Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much fish, listening to the Orpheus Chamber Ensemble do various and sundried pieces, all very enjoyable and superbly produced. I’ve had many telephonic conversations this evening and one short Zoom session mostly regarding the green screen numbers that Karl Sonnenberg is working on. I also managed to watch a motion picture entitled Night Visitor, which I’ve only seen once before and fast-forwarded through. It stars Elliot Gould, Alan Garfield, Michael J. Pollard, Richard Roundtree, and Shannon Tweed, made in 1989, I think, part of a two-picture deal with an Australian financier. I can’t imagine he was happy with either film and I know this because I was a big part of one of them and a small part of Night Visitor, which was, at the time of filming, called Never Cry Devil. The writer was a one-time guy whose only credit is this film. The director was, at the time of this film, someone who had produced movies but never directed one. Let’s just say this: Not all producers should become directors (see the directorial efforts of one Irwin Winkler for a textbook example of that). I remember the producer, Alain Silver, asking me to read the script. I’d been working with Alain since The Creature Wasn’t Nice and we’d just done the other film for this financier, about which more in a moment. I thought the script was horrible and he asked me to do a dialogue polish on all the scenes involving the young lead male and female and I did that and may have done a few other shine-ups, too. And I remember the producer now director not using any of it save for the first encounter with the boy and girl and, of course, that’s about the only scene that gives them something to play other than the same beat they’re forced to play over and over and over again. And I know I changed a few character names and if you know your Hitchcock movies you’ll know what those are. I make a brief appearance with Alain, playing a teacher. So, it was fascinating to see it forty-something years later. It’s just pretty awful in every department. The young male lead is not so hot, nor is the girl who plays opposite him, and when you have every wonderful young actor available how you end up with those two is a mystery. The young male lead is now a script consultant and script doctor and hopefully he’s better at that. The young woman’s career seems to have lasted but about four years and seems to be done as of 1990, one year after this film.
Elliot Gould is Elliot Gould and doesn’t seem to know what movie he’s in. Allan Garfield seems like he’s going for an Oscar and is filled with ACTING, Michael J. Pollard, well, it’s hard to know WHAT he’s doing – it’s one of the worst and most embarrassing performances you’ll ever see, although I don’t recommend seeing it. Henry Gibson makes a brief appearance, Richard Roundtree looks embarrassed, and when the most natural performance comes from Shannon Tweed something is terribly wrong. Also, the score is terrible and despite the title change to Night Visitor, there’s still a Never Cry Devil song over the main titles. Because of his producer relationships, the director got United Artists to distribute it – it played one week in 200 theaters, none of which were located in New York or Los Angeles. And then straight to home video.
So, the film made prior to this one for the same company was called Prime Suspect and starred Susan Strasberg, Michael Parks, Billy Drago, Doug McClure, Dana Plato, Tom Breznahan, Frank Stallone and others I’m probably forgetting. The film was, at the time of the first week of filming, directed and written by Ms. Strasberg’s then boyfriend who I don’t believe had ever directed anything prior to this. The producer was, once again, Alain Silver. I was sitting at home on a Monday, I think, and Alain called me and said they were in terrible trouble on the film, the director was slow, behind by two days (on a low budget shoot, this is the worst thing that could happen) and worse, his footage looked horrible. Would I be willing to start the next day and replace him. I said if I thought I could be of help, maybe, but I asked to see the dailies from the first five days. They were to me within an hour and I watched as much as I could stomach. Not only was the director completely inept, who wouldn’t know where to put a camera, but none of his footage would even cut together because he didn’t understand the mechanics of filmmaking. I also read the script and it was as bad as his direction – I didn’t even understand half of what I was reading, and the Dana Plato and Tom Breznahan duo was the worst of it, bickering in every scene with her character so obnoxious that you can’t wait for her to be killed, which occurs about twenty minutes into the film. I called Alain and said okay and they suggested I come that night and meet everyone who was filming. I’m pretty sure they’d already fired the director and were just doing some pick-up stuff or waiting until I got there.
I got there, met the cameraman and costumer person, as well as Dana Plato, who I liked very much. They showed me her wardrobe for her next scene, which was the camping/murder scene that also included a making love scene. They had her gussied up in some kind of sexy stuff with lacey undergarments and I said no to all of it and they looked at me, shocked. I told Dana I’d be rewriting all those opening scenes and making her character lovable and adorable so that when she’s killed the audience would be horrified, not cheering. She practically jumped in my arms and said thank you. I then told the wardrobe folks I wanted baggy clothes for her and undergarments a normal human would wear, not a stripper.
The next morning, we were shooting in a house, I’ve forgotten where it was located, and it involved Ms. Strasberg and Tom. Well, Ms. Strasberg was distraught, Ms. Strasberg was crying, Ms. Strasberg was not coming out of the make-up room because she had such grief about her boyfriend being fired. While we waited, I did a shot of Tom in the kitchen getting orange juice or something. We got it quickly, it looked good, the cameraman loved me (he was a Spaniard and very talented, but there was nothing he could do about the ineptitude of the original director, nor would the original director even listen to his concerns. I, on the other hand, walked in, said put the camera here and off we went. At the end of that first shot, I said “cut” and turned to the crew and said, “Anyone know what this film is about?” That broke the ice and they laughed and knew it would at least be smooth sailing from then on. After that, I went in the make-up room and had a chat with Ms. Strasberg. I was very warm and kind and said this wasn’t a good situation for anyone but that we had to all mush on, be professional, and do our jobs and I said I couldn’t begin to do mine without her help and support. She came right out and we began filming her stuff in the house. There was a four or five page dialogue scene and the original director was two days behind and in order to catch up and be on schedule I said to the cameraman, okay, we’ll do this in one shot, not cuts, no coverage. It involved going from one room to the living room and had about ten camera moves in it. We blocked the action, we rehearsed it with the camera a few times and then we shot it – two takes and that was that, all caught up and I got us through the two days in the house quickly and effortlessly, including scenes with Robert F. Lyons as a sheriff and boyfriend of Strasberg. And I just kept putting in as much humor as I could.
The rest of the shoot went very smoothly, and I rewrote as much as I could, but mostly the first twenty minutes and then the brutal murder for which I just put on my Mr. Hitchcock cap and shot in tiny bits and then all that had to be done was cut them together. You never really see anything in it but you sure THINK you do. I think the rest of the shoot took two weeks, if that, and it involved some stunts, explosions, chases, etc. Then we booked an additional two shoot days for pick-ups so that the footage from the first five days would edit together, and then I insisted we reshoot Doug McClure’s first scene because the way they did it originally gave away everything because of his performance. We reshot that and it was much better. I also added a detective and doctor character so I could explain all the plot holes away and things that you needed so it would make some kind of sense.
While I did enjoy the cameraman very much and the stuff he shot with me looked great, I was not fond of the editor and wished we had someone else. He did an okay job and I was able to get things a bit better. Happily, he literally had no editing decisions for the murder scene because you had to cut it exactly as I shot it and I shot no cutaways or coverage. Each piece simply cut with the next piece. The sound mix was a disaster and I told Alain he had to fire the people doing it, which he did, and we went elsewhere, and they did as much as they could in the time allotted. I wrote the score but it was poorly dubbed into the film and it never was right. The producers came and watched it at the sound mix place and I know they really liked the first twenty minutes, although the main guy turned to me at one point and said, “I didn’t know this was a comedy.” I said, wait. He grabbed onto my arm when the murder scene happened and understood what we’d done in making Dana Plato likeable. Then a print was made, a horrible print, it was shown to distributors who rightfully thought it terrible because even though we did what we could, you couldn’t change the terrible story and I didn’t have time to rewrite everything and you still had the original director’s footage in the film, about fifteen minutes of it. In the end, it went directly to video and a small company at that. Later, there was a lawsuit, with the Australian fellow saying the script he bought wasn’t what was done. I took part in the deposition and when I was through they had no case, really, although I don’t recall what happened. At one point, I had a copy of the deposition and I just told the truth, which is we did what we had to do and had every example as to why we had to do what we did.
Yesterday was okay. I got about seven hours of sleep, got up, answered e-mails, went to Staples and picked up the hard copy of the book, came home, ordered a chicken and pasta in pink sauce dish from nearby Antonio’s Ristorante, that came and it was excellent. Then I began proofing and did about forty pages. Then I sat on my couch like so much fish and watched Night Visitor, which brought up all these memories, from the corners of my mind. I proofed another fourteen pages, ordered a little snack of two chicken tenders, which came with a tiny bit of Kraft mac-and-cheese and a couple of pieces of broccoli, from the local iHop. Only three hundred calories. It was okay and took care of my rumbling stomach. I had a quick Zoom about the green screen scenes, too.
Today, I’ll be up by eleven or thereabouts, I’ll do whatever needs doing, then I’m having a haircut at one, thank the Lord. After that, I’ll eat, proof at least 100 pages and then perhaps watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow will be all proofing and most likely so will Saturday and then on Sunday I should see the first cut of episode nine, the first of the two LA episodes – lots of stuff in episode nine, so I’m looking forward to seeing how it all plays.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by eleven or thereabouts, do whatever needs doing, get a haircut, eat, proof, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: For the men – how often do you get your haircut and what’s the longest it’s ever been? For the women – how often do you get your hair done, and what’s the weirdest hair you’ve ever had? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, thinking it funny that seeing Night Visitor prompted a memory of two movies.