The vintagent Classics: Deathsport

DEATHSPORT (1978)

Run Time: 1:22:00
Producer: New World Pictures
Director: Allan Arkush, Nicholas Niciphor, Roger Corman
Writer: Nicholas Niciphor, Donald E. Stewart, Frances Doel
Key Cast: David Carradine, Claudia Jennings, Richard Lynch

FILM MAKERS

Futuristic Science Fiction about a sport to the death, using “destructocycles”

Deathsport is a 1978 sci-fi B-film produced by Roger Corman, who coined the term “Biker Flick” for The Wild Angels (1966) and his production company New World Pictures, whose titles litter The Vintagent Film Archive, starting with Angels Die Hard (1970). The film was a sequel to Death Race 2000 (1975) set in the year 3000 and with motorcycles instead of cars. A third film ‘Deathworld’ was also planned but unfortunately Deathsport’s failure at the box office was the death of Deathworld before its inception.

Failure at the box office was probably inevitable, as the film was troubled from the start. The film’s original director Nicholas Niciphor was fired after repeated clashes with its stars, David Carradine and Claudia Jennings. Niciphor said that it became “hell” from the third day of shooting. “The script was too ambitious, the shooting schedule too tight and… the crew and the cast were largely sodden with drugs.” At one point, Carradine broke Niciphor’s nose, and Niciphor was fired. Allan Arkush was brought in to complete the film, and later recalled “By the time I got there, David Carradine had done one of his karate kicks and sent Nick flying through the air.” On another occasion, Jennings had to be physically removed from a motorcycle and the set, as she was drunk and high on cocaine. Jennings had a well-documented cocaine addiction at the time, and the film was one of the last before her death.

Carradine later recounted that “Nicholas was unable to overcome the madness of the shoot”. He called the film “terrible” and claimed that “my career never really fully recovered from that blunder.” In an interview from 2005, he said that Corman (who had Carradine signed to a five-picture contract) had advised him not to do Deathsport: “He was right too. I knew it the moment I saw the picture. He warned me and I didn’t listen. Asked about his own time finishing the film, Arkush said “Mostly we just blew up motorcycles. Lots of them. We also set some mutants on fire. And the stunning Claudia Jennings got naked. David Carradine…smoked a lot of high-grade weed and helped us to blow stuff up…Sad to say, I couldn’t save the picture.”

The fire scenes (there are many) are impressive, but they didn’t come without peril. During the cave scenes (shot at Bronson Caves in Bronson Canyon), a stuntman playing a mutant was set on fire, but also another actor portraying a mutant was accidentally set on fire. sadly, in the end, the film’s tagline “The ultimate ride for survival” may have lent itself more to the filming than the film. Yikes!

*Stunt performer Debbie Evans got her first job on Deathsport and never looked back. A few Women had been stunting on screen since the silent era, ut they were still rare in 1977, and Evans was a pioneer of the industry. Today she is still performing, and is considered one of the best in the world and has appeared in “The Matrix Reloaded” and several of “The Fast and the Furious” films. Hear Debbie in her own words HERE.