Jinxed!
| Jinxed | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Don Siegel |
| Produced by | Herb Jaffe |
| Screenplay by |
Frank D. Gilroy David Newman |
| Story by | Frank D. Gilroy |
| Starring | |
| Music by |
Bruce Roberts Miles Goodman |
| Cinematography | Vilmos Zsigmond |
| Edited by | Douglas Stewart |
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Production
companies |
Herb Jaffe Productions
United Artists |
| Distributed by | MGM/UA Entertainment Company |
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Release date
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Running time
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103 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $13.4 million |
| Box office | $2,869,638 |
Jinxed! (also known as Jinxed on promotional media) is a 1982 American comedy film starring Bette Midler, Rip Torn and Ken Wahl. Directed by Don Siegel, the veteran filmmaker would suffer a heart attack during the troubled production. This would be Siegel's final film.
Harold Benson (Rip Torn) and his lounge-singer wife Bonita Friml (Bette Midler) follow a young blackjack dealer Willie Brodax (Ken Wahl) around the country. Harold has a blackjack winning jinx on Willie, and seemingly can't lose to him. After Willie becomes suspicious, he starts following Harold and finds his trailer and starts talking to Bonita. Willie and Bonita eventually fall in love and plot to do away with Harold to collect Harold's life insurance.
The film is based on the 1980 novel The Edge by Frank D. Gilroy. He sold the film rights to the Ladd Company at Warner Bros. intending to direct; Ladd then sold the project to Herb Jaffe at United Artists for $300,000 and Jaffe hired David Newman to rewrite it. A UA production executive suggested Bette Midler for the lead and she asked for Don Siegel to direct. The script was rewritten by Jerry Blatt, Carol Rydall, Midler and Siegel. During development it was also known as The Jackpot and Hot Streak. Gilroy had his name removed from the film and was credited as "Burt Blessing".
Filming started on May 5, 1981 and took place at Harrah's Lake Tahoe , Lake Tahoe , MGM Grand Reno and MGM studios.
Siegel had been a mentor of director Sam Peckinpah, who was having difficulty finding assignments in the film industry due to his most recent troubled production. Siegel offered Peckinpah a chance to return to filmmaking with 12 days of second unit directing work on Jinxed. Peckinpah accepted, and his collaboration with was noted within the industry. While Peckinpah's work was uncredited, it would lead to his hiring as the director of his final film, The Osterman Weekend (1983).
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