Michael Tommy Hodges (29 July 1932 – 17 December 2022) was an English film and television director, screenwriter, playwright and novelist. After varied work on television, he made his feature film directing debut with the crime thriller Get Carter (1971), which was a critical and commercial success and was voted one of the BFI Top 100 British films.
His subsequent works included the comic thriller Pulp (1972), the sci-fi horror film The Terminal Man (1974), the superhero film Flash Gordon (1980), and the neo-noir Croupier (1998). The British Film Institute described him as an "outsider auteur" and "a rule-breaking master given to deconstructing genre," while Andrew Sarris called him "one of the most under-appreciated and virtually unknown masters of the medium in the last 30 years."
Early life Hodges was born in Bristol on 29 July 1932, and was raised in Salisbury and Bath. He qualified as a chartered accountant and spent two years of national service on the lower deck of a Royal Navy minesweeper.
Career Hodges found a job in British television as a teleprompter operator. The job allowed him to observe the workings of the studios, and gave him time to start writing scripts. One of these scripts was Some Will Cry Murder, written for the ABC Television series Armchair Theatre. Although never performed, it served to get him enough writing commissions to quit his job as a technician.
After that, Hodges quickly progressed to producer/director status, with series such as Sunday Break for ABC, World in Action for Granada Television and the arts programmes Tempo and New Tempo for Thames Television. He wrote, directed and produced two filmed thrillers, Suspect (1969) and Rumour (1970), again for Thames Television. These films formed the basis for the creation of Euston Films, the influential television production company that continued into the 1980s. These two films also led to Hodges being asked to write and direct Get Carter (1971), which has been described as "one of the great British gangster films of all time." Hodges worked with Carter star Michael Caine again in Pulp (1972), before proceeding to make films such as the Michael Crichton adaptation The Terminal Man (1974) and the space opera Flash Gordon (1980). Some of Hodges' later films include A Prayer for the Dying (1987), Croupier (1998) and I'll Sleep When I'm Dead (2003).
Interspersed with Hodges's cinema work are some critically successful television films, including The Manipulators (1973), Squaring The Circle (1984; scripted by Tom Stoppard), Dandelion Dead (1994; scripted by Michael Chaplin), and The Healer (1994; scripted by G. F. Newman). Hodges also collaborated on the English language version of Federico Fellini's And the Ship Sails On (1983).
Hodges wrote and narrated the biographical documentary All At Sea, which was in post production in 2022.
Theatre and radio Hodges's theatre plays included Soft Shoe Shuffle (1985) and Shooting Stars and Other Heavenly Pursuits (2000), which was adapted for BBC radio. Other radio plays included King Trash (2004). His first novel, Watching The Wheels Come Off, was published first in French by Rivagse/Noir (Quand Tout Se Fait La Malle) in 2009 then in English in 2010. In 2018 his trio of novellas ('Bait', 'Grist' & 'Security') was published by Unbound.
Personal life and death Hodges was married twice. His first marriage was to Jean Alexandrov; they had two sons and later divorced. He then married Carol Laws.
Hodges died from heart failure at his home in Blandford Forum, Dorset, on 17 December 2022, aged 90.
Recognition Hodges was awarded the degree of 'Doctor of Letters' by the University of the West of England, Bristol in 2005.
Selected filmography
Feature films Year Title Director Writer Notes 1971 Get Carter 1972 Pulp 1974 The Terminal Man also producer 1978 Damien – Omen II 1980 Flash Gordon 1985 Morons from Outer Space 1987 A Prayer for the Dying 1989 Black Rainbow 1998 Croupier 2003 I'll Sleep When I'm Dead
Television +YearTitleNotes1964World in Action3 episodes1968The Tyrant KingMiniseries1969-1970ITV Playhouse 2 episodes1984Squaring the CircleTV film1985The Hitchhiker Episode: "W.G.O.D."1986Florida Straits TV film1994Dandelion DeadMiniseries
Music Videos +YearSongArtist1980"Flash"Queen1982"Body Language"
References
Further reading Steven Paul Davies: Get Carter And Beyond: The Cinema of Mike Hodges, Batsford, 2003, Douglas Keesey: Neo-Noir: Contemporary Film Noir From Chinatown to The Dark Knight Kamera Books, 2010, Steve Chibnall & Robert Murphy: British Crime Cinema, Routledge, 1999, Steve Chibnall: Get Carter (British Film Guides #6), I.B. Tauris, 2003, Geoff Mayer: Guide to British Cinema (Reference Guides to the World's Cinema) Greenwood Press, 2003 Interview with Mike Hodges Interview with Mike Hodges 2000 The Telegraph, Film-makers on film-Mike Hodges 2004 The National: Get Carter turns 40
The Michael Klinger Papers; Interview with Mike Hodges by Tony Klinger and Andrew Spicer
External links
Interview at The Guardian Interview by Dan Lybarger