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Winter Kills

Catalog Number
2056
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Primary Distributor (If not listed, select "OTHER")
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VHS | N/A | Slipcase
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Winter Kills (1979)

Additional Information

Additional Information
They are the power. Protected by violence and ruled by corruption.

Who really killed our president?

The Kegans are an American dynasty. They own oil...banks...beautiful women...even presidents. They have the power to make fortunes and destroy careers. 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...

Spring seduces. Summer thrills. Autumn stuns. Winter kills.

Even in the best of families...

Something funny is happening in WINTER KILLS. Take it seriously!

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...

Joe Kegan owns so much of America, he figures the flag should salute him every morning. Some people say he stole the presidency of the United States for his son. He claims he bought it, fair and square...

What Dr. Strangelove did for the bomb, what M*A*S*H did for the war, WINTER KILLS does for the American dream.


Based on a novel by the iconoclastic Richard Condon (of Manchurian Candidate and Prizzi's Honor fame), Winter Kills was one of the vanguard efforts in the "JFK conspiracy" school of literature. Jeff Bridges stars as Nick Kegan, the scion of a powerful Kennedyesque family, who has done his best to make himself obscure after the assassination of his older brother, the former president of the U.S. While working as an oil rigger, Nick is introduced to a terminally ill gentleman who claims to have been "the second assassin." His curiosity aroused, Nick begins digging into what was supposed to be a closed case -- and, predictably, what he finds out isn't pretty. This, however, is the only predictable element of this mesmerizingly mazelike yarn. A failure when first released, Winter Kills fared somewhat better when director William Richert arranged to rerelease the film through his own company and restore several scenes that had been cut by its previous backers. Elizabeth Taylor appears uncredited as one "Lola Comante."


Winter Kills is a 1979 film based on the novel by Richard Condon. Its cast includes Jeff Bridges, John Huston, Anthony Perkins, Eli Wallach, Richard Boone, Toshirō Mifune, Sterling Hayden, Dorothy Malone, Ralph Meeker, Elizabeth Taylor, Berry Berenson and Susan Walden.
Most of the film was lensed by cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond, and the production designer was Robert Boyle, who cited the film as one of his favorites. The director, however, was a relative novice named William Richert.
The production went so far over budget that it was shut down three times and declared bankruptcy. The film had been produced by two wealthy marijuana dealers — Robert Sterling and Leonard Goldberg. Goldberg was murdered by the mafia in the middle of production, for failure to pay his debts, and Sterling was later sentenced to 40 years in prison for marijuana smuggling.[1] Richert and much of the cast went to Germany and filmed a comedy called The American Success Company which made enough money to fund a resumption of Winter Kills two years later.
Influential publications including the New York Times, Newsweek, and the New Yorker gave positive reviews, but it made little money when released. Condon and Richert hypothesized that distributor Embassy Pictures killed it deliberately in order to avoid threatening defense contracts elsewhere within the conglomerate. A later release (and distribution to video) fared better, and included scenes not shown on screen, with additional footage by Elizabeth Taylor.
The film simplifies the plot of the book somewhat, and emphasizes humor. It follows the events surrounding the assassination of President Kegan (patterned after John F. Kennedy). Several years later, the President's brother Nick (Bridges) discovers leads which suggest there may have been a plot to kill the Chief Executive. The ending of the movie is ambiguous, leaving it unclear whether President Kegan had been killed by his father (Huston), or the father's assistant, John Cerruti (Perkins).
Many of the film's interior scenes were shot in 1977 at the Greystone Mansion in Beverly Hills, then home to the American Film Institute's film school.
Who Killed 'Winter Kills'? is a 2003, 38 minute documentary film about the production of Winter Kills.


Release Date: May 18, 1979


Distrib: Avco Embassy


Boxoffice: $1,083,799 2013 adj: $3,428,400


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