Slayground (1983)
Anchor Bay DVD (region 1)
d. Terry Bedford; pr. John Dark, Gower Frost; scr. Trevor Preston; novel. Donald Westlake (as Richard Stark); ph. Stephen Smith, Herb Wagreich; m. Colin Towns; ed. Nicolas Gaster; cast. Peter Coyote, Mel Smith, Billie Whitelaw, Philip Sayer, Bill Luhrs, Marie Masters (89 mins)
Slayground is a curious crime thriller that in effect unites the British and American criminal drama movements of the 1970s with the sleek visual polish of the early 1980s. Its neglect is considerable and most unfortunate for it is one of the most stylized of low budget crime films to emerge in its decade. It was based on a novel by Richard Stark (a pen name of author Donald Westlake, one of the most esteemed crime writers of the last few decades) yet put together in collaboration with British resources and directed by first-timer Terry Bedford, who alas did not direct another feature and remains better known as a cinematographer for the early Monty Python movies. In the 1960s and 1970s, Stark developed a character, a thief named Parker, in a series of books that were critically noted for their extremely tough, hard-boiled pulpiness and their rather bleak determinism. One of these books was made into a film, the classic Point Blank (later remade as Payback), but otherwise the amoral character remained unexplored. Although Stark ceased writing in the late 1970s, the popularity of his works led to one final film effort to capture the somber intensity of his world. The result was the engrossing and grimly oppressive Slayground, a sad film that fully captures the notion of fatalistic “bewilderment” that author Westlake once said was the subject of his work (and is indeed the phrase that introduces his website).
Peter Coyote plays Stone, a master thief. He is a man with a plan and intends to rob an armored car as it travels down a deserted stretch of road. However, his regular driver does not show up and his accomplice gets a replacement, a young and cocky man. The robbery goes as planned, but in the getaway process the driver misses a stop sign and forces another car into a colliding spin. This car wrecks. Coyote forces the driver to stop and rushes up to the overturned vehicle. Peering inside he sees that a little girl is dead. Driving off he now knows that his luck may have irrevocably turned. Indeed, the grieving father soon uses his apparent criminal connections to hire a ruthless, sadistic assassin in order to exact revenge. This killer finds those responsible with alarming ease although Coyote manages to escape the hit-man, but is terribly wounded in the process. Coyote is surprised by this killer’s ability and so gets a new identity and travels to England, to seek a favor from an old friend (Mel Smith) who owes him a debt. His wounds, however, have made it necessary for him to have an expensive operation, for which he needs money quickly. Although told that this new friend is dead, Coyote pushes the case and soon finds a woman (Billie Whitelaw) who operates a dilapidated amusement park where it seems that the friend may be hiding alive after all. Alas, Coyote cannot shake the killer. read more