Few films have as bizarre a production history as DEATH GAME. Intended as the directorial debut of Peter S. Traynor, a real-estate tycoon who’d parleyed his fortune into an overnight career as a Hollywood producer, the project quickly accrued a cast and crew most filmmakers of the era would’ve killed for: Academy Award nominees Sondra Locke and Seymour Cassel were slated to star in a script written by frequent Clint Eastwood collaborator Jo Heims, a nominally single-location thriller about a hapless family man who’s held hostage and tortured in his own home by a pair of seemingly motiveless young women in an overtly sexualized proto-FUNNY GAMES scenario. Yet the production seemed almost doomed from the start: Traynor’s lack of experience irked Locke and Cassel; Locke and co-star Colleen Camp bristled at some of the content of the script, leading to the two women rewriting it on-set; a particularly tumultuous day of filming led to an ongoing feud between Cassel and Traynor, almost leading to fisticuffs; and perhaps most damningly of all, Traynor fired his own DP with only thirteen days left to film. Enter: David Worth. An experienced exploitation veteran best known at the time for shooting POOR PRETTY EDDIE (and later re-editing it along with producer/star Michael Christian into the “producer’s cut” HEARTBREAK MOTEL), Worth was called to set with a task both simple and Herculean: pick up from where his predecessor had left off and completely reconceptualize the film’s look with less than two weeks to go. Though Worth pulled it off with aplomb, DEATH GAME’s troubles had only just begun—the editor was incompetent, necessitating Worth take on that helm as well; Cassel refused to return for ADR; and, worst of all, a criminal investigation by the SEC into possible financial malfeasance on Traynor’s part tied the film’s release up in legal red tape for the next two years. By the time it finally debuted in 1977, at the height of the grindhouse boom, any potential pre-release excitement had fizzled (it’d been advertised as a Summer ’75 debut), and audiences weren’t quite sure what to make of the heavily edited script: was it a senseless sexploitation cash-in? A misogynistic fantasy? Conversely, was it a biting, second-wave feminist critique on misogynistic fantasy? The film enjoyed a quiet run at the box office before slipping away to cable TV, where a later generation rediscovered it as a heavily edited late-night staple. And that was that.
Though—not quite.
For a film with so apparent little fanfare, the repercussions were huge. One of those individuals who caught it in second-run was Eli Roth, who remade it in 2015 as KNOCK KNOCK, a bizarro, politically charged and deeply problematic erotic thriller starring Keanu Reeves on the cusp of John Wick fame and a pre-KNIVES OUT Ana de Armas; and, more importantly, the film skyrocketed David Worth into the stratosphere of Hollywood productions, taking him from the exploitation circuit to working alongside some of the most recognizable directors in Hollywood.
It’s no reason, then, that for its fifty-year history, Worth has been trying to see the film finally released looking like his original vision, not settling for any of the second-generation VHS releases or cut-rate DVDs that’ve hit the shelves. He finally found his hero in the form of Grindhouse Releasing, who’re putting out something of a cinematographer’s cut of the film on Blu-Ray (ORDER HERE!), having worked tirelessly with Worth to ensure the movie will finally look, sound, and feel like the project he edited all those years ago. Sharp of wit and happy to reminisce about the bad old days of 70s filmmaking, Worth was kind enough to sit down with us for a retrospective interview on how DEATH GAME came to life—and came back to life—and the unexpected paths it took him down…
Daily Grindhouse: You’ve gone on record saying DEATH GAME was a hugely influential film for your career, so, let’s start at the beginning—how did you get involved?
David Worth: It was one of the most important films in my professional life, even though it was only a very small film, a $150,000 film. I got a call from the producer, Larry Spiegel, who said he had seen my work and he wanted to work together, and he said the director, Peter Traynor, just fired the cinematographer and would you like to take over? I was a little reluctant to get into somebody else’s mess, but I said, who’s in the film? They said Seymour Cassel, Sondra Locke, and Colleen Camp. I went, wow. Sondra Locke, who had been nominated for an Academy Award for THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER, Seymour Cassel who had been nominated for an Academy Award for FACES, and the new Colleen Camp, a beautiful young woman. So I was thrilled. I jumped in with both feet. I hadn’t even read the script! I just showed up on set and they were shooting with a Panavision Panaflex Camera, which was a new camera for me. I had been using 16mm a lot. And since we had only thirteen days to complete the film I decided to hand-hold the Panaflex the entire film because it was so ergonomically correct and well balanced you could just brace yourself against a table or chair or somebody’s leg and get great shots. That enabled us to move very quickly from setup to setup and not have to put up the tripod, level it, get it to do all that stuff then have to move it because somebody wanted a different angle. So that was how I got involved and how we captured the film.
DG: The house really captures the interior design ethos and aesthetics of that era. Were you shooting on location or was it all set work?
David Worth: There were no sets. There wasn’t any set involved. It was all available locations—a house in Hancock Park [Los Angeles]. I was using very little lighting. I was just using small lighting in this because I had to move very quickly. I had two or three small, maybe 150 to 250 watt lights I was using. Actually, lighting each scene I shot to a 2.2 and exposed to a 2.8, underexposing it to give it a more dramatic look. That decision on my part ended up being very fortuitous for me, because Sondra Locke is very pale. She was almost alabaster in her look. And by underexposing her, I brought out her skin tone, which she had never scene because every set she was on was using big lights and just lighting for the whole thing, not lighting for her. And I wasn’t particularly lighting for her, I was trying to underexpose the film to make it look more dramatic. She was very, very grateful.
DG: Any particular scenes that were more of a challenge or provided a unique experience?
David Worth: The whole thirteen days was a big challenge. We worked sixteen hours a day because we were always trying to catch up with what needed to be done and to get it done on time and under budget. I have to admit the Jacuzzi scene was challenging because the actors were all naked and I didn’t want them to feel bad so I stripped down naked, got in there with them, had them put a 1000 foot magazine on the back of the camera so I wouldn’t have to get out and change film a lot, and I shot all of those shots of the actors in the Jacuzzi up close and personal.
DG: Had you ever worked on such a limited schedule before?
David Worth: No. It was horrendous. I don’t even think there was a wrap party at the end, we all just said “we made it” and went our separate ways!
DG: And that time included Sondra Locke and Colleen Camp rewriting the script as well, correct?
David Worth: Absolutely! Absolutely. Sondra is one of the most creative people in the world and she and Colleen put their heads together and made it everything that it was.
DG: Did the thirteen days include the exteriors? The establishing shots of San Francisco are really beautiful; a lot of the films of this period try to make it look a little edgier, but the way you portray it here, really sun dappled and lush, is really visually stunning.
David Worth: No. We went to San Francisco for a weekend and were able to shoot enough sunrises and sunsets and the Golden Gate Bridge and all that stuff, the car driving, to place the film in San Francisco. All that happened in post-production.
DG: Let’s go back to you calling this one of the most important films of your life. This is how you met Sondra Locke, and that of course set the stage for the rest of your career.
David Worth: It was more than that. I owe this film my life, my whole life as a cinematographer and a professional. I’ve thought back on this a lot. If Larry Spiegel doesn’t call me, if he hadn’t scene one of my previous films, POOR PRETTY EDDIE, and wanted to work with me, this doesn’t happen. And I never get to Clint Eastwood. Meeting Sondra—if I don’t impress her with my cinematography and later my editing of the film, I don’t get to Clint. It was a very pivotal film in my life for a lot of different reasons, but mainly for meeting Sondra. She eventually opened the door to Clint Eastwood because of my cinematography and editing. I edited the film as well because four or six weeks after it was completed, Peter called Sondra and I and wanted to show us a rough cut. It was awful! It was horrendous. Sondra’s sitting in the screening room like this [hands over eyes] the whole time. She didn’t want to see it. She was so embarrassed by what was onscreen. I kept saying, “Where’s this shot, where’s that shot? Where’s that closeup?” I convinced Peter to take the work print and me and Sondra back to the editing room after the screening, and I was able to locate several shots and show him how to fix one or two scenes. He saw what I was doing and fired the editor and made me the editor of the film. So I was both cinematographer and editor and I was able to shepherd that film and make it as professional as I could. It was a small little $150,000 film, but I know Clint saw it for Sondra’s work, and eventually saw a couple more things- I was able to give him a couple more films through Sondra- and, again, I’m so grateful to Peter for raising the money and doing the casting and very grateful to Larry Spiegel for calling me, and very grateful to Sondra Locke for sensing my work ethic and opening that door.
DG: It’s really amazing how one, small, unexpected thing can have this huge impact on the trajectory of your career. I got into writing about exploitation cinema because I happened to rent HEARTBREAK MOTEL before a blizzard when I was a teenager, and then looked it up afterwards and started learning about 42nd Street history, Times Square… that’s why I jumped at this opportunity [laughs]. So HEARTBREAK MOTEL was my DEATH GAME.
David Worth: That’s how it is in our business. I always tell my students to show up and do your best work, no matter what the budget is. You never know who’s going to see your work. There’s plenty of examples of people doing a little film and putting it online and getting a job in Hollywood. Because it’s all about the work; you have to show up no matter what the budget or what the personality is and do the work, and do it the best you can.
DG: Any particularly striking memories about the editing process?
David Worth: When you’re doing the editing there comes a point where you’re preparing the actors’ soundtrack for the final sound mix. You have to put each actor on a separate reel of 35mm film so you can set their levels. I’m the process of doing that and I’m running out of fill leader. Fill leader is what you put in between the actors’ performances so you can keep those reels in sync. So I called MGM Lab and asked them to send me a new box of fill leader and I go in to work on Saturday when the office is closed so I can have the place to myself and concentrate on this work. I had my boxes of fill leaders, I open them up, and what had the gods of production sent me as fill leader? A print—a 35mm print—of A CLOCKWORK ORANGE. Now, come on man! This is my favorite fuckin’ film of all time! I had seen many screenings of it but I had never been able to study it up close and personal. This allowed me to study it on the Movieola. I took DEATH GAME off, put Stanley Kubrick on, and I was able to run it backwards and forwards and I was in fanboy fuckin’ Heaven! I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe the gods of production had sent me this gift. I had been a fan of this film since it came out. I was the first in line when it came out on Hollywood Boulevard. I had ticket 001, and then I bought 002 that they could tear so I could keep 001 in my collection. That’s how much I love this film. But you could never study it. The projectionist wouldn’t go back and show you your favorite scenes, and now, I had my own print and I could study it!
DG: That’s really wonderful. You had to have been able to have taken a lot away from that.
David Worth: I’m going through the scene where Little Alex kills the Cat Lady with the sculpture of the giant phallus. I’m running forward and back, and suddenly I stop. What the fuck!? I can see Stanley Kubrick was shooting 360 degrees in this exercise room with Little Alex and the Cat Lady running all around, and he’s using a very wide angle lens so I can see all four walls, the floor, and the ceiling—and there were no movie lights anywhere! This is 1970. No. Movie. Lights. What the fuck is this? I was starting and stopping the film to see where I could see the practical lighting. Stanley Kubrick had created practical lights—one was a spiral, one was shaped like a Christmas tree, one was in bunches, but he had created practical light sculptures out of 150 watt bulbs, put them around the room, plugged them in and said we’re lit! This was an epiphany of epiphanies for a cinematographer. This was absolutely unheard of and unthought of. This was not a Roger Corman film or some small, independent film. This was Stanley Kubrick, Warner Brothers, a film that had been nominated for four Academy Awards, and he was using practical lights. When I discovered that, it changed my whole outlook on filmmaking. I even wrote an article for American Cinematographer Magazine—“If it’s good enough for Mr. Kubrick… why aren’t more of us doing it this way?” Now everyone is doing it. That’s how they shot DALLAS BUYERS CLUB, WILD, that’s how they shot a lot of big independent films. Everyone is using this technique that Stanley Kubrick originated back in the 1970s.
DG: And this is even before BARRY LYNDON.
David Worth: Yes. I brought that technique to BRONCO BILLY, building all the lighting into the sets. Stanley Kubrick built lighting into all of his sets so he could shoot anywhere. He probably met some old cinematographer from the 1920s who told him, “You want to look the other way, give me two hours.” Stanley said “No fuckin’ way.” So that’s what I brought to BRONCO BILLY, and as a result I was able to put practical lights in the circus tent, practical lights up in the top of the tent, plus two in the back and the whole arena was lit and ready and we could shoot fifty setups a day in there. That was the same for every scene in the film, and Clint Eastwood, as the director, just buzz sawed right through it. He didn’t ever have to wait for a lighting change, he could look in any direction on any of the locations we shot at, and as a result—Clint is very efficient. He always comes in a few days under schedule. On BRONCO BILLY we didn’t come in a few days under schedule, we didn’t come in a week under schedule, two weeks under schedule. On an eight week shooting schedule, we came in two and a half weeks under schedule, on my first union, my first big studio, my first big star movie. That’s what DEATH GAME ennabled me to learn in the editing room. DEATH GAME, I owe. That’s why I’ve stuck with this film for fifty years to get it finished. DEATH GAME is so important in my life.
DG: You worked with Grindhouse Releasing on the new DVD, correct?
David Worth: Yes. I did color correction and made suggestions, etc. I was available to them to do whatever they needed me to do. And then I’d call them every month, “When’s it gonna be finished? When’s it gonna be finished? When’s it gonna be finished?” Everyone’s dead but me! Sondra died, Peter Traynor died, I don’t wanna die! I want to see it finished. So, I made it.
DG: That’s got to be a great feeling.
David Worth: Yes. It was wonderful to see it up on the big screen. I’d seen it on cable years ago but it wasn’t widescreen, it was pan and scan and it looked like a work print. It was just horrible.
DG: They say that a film is really made in editing; was there anything major you did that changed material that had already been shot to have a bigger impact?
David Worth: You know the scene where they’re seducing one another by playing with the food? That came totally out of when I came on to do editing and I looked at everything that had already been shot. And originally the delivery boy wasn’t the young man who gets shot and put in the fish tank, it was a comedian [Marty Allen] who came in and did a funny version of delivering the groceries while the girls listened and played with the food. Peter says, there’s gonna be a girl-on-girl scene and I want something to lead into that. I remembered this scene and I knew what I could do editorially to fix this. So I took this shot and flipped it, so instead of both of them looking at the delivery guy it looks like Colleen and Sondra are looking at each other. I don’t think it’s a secret anymore but I also dubbed Seymour Cassel’s voice. Seymour and Peter hated each other after Peter had Sondra and Colleen throw food on him for an hour. He wanted to punch Peter out. He wouldn’t come in and do post production voiceover, wouldn’t do the ADR. So Peter said, “Just do it. You’re an actor, do it.” So I had to ADR all of Seymour’s lines and then put it into his mouth. This was the Chinese water torture of post-production. Today you have Pro Tools. Pro Tools would’ve fixed this thing perfectly, but I didn’t have Pro Tools. All I had was 35mm film with four sprockets and I had to take out ¼ sprocket or put in ¾ of a frame and do that with every single line so my voice was actually coming out of his mouth. It was torture. The biggest compliment I got was, when Eli Roth was interviewing Peter Traynor about this film before he passed, Peter told him “You know Seymour wouldn’t come in for ADR so David dubbed his whole performance.” Eli Roth, the great director Eli Roth, I fooled him. I made it work. That was my pat on the back. OK. All those hours of work was worth it. I’d helped make that movie look as professional as I possibly could. DEATH GAME, DEATH GAME, DEATH GAME.
DG: Let’s talk about how DEATH GAME did ultimately lead to you working with Clint Eastwood.
David Worth: I kept in touch with Sondra, I’d call her every six months just to say hi. I saw that she’d done THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES, and then I went to a screening of THE GAUNTLET. I was thrilled when I saw THE GAUNTLET! She’s up there 50/50 with Clint, giving back everything he’s giving to her. I called her up, told her, “My God, what a great job! What a great film! You and Clint just kicked ass in that!” She said, “Yeah, we had a great time, but, he had a big fight with his cinematographer because he wouldn’t shoot by campfire light.” You gotta be kidding! I’d just done a whole motorcycle movie by campfire light and Coleman Lantern light! She says, “Really? You wouldn’t have a reel of that you could drop off for Clint to see, could you?” She’d asked me the question that was gonna change my entire career. She coulda just said, “Oh, that’s nice, David, I’m so glad you knew what to do.” Boy, did I put together that reel fast! About ten days after I dropped it off, I got a call—“Clint would like to meet you.” I drive out to Warner Brothers, I go in, I’m ushered into Clint’s office. “Pleased to meet you, Mr. Eastwood!” “Call me Clint.” Biggest thrill of my life! I’d never had this anywhere on my radar—work with Clint Eastwood? I was doing little, no-money films. That’s how things work in Hollywood! You do a film with someone, they go on to do OUTLAW JOSEY WALES with Clint Eastwood, they remember your work, it gets you in the door. This could lead to a very long discussion about why I didn’t get to work with Clint at this point…
DG: What happened?
David Worth: He wanted me on ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ and had already shown my work to the director, Don Siegel. He said the same thing, “Love your reel, we want to bring you onto the production.” Unfortunately the union, Union 659, the Cinematographer’s Guild at that time, said no. “He did not come up trough our ranks, he wasn’t a loader for five years, a second assistant for five years, a first assistant for five years, an operator for five years, how could he be qualified to be a director of photography?” So even though Clint Eastwood and Don Siegel were standing shoulder-to-shoulder asking for me, the union said “no.” I went home and proceeded to polish off a bottle of vodka, because I figured, if Clint Eastwood and Don Siegel can’t do it, it’s not gonna happen. It’s never gonna happen. I get a call. It’s Sondra. She says, “I know you’re depressed, but don’t feel down, because Clint really likes your work and he wants to work with you.” So I put down the vodka and stuck it out, and it eventually came to pass.
DG: How’d he manage to get around the union?
David Worth: I directed a little film in 16mm called HOLLYWOOD KNIGHT that was eventually called HARD KNOCKS. Blew it up to 35mm. POOR PRETTY EDDIE star Michael Christian was the writer, producer, and star, I was the cinematographer, director, and editor. We did it for $150,000, showed it around, and nobody wanted it, because Michael wasn’t Al Pacino. So I called Sondra out of desperation and said I did a little movie for $150,000, you guys go to lunch on that. Can I drop it off and you and Clint can take a look at it? She says sure. A week later I get a call, both Sondra and Clint are on the line and both very complimentary about it. Then there’s a pause in the conversation and Clint says, “I’m gonna send you a script.” [Slow clap] And that’s how I got the script for BRONCO BILLY. So you see, I had done three films that, total, didn’t cost $150,000. $450,000 worth of film and Clint saw my work and appreciated what I brought to the table and said “I want you to be my DP.” That’s how shit happens in this town. Or used to.
DG: Are there any particular crown jewels in your cinematography work, any particular achievement you want to be remembered for?
David Worth: I went on to be the cinematographer for BLOOD SPORT, the director of KICKBOXER, two films with Jean-Claude van Damme after doing two films with Clint Eastwood, so that was pretty amazing. The rest of it has been all downhill. [Laughs] No, I’ve been thrilled because I’ve been able to have a whole career making films all over the planet. Hong Kong, Bangkok, Macau, Indonesia, Israel, Bulgaria, South Africa, Romania… All over the world.
DG: Anything you’d like to add?
David Worth: You need to buy my book! Zen and the Art of Independent Filmmaking. I’ve got a dozen books on Amazon. During the pandemic I updated them with photos and turned them into coffee table books. Zen has every production I ever did, the good, the bad, and the ugly, and you can find out the entire history of everything I went through and all the trails and tribulations of trying to breathe in, breathe out, and enjoy the moments of filmmaking.
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