GREAT WHITE (1980), aka THE LAST SHARK, aka THE LAST JAWS, aka WHITE DEATH, aka L'ULTIMO SQUALO, aka...

With a seemingly unending supply of alternate titles, Enzo G. Castellari crosses the line from homage and into a lawsuit from Universal Studios.

Here he is in on the set in 1980 with a stylish director's chair, a personalized bullhorn, and a clapper that indicates their shooting title was White Death. That's cinematographer Alberto Spagnoli getting sand in his pants behind the camera.

In 2001, I asked Castellari about the trouble he got into with Universal over the U.S. theatrical release. Here was his response:

"The script idea for GREAT WHITE came from Ramón Bravo, a Mexican writer famous for his books with the sea and sharks as themes. In Mexico, many films have been made from his books. He wrote the treatment that was given to the Italian producer, who cunningly had the Italian script written by an Italian screenwriter without buying the rights from Mr. Bravo. When the film came out--only in the Los Angeles area--it made over $2,000,000 at the box office on the opening weekend! It was an extraordinary success, especially for an Italian film. 30...40...50 similar films were made in Italy and without any protests or even acknowledgement from the Americans, because their success was limited. But GREAT WHITE was different. It came out after JAWS 2 (1978) and it was a success, thus motivating lawyers and producers to stop the screening. They succeeded after a month. It's ironic though...if the Italian producer hadn't 'stolen' the idea in the first place, he would have become a multimillionaire! Bravo had written books on sharks even before the original JAWS (1975) came out, and this would have certainly made the difference. Maybe there is a lesson to be learned? A divine intervention?"

And that's probably the only time the phrase "divine intervention" was associated with the film. But I do agree that there are lessons to be learned. The movie has enough humor and silliness that he almost could have argued the case on the grounds that it was a satire of JAWS.

--MW