Death Game

The script of Death Game was principally written by Anthony d'Oberoff (credited as "Anthony Overman") and Michael Ronald Ross, who met in 1970 while working as copywriters for Capitol Records; Overman would receive a nomination for Best Album Notes in at the 13th Annual Grammy Awards and later pursued an acting career under the name "Anthony Gordon", while Ross would eventually launch Capitol's reissue program. After initially collaborating on a script dealing with a kidnapping at a girls' school, Ross proposed that they write a psychological thriller in the vein of Roman Polanski's Repulsion during Overman's final two weeks at Capitol before being laid off. The primary inspiration for the story was an incident Ross had experienced in 1969, when he brought a hitchhiking hippie named Donna to the Laurel Canyon home that he was subleasing for Harry Nilsson, where she gradually outstayed her welcome and burned "every" spoon in the household for the purpose of cooking drugs; the character's name was subsequently used in the script.[6]

After considering a multitude of working titles, including Little Miss Queen of Darkness and Night Child, the writers elected to name their first draft of the screenplay Freak as a tribute to Tod Browning's film Freaks. To underline the lesbian undertones of the two female characters' relationship, Ross chose to name the more dominant of the two characters "Jackson" after Jackson Browne, while Overman devised the scene in which the character reads the Marquis de Sade novel Justine. In contrast to his portrayal in the film, the male protagonist — originally named "Parker" after the protagonist of various novels by Richard Stark — was portrayed as a loner.[7]

Overman presented the screenplay to actor-turned-producer Don Devlin (also the father of future producer Dean Devlin), who advised the writers to make Parker an "everyman" character. After several rewrites, during which Parker was renamed "George Manning", the script went through several title changes, including Mrs. Manning's Vacation and Mrs. Manning's Holiday, before settling on Mrs. Manning's Weekend, which was the title used during principal photography.[7] After Delvin and Albert S. Ruddy passed on the project to work on The Fortune and The Godfather respectively, Mrs. Manning's Weekend was optioned in 1972 by Bill Duffy, the husband of screenwriter Jo Heims. Having written Clint Eastwood's films Play Misty for Me and Breezy (and associate producing the latter), Heims wrote a new draft of the film, and began developing the project for Eastwood's The Malpaso Company. In Heims' rewrites, the character of Donna fell in love with George; according to Delvin, Eastwood described her take on the story as "more Breezy than Misty". During this time, Eastwood was set to direct the film with Jack Lemmon playing George and Sondra Locke playing Jackson; Locke, who was over 30 but masqueraded about being younger, said she was attracted to the project after being told by her agent about a role for a "bad girl", a part she had not often played.[8][9] The 1944-born actress was almost twice as old as the character, though she had been lying about her age for years and projected a younger woman's personality in public.[lower-alpha 1]

Following the commercial failure of Breezy, Overman and Ross decided to rewrite Mrs. Manning's Weekend, as Nigg, with the George Manning character being renamed Parker and written as an African-American. The writers hoped to pitch Nigg as a vehicle for Richard Pryor, with whom Overman was personally connected through his wife, singer Niggy Joyce d'Oberoff, once Malpaso's option on the script ran out, but Duffy instead sold the option to Centuar Films, led by Peter S. Traynor, a California real-estate magnate and former life insurance salesman who had entered the motion picture industry as a producer only a few years earlier.[13][14] As with Traynor's real-estate developments, Death Game and his two previous movies, Steel Arena and Truck Stop Women, were funded largely using limited partnerships with California physicians as investors. Death Game was one of several Traynor movies in simultaneous production alongside the features Bogard, The Ultimate Thrill, and Dr. Shagetz.[15] Traynor also served as a producer of Death Game with Larry Spiegel.[16] [17]

Death Game was one of the earliest film roles for Colleen Camp, who had recently left college and appeared mostly in small television roles and commercials up to that point.[18][19][20] Actor Al Lettieri was originally set to play George Manning before the role went to Seymour Cassel, who was, in reality, only nine years older than Locke, while Locke was nine years older than Camp. Comic Marty Allen was also reported to have a cameo as the delivery man early in the movie's development.[21][22]

David Worth served as the film's cinematographer and editor. Jack Fisk was the production designer, while his wife, actress Sissy Spacek, worked as a set dresser.[23][24] A young Bill Paxton also worked as a set decorator on Death Game.[25] The musical score was composed by Jimmie Haskell and features two original vocal themes: "Good Old Dad," with lyrics by Iris Rainer Dart and performed by the Ron Hicklin Singers; and "We're Home," with lyrics by Guy Hemric and performed by Maxine Weldon.[16]

The production budget for Death Game was $150,000 according to Worth.[1][2] Filming took place in 1974, at which time the movie was known by numerous working titles including "Mrs. Manning's Weekend",[1][26] "Mrs. Manning's Holiday",[27] "Weekend of Terror",[21][22][18] and "Handful of Hours".[15][28][29] Principal photography took between thirteen[1][2] and fifteen[14] days. Traynor chose a large home in Hancock Park, Los Angeles, as a primary filming location, which the crew rented for $1,000 per week.[27] Both Locke and Worth described the filming process for Death Game as extremely tumultuous. Locke claimed the original script for film was much more suspenseful and less exploitive, but that Traynor attempted to interject more comedic elements into the story.[1] Locke criticized the director's lack of leadership, recounting he "didn't have any idea what he needed to be, was, or should be doing." She claimed his direction often consisted of simply telling the two lead actresses to "break something, or eat something".[30][31] This gradually led to Cassel and Locke directing their own performances, as well as that of the less-experienced Camp.[1][32] Tensions on set were high between Traynor and Cassel, as the actor constantly threatened to leave the production. After one scene involving the two female antagonists dumping large amounts of food on his character, Cassel was allegedly so angry he nearly hit the director.[1] He also reportedly refused to loop his character's dialogue once filming wrapped, leaving Worth to dub the voice of George Manning in post-production.[1][31]

After the film's first director of photography was fired, Worth was brought on board as a replacement. Though initially reluctant due to the seemingly chaotic production, Worth took the job after learning that the cast included Locke and Cassel, both of whom had been nominated for an Academy Award for previous works.[1] Worth shot most scenes in anamorphic widescreen[33] using a 35 mm Panavison Panaflex handheld camera.[1][34] Due to a limited budget and tight schedule, Worth found it more effective to simply sit down in a nearby chair to shoot close-ups of the actors rather than arduously set up a tripod each time. He also had to underexpose scenes featuring Locke because of her crow’s feet and fair complexion.[1][34] Locke expressed appreciation for Worth's photography of her in Death Game.[1][33][35] During the last days of filming, she suffered a black eye off the set and had to have her injury concealed by giving her character a large amount of makeup in the film's later scenes.[36]

Death Game was originally set for an early summer 1975 release.[15] However, the film was incomplete by this time and was among several studio projects put on hold due to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigating Traynor's financing methods.[14][37] After settling with a consent decree several months later, Traynor sought help from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) to finish Death Game. The company granted the director $100,000 and helped secure Levitt-Pickman as the film's distributor. Editing took place over a three-week period, with Traynor and Worth working together some 15 hours per day, seven days a week to completion.[14]

Death Game premiered theatrically at the Northway Shopping Center cinema in Colonie, New York, on April 13, 1977, in what Traynor described as a "test market" release.[5] Thanks to the financial aid from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and distribution handling by Levitt-Pickman, Death Game was considered by Traynor as "a safe bet for drive-ins and as an urban cult attraction".[15] The film subsequently opened in Fresno, California on June 3, 1977.[38] According to Variety and BoxOffice reports, the film's limited theatrical run from May to October 1977 boasted "poor" to "fair" ticket earnings.[39][40]

Critical response to Death Game has been mixed dating back to its original 1977 release. At the time of the film's debut in New York, Doug Delisle of The Times Record recognized the potential for contrasting reactions in moviegoers, with viewers either possibly seeing it as "a relentlessly painful and violent film with no purpose, no reason for being" or as "a statement about man's currently violent place in society" and "the inevitability of fate, the inability of man to isolate himself from a hostile environment." Delisle labeled Death Game as an "antithesis of much of the rest of today's cinematic gore", noting that the film strives to depict pain that is personal rather than physical. "Traynor's violence is not of the slick, exploitative variety," he summarized. "He doesn't show volumes of blood staining the celluloid with potential box office bucks."[5]

Many journalists praised the film's structure and acting. Delisle stated that even with several plot holes, the film is "engrossing" and "extremely well-made" despite its modest budget, and that all three lead actors present "splendidly vivid and realistic portrayals" of their characters.[5] Muir echoed this, proclaiming Death Game as "a riveting, sexual psycho-thriller, and well-directed and acted", finding it to have "the same discomforting adrenaline surge one feels in The Last House on the Left or Fatal Attraction".[16] BoxOffice found the plot to have a "fascinating quality", whether based on true events or not.[17] Rich Osmond of Cashiers du Cinemart stated that although he found much of the narrative "laughable and inept," he credited the lead actresses for conveying "genuinely creepy" moments in the film's second half.[31] Others responded much more negatively to Death Game. Critic Leonard Maltin denounced the plot entirely, calling it as an "unpleasant (and ultimately ludicrous) film about two maniac lesbians who—for no apparent reason—tease, titillate, and torture a man in his own house."[41] Variety similarly dismissed it as "another grisly try at horror exploitation and, as such, looms as possibly a fast-turn-over item in a situation afflicted with the severest case of product shortage."[26]

Death Game found somewhat greater prominence on cable television and in video rental stores in the years that followed.[36] It received domestic VHS releases in the US by United Entertainment under the title The Seducers beginning in 1981. The distribution rights then went to VCI Entertainment and the film was re-released on VHS in 1984[42] and on DVD beginning in 2004.[43][44] Finally, distribution was acquired by Grindhouse Releasing around 2010.[45][46] Death Game has been given international distribution, such as a UK release from Brent Walker[47] and an Australian release by Intervision Video.[48] In 2022, the film was re-released on Blu-ray by Grindhouse Releasing in its original, anamorphic widescreen format.[1]