Evil Town is a 1987 American horror film produced by William D. Sklar and Peter S. Traynor, and starring James Keach, Dean Jagger, Robert Walker, Michele Marsh and Lynda Wiesmeier. It is notable for its lengthy and troubled production, which began in 1973 and lasted until 1985, under four different directors: Curtis Hanson (credited as 'Edward Collins'), Mardi Rustam, Larry Spiegel and Traynor.[
][
][
][
] Producer Peter S. Traynor was convicted of fraud related to the film's financing in 1981, six years before its eventual release.
Synopsis
The film depicts an evil scientist's campaign to achieve eternal youth, through synthesizing a drug derived from human pituitary fluid. In extracting the fluid, he creates mindless zombies from the donors. Because the local town residents are in on the plot, to achieve immortality, they help the scientist, by abducting visitors who come through town.
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Cast
Production
Under Curtis Hanson / Peter S. Traynor
In 1973, director
Curtis Hanson and producer Peter S. Traynor shot a film called
And God Bless Grandma and Grandpa. The low-budget film was shot in Mendocino, California and starred
James Keach, Robert Walker and Michele Marsh.
Unsatisfied with the initial cut, Traynor fired Hanson and hired
Dean Jagger to star in new scenes as a mad scientist named "Dr. Shagetz" (a minor
Yiddish swear).
The new scenes were shot at a studio in Hollywood.
Hanson removed his name from the film and used the pseudonym "Edward Collins".
Retitled God Bless Dr. Shagetz, the film was planned for a late 1974/early 1975 release and promoted under that title in several trade publications.
Litigation against Traynor
In 1975, a litigation started between Traynor and the film's financial investors.
Traynor, a
San Francisco investment counselor by day, had bankrolled the film by convincing 19 physicians to invest in individual films (labeled "limited partnerships") as tax write-offs.
The investors claimed that Traynor had failed to promote and distribute the film per their agreement.
It is rumored that the film had a limited release in 1977, though this has never been confirmed.
In 1979, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission indicted Traynor for fraud.
Under Mardi Rustam
In 1983, producer
Mardi Rustam, bought the film's rights.
In an interview with the American Film Institute, he stated he didn't contact the original filmmakers or cast, to avoid opening new claims against it.
Rustam stated the workprint of the film ran under 70 minutes long.
In early 1984, Rustam wrote and directed around 20 minutes of new scenes featuring Jillian Kesner and Playboy Playmate Lynda Wiesmeier, which brought the final runtime to 88 minutes.[
] He hired Michael Linn to write a score, re-dubbed the film to change the name of Dean Jagger's character to "Dr. Schaeffer", and changed the title to ''Evil Town''.
Release
Rustam copyrighted the film under its
Evil Town title in 1985, but it was not released for another two years. It received a limited theatrical release on June 2, 1987, before being released on
VHS in November.
Reception
Cavett Binion of All Movie Guide called it a "silly horror film" and noted that it was an assemblage of parts of earlier films, including an unfinished one from the 1970s, and that it was "spiced up with some gratuitous nudity courtesy of former Playboy playmate Lynda Wiesmeier". While remarking that the editor's efforts to maintain continuity were commendable, he concluded that "the end result seems hardly worth the effort".
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Relation to other works
When beginning work on
Evil Town in 1984, director Mardi Rustam liked the story enough to make his own version, which he released as
Evils of the Night (1985),
[Evils of the Night was shot in June of 1983, but not released until 1985. If Rustam shot "additional scenes" for Evil Town in 1984, he would have been borrowing the concept from his own yet-to-be-released Evils of the Night.
] two years before the release of ''Evil Town''.
See also
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List of films with the longest production time
External links
