Brad Stevens - Monte Hellman - His Life and Films

20. Monte Hellman, e-mail to the author, April 8, 2001.

21. Ibid.

22. Monte Hellman, e-mail to the author, November 24, 2000.

23. Monte Hellman, e-mail to the author, February 9, 2001.

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

25. Byron "Buzz" Brandt, the film's credited editor.

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

27. Monte Hellman, e-mail to the author, December 14, 2000. In Patrick McGilligan's Backstory 3 , the film's writer Ring Lardner Jr. claims that "the Columbia studio people specifically declined to consult with either of the two people who had the clearest idea of (Tom Gries') conceptions: the assistant director and me. Instead, it was edited by committee, with predictable results" (p. 227).

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

Chapter 13. China 9 , Liberty 7

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

2. Monte Hellman, e-mails to the author, January 7 and 8, 2001 and "The Cylinders Were Whispering My Name."

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

4. According to Hellman, the complete joke is as follows: "During the Sino/Japanese war, a Chinese and a Japanese are passengers together on an ocean liner. They receive daily reports via short-wave about casualties. First day, killed: 35 Chinese, 3 Japanese. The Japanese smiles gloatingly. Second day, killed: 85 Chinese, 7 Japanese. The Japanese smiles again. Third day, killed: 239 Chinese, 32 Japanese. The Japanese starts to smile again, but the Chinese stops him: "Pretty soon, no more Japanese.' " The implication in the movie is the same. Two Chinese and one Japanese are being hanged. The significance was lost by the fact I didn't have any Chinese or Japanese extras, only Koreans. But as Rotunno rightly remarked, only the Chinese and Japanese would know the difference" (Monte Hellman, e-mail to the author, February 9, 2001).

5. Monte Hellman, e-mails to the author, December 16, 2000, and January 7, and February 9, 2001 and Psychotronic 25, p. 81.

6. Monte Hellman, quoted in Marshall Fine's Bloody Sam: The Life and Films of Sam Peckinpah (Donald I. Fine, Inc, 1991), p. 323; National Film Theatre lecture, London, January 3rd 1995; Romauld Karmakar's film Hellman Rider (1989); "The Full Monte," Time Out January 1995, p. 15, and e-mails to the author, December 16, 2000 and August 26, and 27, 2001.

7. Monte Hellman, e-mail to the author, December 16, 2000.

8. Monte Hellman, e-mails to the author, December 16, 2000, and August 16, 2001.

9. Monte Hellman, e-mails to the author, December 16, 2000, and January 8, 2001.

10. Ironically, when China 9 played at the 1978 Edinburgh Film Festival, Richard Combs described the circus dwarf as "a gratuitous eccentricity representing the contribution of the Italian Western" ("There's No Such Thing as a Soft-hearted Gunfighter," Sight and Sound Winter 1978/1979, p. 35).

11. Monte Hellman, e-mail to the author, December 16, 2000. In the English-language version, Clayton responds to Catherine's question, "What'll you do?" by saying, "That's my problem. Show him your nuts." In Italian prints, Clayton's line becomes "Non faccio piani. Stavolta ha vinto lui" ("I don't make plans. This time it's him who has won"). Thanks to Alberto Pezzotta for pointing this out to me.

12. Monte Hellman, e-mail to the author, December 16, 2000.

13. Taken from Hellman's description of Victor Erice's The Spirit of the Beehive in the BBC series "Close-Up" (1995).

14. The effect seems to be modeled on the ending of Antonioni's The Passenger (1975): "Antonioni had bars that swung open, and once outside the window the camera (which was on a gyroscope) was moved to another crane. It took several days to shoot. We just used a Zoom lens from inside the jail cell, and slowly zoomed back and dollied back until we revealed the bars from the inside. It took no more than 30 minutes" (Monte Hellman, e-mail to the author, March 13, 2001).

15. In Samuel Fuller (Secker and Warburg, 1971), Nicholas Garnham observes that "Quests and meaningless journeys abound in Godard, during which the protagonists find out as much about themselves as they do about their ostensible goal" (p. 158), a comment that is obviously relevant to China 9. See also P.L. Titterington's "Kubrick and The Shining " in Sight and Sound Spring 1981, pp. 117-121.

Chapter 14. In Between Projects, 1978–1987

1. Monte Hellman, e-mails to the author, January 4, and 5, 2001.

2. Monte Hellman, e-mails to the author, December 17, and 19, 2000, and NFT Lecture, London, January 3, 1995.

3. Monte Hellman, NFT lecture and e-mails to the author, December 17, 18, 19 and 20, 2000, and March 28, 2001.

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

5. Ibid. Lee Marvin's next film was Sam Fuller's The Big Red One (1980), another Lorimar production on which Gene Corman was a producer. Although several sources claim that Hellman directed second unit scenes for this film, he was not connected with it in any capacity.

6. Monte Hellman, e-mails to the author, December 17, and 19, 2000, and March 28, 2001.

7. Monte Hellman, e-mail to the author, December 19, 2000. Warners' prints also make some minor changes to the actual credits.

8. Richard Combs, review of Avalanche Express , Monthly Film Bulletin 546, July 1979, p. 144.

9. Monte Hellman, e-mail to the author, January 5, 2001.

10. Monte Hellman, e-mail to the author, December 20, 2000.

11. Monte Hellman, e-mails to the author, December 20, and 21, 2000.

12. Vernon Zimmerman, e-mail to the author, February 22, 2001.

13. Holt died before finishing the film, which, like Shatter , was completed by its producer, Michael Carreras.

14. Monte Hellman, e-mails to the author, October 14, 15 and 16, 2000.

15. Monte Hellman, e-mail to the author, October 14, 2000. A complete list of the cuts Hellman made to The A wakening appeared in the author's "Choice Cuts" column in The Dark Side 90 (December 2000, pp. 22-23).

16. Monte Hellman, e-mail to the author, December 20, 2000.

17. Monte Hellman, e-mails to the author, December 20, 2000, and January 4, 2001.

18. "Monte Hellman Is in No Way Bitter."

19. Monte Hellman, quoted in Tom Thurman's film Warren Oates: Across the Border (1992), "Monte Hellman is in No Way Hitter," Movie Talk from the Front Lines , p. 16, Plunging on Alone and "The Full Monte," Time Out , January 1995.

20. Charles Willeford's Cockfighter Journal contains a completely inaccurate account of Bird's death ("Laurie ... leaped out of a window and killed herself in New York"). According to Hellman, "Although the overdose of valium was not accidental, Laurie expected Art Garfunkel to arrive momentarily and save her, and therefore didn't intend to die" (e-mail to the author, August 26, 2001). The actual details of Bird's overdose curiously parallel events in Nicolas Roeg's Bad Timing , which Garfunkel had just finished filming.

21. Monte Hellman, interview on the Barnes and Noble website, January 30, 2001.