Winter Kills (1979) on Netflix
Nineteen years after President Timothy Kegan is assassinated, a stranger arrives on an oil tanker claiming he fired the shot. The president's half-brother, Nick Kegan, goes looking for the rifle.
- Watch on NetflixThis title is not on Netflix right now. Please check back later for updates.
- Watch on Prime
- Watch on NordVPN
- Netflix3.8/5
- IMDb6.2/104,440 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes88%
Trailer
Plot summary
On the oil tanker belonging to Pa Kegan, the father of the murdered president, a man called Arthur Fletcher comes aboard and says he and a second gunman were hired to shoot Timothy Kegan in 1960. He tells them the rifle is in Philadelphia, and dies before he can say more. Nick Kegan, the president's half-brother, goes there with Captain Walt Heller and Miles Garner to fetch it. They walk into an ambush, and the rifle is taken. Pa Kegan waves the matter aside at first, then changes course and offers the family's help. Nick's girlfriend, Yvette Malone, who says she works at National Magazine, offers to pursue the story.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Winter Kills (1979)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- People worked for free until union officials heard and, in March 1977, unions shut the production down and forced it to declare bankruptcy. Producer Leonard Goldberg was murdered just before the film's opening, and producer Robert Sterling was later sentenced to 40 years in prison for marijuana smuggling.
SPOILER
William Richert wanted to film Pa Kegan's death at the Pan Am Building but was refused by an irate employee who warned the film would not be allowed within 20 blocks of the building because the Kennedys had offices there.- Needing a budget of $6 million, producers Leonard Goldberg and Robert Sterling raised only $2.3 million, so many actors were never paid or received just the 20% of their fee held in escrow, and Elizabeth Taylor insisted on her $100,000 fee up front.
- William Richert, then an unknown director, persuaded Jeff Bridges to star by moving into his Malibu neighborhood and acting out scenes for him at a local delicatessen.
- After the bankruptcy, Richert used money from The American Success Company, which Jeff Bridges and Belinda Bauer had gone to Germany to make with him, to restart Winter Kills on December 18, 1978 and finish filming in two weeks.
