Taglines: Nancy was beautiful…but not very pretty!
The Big Bounce movie synopsis. Jack Ryan is a young Vietnam veteran with a criminal record, who gets fired from his job as a migrant laborer on a California produce farm run by the mean-spirited camp manager Bob Rodgers. Ryan then meets and teams up with the seductive Nancy Barker the secretary and mistress to the unscrupulous owner Ray Ritchie.
When Ryan takes another job as a cleaner at a local motel owned by Sam Mirakian a local justice-of-the-peace, Nancy again approaches Ryan to help her rob Ritchie’s safe in his house which allegedly has $50,000 of payroll money. Ryan reluctantly agrees to help with the heist, but becomes highly distrustful of Nancy, suspecting she may double-cross him to keep all the money for herself, and vice versa with her over him.
The Big Bounce is a 1969 American drama film directed by Alex March, based on the 1969 novel of the same name by Elmore Leonard and starring Ryan O’Neal, Van Heflin, and Leigh Taylor-Young in what was the first of several films based on Leonard’s crime novels. Taylor-Young was nominated for a Laurel Award for her performance in the film. The film was shot on location in Monterey and Carmel, California. The book was also adapted into a film in 2004 with the same name.
About the Filming
Principal photography of In Cold Blood occurred over 129 days in the spring of 1967. In accordance with Brooks’s desire to achieve as much realism as possible, some scenes were filmed in Garden City and Holcomb, Kansas at the locations of the original events, including the Clutter family’s farm where the murders took place. The family who owned the Clutter house were paid $15,000 in compensation for the crew’s four weeks of filming.
The shoot in Kansas was covered extensively by journalists from both Los Angeles and New York who visited the sets. Permission was denied to film in Kansas State Penitentiary, so interiors of the execution chambers were replicated on Hollywood sets. Leather straps for the execution scene were purchased from the penitentiary, as well as officers’ uniforms. The actual latrines in Smith and Hickock’s cells were also purchased by the production and implemented in the set.
Brooks’s demeanor on set was noted as tempestuous by cast and crew members, with Wilson recalling that he was “focused [and] inspired” but “unpredictable… a volcano who was going to erupt at some point.” Wilson stated that he was frequently yelled at and at one point nearly walked off the set. Blake recalled Brooks’s presence: “Sometimes Richard would flare up and get nuts and crazy and start screaming at people, and people thought that was because he was an asshole. It wasn’t that, he was just frustrated. He didn’t know how to get what he wanted. But when he sat alone at a typewriter, that was the best part for him.”
In the scene where Blake’s character discusses his father on the night of the execution, rain falls against the window of his prison cell. In rehearsals, cinematographer Conrad Hall noticed that the rain sliding down the glass was casting shadows on Blake’s face, creating a visual effect that made it appear that Blake was crying. Hall pointed it out to Brooks and the blocking for Blake’s character was changed so that the ‘tears’ would stay on his face throughout the scene. Hall, who was nominated for an Academy Award for his work on the film, called this effect “purely a visual accident.”
In Cold Blood premiered in the United States on December 14, 1967, and grossed approximately $13 million domestically. The film earned an additional $7,551 during a limited revival run in the United Kingdom in 2015. At the time of its release, it was rated “For Mature Audiences”, which meant no children under 17 were allowed to see the film without parents or legal guardians of age; now the MPAA has rated the film “R”, due to its violence and mature nature.
The Big Bounce (1969)
Directed by: Alex March
Starring: Ryan O’Neal, Leigh Taylor-Young, Van Heflin, Lee Grant, James Daly, Robert Webber, Cindy Eilbacher, Noam Pitlik, Kevin O’Neal, Charles Cooper, Phyllis Davis, Paul Sorensen
Screenplay by: Robert Dozier
Production Design by: Serge Krizman
Cinematography by: Howard Schwartz
Film Editing by: William H. Ziegler
Set Decoration by: Audrey A. Blasdel
Makeup Department: Gordon Bau, Jean Burt Reilly
Music by: Mike Curb
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures, Seven Arts
Release Date: March 5, 1969
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