This is my all time favorite film, and the one that made me want to be an actor. I would have traded places with William Atherton any day of the week for that role. Saw this film thirty times in the theater. Wish I was in this film.
From the information I read, and from meeting Karen Black, I don't think it was a favorite film of hers, simply, because she was the second or third choice for the role, and the director and Sutherland let her know it. She was brilliant in this film. Other than Tod, never thought the characters in the book were well drawn anyway, so Karen Black was a welcome addition.
She had a wide range. This was evident in Great Gatsby, Family Plot, Nashville, and overlooked film called CRIME AND PASSION. Remember, in those days her films were critical, not financial, successes.
Another fact is Atherton had the most difficult role as 'the reactor' who had to take this all in. DOTL was only his fourth film. Two were day player parts, the other was the third lead in SUGARLAND EXPRESS, a film directed by a great man that was not regarded, at the time, as being an 'actor's director.' Atherton had some large shoes to fill, and the Director, never made him forget that. And, as everybody will testify, Atherton is brilliant in this film.
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moosefeathers
9 years ago
From the information I read, and from meeting Karen Black, I don't think it was a favorite film of hers, simply, because she was the second or third choice for the role, and the director and Sutherland let her know it. She was brilliant in this film. Other than Tod, never thought the characters in the book were well drawn anyway, so Karen Black was a welcome addition.
So, if the trivia is correct, Goldie Hawn and Sally Struthers.....? THANK GOODNESS they got Karen Black. Neither one of them at the time were ready for that kind of role.
She had a wide range. This was evident in Great Gatsby, Family Plot, Nashville, and overlooked film called CRIME AND PASSION. Remember, in those days her films were critical, not financial, successes.
True. Also, let's not forget she played five different characters in Trilogy of Terror, albeit a tv movie, but still...five characters.
Never saw Crime and Passion but she did do a movie later on in her older years called Red Dirt in which she shined.
And she survived unscathed doing a movie with BOTH Bette Davis, The Grand Dame Bitch and Oliver Reed, a seedy perverted lush. hahahah.
One more small tv role she played was in Law & Order: Criminal Intent. She was a drunken mother, and played it well.
Swing away, Merrill....Merrill, swing away...
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