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Seymour Cassel was the associate producer for John Cassavetes' first film as a director, SHADOWS. Cassel also had a small role as a pool player in the film. SHADOWS is often referred to as the forerunner of the American independent film movement. Its groundbreaking approach employed a cinéma verité attempt to capture a purely objective reality on film through the use of such elements as improvisation, unsentimental subject matter, gritty visual style and independent financing, which allowed freedom from commercial constraints. Cassavetes (1929—1989) rose to fame in the mid-1950s as an actor on television and in such films as EDGE OF THE CITY. In 1956, he and Burt Lane co-founded the Cassavetes-Lane Drama Workshop in Manhattan, an acting studio devoted to improvisational techniques.
The inception of SHADOWS took place in the workshop, where Cassavetes challenged his students to flesh out a general outline about two light-skinned black siblings and the boyfriend who discovers the sister is black. Star Lelia Goldoni, who was eighteen at the time the film was shot, and, despite her role, Sicilian by ancestry, related that after a mere four-and-a-half hours of improvisation, Cassavetes went on the “madman’s journey” of securing enough funding to film the result, giving the actors a general situation that they were then free to interpret. There was no written screenplay, in keeping with Cassavetes’ theory that art should hew as closely to life as possible, and the film’s onscreen credits contain no writing credits.
However, some sources dispute the extent to which the actual production history of SHADOWS matches the legend that surrounds it. Despite the emphasis in contemporary reviews on the improvisational aspect of the performances, according to modern interviews, much of the story was prepared in advance, the scenes were rehearsed and reworked before shooting began and Cassavetes retained control over the characterizations. In a later interview, Cassavetes noted that “The reason SHADOWS was done that way was that I didn’t think I’d be able to write a screenplay, and I couldn’t afford to hire a screenwriter.”
After shooting was completed, Cassavetes arranged a private screening in New York. He related in a modern interview that many of the audience members considered the picture too rough, and despite the fact that Film Culture critic Jonas Mekas named SHADOWS the Independent Film of the Year, Cassavetes decided to reshoot and reedit the footage.
Cassavetes stated that the original footage contained “no story, just a group of shots. What story came out was conceived entirely in the cutting room.” A modern source asserts that Robert Alan Arthur helped prepare a shooting script for the new version. Goldoni stated that in 1959, the director asked her back to New York to shoot new footage. In addition, while the original score was recorded by noted jazz musician Charles Mingus, marking Mingus’ first film scoring credit, the new footage featured music by saxophonist Shafi Hadi.
The new version, blown up to 35mm and first screened in November 1959, not only infuriated Mekas, who publicly accused the director of “selling out,” but failed to secure an American distributor. However, Cassavetes received an invitation from the British Film Institute to screen SHADOWS at the National Film Theatre in London in October 1960. Rave reviews led to the film being played out of competition at the Venice Film Festival, where it won the Critics Award. British Lion International then offered Cassavetes an advance of $25,000 and a contract to distribute SHADOWS in the U.K. In November 1960, Lion acquired worldwide rights to the picture. The deal marked the first time a British company would be distributing an American picture in the United States.
SHADOWS had its official American premiere in New York on 21 March 1961, and went into general release in April 1961. Reviews hailed it as a dynamic and momentous step forward in moviemaking, with the Daily Variety reviewer stating that “It may well be the standard bearer for an entirely new approach, a radical swerve, in U.S.-manufactured screen entertainment.” The picture’s success resulted in Paramount offering Cassavetes a seven-year directing contract. In 1960, Cassavetes stated that he would never again make another independently financed film, as the difficulties caused by a lack of funding were too great. However, his next two films were poorly received, and as a result, the director turned away from studio-financed pictures and back to independent filmmaking and largely improvised performances.
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Seymour Cassel had a bit part as a hotel pageboy in the 1960 Ernest Borgnine drama MAN ON A STRING. André De Toth directed the film, which had an unreleased score by George Duning.
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Cassel had a small role as a teenager in the 1960 gangland drama MURDER, INC.. Burt Balaban and Stuart Rosenberg co-directed the film. Frank DeVol's score was released on a Canadian American Records LP. It has not been re-issued on CD.
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In TOO LATE BLUES, Bobby Darin plays jazz musician "John 'Ghost' Wakefield," who exists only on the outer fringes of the successful musical world. One day he meets and falls in love with "Jess Polanski" (Stella Stevens), a timid and uncertain vocalist, and takes her away from her fast-talking agent, "Benny Flowers" (Everett Chambers). Seymour Cassel plays "Red," one of Wakefield's bandmates.
An agency known as GAC Associates negotiated a production deal between Paramount Pictures and actor -filmmaker John Cassavetes, for the film. Cassavetes, who produced, directed, and co-wrote the film, revealed Paramount’s plan to preview TOO LATE BLUES at the National Film Theatre in London, the Cinematheque in Paris, the Museum of Modern Art and Cinema 16 in New York City, and at University of California campuses. He added that the studio “has accepted a picture and an approach that don’t fall into any mold or category,” regarding commercial prospects. Much of the dialogue was improvised, with Paramount’s approval.
In May 1961, Paramount executives viewed a rough edit of the film and were pleased with the results, prompting the studio to offer Cassavetes a seven-year, non-exclusive contract. The picture was scheduled to screen at the Venice Film Festival in August. The film had its world premiere on 23 Noember 1961 in London.
TOO LATE BLUES opened 28 February 1962 in Los Angeles, on the bottom half of a double bill with SUMMER AND SMOKE (1961). Reviews were mixed, although critics commended Darin and Stevens on their performances. One month later, the 29 March 1962 New York Times announced that Paramount abandoned its deal with Cassavetes. While the filmmaker described the Paramount staff as “cooperative and considerate,” he lamented the studio’s inability to market films to “art houses.” Paramount production chief Martin Rackin claimed he was unaware of Cassavetes’s intention to target art-house audiences. The 6 June 1962 Daily Variety reported that Paramount intended to produce a series of comedies, hoping to improve its sagging profit margin. The article noted that TOO LATE BLUES was described as a “stinker” at a stockholders meeting.
In January 1961, before production began, composer Andre Previn was hired to write the score. The next month, however, it was announced that Previn was replaced by David Raksin, whose score would include lead sheets to accommodate jazz improvisation. Raksin completed his score in August 1961. Kritzerland released the score in 2013, and copies are still available on their website.
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Posted: |
Apr 9, 2019 - 11:23 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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Seymour Cassel was annouced for a part in the 1962 Steve McQueen film HELL IS FOR HEROES, which co-starred Bobby Darin, but he did not appear in the final film. Instead, Cassel appeared in another film with Stella Stevens when he had a bit part as a bored man in THE NUTTY PROFESSOR. In the film, to improve his social life, nerdy “Prof. Julius Kelp” (Jerry Lewis) drinks a potion that temporarily turns him into the handsome, but obnoxious, “Buddy Love.” Perhaps his most famous film, Lewis directed and wrote seven scripts for the film by himself and two with Bill Richmond. It was widely believed at the time that the Nutty Professor's sleazy alter ego, Buddy Love, was a satirical swipe at Jerry Lewis' longtime partner, Dean Martin. Walter Scharf's score for the 1963 film has not had a release.
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Posted: |
Apr 10, 2019 - 12:29 AM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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FACES was John Cassavetes' fourth feature film as a director, and his second independent production. In the film, a middle-aged man, "Richard Forst" (John Marley), leaves his wife "Maria" (Lynn Carlin) for a younger woman (Gena Rowlands). Shortly after, his ex-wife meets the fun-loving "Chet" (Seymour Cassel) at a discotheque where she has gone with other discontented wives. Cassel got his name and photograph on a film poster for the first time.
Cassavetes began writing the script for the film on an airplane. The first half of the screenplay grew to 276 pages (twice the length of an average completed script) and the remainder was written during filming.
The production was independently financed by Cassavetes and his wife, actress Gena Rowlands. In addition to using their own money, which Cassavetes had saved from working as an actor in five films, he reportedly secured a bank loan with no collateral from Bank of America. In 1965, a protracted shooting schedule, including rehearsals, took place over the course of eight months. While Cassavetes noted, at the time, that the picture cost $40,000, he later cited higher figures for the budget, between $150,000 and $200,000. Actors allegedly worked for no pay, but were promised profit participation.
Director of photography Al Ruban used a handheld camera for the bulk of filming, which necessitated that entire rooms be lit to allow “360-degree” mobility. Locations included a Hollywood nightclub called The Losers, the home of Gena Rowlands’s mother in Los Angeles, and the Cassavetes’ residence in the Hollywood Hills, where Rowlands cooked meals for the twenty-five-person cast and crew twice a day.
By the time principal photography was completed, roughly 750,000 feet of film had been exposed. Processing was done by Pathe Labs, which nearly repossessed the film negatives when Cassavetes was unable to pay a $17,000 bill. The first cut of the picture was said to be seven hours in length. It took Cassavetes three years to complete the edit.
A preview screening was held in London at the National Film Theatre, at a midnight matinee, on 25 June 1968. Cassavetes’s next step was to enter the picture into festivals, to gain positive word-of-mouth before selling distribution rights. The film was subsequently accepted into the Venice, New York, and San Francisco International Film Festivals. At Venice, it won several awards, including the Volpi Cup for Best Actor (John Marley), the Pasinetti award for Best Film, the Giovanni Vega Golden Plaque from Sicilian critics, and the Golden Oar from the Center of Human Relations. The jury had made a rare exception for FACES, which had been entered and screened without the required Italian subtitles.
Following the positive reception at Venice, Cassavetes offered to sell the picture outright for $1.5 million. Within two months, the Walter Reade Organization had acquired distribution rights for the U.S. and Canada. Upon release, FACES was hailed as a groundbreaking film by many critics. Although the 26 June 1968 Daily Variety compared it unfavorably to SHADOWS, lamenting that technical aspects were lacking and dialogue sounded “garbled,” the New York Times' Renata Adler described the picture as “a movie so good that one can hardly believe it," and the 16 February 1969 Los Angeles Times called it “an undeniably significant master work.” While several reviewers described Cassavetes’s style as improvisational, the Los Angeles Times clarified that the only dialogue known to have strayed from the script was “some funny doggerel that the young gigolo sings to the suicidal wife, pre-coitus.”
The picture went on to receive three Academy Award nominations: Actor in a Supporting Role (Seymour Cassel); Actress in a Supporting Role (Lynn Carlin); and Writing (Story and Screenplay—written directly for the screen) (John Cassavetes). Cassel lost the Supporting Actor Oscar to Jack Albertson for THE SUBJECT WAS ROSES.
Jack Ackerman's score for the film was released on a Columbia LP, but has not been re-issued on CD.
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Posted: |
Apr 10, 2019 - 12:42 AM
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Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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THE SWEET RIDE begins as a brutally beaten and molested young woman is dumped on a highway in the Malibu Beach area peopled by surfers and drifters. Police investigation reveals that the woman, actress "Vicki Cartwright" (Jacqueline Bisset), was dating surfer "Denny McGuire" (Michael Sarrazin), a young wastrel who shares a beach house with "Collie Ransom" (Tony Franciosa), an aging tennis hustler, and "Choo-Choo Burns" (Bob Denver), an unemployed jazz pianist. Seymour Cassel had two background roles in the film, as a surfer and as a cyclist.
Harvey Hart directed this 1968 film, which Daily Variety said should be titled "Hell’s Angels’ Bikini Beach Party in Valley of the Dolls Near Peyton Place." Pete Rugolo's score was released on a 20th Century Fox LP, but has not had a CD re-issue.
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Posted: |
Apr 10, 2019 - 1:21 AM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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Gena Rowlands and Seymour Cassel co-starred in the 1971 romantic comedy-drama MINNIE AND MOSKOWITZ, in which museum curator "Minnie Moore" (Rowlands) falls in love with a crazy parking attendant "Seymour Moskowitz" (Cassel). John Cassavetes wrote and directed the film
As usual with a Cassavetes' film, it was very much a family endeavor. Gena Rowlands, who portrayed Minnie, was Cassavetes’ wife and frequent star, and cast members Katherine Cassavetes, Lady Rowlands, and David Rowlands were members of his family. Elizabeth Deering, who portrayed a woman with whom Moskowitz has a one night stand, and Elsie Ames, who portrayed "Florence," were the wife and mother-in-law, respectively, of Seymour Cassel.
Reportedly, after the movie had originally launched, Universal Pictures cut a sequence at the start of the picture. This allegedly breached their contract with Cassavetes. No video release on either DVD or video-cassette has ever featured the edited out scene. Other than some uncredited flute music, the film had no original music score.
Seymour Cassel and Gena Rowlands in MINNIE AND MOSKOWITZ
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Posted: |
Apr 10, 2019 - 1:47 AM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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In John Cassavetes' THE KILLING OF A CHINESE BOOKIE, a proud strip club owner, "Cosmo Vittelli" (Ben Gazzara), is forced to come to terms with himself as a man, when his gambling addiction gets him in hot water with the mob, who offer him only one alternative. Seymour Cassel plays "Mort Weil," the owner of a Santa Monica gambling club where Cosmo runs up a $23,000 gambling debt in a poker game.
John Cassavetes and director Martin Scorsese came up with the idea of the film years before it went into production, and Cassavetes eventually wrote the script just two weeks before shooting began. Scorsese is not credited onscreen.
Ben Gazzara was unhappy with his role initially, unable to find a way to connect to Cosmo Vitelli. That changed when Cassavetes spoke to Gazzara about the gangsters in the film as a metaphor for the people who are constantly trying to steal or ruin people's dreams. Cassavetes started to cry and Gazzara saw that playing Cosmo was representing John Cassavetes, and the movie was a metaphor for the director's struggles to achieve his own dreams.
Seymour Cassel in THE KILLING OF A CHINESE BOOKIE
THE KILLING OF A CHINESE BOOKIE was set to open 15 February 1976 at Mann’s Village Theatre in Westwood, CA, and Cinema I and II in New York City. Over one hundred theaters were booked for première engagements. The film was released to predominately negative reviews, however, and had poor receipts at the box office. Although the film was scheduled to play at the Gopher Theatre in Minneapolis, the deal, which required a $15,000 advance and a $10,000 guarantee to the production company, Faces International, was cancelled when the West Coast and New York engagements showed meager ticket sales. Because the film was unable to attract commercial bookings in Minneapolis, Faces International allowed the film to be played at the University Film Society instead of local theaters.
In 1978, THE KILLING OF A CHINESE BOOKIE was re-released after Cassavetes edited the film from 135 minutes to 108 minutes, and included some different scenes, but the film still did not achieve commercial success.
The film’s closing music credits are unclear, as Anthony Harris is credited as “Music conductor/Arranger” and Bo Harwood is credited as "Music/Sound.” Faces Distribution Corp. stated that the music credit belongs to Bo Harwood, not Anthony Harris.
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Posted: |
Apr 10, 2019 - 2:06 AM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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In the 1977 thriller DEATH GAME, two young girls (Sondra Locke and Colleen Camp) come to the home of a businessman (Seymour Cassel) whose family is away on his birthday. They seduce him and afterwards they tie him up, torture him, and trash his house.
The movie was originally supposed to have a more sinister and darker tone, but when the original director was replaced shortly after filming started, the new director had a different idea of what the movie should look like. This caused serious clashes on the set throughout the whole shoot between the cast and crew and the new director. The crew believed that he didn't understand the story, which caused him to often be absent-minded during the shoot. Tensions remained high during the shoot, and the cast and crew, led by the cinematographer, took every opportunity to convince the director to let them do their own thing.
Seymour Cassel was especially angry at the way the new director was doing things. The two had nasty arguments often and, by the end of filming, Cassel almost punched the director in the face. After this incident, Cassel decided to quit the film, since his scenes were already completed. After production wrapped, he refused to come back to re-record some lines, so his character was entirely re-dubbed. Eventually, due to the toxic atmosphere on the set, no one was particularly pleased with the way the movie turned out. The fact that the movie became a cult hit surprised Locke, since she continued to dislike it, which is the main reason why she agreed to co-produce a remake some years later.
Peter Traynor is the credited director for the film. Jimmie Haskell's score has not had a release.
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