WINTER KILLS: Blu-ray (Avco Embassy, 1979) Kino Lorber

To hear first-time director, William Richert tell it, making Winter Kills (1979) was a labor of love; his rose-colored account of this deeply troubled production, obfuscating the facts: the picture was fronted by spurious sources, including drug smugglers and the mob, was shuttered three times (twice by the unions) due to lack of finances and, arguably, competing interests - eager to see it fail, costarred Richert’s gal/pal, Belinda Bauer as a French prostitute working in Manhattan, and, perhaps, most shocking of all, resulted in the murder of one of its producers, Leonard Goldberg – chained to his hotel bed, and, shot through the head gangland-style for failing to cover his outstanding debts; his partner in this enterprise – Robert Sterling, later, sentenced to 40 years in prison for marijuana trafficking. Add to this the oddity of Sterling and Goldberg’s (until then, producers of the softcore porn franchise, Emmanuelle) cache to lure an all-star cast to partake of their first ‘legit’ venture – the roster to include such movie-land alumni as John Huston, Anthony Perkins, Sterling Hayden, Toshiro Mifune, Dorothy Malone, Eli Wallach, Richard Boone, Ralph Meeker, Brad Dexter, and, an un-credited Elizabeth Taylor, in a Marcel Marceau-silent cameo as a Washington madam – not to mention the inclusion of behind-the-scenes luminaries: composer, Maurice Jarre (offering up his least successful score), Hitchcock’s production designer, Robert F. Boyle and cinematographer extraordinaire, Vilmos Zsigmond, and, Winter Kills would already be a labyrinthine and thoroughly bizarre ‘cult classic’ in the making. That it barely scraped by, achieving a wide release, only to be yanked from distribution barely a week later, despite glowing reviews from various renown movie critics and cultural mandarins, is proof enough – some would say – of a conspiracy with ulterior motives.

Author Richard Condon’s novel, on which the movie is rather loosely based, is a bone-chilling page-turner; its opaque parallels between the fictional President Kegan and real-life assassination of President John F. Kennedy, further clouded by Condon’s insinuations that the Kegan presidency was bought and paid for by a powerful American dynasty, infused with blood-money from the Mafia, and thereafter, doomed to extinction by omnipotent and conspiratorial forces, determined to put a period - both, to the President and the investigation into his murder, launched by his brother, Nick (played in the movie by Jeff Bridges). Condon was, of course, no stranger to controversy, nor exposing the seedy underbelly of political intrigues; his most famous outing of the cloak and dagger ilk, The Manchurian Candidate (published in 1959, and thereafter made into another film with a ‘troubled’ production history in 1962), uncannily to mirror events yet to unfold historically. Winter Kills – both, the novel and the movie are backward looking in their assessment of the thought-numbing Kennedy/Kegan assassination. Each has been described as either a ‘baroque fantasy’ or ‘black comedy’ – perhaps, in part, to mask the fact the book and the movie bear witness and truth – and, even more threateningly, truth to power – than is usually comfortable or, even – tolerated by the status quo. Richert’s screenplay is glibber than Condon’s prose, and, this, rather deliberately adds a layer of devil-may-care ridiculousness to the movie, otherwise absence from the book, while minimizing the importance of the revelations and allegations being made, as well as the parallels being drawn between this thinly-veiled Kennedy presidential knockoff, it so clearly is exploiting as its lynch pin.    

Condon’s novel pulls no punches in implicating one Lola Camonte – a Washington ‘hostess’ (modeled on the late Judith Exner - well-known, if less so regarded as the mistress of JFK who also happened to be diddling Mafia chieftains, Sam Giancana and John Roselli) as the President’s procurer with kickbacks; the character, Joe Diamond (Eli Wallach in the movie), an over-the-hill surrogate/hybrid of Kennedy’s ‘official’ assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, and his Mob-connected handler: Dallas nightclub owner, Jack Ruby. Along the way, Condon draws attention to the Jewish/Italian-American Mob, other shadowy figures with ties to Cuban dictator, Fidel Castro, and, the long and tenacious hooks of organized crime in politics and local law enforcement. The final parallel between the Kennedys and the Kegans is owed the head of their dwindling family dynasty, overseen by ruthless and pertinacious Pa Kegan (a near self-portrait of Joseph P. Kennedy); viewed as a wily and utterly destructive puppet master in all their lives. But perhaps Condon’s most aggressive implication ties together seemingly disparate factions into a conspiratorial college of interrelated interests - exploiting organized crime, big business, and, political fixers to suit a much darker purpose.

Richert’s cinematic adaptation occasionally veers into a sort of grotesque parody; perhaps, unsurprising, given producers, Robert Sterling and Leonard Goldberg’s production company – Sterling-Gold – was actually a front for their illegal drug-smuggling operations. They ought to have stuck to pornography for their side-line; the porn industry, at least then, far more low-key and flying under the radar of criminal investigation. Entering ‘the big time’ as legit movie makers was a mistake; one, to cost both men dearly. Indeed, in Sterling and Goldberg we have the almost biblical tale of pride coming before the fall; neither, possessing the $6.5 million to make Winter Kills on their own. Rather idiotically, Goldberg believed if they borrowed from their ‘sources’, the debtors would naturally have to let them finish the picture in order to get a return on their investment. If only Richert’s shoot had not already gone $4 million over budget, the gamble might have paid off for Sterling and Goldberg. Instead, it resulted in a highly publicized confrontation between Goldberg and the film’s production manager, Ira Loonstein, who shoved a sawed-off shotgun under Goldberg’s chin to ‘encourage’ a reinstatement of payments to cast and crew for services already rendered after checks began to bounce.

Winter Kills pseudo-fiction begins in earnest, nineteen years after the assassination of President Timothy Kegan (John Warner) on February 22, 1960, seemingly felled by a single sniper’s bullet while his motorcade passed through downtown Philadelphia. A subsequent federal inquiry found Willie Arnold (never seen) to be the point man; Arnold, publicly executed by nightclub owner, Joe Diamond (Eli Wallach) before Arnold could give testimony at a trial. We meet Tim’s half-brother, Nick (Jeff Bridges), aboard his father’s oil tanker, telephoning gal/pal Yvette Malone (Belinda Bauer), but catching her answering machine instead. Indeed, Yvette is a girl who gets around – a high-class call girl with zero interest in taking Nick’s perception of their ‘relationship’ seriously. A helicopter lands on the tanker with Keifetz (Richard Boone), a longtime family associate, toting a heavily-bandaged and dying Arthur Fletcher (Joe Spinell). Before expiring, Fletcher confesses his part in the conspiracy to murder the President, an operation fronted by one Casper Jr. Indeed, Arnold was just ‘the patsy’ as he professed. To prove his statements are true, Fletcher points Nick to unearth the rifle he used to kill the President, still stashed in Room 903 at the Engleson Building in Philadelphia. Deeply disturbed by Fletcher’s revelation, Nick flies to Philly at once and, accompanied by his friend, Miles Gardner (David Spielberg) and Police Captain Heller (Brad Dexter) he does, in fact, find the murder weapon in a steam pipe, exactly as Fletcher described. Hurrying back to their car with the rifle in tow, Nick observes a woman on a bicycle (Barbara Richter), casually peddling about the plaza. Only a moment later, Nick barely survives an attempt on his life – the unseen sniper, effectively wiping out Gardner, Heller and their driver, leaving Nick to escape on foot to a nearby shop across the street.

Telephoning his father, Nick is instead put through to Pa Kegan’s chief accountant, John Cerruti (Anthony Perkins). Frantically, Nick reports the incident to Cerruti, witnessing someone get into the car with the bodies and drive off.  Returning to his father’s grand estate in the California desert, Nick is briefly reunited with his mentally unstable mother, Emma (Dorothy Malone) before incurring the curious wrath of his father, who is frankly disappointed by what he perceives as Nick’s failings to live up to his late brother’s standards or legacy by also entering the arena of politics. Identifying Heller as one of the victims, Nick learns that the real Capt. Heller died nearly 2-years ago, the one killed in Philadelphia, an imposter. Pa sends Nick to interview his ex-political rival, Z.K. Dawson (Sterling Hayden), one of the richest men in America. Living obscurely on his ranch in Montana, Dawson is a loose cannon, engaging in military maneuvers with a small contingent of men. He threatens Nick with his army tank, but is integral in implicating Heller with his right-hand man, Lt. Roy Doty (Michael Thoma) in the President’s death. Meanwhile, Nick is told by his father that Keifetz and the orderly who took down Fletcher's confession have both died under mysterious circumstances. Nick goes to New York, presumably for a rendezvous with Yvette. As she is not at home at the time of his call, Nick retires to his father’s Manhattan penthouse where he is nearly pushed off the balcony by an unidentified female assassin posing as a black maid (Helen Curry). The ‘maid’ also manages to escape. Now, Nick meet Doty, who recalls Casper, Jr. was connected to the Philadelphia police via Joe Diamond. Casper likely bribed Heller to murder Willie Arnold after the presidential assassination. Gangster Gameboy Baker (Ralph Meeker) was actually behind the Presidential assassination after Kegan failed to do favors for the Mafia who, unbeknownst to him, fronted his campaign to the tune of $2 million. Afterward, Arnold became the Mafia’s scapegoat, and, Diamond was left to rot in prison.

Nick implores Yvette to do some research on Diamond using her employer, National Magazine to get to the bottom of things. On advice from Yvette, Nick flies to Ohio to satisfy a bribe for mobster, Irving Mentor (Irving Selbst) in exchange for some invaluable intel. Inside a seedy diner, populated by a veritable who’s who of Mafia hit men, Nick learns Casper, Jr. had ties to a big Hollywood studio that lost $50 million when one of their biggest stars committed suicide over an affair with the President. Just then, the same woman on the bicycle brings a dead cat into Mentor's diner. Recognizing her at a glance, Nick makes chase and barely exits the diner, moments before the bomb inside the dead animal is detonated – killing Mentor and his cronies. The mystery assassin, alas, has again vanished into thin air. Back in New York, Pa Kegan debunks Mentor’s story; instead, instructing Nick to meet with imprisoned Mafioso, Frank Mayo (Thomas Milian). Only Mayo sincerely hints to Nick he is being misled. In response, Nick goes to National Magazine to confront Yvette, only to learn she has never actually worked there. Hurrying to Yvette’s apartment, Nick is confronted by an incredibly hostile doorman (Joe Ragno) who insists no one by her description has ever lived there. Returning home, Nick is startled to find Keifetz very much alive and waiting for him in his room. Keifetz suggests using Cerruti's intelligence connections to find Yvette. However, suspecting Cerrutti of something far more sinister, Nick confronts him at his offices; Cerrutti, nervously informing Nick that Yvette has since been kidnapped by Casper Jr.  Under duress of bodily harm – indeed, Nick assaults Cerruti with a blackjack, breaking his arm, Cerruti now suggests an alternate theory of the Presidential assassination involving D.C. madam, Lola Comante (Elizabeth Taylor), who procured whores discretely for Tim, but also acted as a go-between, offering the $2 million campaign contribution from Mayo and his Mafia associates. When Tim discovered his own father was behind this crooked deal, he ended their relationship, leaving Pa financially and emotionally devastated.

Cerruti also confesses he arranged for Nick to meet an imposter pretending to be Z.K. Dawson. The real Dawson and his daughter – Yvette, Tim’s mistress (a.k.a. Maggie Dawson) orchestrated the Presidential coup. Demanding to know of Yvette's whereabouts immediately, in order to corroborate Cerruti’s claims, Nick is told his own father spent millions to bolster Tim’s presidency in a financial quid pro quo that backfired after Tim became estranged from Pa and Pa, utterly displeased with his son’s liberal politics. With nowhere else to go, Pa arranged for his own son’s assassination; the rest, an elaborate hoax to thrown Nick off the scent of his crime. Indeed, even the Yvette he has known (whose real name is Jenny O'Brien) was Pa’s paid informer. After Cerruti suggests Jenny is ‘tied up’ at the Kegan Medical School, Nick rushes over, only to find Jenny dead on a slab in the school’s morgue. Now, Nick confronts his father in his office. In reply, Pa suggests Cerruti is the wily mastermind behind everything. Ever since the assassination, Cerruti has been blackmailing Pa into silence. However, when Nick reaches for the phone to call the police, Keifetz and another officer break into Pa's offices. Alas, Nick discovers Keifetz is yet another assassin on his father’s payroll. Keifetz is ordered by Pa to shoot Nick. Instead, Nick wrangled the revolver away from the other officer. Keiftez shoots the officer dead and Nick kills Keifetz in self-defense. Pursuing his father to the high-rise balcony, he finds Pa dangling from an enormous American flag draped over the side of its railing. In his attempt to save Pa, Nick instead observes as the old man sacrifices himself, his body splitting the flag in two as he plummets many stories to his death. Departing the Kegan Building in utter shell shock, Nick encounters the woman on the bicycle for the third time. Only now, she peacefully waves to him, before riding off uneventfully. Sometime later, Nick telephones Yvette’s answering machine, desperate to hear her voice for the last time.

After Winter Kills was suspended from production a third time, the company officially to declare bankruptcy, Richert corralled several cast and crew in Germany to shoot the ‘quick n’ dirty’ comedy, The American Success Company (released in 1980), acquiring the necessary capital to finish Winter Kills after a 2-year hiatus. Remarkably, everyone except cinematographer, Vilmos Zsigmond came back to work on the movie – Zsigmond, eager, though unable to partake of the exercise, already employed on Michael Cimino’s grand opus, Heaven’s Gate (1980), the remainder of Winter Kills photographed by Zsigmond’s disciple, John Bailey. With all due respect to the critics, they appear to have collectively lost their minds while reviewing Winter Kills, The New York Times’ Vincent Canby hailing it as “a funny, paranoid fable… furiously funny”; The New Yorker, suggesting at least two viewings to fully appreciate its ‘marvelous’ and ‘entertaining’ ruminations as those put forth by a ‘drunken storyteller’, while Rolling Stone and Newsweek, respectively declared Winter Kills a ‘boisterous burlesque’ and “flamboyantly absurd, extravagantly confusing, grandiosely paranoid and more than a little fun.” To be sure, there are some very good things in Winter Kills. Yet, despite such ample testaments to its virtues, Avco Embassy – the distributor, inexplicably, and without further notice, pulled Winter Kills from theaters after barely a week, informing Richert, “It’s not really in the best interests of Americans to watch a picture like this.” In reply, Richard Condon wrote a scathing article in Harper’s Magazine – ‘Who Killed Winter Kills?’, exposing major defense contracts tied to the Kennedy clan and Avco Embassy’s conglomerate ‘business interests’, precisely at a moment when it appeared as though Ted Kennedy might make his own ‘official run’ for the White House.

Whatever Avco Embassy’s concerns, prior to the movie’s release, they had already ‘tightened’ or excised several key scenes in the movie, including Elizabeth Taylor’s appearance – the cuts, later to be reinstated for Winter Kills’ first home video release on DVD via Anchor Bay in 1999. After many years of absence, Winter Kills marks its debut on Blu-ray via Kino Lorber. In the new year, Indicator/Powerhouse plan to release their own competing ‘deluxe’ Blu-ray; albeit, region ‘B’ locked and therefore, unavailable to most residing in North America. The Kino effort, reportedly sourced from a new 4K remaster, is fairly impressive. Likely owed its limited theatrical run, the source material used here is in prime condition. Indeed, everything about this Panavision image looks great; accurately rendered flesh tones, razor-sharp detail, solid contrast, and a light smattering of film grain, looking indigenous to its source. Only a single long shot of Pa Kegan’s California estate is problematic – with overly amplified grain and muddy colors. For the rest, there is nothing to complain about here.

The 2.0 DTS audio adequately addresses the movie’s vintage, if never testing the boundaries of audio recording. We get a commentary by William Richert, among whose startling recall, is a story about sharing a bong with Sterling Hayden. Produced for Anchor Bay, Kino has also managed to include ‘Who Killed WINTER KILLS?’ a 36-minute reflection piece with Richert, Bridges, Bauer, Zsigmond and Robert Boyle all contributing their reminiscences on the making of the movie. Also, from Anchor Bay, we get a reunion piece – barely 9 min. with Bridges and Richert, and another 6 min. of Richert discussing the cast. Last but not least, there are radio spots, and, trailers for this and other Kino product. Bottom line: Winter Kills is a rather convoluted and, at times, not terribly prepossessing thriller, made tongue-in-cheek silly by Richert’s decision to concentrate more heavily on the irony in Condon’s prose, and turn virtually all of the would-be suspense into a rather shabby lampoon of the suspense/thriller genre. While some may champion either the results, or, this Blu-ray release as a chance to ‘rediscover’ an ‘overlooked’ piece of American cinema, Winter Kills – the movie bears only a passing resemblance to Condon’s perversely disturbing novel, and, should be regarded as its own wolf in sheep’s clothing. Judge and buy accordingly.

FILM RATING (out of 5 – 5 being the best)

2.5

VIDEO/AUDIO

4.5

EXTRAS

3.5