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 True History of the Elephant Man exhibitions. Monagu's book inspired numerous dramatic works about Merrick, notably a 1979 play by Bernard Pomerance and a 1980 film by David Lynch. Between these two works, Michael Howell and Peter Ford published their "True History". In a book review for "Medical History", medical historian Roy Porter called the book "well-researched and level-headed — easily the best offering in this year of the elephant man." and noted the new material on the topic introduced by the authors. Reviewing for "Postgraduate Medical Journal", M. J. Arnold praised the book, calling it "a comprehensive account ... of the complex interrelationships between Joseph