Brad Stevens - Monte Hellman - His Life and Films

7. "Monte Hellman Interview: Exploitation or Existentialism?" by Ron Wells, November 6, 2000 (available on the Internet), Jon-Stephen Fink's Cluck! The True Story of Chickens in the Cinema (1981), p. 76, audio commentary on the Cockfighter DVD (2000) and "Monte Hellman: In His Own Words," Cashiers du Cinemart 7 (available on the Internet).

8. Charles Willeford's journal was published in 1989 (in a limited edition of 300 copies) under the title Cockfighter Journal: The Story of a Shooting. Shortly after the filming of Cockfighter , Willeford wrote a 17 page treatment entitled Last Flight from Hong Kong for Roger Corman, but this project (with which Hellman was not involved) was never made.

9. Steven Gaydos, e-mail to the author, January 8, 2001.

10. Monte Hellman, e-mail to the author, December 11, 2000.

11. Corman, p. 201. Hellman insists that "Cockfighting was not legal in Georgia. I'm not sure about Arizona, but I believe it isn't legal anywhere in the U.S. It may be tolerated in some places, like Georgia, where there are only infrequent arrests and fines" (e-mail to the author, February 7, 2002).

12. Monte Hellman, e-mail to the author, February 10, 2001. These shots, one of which was used on the DVD's menu, can be found 50 minutes in, just after Jack Burke tells Frank of his marriage to Dody.

13. Monte Hellman in Paul Joyce's film Plunging on Alone: Monte Hellman' s Life in a Day (1986) and Cashiers du Cinemart.

14. Jon Davison, e-mails to the author, May 2, and 7, 2001.

15. Monte Hellman, e-mail to the author, December 11, 2000. Anchor Bay's DVD is framed at 1.77:1, and actually includes less visual information at the bottom and especially top of the image than Embassy's full-screen video: "I chose the DVD framing, which is slightly taller than the theatrical release aspect ratio, but which matches the 16:9 widescreen TV ratio. The video includes information that was only included for TV release, and was not our intended framing" (Monte Hellman, e-mail to the author, February 10, 2001).

16. The voiceover does not derive from Willeford's novel or screenplay, but was created by Hellman and Earl Mac Rauch: "We recorded some interviews with a lot of cockfighters and took a line here and a line there from these interviews to create his narration" (Monte Hellman, audio commentary on the Cockfighter DVD).

17. "Monte Hellman Is in No Way Bitter" by Matthew Wilder, June 14, 2000 (found on the Internet, subsequently removed).

18. Monte Hellman, audio commentary on the Cockfighter DVD.

19. When Hellman read this comment, he responded, "I would not presume the boy was 'repulsed by the fighting chickens.' Far from it. I feel he's just bored (the action is rather redundant), and playing with whatever's at hand" (e-mail to the author, August 25, 2001).

20. Monte Hellman, audio commentary on the Cockfighter DVD.

21. As Hellman pointed out to me, "there's also a hat on the bed in the tent scene near the beginning of The Shooting , which upsets Willett" (e-mail to the author, August 25, 2001).

22. The Shooting and Ride in the Whirlwind achieved much the same effect by importing concerns relating specifically to the climate of 1960s America.

23. Charles Willeford was clearly aware of the tradition to which he belonged. In his novel, he cites "a beat-up copy" of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as one of the few books owned by Frank Mansfield ("I suppose I've drifted down the river with Huck Finn & Co. fifty times or more").

24. Edward Gallafent, "The Adventures of Rafe Hunnicutt: The Bourgeois Family in Home from the Hill. " Movie 34/35, Winter 1990. p. 60.

25. Richard Combs, Cockfighter , Sight and Sound Autumn 1974, p. 246.

26. The idea of masculinity as a lack, a minus compared to the plus of femininity, is most strikingly expressed in Edgar Allan Poe's The Man That Was Used Up (1839), wherein Brevet Brigadier-General John A. B. C. Smith, "that truly fine-looking fellow ... of a presence singularly commanding," with an air "which spoke of high breeding, and hinted at high birth," is revealed to be nothing more than an assemblage of artificially constructed props.

27. Compare the shots juxtaposing Andre with a flying bird in The Terror.

28. Combs, p. 247.

29. Tom Milne, review of Cockfighter , Monthly Film Bulletin 523, August 1977, p. 166.

30. Monte Hellman, audio commentary on the Cockfighter DVD.

Chapter 12. In Between Projects, 1974-1977

1. Steven Gaydos, e-mail to the author, January 8, 2001.

2. Monte Hellman, e-mail to the author, January 8, 2001.

3. Monte Hellman, e-mail to the author, February 25, 2001.

4. Hellman also managed to fool Joan Mellen, whose account of Fistful of Dollars in her 1977 book Big Bad Wolves: Masculinity in the American Film is clearly based on a viewing of the television version. According to Mellen, "Eastwood, far from being appreciated for his manly skills, is in prison when the film opens. He is pardoned on the condition that he will clean up the corrupt town of San Miguel."

5. Monte Hellman, e-mails to the author, December 13 and 14, 2000, January 30, February 25, March 24 and April 19, 2001.

6. Ernie Farino, e-mail to the author, January 29, 2001.

7. Monte Hellman, e-mail to the author, December 13, 2000.

8. Monte Hellman, e-mails to the author, December 12, 2000 and February 21, 2001 and Sam Peckinpah: Man of Iron (1991).

9. One amusing piece of trivia: Baretta 's pilot episode includes a scene in which Baretta is chased by someone driving a G.T.O. — the same G.T.O. Warren Gates drove in Two-Lane Blacktop (it was the property of Universal, who produced both Baretta and Two-Lane ) . Shots from this sequence, showing Baretta holding onto the car as it crashes through a fence, became part of the show's regular opening credits montage.

10. Monte Hellman, e-mail to the author, February 7, 2001.

11. Elisha Cook, Jr., and Robert Blake had also appeared together in James William Guercio's Electra Glide in Blue (1973).

12. Monte Hellman, e-mails to the author, December 12 and 18, 2000, January 28 and February 7, 2001.

13. Ed Begley, Jr., e-mail to the author, December 17, 2000.

14. Monte Hellman, e-mail to the author, December 18, 2000.

15. Monte Hellman, e-mails to the author, December 19, 2000, February 6, 7 and 11, 2001.

16. Monte Hellman, e-mail to the author, December 13, 14 and 16, 2000.

17. There are three editors credited on Harry and Walter Go to New York: Fredric Steinkamp, David Bretherton and Don Guidice.

18. Monte Hellman, e-mails to the author, December 14 and 16, 2000.

19. Monte Hellman, e-mails to the author, April 4 and August 28, 2001. There is no connection between this project and Nairobi Affair , a television film (starring Charlton Heston and John Savage) directed by Marvin J. Chomsky in 1984.