8 Ways Beatle Turned Producer George Harrison Saved British Cinema

The Beatle that mortgaged his mansion to fund Monty Python's Life of Brian.

George Harrison. The Quiet Beatle. The religious one. The one who wrote Something, Here Comes The Sun, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Taxman and many other classics while in The Beatles and the first Beatle to have a massive hit (My Sweet Lord) in his solo career. He also practically invented the all-star benefit concert with the Concert for Bangladesh charity gig way before Bob Geldof's Live Aid came along. He also set up his own record label, Dark Horse. With all these contributions to the music scene you'd think his CV would be expansive enough, but then George Harrison turned film producer and helped bring some of Britain's very best films to the screen when others wouldn't. As with the Beatles, George's film studio Handmade arrived at a time when the entertainment industry was in flux and crying out for change in order to survive. He hardly expected to create another revolution, but rather to simply get films made that he personally wanted to watch. And it turned out that George had a very eclectic taste indeed. Read on to find out how the Oscar winner revived the ailing British cinema scene and gave some truly iconic films the audiences they deserved...
Contributor

Despite a fear of using plastic cutlery and drinking overly milky brews, Dave is open to indulging in most other things at least once especially when it comes to movies and music.   10 of his favourite films are: Masaki Kobayashi's Hara-Kiri, Ingmar Bergman's Persona, Martin Brest's Midnight Run, Lawrence Kasdan's The Big Chill, Vittorio De Sica's Bicycle Thieves, Peter Medak's The Ruling Class, H.G. Clouzot's Les Diaboliques, Hector Babenco's Kiss of the Spider Woman, Fritz Lang's The Testament of Dr. Mabuse and Sidney Lumet's Network.