Stingray - Die Hölle auf vier Rädern (1978)

Wissenswertes

Stingray is a 1978 action comedy film written and directed by Richard Taylor and starring Christopher Mitchum, Les Lannom, William Watson and Sherry Jackson. The plot concerns two buddies who buy a Corvette Stingray from a used car lot, and must fend off the criminals who stashed their loot inside. Along with Corvette Summer, it was one of two films centered around the Stingray to be released in June 1978, and was the subject of a feud with MGM over the use of the title. For some ancillary markets, it was re-titled Abigail: Wanted.

Production

The film was the directorial debut of Richard Taylor, who ran the motion picture production department at Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville. He had directed shorts and worked second unit on several features. Taylor left his faculty position when his involvement with the film meant that he could not do both. This script, written three years prior, was his first to get made after some twenty attempts.

Then St. Louis resident Peter Maris came across the script in January 1977. Although uncredited, he served as the movie's producer. It was made under the banner of Stingray Productions, a subsidiary of International Cinema Ltd., a fledgling outfit financed by real estate developers Bill Bruce and Donald Ham, and based inside Bruce's offices in Clayton.

Photography started on August 1, 1977, and wrapped up on October 7. The film was budgeted at slightly less than $1 million, but ended up getting into the seven figures. While the production staff was mostly local, much of the technical crew was imported from Los Angeles. The dailies were sent to Los Angeles and back, which made it longer to notice where pick-ups were needed. In addition to all his other duties, Taylor acted as sound engineer.

The early part of the shoot was impacted by bad weather. The first two weeks, later expanded to three, were dedicated to stunts that did not require the cast's principals. Although they were described as "second unit lensing" by Variety, most were directed by Taylor himself. Some of the most complex scenes were shot at that time, such as the final plunge from the Eads Bridge into the Mississippi River.

The leads were then flown in for main photography, now rescheduled across five weeks. To mitigate the weather, they focused on interiors first, but the script had few of them. Then, another three-week delay was incurred when Mitchum had to be rushed back home to be with his wife as she gave birth to his daughter. The producers told the actors to play it straight, as they wanted the film to be a deadpan spoof of the genre.

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