The Steagle

The Steagle (1971)

How Long Has It Been Since You Did Something You Always Wanted to Do--But Didn't Dare?

In the midst of the Cuban missile crisis, a mild-mannered professor decides to live out all of his daydreams, travelling across the country and adopting a different persona in each city.

Date of release
1971-09-15
TMDB
5.1 / 10 (5)
Runtime
1h 27m
Genres
Comedy
Director
Paul Sylbert

Casting

Interesting facts

The Steagle is a 1971 American comedy film based on the novel of the same name by Irvin Faust. The film was directed by Paul Sylbert and starred Richard Benjamin. The film concerns the personality change which overcomes the protagonist during the Cuban Missile Crisis (1962), and the film's title implicitly references the transient nature of the Steagles NFL team, existing for only the 1943 season during a national crisis.

Production

In his book about making the movie, Final Cut: The Making and Breaking of a Picture, writer-director Paul Sylbert wrote that he was pressured by Avco Embassy into casting bit part actress Sandra Giles [whom he gave the pseudonym "Sally Wyles"] in a major supporting role, even though she was totally inadequate for the part, lacking acting talent.

Facing cancellation of The Steagle, he did cast her, with no intention of using her. Sylbert rescheduled the shooting of Giles' scenes to the latter part of the picture, then used another actress in the part. In his book, he writes that the picture being taken away from him during the editing/preview process and being brutally recut was partially due to the producers' anger over him double-crossing them over Giles.

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