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Duel

Bluesmama: …is a Power Member.; Join date : 2011-07-09
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Post n°1

Duel

by Bluesmama Thu Oct 20, 2011 7:50 pm

I've a hunch most people in this forum weren't even born yet when this TV movie hit the screen in 1971. It featured Dennis Weaver as a driver being stalked by a maniacal gas truck, whose face we never see.

It was Steven Spielburg's first movie. Any few of you ever saw it, by chance?

Alan Smithee

Alan Smithee: ...is a 20G Chamber DIETY.; Join date : 2010-09-03
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Post n°2

Re: Duel

by Alan Smithee Sat Oct 29, 2011 9:25 pm

Oh for sure! I watched it first run. A lot of talent in that movie. Dennis Weaver was a very underrated actor. The truck driver was stunt man Carey Loftin (look up his credits). IMDb trivia states that

When Carey Loftin, playing the truck driver, asked Steven Spielberg what his motivation was for tormenting the car's driver, Spielberg told him, "You're a dirty, rotten, no-good son of a bitch." Loftin replied, "Kid, you hired the right man."

The story and script were written by Richard Matheson who wrote many scripts for classic TV as well as novels such as "I Am Legend", "The Shrinking Man" (filmed as "The Incredible Shrinking Man") and several 60's Roger Corman/Vincent Price Edgar Allan Poe adaptations such as "House of Usher" and "Pit and The Pendulum". He said he got the idea from an encounter with a tailgating truck the day Kennedy was shot.

I guess technically it was Spielberg's first "movie" but he had done other TV work before Duel. I think the best was a segment from the Night Gallery pilot with Joan Crawford. It's titled "Eyes". Check it out on YouTube.