Antony Balch(1937-1980)
- Director
- Actor
- Writer
A legendary figure in British film distribution of the 1960s and 1970s,
Antony Balch was renowned for buying up European art/exploitation films
and giving them catchy new English titles ("Weird Weirdo", "Don't
Deliver Us From Evil"), as well as being responsible for the legendary
sound version of
Benjamin Christensen's
silent documentary classic Häxan (1922),
where the intertitles were replaced with a commentary by Balch's friend
William S. Burroughs, with whom he
started his film career with the shorts
Towers Open Fire (1966) and
The Cut Ups (1966), both extensions
of Burroughs' writing technique. Balch's only two features were the
surreal Burroughs-influenced
Tales of the Bizarre (1970) and the
comedy Horror Hospital (1973).
