Winter Kills | |
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![]() Film poster by John Solie | |
Directed by | William Richert |
Written by | William Richert |
Based on | Winter Kills 1974 novel by Richard Condon |
Produced by | Fred C. Caruso |
Starring | Jeff Bridges John Huston Anthony Perkins Eli Wallach Sterling Hayden Dorothy Malone Tomás Milián Belinda Bauer Toshiro Mifune Ralph Meeker Richard Boone |
Cinematography | Vilmos Zsigmond |
Edited by | David Bretherton |
Music by | Maurice Jarre |
Distributed by | AVCO Embassy Pictures |
Release date |
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Running time | 97 minutes |
Countries | United States West Germany |
Language | English |
Budget | $6.5 million |
Box office | $1,083,799 |
Winter Kills is a 1979 satirical black comedy thriller film written and directed by William Richert, based on the eponymous novel of 1974 by Richard Condon. A fiction inspired by the assassination conspiracy theories about President John F. Kennedy, its all-star cast includes Jeff Bridges, John Huston, Anthony Perkins, Eli Wallach, Richard Boone, Toshirō Mifune, Sterling Hayden, Dorothy Malone, Belinda Bauer, Ralph Meeker, Elizabeth Taylor, Berry Berenson and Susan Walden.
The film simplifies the plot of the book somewhat, emphasizing humor. It follows the events surrounding the assassination of the fictional President Kegan (based on John F. Kennedy). Several years later, Kegan's half-brother Nick (Bridges) discovers leads which suggest there may have been a plot to kill the President.
Nick Kegan, half-brother to assassinated U.S. President Timothy Kegan, is pulled into an elaborate conspiracy 19 years after the event. Arthur Fletcher, a mysterious man, arrives on Nick's father's oil tanker to reveal that he and another gunman were hired to assassinate President Kegan in 1960. Fletcher dies before he can give more details but not before claiming to have hidden the murder weapon in Philadelphia.
Nick goes to Philadelphia with two associates to retrieve the rifle but they are ambushed; Nick survives and the others are killed. His father, Pa, initially dismissive, later pledges to help solve the mystery. Nick meets a series of characters who offer conflicting narratives: Z.K. Dawson, a wealthy rival to his father, implicates a dead police captain and his aide Lt. Roy Doty. Doty confirms the police's corrupt involvement and a mafia connection that funded Kegan's campaign.
Irving Mentor, a gangster Nick meets in Cleveland, adds another layer, linking the assassination to a Hollywood studio's financial loss due to an affair between the President and a movie star. Nick's girlfriend, Yvette, supposedly an employee at National Magazine, turns out to be a fraud.
Back in New York, Cerruti, the family accountant, offers versions of the assassination, at one point implicating Nick's father, who according to Cerruti, was dissatisfied with his son's liberal policies and had him killed. Cerruti suggests that the conspiracy, including Yvette's role, was designed to keep Nick confused.
Nick confronts his father, who blames Cerruti for the assassination and ensuing blackmail. As they argue, Keifetz, a family associate, bursts in with orders to kill Nick. In the ensuing struggle, Keifetz and another officer are killed, and Pa falls to his death from a high-rise balcony while clutching an American flag. In his last words, Pa advises Nick to invest in South America.
Screenwriter and John Huston collaborator Gladys Hill played Rosemary, the character actor Joe Spinell appeared as Arthur Fletcher and singer/songwriter Lissette Álvarez portrayed Soledad. Other small appearances include Byron Morrow as the Secretary of State, Tisa Farrow as a nurse, Gianni Russo as an airline pilot, Kim O'Brien as a blonde girl and Erin Gray as "beautiful woman". John Warner played the ill-fated Timothy Kegan, and his then-wife Elizabeth Taylor makes an uncredited cameo as Lola Comante.
Leonard Goldberg and Robert Sterling optioned the book from Condon for $75,000 plus 5% of proceeds and 10% of home video. [2] : 74 William Richert convinced the producers to let him direct the film after he had adapted Condon's novel. Richert convinced Jeff Bridges to star in the movie by moving on to the road in Malibu where he lived and acting out scenes for him at a local delicatessen. [3]
Filming began on December 13, 1976. [2] : 76 Many of the film's interior scenes were shot in 1977 at the Greystone Mansion in Beverly Hills, then home to the American Film Institute's film school. [4] Richert wanted to film Huston's death at the Pan Am Building but claims he was denied permission by an irate employee who threatened that the film would not be allowed within 20 blocks of the building because the "Kennedys have offices here". [2] : 80
Sterling and Goldberg were drug dealers with very little film experience. They had previously worked on releasing the French softcore Emmanuelle films in the U.S. [5] Winter Kills was under-capitalized. Needing a budget of $6 million, Sterling and Goldberg only ever raised $2.3 million. Many actors were never paid or only received the 20% of their fee that was held in escrow. Elizabeth Taylor insisted on being paid her $100,000 fee up front. [2] : 75–6 Some cast and crew reported that they began receiving their pay by being called to a hotel room where they were given envelopes of well-used bills. Eventually, people were working for free until union officials heard of this arrangement. In March 1977, unions shut down the production, forcing it to declare bankruptcy. Goldberg was murdered just before the movie's opening and Sterling was later sentenced to 40 years in prison for marijuana smuggling. [6] [5]
Bridges and Bauer went to Germany to work on Richert's next film, The American Success Company . Richert was able to use money from that production to resume work on Winter Kills. On December 18, 1978, production resumed and filming was finished in two weeks. The director explained his devotion to the project by comparing Winter Kills to "cinematic cocaine". [2] : 77 John Bailey filled in as cinematographer because Vilmos Zsigmond was working on another film. The film's distributor, Embassy Pictures, controlled the final cut. [5] The film was the last acting appearance for Candice Rialson. [7]
The film performed well wherever it was shown but it never received the wide distribution required to make it a box office success. [2] : 80 It made $1 million on a $6.5 million budget. [8] Embassy Pictures limited the film to preview screenings in a few cities, foregoing the national and international markets. Condon and Richert thought that Avco-Embassy killed it to avoid threatening Avco's federal contracts which totalled nearly $864 million in 1979. [2] : 80 The quality of Winter Kills, combined with its extremely limited theatrical release, created a cult following for the film. [9]
Winter Kills was a critical favorite. Janet Maslin of The New York Times compared the film to M*A*S*H and Dr. Strangelove , writing, "'Winter Kills' isn't exactly a comedy, but it's funny. And it isn't exactly serious, but it takes on the serious business of the Kennedy assassination". [10] The Times' Vincent Canby also praised the film, complimenting writer/director William Richert's imagination. [11] Brendan Gill of The New Yorker saw the film twice and reported that "I enjoyed it even more the second time, but I cannot pretend that I understood it any better. It is like some intricately embroidered misadventure recounted by a superb, somewhat tipsy storyteller late at night in the library of a big country house, with the cold rain of an enemy night lashing against the windows, and a cozy ruin of red fire red upon the hearth". [12] David Ansen of Newsweek wrote, "In keeping with a morality tale on the excesses of wealth and power, it is extravagantly confusing, grandiosely paranoid, flamboyantly absurd and more than a little fun. Though it utterly lacks the internal consistency that 'good' movies require, as a wild-goose chase it maintains a certain lunatic fascination". [13]
The film is a satire that led a few critics to dismiss the film. [14] Variety magazine wrote of the film, "If there’s a decent film lurking somewhere in Winter Kills, writer-director William Richert doesn’t want anyone to see it in his Byzantine version of a presidential assassination conspiracy". [15] Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film 1 star out of 4 and wrote, "'Winter Kills' rapes the memory of President John F. Kennedy while giving his late father a few dozen kicks in the head, too ... It revels in its every degrading scene. One feels a little less clean just having seen this picture". [16] Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times called it "the kind of conspiratorial caper you like for its continual surprises or hate for its escalating confusions ... It is a Gee Whiz item, expansive, impersonal, never dull". [17] Gary Arnold of The Washington Post called it an "extravagantly kitschy" film with a "fairly repulsive" story. [18]
Rotten Tomatoes rates it 92% fresh based on 24 reviews with the consensus: "A singularly strange roman à clef rich with paranoia and black humor, Winter Kills views the political skullduggery of the late 20th century with a sharp, jaundiced eye.". [19]
In 1983, Richert acquired the rights to the film and re-released a director's cut. [5] The second version included a new ending and additional footage of Elizabeth Taylor. [20] [21] In 2023, Quentin Tarantino spearheaded another re-release of Winter Kills featuring a new 35 mm print. John Bailey oversaw the project, which was completed at FotoKem. [22]
Who Killed 'Winter Kills'? is a 2003, 38-minute documentary film, directed by Perry Martin and distributed by Anchor Bay, about the production of the film. [23]
JFK is a 1991 American epic political thriller film written and directed by Oliver Stone. It examines the investigation into the assassination of John F. Kennedy by New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison, who came to believe there was a conspiracy to assassinate President Kennedy and that Lee Harvey Oswald was a scapegoat.
Prizzi's Honor is a 1985 American black comedy crime film directed by John Huston, starring Jack Nicholson and Kathleen Turner as two highly skilled mob assassins who, after falling in love, are hired to kill each other. The screenplay co-written by Richard Condon is based on his 1982 novel of the same name. The film's supporting cast includes Anjelica Huston, Robert Loggia, John Randolph, CCH Pounder, Lawrence Tierney, and William Hickey. Stanley Tucci appears in a minor role in his film debut. It was the last of John Huston's films to be released during his lifetime.
The Parallax View is a 1974 American political thriller film starring Warren Beatty, with Hume Cronyn, William Daniels and Paula Prentiss in support. Produced and directed by Alan J. Pakula, its screenplay is by David Giler and Lorenzo Semple Jr., based on the 1970 novel by Loren Singer. The story concerns a reporter's investigation into a secretive organization, the Parallax Corporation, whose business is political assassination.
On November 22, 1963, John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, was assassinated while riding in a presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas. Kennedy was in the vehicle with his wife Jacqueline, Texas governor John Connally, and Connally's wife Nellie, when he was fatally shot from the nearby Texas School Book Depository by Lee Harvey Oswald, a former U.S. Marine. The motorcade rushed to Parkland Memorial Hospital, where Kennedy was pronounced dead about 30 minutes after the shooting; Connally was also wounded in the attack but recovered. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was hastily sworn in as president two hours and eight minutes later aboard Air Force One at Dallas Love Field.
The United States House of Representatives Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) was established on September 15, 1976 by U.S. House Resolution 1540 to investigate the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. in 1963 and 1968, respectively. The select committee was first formed by the 94th United States Congress, and expired at the end of the 95th Congress.
Richard Thomas Condon was an American political novelist. Though his works were satire, they were generally transformed into thrillers or semi-thrillers in other media, such as cinema. All 26 books were written in distinctive Condon style, which combined a fast pace, outrage, and frequent humor while focusing almost obsessively on monetary greed and political corruption. Condon himself once said: "Every book I've ever written has been about abuse of power. I feel very strongly about that. I'd like people to know how deeply their politicians wrong them." Condon's books were occasionally bestsellers, and a number of his books were made into films; he is primarily remembered for his 1959 The Manchurian Candidate and, many years later, a series of four novels about a family of New York gangsters named Prizzi.
Suddenly is a 1954 black and white American noir crime film directed by Lewis Allen with a screenplay written by Richard Sale. The drama stars Frank Sinatra and Sterling Hayden, and features James Gleason and Nancy Gates.
Winter Kills is a black comedy novel by Richard Condon, exploring the assassination of a U.S. president. It was published in 1974. The novel parallels the death of John F. Kennedy and the conspiracy theories about it.
The Badge Man is a figure that is purportedly present within the Mary Moorman photograph of the assassination of United States president John F. Kennedy in Dealey Plaza on November 22, 1963. Conspiracy theorists have suggested that this figure is a sniper firing a weapon at the president from the grassy knoll. Although a reputed muzzle flash obscures much of the detail, the Badge Man has been described as a person wearing a police uniform—the moniker itself derives from a bright spot on the chest, which is said to resemble a gleaming badge.
The conspiracy thriller is a subgenre of thriller fiction. The protagonists of conspiracy thrillers are often journalists or amateur investigators who find themselves pulling on a small thread which unravels a vast conspiracy that ultimately goes "all the way to the top." The complexities of historical fact are recast as a morality play in which bad people cause bad events, and good people identify and defeat them. Conspiracies are often played out as "man-in-peril" stories, or yield quest narratives similar to those found in whodunits and detective stories.
Executive Action is an American political thriller film. It is a fictionalized account of a conspiracy to assassinate United States President John F. Kennedy. Released in November 1973 on the tenth anniversary of the JFK assassination, the film stars Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan, and Will Geer. It was directed by David Miller, produced by Edward Lewis, and written by Dalton Trumbo. The screenplay was adapted from the novel Executive Action by Donald Freed and Mark Lane, which was published earlier in 1973. Freed and Lane received a film credit for their story.
The Manchurian Candidate is a novel by Richard Condon, first published in 1959. It is a political thriller about the son of a prominent U.S. political family who is brainwashed into being an unwitting assassin for a Communist conspiracy. The novel has twice been adapted into a feature film with the same title: the first was released in 1962 and the second in 2004.
The assassination of John F. Kennedy and the subsequent conspiracy theories surrounding it have been discussed, referenced, or recreated in popular culture numerous times.
Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy is a book by attorney Vincent Bugliosi that analyzes the events surrounding the assassination of United States President John F. Kennedy, focusing on the lives of Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby. He drew from many sources, including the Warren Report. Bugliosi argues that the Warren Commission's conclusion that Lee Oswald acted alone in shooting Kennedy is correct. The book won the 2008 Edgar Award for the Best Fact Crime category. Bugliosi explored the issues at length; the book is 1,632 pages. It was published with an accompanying CD-ROM containing an additional 1,000+ pages of footnotes. He analyzed both the assassination itself and the rise of the conspiracy theories about the event in the following years.
We Were Strangers is a 1949 American adventure drama film directed by John Huston and starring Jennifer Jones and John Garfield. Set in 1933, the film concerns a group of revolutionaries attempting to overthrow the Cuban government of Gerardo Machado. The story is based loosely on an episode in Robert Sylvester's novel Rough Sketch and draws on historical events.
The CIA Kennedy assassination is a prominent John F. Kennedy assassination conspiracy theory. According to ABC News, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is represented in nearly every theory that involves American conspirators. The secretive nature of the CIA, and the conjecture surrounding the high-profile political assassinations in the United States during the 1960s, has made the CIA a plausible suspect for some who believe in a conspiracy. Conspiracy theorists have ascribed various motives for CIA involvement in the assassination of President Kennedy, including Kennedy's firing of CIA director Allen Dulles, Kennedy's refusal to provide air support to the Bay of Pigs invasion, Kennedy's plan to cut the agency's budget by 20 percent, and the belief that the president was weak on communism. In 1979, the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) concluded that the CIA was not involved in the assassination of Kennedy.
The assassination of John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, has spawned numerous conspiracy theories. These theories allege the involvement of the CIA, the Mafia, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, Cuban Prime Minister Fidel Castro, the KGB, or some combination of these individuals and entities. Some conspiracy theories have alleged a coverup by parts of the federal government, such as the original FBI investigators, the Warren Commission, or the CIA. Lawyer and author Vincent Bugliosi estimated that a total of 42 groups, 82 assassins, and 214 people had been accused at one time or another in various conspiracy scenarios.
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Robert F. Kennedy, the 64th United States Attorney General, a U.S. senator from New York, and the brother of United States president John F. Kennedy, has frequently been depicted or referenced in works of popular culture.