TELLING ‘SPARTANS’

Mathews made an outrageous omission. Though director Ted Post is to be applauded for finally getting the picture made, he was in fact only one of many Hollywood talents who believed in the script, and at one time or the other, attached themselves to it.

However, the script would have never been written, much less produced, were it not for the vision, passion and dedication of the man whose name Mathews omitted--screenwriter Wendell Mayes.

With no encouragement from the studios, and based only on his love of the material, Mayes put up his own money to option the book from which the film is taken, and he wrote the screenplay on his own time. Again and again, when no studio in town could summon the courage to make the film, Mayes kept it alive, until in 1978, production monies were found.

REX McGEE

Beverly Hills