The Devil's 8
| The Devil's 8 | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Burt Topper |
| Produced by | Burt Topper |
| Written by |
John Milius Willard Huyck James Gordon White |
| Based on | story by Larry Gordon |
| Starring |
Christopher George Fabian Tom Nardini Leslie Parrish |
| Music by | Jerry Styner Michael LLoyd |
| Cinematography | Richard C. Glouner |
| Edited by | Fred Feitshans Jnr |
|
Production
company |
|
| Distributed by | AIP |
|
Release date
|
April 1969 |
|
Running time
|
97 mins |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
The Devil's 8 is a 1969 film from American International Pictures. A Federal agent (Christopher George) recruits six convicts to bust a moonshine ring run by the gangster Burl.
Federal agent Ray Faulkner poses as a road gang convict, and arranges the escape of a group of hardened chain-gang criminals. He forces them at gunpoint into a helicopter.
In flashback we see that Faulkner wants to take on a local crime boss, Burl, who runs a moonshine ring and has a lot of political power in a state.
Faulkner persuades the convicts to work on the side of the law by promising them paroles. He heads a team of eight men, composed of himself, six prisoners and a fellow agent. The team includes
Faulkner trains the men in high-speed driving and hurling lighted bombs at pinpoint targets.
The team start intercepting the moonshiners' delivery cars until Burl is forced to give Faulkner and his men a share of the illegal whiskey operation and let them make the deliveries.
Burl pulls a double-cross by arranging for Faulkner and Martin to be ambushed by crooked police while making a moonshine run, and Martin is shot down from a police helicopter.
Sonny has learned the location of Burl's stills and the team attack with their specially equipped cars and carefully timed explosives.
During the battle, Burl tries to escape by using his mistress Cissy as a hostage, but Faulkner captures him. Cissy is reunited with Davis, and Burl is taken to prison.
The film was based on a story by Larry Gordon, who was a story editor at AIP. The first draft was done by James Gordon White, who wrote several films for AIP. White was then given a job working on Killers Three. Gordon had the script rewritten by his two assistants, John Milius and Willard Huyck, who had gotten a summer job working in the story department of AIP after studying at USC.
Milius says they were given two weeks to write it and they did it in ten days. "I don't think we ever thought it was our best work. It was pretty good; it was funny... a lot of noise but not very good action." Milius says the film was a deliberate attempt to copy The Dirty Dozen. "It was called The Devil's 8 because they didn't have enough money for a full dozen."
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Wikipedia