During the 1990s, Ken Russell found it harder than ever to find the financing for features films, and made a return to television, working regularly for The South Bank Show on ITV. During one discussion with producer Melvyn Bragg about censorship, Russell was challenged to write a screenplay that he himself thought should be banned. The result was A Kitten for Hitler, to which Russell responded “Ken, if ever you make this film and it is shown, you will be lynched.”
Well, Russell did shoot the film – or at least a short film version of it – in 2007, and managed to avoid a lynching, possibly because it was only shown on comedybox.tv and so not seen by many people, and possibly because while gloriously tasteless, the film is also an obvious satire and – oddly enough – quite sweet. Even so, the production was not without its issues – unable to find a child to play the role of the Jewish kid who buys Hitler a kitten for Christmas, he instead hired dwarf actor Rusty Goffe. Russell’s wife Lisi plays the child’s mother.
Enjoy the whole thing here.
