The Ninth Configuration [1980] Wiliam Peter Blatty

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The Ninth Configuration (1980)


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081237/

RUNTIME 118 MINUTES

The Ninth Configuration, (also known as Twinkle, Twinkle, "Killer" Kane) is an American-made film, released in 1980, directed by William Peter Blatty (most famous as the author of The Exorcist). It is often considered a cult film and it won the Best Screenplay award at the 1981 Golden Globes. The film is based on Blatty's novel, The Ninth Configuration (1978) which was itself a reworking of an earlier version of the novel, first published in 1966 as Twinkle, Twinkle, "Killer" Kane!. The initial 1966 publication of the novel featured an exclamation mark at the end of the title, while all subsequent publications saw it removed.

Stacy Keach ... Col. Vincent Kane
Scott Wilson ... Capt. Billy Cutshaw
Jason Miller ... Lt. Frankie Reno
Ed Flanders ... Col. Richard Fell
Neville Brand ... Maj. Marvin Groper
George DiCenzo ... Capt. Fairbanks
Moses Gunn ... Maj. Nammack
Robert Loggia ... Lt. Bennish
Joe Spinell ... Lt. Spinell
Alejandro Rey ... Lt. Gomez
Tom Atkins ... Sgt. Krebs
Steve Sandor ... 1st Cyclist (Stanley)
Richard Lynch ... 2nd Cyclist (Richard)
Gordon Mark ... Sgt. Gilman
William Lucking ... Highway Patrolman


The first half of the film has the predominant tone and style of a comic farce. In the second half, the film becomes darker as it delves deeper into its central issues of human suffering, sacrifice and faith. The film also frequently blurs the line between the sane and the insane.

William Peter Blatty's novel Twinkle, Twinkle, "Killer" Kane was first published in 1966. Blatty said, "I considered it a comic novel, but a great deal of philosophy and theology crept into it. But the farcical elements outweighed the serious elements."[1] Blatty adapted the novel into a screenplay, and intended for it to be filmed by William Friedkin. Blatty said that the script "was what you might call bizarre material. I had hoped to direct it myself. But after seeing The Night They Raided Minsky's I thought the script would be safe with Friedkin. I sent it along to him. He liked it. But we couldn't find a studio that liked it." Blatty and Friedkin would later collaborate on the film version of The Exorcist (1973), with Blatty as screenwriter/producer and Friedkin as director, before Blatty returned to Twinkle, Twinkle, "Killer" Kane. In lieu of filming the novel, Blatty decided to rewrite it: "After The Exorcist, I decided that I could develop the story a great deal. So I rewrote it and fleshed it out, and fully developed the deeper implications and theological themes." The rewritten version of Twinkle, Twinkle, "Killer" Kane was published in 1978 under the title The Ninth Configuration. Blatty has said that he prefers the first version of the book to the second: "the first one is infinitely funnier and wilder, and stranger and more of a one of a kind; the second one has the same plot, but the prose is more finely crafted, I think. In the first one I allowed the comedy to carry me, so I think I prefer that one...I loved the characters and it was a pleasure to write."

Blatty then developed The Ninth Configuration into a screenplay for Columbia Pictures (Blatty did not want to work with Warner Bros. as he had sued that studio over his proper share of profits from The Exorcist). Columbia then placed the screenplay in turnaround; Blatty took the script to Universal Pictures. Universal rejected it; according to Blatty, this was "not because of any consideration of quality, but simply because Columbia had let it go. There was nobody prepared to take a chance on their own judgement."

With no major film studio prepared to fund The Ninth Configuration, Blatty decided to raise the film's $4 million budget by putting up half the money himself, and persuading the PepsiCo conglomerate to provide the remaining $2 million. As writer/director of the film, Blatty was promised complete creative control over the production by PepsiCo with only one stipulation: that the film had to be shot in Hungary (PepsiCo had block funds in that country, and reinvested money from the film's production into a Pepsi bottling plant there). Ironically, Warner Bros. wound up initially releasing the film in selected markets, despite Blatty's misgivings.

Blatty retained Jason Miller, who had played Father Karras in The Exorcist, for The Ninth Configuration. Ed Flanders (once considered for the role of Karras in The Exorcist) was also cast; Michael Moriarty was set to play Captain Billy Cutshaw but dropped out of the production (he was replaced by Scott Wilson, who was originally cast in a different role). For the central role of Colonel Kane, Blatty cast Stacy Keach (another contender for the part of Father Karras in The Exorcist). Blatty had originally cast Nicol Williamson in the role of Kane, before deciding that the British actor was wrong for the part: "I was deluding myself. I so desperately admired [Williamson] and wanted him in my picture that I persuaded myself that he could be an American Marine corps colonel. I realised during rehearsals. He was magnificent, but there was no way he could be an American colonel. He came to Budapest and we rehearsed for two weeks. And we were coming up to the weekend before our first shoot on the following Monday, and then I remembered one of the people I'd strongly considered was Stacy Keach. And we found out that night that he was available and he was with us on Tuesday." Blatty himself appears briefly near the start of the film as an army doctor.

Tom Atkins also had a minor role in the film, and in an interview in January 2009, he discussed what the film shoot was like: "I have always believed that a movie about the making of that film would have been much better than the actual movie turned out to be. It was kind of a zoo from the very beginning. William Peter Blatty wrote and directed it and financed part of it by selling a home that he had in Malibu. His idea of getting a good ensemble effort from his actors was to take people over to Budapest for two months—the part I had might have taken two weeks in the States but he had us all over there for two months. All he ended up getting was 22 really upset, angry and drunk actors who had a lot of trouble showing up for work. I thought that the script was wonderful but I don’t think that Blatty ever got what he wanted up on the screen. I think a lot of us took the job because we would be able to go to Prague and Moscow and bounce around Europe when we weren’t working. He decided that he would put up the call sheet for the next day at midnight so that you couldn’t go anywhere."

The Ninth Configuration was not a commercial success upon its cinematic release in 1980; however, it received generally strong notices and a Best Picture nomination at the 1981 Golden Globe Awards. Although the film did not win, Blatty did win a Golden Globe for the film's screenplay. After initially poor box office returns in its test markets, Warner Bros. returned the film to Blatty and allowed him to take it to another distributor. United Film Distribution, affiliated with the United Artists theatre chain and best known for releasing George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead, picked up the film and released it in other markets under the title Twinkle, Twinkle, "Killer" Kane. Blatty initially sold the videocassette rights to New World Pictures, who released it on tape in 1988. Later on, Warner Bros. reacquired the U.S. rights to the film for all media, though their current DVD is basically a clone of the UK edition produced by independent distributor Blue Dolphin.

Leonard Maltin has described the movie as "hilarious yet thought-provoking, with endlessly quotable dialogue and an amazing barroom fight scene." Blatty's screenplay was later published in 2000 with commentary by English film critic Mark Kermode (Kermode also contributed to the audio commentary and feauturette on the film's DVD release in 2002). Kermode has described The Ninth Configuration as "a breathtaking cocktail of philosophy, eye-popping visuals, jaw-dropping pretentiousness, rib-tickling humour and heart-stopping action. From exotically hallucinogenic visions of a lunar crucifixion to the claustrophobic realism of a bar-room brawl, via such twisted vignettes as Robert Loggia karaoking to Al Jolson and Moses Gunn in Superman drag, Blatty directs like a man with no understanding of, or interest in, the supposed limits of mainstream movie-making. The result is a work of matchless madness which divides audiences as spectacularly as the waves of the Red Sea, a cult classic that continues to provoke either apostolic devotion or baffled dismissal 20 years on."

William Peter Blatty once referred to The Ninth Configuration as the true sequel to The Exorcist, and has stated that he intended the character of Captain Cutshaw to be the same astronaut whom a sleepwalking Regan in The Exorcist warns, "You're going to die up there." In The Ninth Configuration, Cutshaw mentions a fear of dying in space that is almost certainly a reference to Regan's line in the previous film. However, the characters were played by different actors, and the astronaut in The Exorcist is not given a name onscreen or by the credits.

Although The Ninth Configuration is quite dissimilar to The Exorcist in terms of story and tone, both films feature theological discussions between their respective characters which address questions of faith, the mystery of goodness vs evil, and the existence of God and the Devil. The motif of a saint's medallion as a symbol of faith appears in both The Exorcist and The Ninth Configuration; also of interest is the fact that some dialogue from Blatty's discarded, first-draft screenplay for The Exorcist was re-used in The Ninth Configuration.

Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA
1981 Won Saturn Award Best Writing William Peter Blatty
1981 Nominated Saturn Award Best Fantasy Film

Golden Globes, USA
1981 Won Golden Globe Best Screenplay - Motion Picture William Peter Blatty
1981 Nominated Golden Globe Best Motion Picture - Drama
1981 Nominated Golden Globe Best Motion Picture Actor in a Supporting Role Scott Wilson

Mystfest
1980 Won Best Actor Scott Wilson
1980 Nominated Best Film William Peter Blatty


SOUNDTRACK
"San Antone"
Written by Barry De Vorzon
Performed by Denny Brooks

"There's a Rainbow 'Round My Shoulder"
Written by Al Jolson, Billy Rose, Dave Dreyer
Performed by Al Jolson

"Ah! Sweet Mystery of Life"
Music by Victor Herbert
Lyrics by Rida Johnson Young
Performed by Walter Scanlan

"I'm Confessin' (That I Love You)"
Written by Al Neiburg, Doc Dougherty and Ellis Reynolds

"You Are My Sunshine"
Written by Jimmie Davis, Charles Mitchell

"When You Were Sweet Sixteen"
Written by James Thornton
Arranged & Adapted by Barry De Vorzon

"Till We Meet Again"
Music by Richard A. Whiting
Lyrics by Ray Egan (as Raymond B. Egan)