Biographie
Monty Berman was a producer of popular action series for ITC during the 1960s and early 1970s. Born Nestor Montague Berman to Jewish parents in the impoverished Whitechapel area of London, he completed his education at University College School before joining the small Twickenham Studio as a camera assistant in 1922. After a long apprenticeship, he became a fully qualified cinematographer with ABPC in 1935, though he managed to work on only two films before World War II began. During the war, Berman served with the Eighth Army Film and Photographic Unit in North Africa, Italy, and Germany, where he formed a friendship with fellow cameraman and amateur filmmaker Robert S. Baker. In 1948, Berman and Baker teamed up to create Tempean Films, a production company focused on low-budget features. Over the next thirteen years, Berman acted as both producer and cinematographer on more than thirty films, often shot on location in and around London and frequently starring American actors whose careers were in decline.
Their early projects mostly consisted of modest dramas or sub-film noir crime stories that neither drew critical acclaim nor achieved financial success. This changed when Berman and Baker entered the horror genre, aiming to replicate Hammer Films' success. Collaborating with writer Jimmy Sangster, they produced several well-received horror movies, including Blood of the Vampire (1958), The Crawling Eye (1958), Jack the Ripper (1959)—their biggest hit which Berman also directed—and The Flesh and the Fiends (1960), a variation on the Burke & Hare tale. Recognizing television's commercial potential, Berman focused solely on production after 1961. Securing the rights to Leslie Charteris's popular character Simon Templar, Berman and Baker obtained financing from Lew Grade's ITC to produce The Saint (1962). Launching Roger Moore into stardom and backed by a budget of £30,000 per episode, the series became a major hit in the 1960s and has since gained cult status.
Following The Saint, the partnership between Berman and Baker ended. Berman then worked independently as producer on The Baron (1966), a similar series featuring an American lead. In 1968, he partnered with writer Dennis Spooner to form Scoton Productions. Based at Elstree Studios, they created The Champions (1968), a series about intelligence agents with telepathic and other extrasensory abilities. This was followed by two acclaimed series, Department S (1969) and My Partner the Ghost (1969), which were filmed concurrently using the same crew, sets, props, and extras. Although produced economically with frequent use of stock footage and recycled scripts, both shows have grown in popularity over time beyond their initial reception. One of Department S’s stars, Peter Wyngarde, became a cult figure as the suave adventurer and novelist Jason King. However, an attempt to launch a spoof series centered on this character failed due to poor production quality and uninspired scripts. Another project, The Adventurer (1972), starring another fading American actor, Gene Barry, also met with lukewarm response. Consequently, Berman was unable to secure further television work. He retired from public life and declined to give interviews or discuss his career for the remainder of his life.
