[The opening scene, utilizing a hand crafted $100,000 chess set.]

One of the greatest, most star-filled movies you’ve likely never seen, is William Richert’s 1979 film, Winter Kills, a terribly black comedy — but not a comedy — packed with a host of actors of great note (who mostly didn’t get paid, except for Richard Boone, up front).

It is also a film that almost didn’t get made, got shut down three times and went bankrupt, featuring a director who had never directed before, involving the Mafia, payoffs in envelopes, and produced by two men — Leonard Goldberg and Robert Sterling — who had made their money as dope dealers.  In fact, Goldberg was killed — handcuffed and shot in the head — in the middle of production of the movie because he failed to pay certain debts to the Mafia.  The other producer, Sterling, received a 40-year prison sentence for dope smuggling.

Intrigued yet?

Perhaps a little background on the film (37:04):

In Winter Kills, the premise involves the assassination of a president and his powerful father, much like Jack and Joe Kennedy, and how the killing and conspiracy played out.  The protagonist is Nick Keegan, played by Jeff Bridges.  Richert managed to acquire such stars as Elizabeth Taylor, John Huston, Toshiro Mifune, Ralph Meeker, Eli Wallach, Anthony Perkins, Sterling Hayden, Richard Boone and Dorothy Malone.  He also scored a major coup (at least for a neophyte director) with the acquisition of cinematographer Vilmos Szigmond (Deliverance, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Deer Hunter, among others).

The actors involved provide performances that stick in my brain like many of those in Kubrick’s Dr Strangelove.

Sterling Hayden (all 6’5″ of him) as C.K. Dawson, in the incredible tank scene.

Anthony Perkins as the manic John Cerrutti.

Richard Boone, who was known to never do a second take, portraying Keifitz.  And, as Richert indicated, was damned near falling down drunk 99% of the time, but still functional.

In this clip Jeff Bridges as Nick Keegan, son of one of the wealthiest men in the country, drives a Ford Pinto to meet with C.K. Dawson (Sterling Hayden) as he played “war games” with actual tanks, armored vehicles and live shot:

Here, Richert recalls working with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Boone.  He remembers that Elizabeth Taylor became fixated on a leopard skin coat used in a scene that was eventually deleted.  She wanted it.  He initially refused but later relented.  When the film ran out of cash, the furrier came and repossessed the coat from Taylor.  He also tells about he and Sterling Hayden smoking weed openly in the Beverly Willshire Hotel restaurant.  Richert can certainly spin a yarn.

Worth watching and, for me, a journey back in time to appreciate a film that, at that juncture, was much more nuanced and problematic than I’d ever suspected.

Check Netflix, DVDs or other streaming venues for Winter Kills.

BZ