Winter Kills(1979)

R
1h 37m

Release Date: May 18, 1979 | Limited

The younger brother of an assassinated US President is led down a rabbit hole of conspiracies and dead ends after learning of a man claiming to be the real shooter.

Official Website

Note: Distributed by AVCO Embassy Pictures

Releases

Original Release | May 18, 1979

2023 Re-release (Rialto Pictures) | Aug 11, 2023

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Box Office Results

All Releases (2)
Total US & Canada:
$1,161,386
Total International
$0
Total Worldwide:
$1,161,848

Total US & Canada:
$1,083,799
Total Worldwide:
$1,084,261

Current Showtimes

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(U.S. Only)

Director & Top Cast

William Richert
Director

Robert F. Boyle

Technical Specifications

Sound Mix: Mono

Aspect Ratio: 2.39 : 1

Other Details

Country of Origin: United States

Language: English

Summaries

Plot Summary

On board his millionaire father's tanker ship, Nick Kegan (Jeff Bridges) phones his lover, Yvette Malone (Belinda Bauer), and leaves a message on her answering machine. Just then, a family associate named Keifetz (Richard Boone) arrives on the ship by helicopter with a man wrapped in bandages. Inside the ship's doctor's office, the injured man, Arthur Fletcher (Joe Spinell), mutters a confession as an orderly transcribes; Fletcher had assassinated Nick's half-brother, the President of the United States, 19 years ago on February 22, 1960 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania while President Kegan was riding in an open limo with his wife. Fletcher claims that he and one other gunman were hired by a man named Casper, Jr., for the job, after which Fletcher hid his rifle in Room 903 of the Engleson Building in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Fletcher claims that he is confessing because he waned to be able to prove that he was the real killer. Nick inquires about Willie Arnold, the assassin who was determined to be the lone gunman by the Pickering Commission. However, Fletcher dies before he can answer, so Nick heads to Philadelphia to look for the rifle.At the Engleson Building, Nick uncovers the weapon, but, just as he and his companions prepare to leave, a young woman on a bicycle (Barbara Richert) with an infant child rides past their vehicle and pops her chewing gum. In an instant, Nick's associates are shot dead by an unseen sniper. Panicked, Nick runs to call his father, Pa Kegan (John Huston), but instead is connected to John Cerruti (Anthony Perkins), the mastermind behind the Kegan empire. When Nick reports the incident and his whereabouts, Cerruti promises to send help, but the vehicle and the rifle inside are stolen by an unseen person as Nick waits.Sometime later, Nick is chauffeured to Pa Kegan's desert estate, where he is greeted by the Japanese butler, Keith (Toshirô Mifune). Later that evening, Nick sees his emotionally unstable mother, Emma (Dorothy Malone), and is rebuked by his father for leaving the ship. When Nick reports Fletcher's confession and the incident in Philadelphia, his father storms away. However, Pa wakes Nick in the morning with a plan to expose the assassination conspiracy.A few days later, Pa sends Nick to meet his former political rival and one of the richest men in the U.S., Z.K. Dawson (Sterling Hayden). Driving into Dawson's Tulsa, Oklahoma, ranch, Nick is cornered by WW II tanks. Dawson surfaces from a hatch, arguing that he was not involved with the assassination and implicating the Philadelphia Police Departments Captain Heller and his sidekick, Ray Doty.On an airplane to New York City, Nick receives a call from Pa, who reports that they no longer have any witnesses to Fletcher's confession; Keifetz was killed and the ship's orderly broke his neck in a fall.Sometime later, Nick meets Ray Doty (Michael Thomas), who remembers that the man implicated in Fletcher's confession, Casper, Jr., was connected to the Philadelphia police through a nightclub owner named Joe Diamond (Eli Wallach). According to Doty (in a long flashback sequence to 1960), Diamond bribed Captain Heller (Brad Dexter) for access into the police station so he could kill Willie Arnold after the presidential assassination. Gangster Gameboy Baker (Ralph Meeker) arranged the assassination because the president did not return favors for the mafia's $2 million campaign contribution and Arnold was their scapegoat. Joe Diamond was arrested and later died in prison from cancer nearly 10 years after the Kegan assassination.Sometime after his meeting with Doty, Nick returns to New York City and makes love to Yvette. In the throes of passion, the young woman agrees to marry him but later retracts her promise, claiming that Nick is more intimate with her answering machine. When Nick returns home to his nearby apartment, he is attacked by his maid, but he gains the upper hand and has her detained.At lunch the next day at a fancy restaurant, Nick asks Yvette to help him track down people who knew Joe Diamond through National Magazine, the magazine for which she works. Soon, Yvette directs Nick to a Cleveland, Ohio, diner, where he meets gangster Irving Mentor (Irving Selbst) and bribes him for information. Mentor reports that Casper, Jr., figured in the assassination because he was connected to a Hollywood studio that lost $50 million when one of their stars killed herself over an alleged affair with the president. Just then, the same mysterious woman on the bicycle who popped her chewing gum before the shootings in Philadelphia brings a dead cat into Mentor's diner and Nick chases after her as the restaurant explodes, killing Mentor and his henchmen. The unknown woman again gets away.Nick returns to New York City, where Pa debunks Mentor's story and orders Nick to meet with imprisoned gangster Frank Mayo (Tomas Milian), who was given special leave for the interview. When Mayo suggests that Nick is being misled, Nick heads to National Magazine headquarters and learns that Yvette is not actually an employee. Later, the hostile doorman (Joe Ragno) at Yvette's apartment building insists to Nick that no woman with the name of Yvette lives there.Returning home to his apartment, Nick finds Keifetz, who admits that he faked his death and encourages Nick to use Cerruti's intelligence connections to find Yvette. At Pa's financial headquarters, Cerutti tells Nick that Yvette was kidnapped by Casper Jr., and recounts a new version of the assassination. According to Cerruti (in another flashback sequence to the late 1950s), a Washington, D.C. madam named Lola Comante (Elizabeth Taylor), who obliged the president's fondness for sex, offered him a $2 million campaign contribution from Mayo and his mafia associates. When the president discovered that Pa was behind the deal, he ended their relationship, leaving Pa financially and emotionally devastated.Changing the story yet again, Cerruti confesses that he arranged for Nick to meet a fraudulent Z.K. Dawson in Tulsa. The real Dawson and his daughter, Yvette, were the true perpetrators of the assassination; Yvette, formerly known as Maggie Dawson, was the president's mistress. Nick discounts Cerruti's story and insists on learning Yvette's whereabouts. As Nick attacks and fractures Cerruti's arms with a baton, he breaks down. Cerutti claims that Pa spent millions of dollars to support his son's presidency because it benefited him financially, but he was displeased by the president's liberal politics and so it was Pa who had him killed. Pa created an elaborate hoax to confuse Nick, including the employment of an actress named Jenny O'Brien to play the role of Yvette. When Cerruti says that Jenny is "tied up" at Kegan Medical School, Nick leaves... only to find her body in the morgue.Sometime later, Nick confronts his father in his office, but Pa claims that Cerruti masterminded the assassination to augment the Kegan coffers and blackmailed Pa into keeping quiet. When Nick attempts to call the police, Keifetz and an officer break into Pa's office and Nick thinks the men are there to back him up; however, Pa announces that Keifetz is an assassin with orders to kill Nick. Defending himself, Nick grabs the officer and uses his gun to fire at Keifetz, who shoots back at the officer as he dies. Nick chases his father onto the high-rise balcony and finds Pa clinging to the rail of an enormous American flag. As Nick reaches for his father, Pa falls to his death, tearing the flag in half with his body as he calls out to Nick: "put my money in South America!". Nick staggers away, but tells the secretary that he will return because he cannot escape his family ties.Sometime later in the final scene, Nick calls Yvette's answering machine to hear her voice one last time.

Storyline

Nineteen years after President Timothy Kegan (John Warner) was assassinated, his brother Nick (Jeff Bridges) discovers a dying man claiming to have been the gunman. While trying to avoid his wealthy and domineering father's attempts to control his actions, Nick follows the clues that have been handed to him. As he progresses, it becomes increasingly difficult to discern the real trails from the dead ends, and increasing dangerous as unknown parties try to stop Nick from uncovering the truth. — Jean-Marc Rocher <rocher@fiberbit.net>