Samuel Anthony Tenser (10 August 1920 – 5 December 2007)[1] was an English-born film producer of Lithuanian-Jewish descent.
[2] After war service as a technician in the Royal Air Force, he became a trainee manager for the ABC Cinemas circuit.
[3] Working as head of publicity for Miracle Films,[4] Tenser coined the term "sex kitten" for the French movie star Brigitte Bardot when The Light Across the Street (La lumière d'en face, 1955) was released in the UK.
[4] Tenser and Klinger established the Compton Group as a vehicle for their film-making ambitious, and amongst their early productions were Repulsion (1965) and Cul-de-sac (1966), the first two films in English made by the Polish director Roman Polanski.
The book was written by film critic John Hamilton, who conducted over 18 hours of taped conversations with Tenser, as well as exclusive interviews with many of the actors and craftsmen he employed, including: the directors Michael Armstrong, Peter Sasdy, Freddie Francis and Vernon Sewell; and actors Christopher Lee, Spike Milligan, Julie Ege and Norman Wisdom.