Trailer for Patrick McGoohan's 1973 lost biblical Othello rock opera CATCH MY SOUL

Patrick McGoohan is best known to cult film fans as the star of "The Prisoner," but the classic series amounted to only one year in an impressive career of credits both in front of and behind the camera.  His resume as director includes a handful of television episodes (in most cases, appearing as an actor in the project as well), but as far as feature films go, McGoohan only helmed one -- 1974's CATCH MY SOUL, also released in a possibly different cut as SANTA FE SATAN.

CATCH MY SOUL, as its alternate title suggest, was filmed around Santa Fe, New Mexico, where McGoohan and his family had moved to after the end of "The Prisoner."  McGoohan got the directing job at the behest of producer/writer Jack Good, the British music producer and occasional actor who had previously been responsible for both "Shindig!" and the now-cult-favorite-but-then-notable-misfire television special "33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee," which deserves its own entry in this blog at some point. 

The film was to be a rock opera remake of Shakespeare's "Othello," a source material McGoohan had some experience with, having played the Iago part in the jazz scene-set 1962 film ALL NIGHT LONG.  Good had originally developed the project as a stage play, which played in Los Angeles in 1968 with BLACULA's William Marshall and Jerry Lee Lewis (!) in the main roles.  (And I now have a new addition to my "to-do" list when I finally get to time travel.)  The production moved to the U.K. with a new cast shortly thereafter.

The film was made, but in place of Marshall and Lewis were folk singer Richie Havens and future TV regular Lance LeGault, reprising his role from the U.K. stage version.  Also joining the cast were singer Tony Joe White, future VICE SQUAD star Season Hubley and the ever-welcome Susan Tyrrell, who had just gotten an Oscar nomination for FAT CITY.  Conrad Hall, fresh off of COOL HAND LUKE and ELECTRA GLIDE IN BLUE, was brought on as cinematographer.  Future TERMINATOR 2 editor Richard A. Harris put it all together.

You can read a lot more about the production in Tom Mayer's astonishingly well-researched piece here, but the film and the soundtrack were released in 1973 to mediocre-to-poor reviews.  As was the custom at the time, the film was re-released in 1975 under the title SANTA FE SATAN, in an attempt to get some of that EXORCIST cash.  It's been little-seen since.

"Little-seen" understates the point.  The film was never released on videocassette or DVD, and may never have aired on television.  Until last year, the film had been considered completely lost, even turning up in Chris Poggiali's "Endangered List" on his obligatgory-for-obscure-film-fans "Temple of Schlock" blog. 

The film was finally located in 2013 under the SANTA FE SATAN title, in a trailer on a farm in North Carolina (!), and Mayer's piece has a full write-up of the film itself.  He also details the possibilities of the alternate cuts -- none of which can be confirmed without the existence of additional prints.

SANTA FE SATAN had something of a re-premiere in 2014, as part of North Carolina's RiverRun International Film Festival.  It was stated that this would be the final time the film would be projected due to wear, but a restoration campaign would be taking place.

So why I am my going into great detail about this film you can't see?

Well, because now you can at least see a part of it.  A trailer has emerged for the film, containing the first publicly-available footage of it that's been seen in nearly 40 years.  It's only sixty seconds, but at least it's verifiable proof that it exists under its original title, CATCH MY SOUL.



The soundtrack has been available for a while, and it's definitely a treat, especially if you're a fan of JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR.  (I'm imagining the film being a bit like that, only without Ted Needy's emo savior.)  It's not much to watch, but you can listen to it in full here:



Even if the film is a mess,its remarkable existence makes it a genuine curiosity.  The tale of how two British entertainment figures randomly made a religious rock opera based on a Shakespeare play set in New Mexico is an undoubtedly compelling one, and any film distribution company worth their salt should be able to promote it with ease.  (This seems like an ideal project for the newly-formed Etiquette Pictures or Grindhouse Releasing, whose recent issues of AN AMERICAN HIPPIE IN ISRAEL and GONE WITH THE POPE have brought former obscurities to welcoming audiences.) 

Update:  Rumor is that CATCH MY SOUL will be making its way onto DVD (and Blu-ray?) next year.  Keep your eyes peeled!

(Movie poster art from Temple of Schlock)