Jinxed!

Jinxed! (1982)

America's favorite tootsie is on a roll.

Harold, a professional gambler, and his girlfriend Bonita, a lounge singer, follow Willie, a young blackjack dealer, around the western U.S. Harold has a jinx on Willie and can't lose with him. Bonita and Willie meet and fall for each other and plot to do away with Harold and collect on his life insurance.

Date of release
1982-10-22
TMDB
4.5 / 10 (28)
Runtime
1h 43m
Genres
Comedy
Director
Don Siegel

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Filmed in: California, Harrah's Lake Tahoe, Grand Sierra Resort, and Lake Tahoe

Jinxed! is a 1982 American comedy film starring Bette Midler, Rip Torn and Ken Wahl. The film was the last to be directed by Don Siegel, who suffered a heart attack during production. Siegel hired Sam Peckinpah, who had worked for him in the past, to shoot second-unit work, for which Peckinpah was uncredited.

Production

The film is based on the 1980 novel The Edge by Frank D. Gilroy, who sold the film rights to the Ladd Company at Warner Bros. Ladd then sold the project to Herb Jaffe of United Artists for $300,000 and Jaffe hired David Newman to rewrite the script. A United Artists production executive suggested Bette Midler for the lead, and she requested that Don Siegel direct. The script was rewritten by Jerry Blatt, Carol Rydall, Midler and Siegel.

Filming began on May 5, 1981 and took place at Harrah's Lake Tahoe, Lake Tahoe, MGM Grand Reno and MGM's studios.

Siegel had been a mentor of director Sam Peckinpah, who was having difficulty finding directing jobs. Siegel offered Peckinpah a chance to return to filmmaking with 12 days of second-unit directing work on Jinxed!. After Siegel suffered a heart attack, Peckinpah directed some scenes, but without a screen credit. However, Peckinpah's work allowed him to be hired to direct The Osterman Weekend (1983), his final film before his death in 1984.

Midler and Ken Wahl reportedly fought throughout filming, making no secret of their open hostility toward each other. Wahl described to the press how much he disliked kissing Midler. Years later, Midler said that Siegel was also hostile to her. In turn, Siegel said that the experience of working with Midler was unpleasant.

Lalo Schifrin composed and recorded a score for Jinxed! that would have been his sixth score for Siegel, but it was rejected by the studio despite Siegel's objections.

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