of the two featured Burt Kwouk, famous as Cato, manservant of Inspector Clouseau in the Peter Sellers -Pink Panther film series, in a cameo as a sinister Chinese general, in what was something of a throwback to Kwouk's appearances in two Bond films Goldfinger (1964) and You Only Live Twice (1967) and Towers own The Brides of Fu Manchu. Both films are well made action adventures with some magnificent Russian locations. The first is marginally better than the second. Both films failed to get UK cinema distribution as originally intended and went straight to video and a couple of screenings each on Channel 5. Further films followed as Towers, now in his eighth decade, should signs of never stopping. Richard Harris and James Earl Jones in Cry the Beloved Country (1995), a quality item based on the anti-apartheid novel by Alan Paton was certainly worthy. Following this was a second version of Treasure Island (1997). This time with Jack Palance as Long John Silver, Patrick Bergin and Tony Blair's father-in-law, Anthony Booth. Shot on the Isle of Man, it wasn't a bad version, better than the producer's previous attempt. Tower's career from now on, featured a number of re-visits to previous of the producer's work: Dorian (2001) starring Malcolm McDowell,

City of Fear(2001), Sumuru (2003) and a pilot movie for an immediately aborted TV series Orson Welles Tales from the Black Museum(2002). This last one was shot in London and starred Michael York and John Rhys Davies. It was more or less a straight remake of Towers 1950's radio series with the one novel idea of the use of Orson Welles voice from the original to act as an opening narration to the new show. Other films continued to come and with out fail went to their natural home DVD. Towers would make a number of efforts to re-join main-stream film production, though with little success. He announced several times a big budget ($10 million plus) bio-pic about Ernest Hemingway, with both Mickey Rourke and Martin Sheen touted as a possible lead. The Bahama Triangle, a $7.6 million thriller about the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Faye Dunaway and Michael York would have played the Royal couple. West End Central, a cop drama about a female New York cop who arrives in London on secondment to Scotland Yard. The Baker Street Irregulars, a story about Sherlock Holmes teenage helpers and a plot involving Charlie Chaplin. Malcolm McDowell and Edward Hardwicke would have had cameos as Holmes and Watson. Finally a Viennese costume romance based around the premiere of The Merry Widow to star incredibly, Monica Lewinsky.

Towers at the age of 85 had another plan up his sleeve, a Ken Russell version of Daniel Defoe's Moll Flanders. He announced that he and Russell were working together on a screenplay. This was not really a new project as it had been in the planning stages since the early 1980's. Towers, while searching for funds to make Fanny Hill, had met the infamous Bob Guccione. The Penthouse publisher had just financed Caligula (1979), the world's first and possibly last big budget porn film. He was now looking for a follow-up, Towers suggested naturally enough Fanny Hill, Guccione passed but instead came up with an idea for a bio-pic on the sex life of Catherine the Great. Towers worked on this for a brief time assisted by Gerry O'Hara but nothing came of it. Having gone on to financing Fanny Hill through various pre-sales and made a profit, Towers hit upon the idea of Moll Flanders. Guccione said yes. Ken Russell having worked on the screenplay for Catherine the Great signed to co-write and direct the film. He planned to shoot the film in Ireland and was looking for an unknown to play the title part. Numerous actresses and models were tested including Louise English, a rather cute ex-Benny Hill girl and Page 3 model Samantha Fox. Things swiftly went wrong. Guccione fell out with Towers who subsequently left the project. He then fell out with Russell as well, disliking the director's screenplay. Inevitably the film ended up in the court room rather than on location, when Guccione sued Russell. The director went on to win the court case and would make a documentary for Channel 4 about his now stalled film. 2007 saw Towers and Russell re-unite for a second attempt. An interesting cast was put together headed by Barry Humphries and Steven Berkoff and Russell himself serving as the film's narrator. The budget was set at $5.2 million and the film was to be made in Croatia. The shooting date was set as late 2008-early 2009.

As if this was not enough Towers signed a co-production deal for a new Fu Manchu film. His co-producers were a South African company, Distant Horizon. Maria Rohm was also set to return to her husband's films, this time behind the scenes as a producer.

On the 31st July 2009, during Moll Flanders post production, Towers died. This seemingly indestructible man would pass away while still busy to the last.

Harry Alan Towers for a man, who led a very rich and colourful life, could never have been accused of being idle. He once boasted that he could get off a plane in any country in the world and have a film underway within 24 hours. During his career he has more than lived up to this, moving from one continent to another to wherever money could be raised to make another film, which is made even more remarkable by the fact that for more than twenty years he was on the run. His films have been largely indifferent or just plain lousy but his early Fu Manchu adventures, his first version of Ten Little Indians, and his film, Circus of Fear are highly entertaining and as colourful as their producer. Harry Alan Towers was the last of a kind, a swashbuckling, daring adventurer and he is the sort of character the ever ailing British film industry can ill afford to lose.