Winter Kills

"Winter Kills" is based on a novel by Richard Condon ("The Manchurian Candidate") about a man who confesses to having killed the President on his death bed. The President's brother (Jeff Bridges) witnesses the confession and stumbles upon a conspiracy plot involving more murder and silencing.

This movie somehow slipped under the radar years ago. Whereas "Manchurian Candidate" got the attention it rightfully deserved, "Winter Kills" was killed by its controversy and production faults.

It was allegedly filmed in 1975 and only released in 1979, although I can't find any evidence to back this up. What I do know is that it was given an X rating in the UK, and when a movie in the UK gets an X rating, you know something's wrong.

I'm not sure why it received such a harsh rating but evidently that had something to do with its box office failure. I suppose its themes (clear allusion to the JFK assassination) were too heavy - not to mention the violence was rather explicit.

Seen today, this movie is an underrated gem. John Huston delivers a great performance as Bridges' father, while Bridges is equally great. The music in the film is eerie and tense - without it, I doubt the film would be quite as good as it is.

It was directed by William Richert (who played the gay Bob Pigeon in "My Own Private Idaho") and he does a fine job. The movie builds its suspense well; the only segment I didn't like too much was when Bridges goes to visit his father for the first time. I felt it went on too long and was out of place.

Other than that, this is a very good film and a sadly underrated conspiracy theory movie that never got its chance to make a mark.

Nick Kegan (Jeff Bridges) is the younger brother of the former US president, who was murdered in strange circumstances decades ago in unsolved circumstances. He is son of a wealthy man (John Huston) who has the power to make fortune and destroy careers. When a badly wounded man confesses to being the author of the assassination, providing irrefutable evidence, the truth about what happened ends up involving Nick in unprecedented danger. Later on, Nick is connected to John Cerruti (Anthony Perkins), the mastermind behind the Kegan empire. Nick is chauffeured to Pa Kegan's desert estate, where he is greeted by the Japanese butler, Keith (Toshirô Mifune). Along the way, Nick searching for the real assassin and stumbling across the bloodstained the tag of any similarity hardly stands up. Later that evening, Nick sees his emotionally unstable mother, Emma (Dorothy Malone), and is rebuked by his father for leaving the ship. They are the power !. Protected by violence and ruled by corruption !. The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty !. From the author of The Manchurian Candidate !. In a world gone sane...we need a movie as wild and entertaining as Winter Kills !. Even in the best of families...Winter Kills. Nick Kegan's brother was the President of the United States. Nick is next in line... if he lives that long. Last week, even the maid tried to murder him...Something funny is happening in WInter Kills Take it seriously! . Who really killed our president? They own oil...banks...beautiful women...even presidents. One man will inherit it all. If he lives. Some people say he stole the presidency of the United States for his son. He claims he bought it, fair and square...

Distinctively black comedy suffers a hilariously paranoid adaptation of American public life, dealing with with a presidential assassination with clear connotations to that of Joseph F Kennedy. The interesting story of a man caught up in a situation he can't grasp, a situation with which the viewer might well sympathise . A young Jeff Bridges stars in this thriller, action and suspense film with hints of black comedy, along with other classic film stars. In the movie , a series of twists and turns occur with a succession of increasingly bizarre situations, scenarios and characters, resulting in a story of a complex conspiracy that ended the life of President Kegan, with a puzzle of various clues that eventually unfold. Interpretations are pretty good. Jeff Bridges as as the lost brother who has been drifting through life ever since his older sibling was assassinated 15 years early; John Huston as his eccentric father who wants to draw Nick back into the family by claiming a conspiracy; Anthony Perkins in a sinister and enigmatic character, and Elizabeth Taylor went unbilled , in for a brief wordless cameo role as a former movie star called Lola Comonte who served as procuresss for the late president . Other acting that achieves believable chracterisation are those of Eli Wallach, Sterling Hayden, Dorothy Malone, Tomas Milian, Belinda Bauer, Ralph Meeker, Toshiro Mifune, Richard Boone, David Spielberg, Brad Dexter, Joe Spinell, among others. Winter Kills(1979) is an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Richard Condon, mainly known for his works of political fiction. One of his most notable works is "The Manchurian Candidate." which was made into a big movie in 1962 and starred Sinatra, Laurence Harvey and Angela Lansbury, as well as ¨Prizzi's honor¨ directed by John Huston himself.

This motion picture with a helter-skelter narrative was unevenly directed by William Richert, but well worth watching. Richert's direction negotiates the plot's many pleasurably sharp bends with such skill that one emerges a little dazed, more than a littled amused, and nagged by a worrying sense that it could just all be true. Flopped at the boxoffice, but was re-edited with the original ending restored and re-released in 1983. William Richert was a bold, brash uncompromising figure in the tradition of Orson Welles and John Cassavetes; William Richert burst on to the Hollywood scene near the end of the storied 1970s, first as a screenwriter and then as director of the dazzling conspiracy opus Winter Kills. A critical triumph abandoned by its studio, the movie set the tone for Richert's career to come-a quartet of highly original, idiosyncratic American features that have maintained an almost clandestine existence, subject to poor distribution and myriad unauthorized versions, directing a few films, such as: A Dancer's Life (1972), The American Success Company (1979), A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon (1988) and The Face of Alexandre Dumas: The Man in the Iron Mask (1998).

William Richert's "Winter Kills" is a strange, offbeat film, to say the least. It begins seriously, but then changes tones and becomes a searing black comedy. I felt a little guilty about enjoying the film so much, considering that it's about a political assassination cover-up.

But, then I changed my mind. After all, this, "Prizzi's Honor" and the great "The Manchurian Candidate" were all based on novels written by the same author, Richard Condon. The one thing these films all have in common are that they are savage comedies about serious subjects. So perhaps that was the tone Condon was going for. The humor will escape some, but those who can appreciate dark humor will love it.

The film also contains a gallery of great performances by top talent. The cast includes Jeff Bridges, John Huston (a great actor as well as a great writer and great director), Anthony Perkins, Sterling Hayden, Richard Boone, Eli Wallach and in a cameo, Elizabeth Taylor. They make the most of this material and play it very straight. This is the key to the film's success. If they had played it slyly, it may not have worked as well.

But it's not fair to praise the cast only. William Richert also deserves praise for maintaining such uneven shifts between tones and for telling such a potentially confusing storyline with style and grace. It's such a solid script and such strong direction that he should have received Oscar nods for his work.

"Winter Kills" exists in two versions. In 1980, Magnetic Video briefly released the theatrical cut, which was edited to deemphasize the comedy and rush-released by Avco Embassy. However, in 1983, Richert was given the green light to re-edit his film. This version, with the original ending restored and many of the comic moments restored, was released by Embassy Home Entertainment in 1984.

My rating applies to the 1983 re-edit, although I would really like to see the original 1979 edit. If anyone out there has a copy of the 1980 Magnetic Video release, e-mail me.

**** out of 4 stars (1983 re-edit)

What a mess. It starts out interesting enough but the longer it goes on the more annoying the whole thing gets. It's basically the same joke over and over. The movie sets up situations to pull you in and you take it serious for a minute only to have the rug pulled out from under you with the cinematic equivalent of the "pull my finger" gag. It gets old. John Huston is having fun and that makes all his scenes at least watchable. I was begging for it to be over before the halfway mark. I'm reviewing the directors cut by the way, in case that matters. I'm not remotely interested now in learning anything about this film's backstory.

Winter Kills is an enormously intriguing film, whose entertainment quotient depends largely upon how early on the viewer catches on that this is an extremely black comedy about politics, paranoia, and the sacred cow Kennedy family. This is what you would get if Irwin Allen produced a really wry comic version of The Parallax View -- no longer a hackneyed political thriller like its source material, William Richert has transformed it into social satire with an all-star cast. His touch was so gentle with regard to the satirical elements, that few critics recognized the film as any kind of comedy upon its initial theatrical release. Winter Kills is not a cinema classic -- ie, its not The Manchurian Candidate -- but it is an engaging, ahead-of-its-time film featuring an unforgettable performance by John Huston as the Joe Kennedy type. (The most unforgettable part -- or is it the bit hardest to get out of one's mind? -- is the sight of Mr. Huston in red jockey shorts!) Highly recommended to all fans of 1970s cinema, and especially political paranoia movies like The Parallax View, The Conversation and Capricorn One. Next time you're thinking about popping some drivel like Enemy Of The State in the old VCR, I beg you, reconsider and treat yourself to a little festival of this film and Parallax View or even Three Days Of The Condor.