Saturday, October 4, 2014

Cujo


[Joe Camber has encountered Cujo in the garage. Cujo glares at him menacingly & growls]
Joe Camber: Cujo?
[the dog snarls again, and approaches him menacingly]
Joe Camber: Oh my God... you're rabid!
[Cujo barks savagely and charges at Joe. He puts his arms up to defend himself as Cujo attacks]
Joe Camber: [yelling] NO! NO! CUJO!
[the dog jumps on him & knocks him down]

Suburban housewife, Donna, has found herself in the midst of a turbulent life since her husband found out about her marital affair.  While her husband is away on business, using the time to sort out what he's going to do, Donna loads her 5-year-old son, Tad, into their undependable Pinto and takes it to a car shop out in the country.  Little does she nor Tad know there's a very big, very rabid St. Bernard on the loose.  His name is "Cujo".  It's just he and them.  Alone.  For miles.



It's unclear as to why "Cujo" made its premiere in France two days before it was released to 1,239 theaters across the U.S., but it did.  "Cujo"'s only competition at the Box Office on the weekend of August 12, 1983 was minimal: Universal's "Smokey and the Bandit III".  That was all.  All in all, it turns out that people were getting bored with the same old story "Smokey" had to deliver (not to mention Burt Reynolds was not the key lead in the film), so "Cujo" prevailed well past the "Bandit".

"Cujo" didn't do great at the Box Office, but it didn't do too terribly bad, either.  Out of the Top 100 Box Office Hits of 1983, "Cujo" ranked 34th ("Smokey and the Bandit III" fell to the 95th position).  Based on the Stephen King novel, "Cujo" scared up over $21.1 million (the "Bandit", only $5.6 million).

Director Lewis Teague dabbled a bit at directing for both television and major motion pictures before directing "Cujo", having directed episodes for "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour" (his first directorial gig), "Vega$" and "Barnaby Jones", and films such as "The Lady in Red", "Alligator", and "Fighting Back".  "Cujo" was the only work he did as a director in 1983 (Teague was recommended by Stephen King himself after seeing Teague's previous film "Alligator").  Lewis' next work as a director would be in 1985 in the form of "Cat's Eye", also based on a Stephen King story (who happened to write the screenplay).

It shouldn't be of any surprise that "Cujo" wasn't nominated for any Academy Awards, Golden Globes, or BAFTAs.  However, true fans will appreciate that this film was nominated for Best Horror Film at the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films USA as well as at the Fantasporto for which it won the Audience Jury Award.  At the Young Artist Awards, 6-year-old star Danny Pintauro was nominated for an award for his acting achievement.  "Cujo" was his feature film debut.

"Cujo" starred Dee Wallace as "Donna", Danny Pintauro as her son "Tad", and Daniel Hugh Kelly as her husband "Vic" (his debut in a feature film as well).  It also co-starred Christopher Stone as "Steve", Ed Lauter as "Joe", Kaiulani Lee as "Charity", and Billy Jayne as "Brett".

A 93-minute film and rated R for various yet obvious reasons, film locations for "Cujo" included towns and cities in California such as Glen Ellen, Mendocino, Petaluma, and Santa Rosa.  Some filming took place in parts of Utah as well.

Here are some other bits of information regarding the making of "Cujo" you might find interesting...


1.  As mentioned earlier, the film "Cujo" was based on a Stephen King novel of which Don Carlos Dunaway and Lauren Currier wrote the screenplay.  The story was inspired to Stephen King when he met his mechanic's intimidating dog while having his motorcycle repaired one day.  Stephen has admitted several times that he was so into his alcohol addiction at the time of his writing the novel that he does not remember writing the book.

2.  A rumor has circulated that "Cujo" is an ancient Indian word meaning "unstoppable force." In reality, Stephen King made it up himself when writing the novel.

3.  Danny Pintauro was only six years old at the time of the movie and had not learned how to read yet. He would often have to memorize his lines from the script with the help of his mother who was always close by on location.

4.  Tad has a stuffed St. Bernard in his room, seen clearly in his first bedroom scene.

5.  The dogs featured in the film would often have their tails tied down to their legs because the dogs would be enjoying themselves so much that they would wag their tails during filming.

6.  Five St. Bernards were used, one mechanical head, and a guy in a dog costume.

7.  The foam around Cujo's mouth was made of a concoction of egg whites and sugar. The dogs caused problems on the set by constantly licking the tasty stuff off.  Karo syrup dyed red was used for fake blood.

8.  The fog in the scene where Brett encounters a sick Cujo was created by a naval fog machine. The smoke brought out the local fire department who feared the woods were burning.

9.  A rottweiller was used for some of the scenes because they couldn't get the St. Bernard to look mean enough.

10.  To make the St. Bernards attack the car, animal trainers put the dog's favorite toys inside the car so the dogs would try to get them.

11.  Stunt double Jean Coulter was in the car and had the one of the toys used by the dogs' trainers as a "lure". The window was partially down, the dog jumped up and put his paws on the window, forcing it down and he reached in for his toy. Jeannie's reaction was to lower the toy and the dog bit her nose. She was treated at the hospital and released. There was also the rumor at the time that she was bitten by a rabid dog which was entirely incorrect.

12.  The scenes where Donna and Tad are trapped by Cujo are suppose to be sweltering hot and appear that way on film, yet the conditions were actually very cold during filming. At one point it got so cold inside the car that heaters were placed inside to keep the actors warm, but they would have to be turned off for shooting to prevent their sound from interfering.

13.  Danny Pintauro actually bit Dee Wallace's fingers during his seizure scenes. Dee's reactions in the scene were quite real.

14.  A number of cars were used for the filming, each was disassembled for specific camera shots.

15.  Star Dee Wallace said she has often been praised by parents for the scene where a hysterical Donna screams at Tad in a moment of frustrated terror. She said its a scene only a parent could identify with.

16.  Stars Dee Wallace and Christopher Stone were married at the time of the film.

17.  After the film, Dee Wallace went on record saying she hoped she'd never see another Pinto in her life.

18.  A sad tidbit... The St. Bernard that was featured the most in the film died of bloat during production.

And now you know.


But I've got just a couple of more things to share with you...

Stephen King has stated that he feels Dee Wallace gives the best performance in this film of any film or TV adaptation of his books, including Kathy Bates's Oscar-winning turn in Misery (1990).  Also (and this is a SPOILER ALERT), Stephen King cites this film as having the most effective scare of any of the movies based on his works, referring to the jolting scare where Cujo first leaps at the passenger window of the car (if you haven't seen this film before, my apologies for that spoiler).  And now you know even more!

The following are picture stills from the film arranged on chronological order to follow the story line.  We'll start with the key characters...










Let's not forget the canine star...



Cute dog, huh?   Don't you just wanna pet him, snuggle with him for a while, or maybe throw him a bone, preferably a bone that isn't attached to your body?  Nah.  Me, neither.  Anyway, let's follow the story line...









































































Donna Trenton: Fuck you, dog.


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