East of Elephant Rock East of Elephant Rock East of Elephant Rock is a 1977 British independent drama film directed by Don Boyd and starring John Hurt, Jeremy Kemp and Judi Bowker. It was Boyd's second feature film following his little-noticed 1975 "Intimate Reflections". Like William Somerset Maugham's 1927 play "The Letter" and two subsequent film adaptations, its narrative content depended on the 1911 Ethel Proudlock murder in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, which became a "cause célèbre" scandalising British colonial society and which had been featured in a "Sunday Observer" article as recently as the year before. Boyd, drawing in part on his own experience
The Elephant Man (film) is going to be used over and over and over again in the future...And every time it’s used in a movie it’s going to diminish the effect of the scene." When Lynch and Sanger screened "The Elephant Man" for Brooks after they returned from England with a cut, Brooks suggested some minor cuts but told them that the film would be released as they made it. There had been a play about Merrick on Broadway called "The Elephant Man", which was enjoying a successful run on Broadway at the time of the film's production. The producers sued Brooksfilms over the