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Winter Kills (film)
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Winter Kills is a 1979 film based on the novel by Richard Condon. The film is distinguished by having a high-powered cast, including John Huston, Toshiro Mifune, Sterling Hayden, Anthony Perkins, Elizabeth Taylor, and Jeff Bridges. Most of the film was lensed by cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond. The director, however, was a novice named William Richert.
The production went so far over budget that it was shut down three times and declared bankruptcy. The film had been produced by two wealthy marijuana dealers—Robert Sterling and Leonard Goldberg. Goldberg was murdered by the mafia in the middle of production, for failure to pay his debts, and Sterling was later sentenced to 40 years in jail for drug smuggling[1]. William Richert and much of the cast went to Germany and filmed a comedy called The American Success Company which made enough money to fund a resumption of Winter Kills two years later.
Influential publications including the
New York Times,
Newsweek, and the
New Yorker gave positive reviews but it made little money when released. Richard Condon and William Richert hypothesize that distributor
Avco Embassy killed it deliberately in order to avoid threatening defense contracts elsewhere in the conglomerate.
The film simplifies the plot of the book somewhat, and emphasizes humor. The ending of the movie is ambiguous, leaving it unclear whether President Kegan had been killed by his father (John Huston), or the father's assistant, John Cerruti (Anthony Perkins).
