Movies of the 80's: The Un-Making of John Huston's 'Phobia'

In researching the 1980 Canadian set thriller Phobia I learned a lot about Canadian Tax Shelter movies. In an effort to bring more film production to Canada, the government began offering more than just tax breaks, they began offering tax subsidies. Productions that chose to film in Canada could get between $3 and $5 million dollars in subsidies for shooting in Canada, working with Canadian crews, and hiring Canadian actors for prominent roles.

A great example of this Tax Shelter movie is one we recently covered on the Movies of the 80's YouTube channel, The Kidnapping of the President. That film starred Canada's very own William Shatner in a lead role, had a Canadian producer and even a Canadian director. The Kidnapping of the President was profitable before the film had been completed due to nearly $5 million dollars in tax subsidies.

There were good intentions behind the Canadian government's move. The Canadian film industry needed a shot in the arm. It would be good to get Canadian actors into higher end productions while assuring that Canadian film crews were regularly well-employed. In the long run, Canada has become a haven for movie and television productions in but the start of these government subsidized productions was rocky at best.

This brings us to Phobia, a 1980 thriller that should have come and gone without much notice. Then, the original director dropped out just as production began. In order to get the movie made, producers contacted legendary film director John Huston and gave him a significant portion of the $5.1 million dollar budget of the movie. Huston was not typically a director for hire but he was happy to pick up a big paycheck with low expectations. And with the Canadian government picking up the tab, there wasn't much to lose in hiring THE John Huston.

Phobia stars Paul Michael Glaser as an experimental psychiatrist who takes a job treating murderers at a prison. He uses an experimental therapy to treat his patients by figuring out what their phobia is, and exposing them to that phobia. So, a prisoner who is afraid of snakes is exposed to a snake and so on. The twist, each of the doctor's patients die shortly afterward. Is the doctor killing his patients? Or is there a killer loose in the prison who is killing the killers.

The film is not great. It's slapdash and, at times, quite silly. Most of all, you can sense that the people making it do not care, a feeling that becomes a fact when you read about the production and how little director John Huston gave a damn about making Phobia. As Huston himself told the New York Times in an interview in January 1980 "This isn't a Huston film."

Reports from the set of Phobia, as preserved on Newspapers.com, further underline Huston's less than enthusiastic approach to directing Phobia. In an interview with actor John Colicos, the most prominent Canadian actor in the cast of Phobia, and an actor whose career thrived due to Canadian Tax Shelter movies, his having appeared in several of them in the early days of the subsidy, we get a few insights.

Among the highlights:

Actor John Colicos, in an interview with the Whitehorse Daily Star stated that Huston was ‘winging’ every scene. Colicos says “I finally see what the old man is doing. He’s running this film and giving his editor no leeway. He has a camera in his head. He looks as if he’s in space, but he’s seeing everything exactly the way it’s going to be on screen.” Colicos putting a kind spin on the very clear notion that Huston is checked out and doing as little as possible, especially no retakes.

Colicos continues saying “I have nothing but respect for the man.” Colicos goes on to say that work on the film has been both a good and bad time. Filming has been delayed he said ‘Because of the ineptitude of the staff.” Refusing to place any blame on the legendary director who reportedly, rare spoke to Colicos, or the rest of the cast of Phobia, preferring to relay messaged via various members of the crew.

In a set report from the New York Times, working on a profile on Huston for his upcoming autobiography: "The crew defer to Huston, but rarely speak directly to him." That same article has Huston laying supine beneath an elevator prop, keeping his distance while waiting for a shot to get set up. But if that indicates that Huston was disinterested, this was actually a rare moment when the director wasn't causing chaotic delays with his demands for rewrites of the script.

Again, from that interview with John Colicos, it is reported that Huston decided to make the film into a psychological thriller, moving away from the horror vibe of the original screenplay. Huston ordered so many rewrites that, by the end of production, even the cast had no idea who the killer at the center of the plot was. While Colicos blamed the 'incompetent crew' for delays, try imagining setting up locations and specific shots when the screenplay is being rewritten as you work. And yet, Huston's legend status kept anyone from laying blame on him.

As for the other actors on Phobia, they also paint a picture of an aloof Huston who was barely there, and rarely available to his cast. The star of Phobia is former Starsky and Hutch star, Paul Michael Glaser. Glaser was excited for the chance to work with a legend, especially after a tumultuous time on television where he was tagged with the label of being difficult to work with. Talking about getting away from television and getting to work with the legendary John Huston on his first post-T.V gig, Glaser was... diplomatic....

In an interview with columnist Stacy Janel Smith in November, 1980, Glaser gave answers about working with John Huston that betray the difficult experience he had making Phobia. Glaser on John Huston: “There’s a side of the person that remains terrifically aloof because of the amount of time they’ve been doing what they’ve been doing, the amount of time they’ve been celebrities.” Continuing, taking us to the set of Phobia: “It changed all the time (with Huston). Sometimes the person was available and sometimes all that was available to see was the legend.”

Asked how he felt about the two sides of John Huston, Glaser said: “My exercise was not to like it or to dislike it, but to work with it.” Asked how it was like to ‘work with it’ Glaser said: “Interesting… Very interesting. No, it was a wonderful opportunity. He’s a fascinating man. Nobody could help but learn from working with him.” What Glaser learned about working with John Huston was not expanded upon.

But perhaps, it was John Huston himself who gave the game away as to how he felt about making Phobia. In an interview that appeared in The Province circa 1980 " We’re not discovering any new ground here.” Huston says. "It’s a conventional murder mystery. They all have a form. They’re supposed to. And I’m not going to change that.” And, indeed, he did not change that. He seemingly added nothing to it whatsoever beyond his name above the title.

Here are a selection of reviews of Phobia from the time of release that back up the claims of how little anyone seemed to care about the making of the movie:

“Phobia: John Huston is credited with directing this dreadful thriller shot in Toronto, but there is absolutely no evidence of it. It’s a boring and amateurish production full of dreadful performances from the likes of Paul Michael Glaser, Susan Hogan, and John Colicos.” Ron Base Critic Toronto Star

“Director John Huston wastes his time on a silly murder mystery about a psychiatrist in need of a psychiatrist. Paul Michael Glaser heads a generally competent cast wrestling with a bad script.” No attribution Kansas City Star October 2nd, 1980. Seemingly no one wanted to blame the director, as the screenplay repeatedly takes a beating. As in the review below:

“Lew Lehman, Jimmy Sangster, and Peter Bellwood must plead guilty for their frequently imbecilic script taken from a story concocted by Gary Sherman and Ronald Shusett. The writers’ shameless delving into five and dime psychology and the numerous absurd lines, delivered straight faced by the actors, are unintentional laugh-getters.” Robert C. Trussell Kansas City Star. Once again, please recall, Huston ordered so many rewrites that even the cast didn't know who the killer was going to be. It's a bit unfair to blame the writers for these problems.

“The only surprise in this witless, somnolent thriller, filmed last fall in Toronto, is that it is directed by 74 year old John Huston. Was he even on set when the picture was being shot? It surely doesn’t look like it.” Ron Base, The Toronto Star, in a second review that he wrote about Phobia. Indeed, it's clear that people who have seen Phobia could see just how little John Huston cared about making Phobia.

But perhaps the most precient of 1980 film and entertainment reporters was New York Newsday reporter, Joseph Gelmis who's headline sums up Phobia better than any full length article could:

“Phobia, a Canadian tax shelter flick, just completed.” Joseph Gelmis, N.Y Newsday.

In fairness to John Huston, it should be noted that Phobia went on to be released in September of 1980 and it returned $11 million dollars at the box office. With the Canadian Tax Shelter most of that $11 million dollars was pure profit. Phobia may not have been good art that but it was tremendous commerce.