By Erin Free
FilmInk salutes the work of creatives who have never truly received the credit they deserve. In this installment: screenwriter, novelist and occasional director William Peter Blatty, who did a lot more than just write The Exorcist.
Sometimes, one creative achievement stands so tall that it casts everything else its creator has done into shadow. Sure, it’s extraordinary to be recognised so intensely for one thing, but when it comes at the expense of other fine work, that can be tough. Don McLean, for instance, had a lot more good songs than just “American Pie”, and J.D Salinger wrote a lot more excellent books than just The Catcher In The Rye. And William Peter Blatty did a hell of a lot more than just write The Exorcist, even though he remains wholly synonymous with that infamous title.
William Peter Blatty wrote the novel upon which William Friedkin’s game-changing, iconic 1973 horror masterpiece was based, and then worked with the notoriously headstrong director on the screenplay, crafting a staggering exercise in dread and spiritual anguish, and picking up an Oscar in the process. Blatty, however, was certainly not a one trick pony. He wrote a number of other books, as well as a handful of screenplays. He also directed two excellent films of such high quality and originality that it was a truly sad loss that Blatty didn’t make more movies before his passing in 2017 at the age of 89.
Born in 1928 in New York City to Lebanese parents, William Peter Blatty grew up poor but got into George Washington University on a scholarship, where he developed his talent for writing. After graduating, Blatty worked odd jobs, joined The US Air Force, and then moved sideways into The United States Information Agency, where he toiled as an editor. A big win on the Groucho Marx-hosted quiz show, You Bet Your Life, allowed Blatty to drop conventional work and focus on writing full-time. This paid off in the early 1960s as Blatty first began submitting humorous articles to magazines and eventually published a number of popular novels. At the same time, Blatty also made successful inroads into the film industry with a collection of tight, pithy screenplays.
Fascinatingly, for one so inextricably tied to the horror genre, most of Blatty’s screen work has been in decidedly different fields, with the writer particularly prolific in comedy. His first screenplay was for the little remembered 1963 Danny Kaye workplace comedy The Man From The Diners’ Club, which was directed by the venerable Frank Tashlin (The Girl Can’t Help It, Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?), and sparkles with wit and a certain jaundiced view of the world. Blatty also developed a strong working relationship with director and noted comic master Blake Edwards, with the duo first collaborating on 1964’s A Shot In The Dark, which introduced the world to the peculiar brand of comedy that was Peter Sellers’ Inspector Clouseau, who would eventually go supernova in the Pink Panther films. “I went to the first night’s sneak preview, and you couldn’t even hear the dialogue because the audience was laughing so loud,” Blatty told The Austin Chronicle in 2000. “My stomach hurt from laughing. It was amazing. I figured then that if they could do that again, they’d have another hit on their hands, and of course they did.”
Blatty worked on the scripts for three more Blake Edwards films: 1966’s arch anti-war comedy What Did You Do In The War, Daddy? (in which James Coburn’s US Army Lieutenant indulges in a goofy charade in order to convince a strategic Italian village to surrender); 1967’s jazzy PI comedy actioner Gunn; and 1970’s much maligned Darling Lili, a big budget musical flop starring Edwards’ wife, Julie Andrews, alongside Rock Hudson. Blatty also adapted his own novel John Goldfarb, Please Come Home for director J. Lee Thompson in 1965. Per his work with Blake Edwards, it was a savvy comedy for its time (it would be borderline offensive today), and boasted a decidedly goofy edge as Richard Crenna’s former football star is forced to coach the team of a mythical Arabic nation. Blatty also penned 1966’s Promise Her Anything for director Arthur Hiller and stars Warren Beatty and Leslie Caron, along with 1969’s The Great Bank Robbery and the 1976 Zero Mostel vehicle Mastermind. After establishing himself as something of a gag-man, however, William Peter Blatty found himself at a crossroads.
“Comedy had dried up,” Blatty told The Austin Chronicle in 2000. “Nobody would hire me to write anything straight or serious because I was only known as a writer of comedies. I not only was known for farce but off-the-wall stuff to boot. I had nothing better to do than go down to the unemployment office and pick up a few dollars at that point, so I thought maybe I’d better write that book I’d been thinking about, if for no other reason than to prove that I can write something other than comedies and go on with my life in Hollywood. I didn’t know if I could even get it published; even my agent thought it was a rotten idea. So, one night I went to a cocktail party and met the editor-in-chief of Bantam Books who asked me what I was doing. I told him my idea for The Exorcist, and right away he said he’d publish it. He gave me a $10,000 advance which was just enough to rent a cabin and try to write.”
And the rest, of course, is history. The huge success of The Exorcist eventually allowed Blatty to make his directorial debut in 1980 with The Ninth Configuration, which was based on his 1966 novel Twinkle, Twinkle, Killer Kane. If ever a film was deserving of a much, much larger cult than its very small band of enthusiasts, it’s this one. Driven by stunningly surreal images, unusual dialogue, fascinating characters, and superb performances, The Ninth Configuration is a true original. In one of his best performances, the horribly underrated Stacy Keach (just check out the likes of Fat City, Doc, The Killer Inside Me, The New Centurions, The Long Riders and more for ample evidence) is a former US Marine placed in charge of a mental asylum peopled by supremely damaged and unhinged military men. His approach to the patients (played brilliantly by top-tier character actors Scott Wilson, Jason Miller, Neville Brand, Joe Spinell and Tom Atkins) is unconventional, to say the least. A truly staggering debut, The Ninth Configuration has it all: debates on religion and man’s place in the universe; profoundly demented humour; inspired acting; and a scene involving a raucous bar and a bikie gang that you will have considerable trouble ever forgetting. It’s an amazing piece of work, and Blatty disappointingly wouldn’t direct again for another ten years.
Blatty returned in 1980, and was summarily drawn back into the world that had made his name by getting into the director’s chair for The Exorcist III: Legion. Though there are multiple versions of this film in circulation, including one that hews closer to Blatty’s “director’s cut”, the much-discussed standard theatrical cut is a mighty piece of work in and of itself. Dealing ingeniously with the backing studio’s interference and demands for more connections to the original hit film, Blatty’s sequel involves The Exorcist’s cop Lt. Kinderman (played by the late Lee J. Cobb in the first film and embodied here by the great George C. Scott), whose investigation into a deranged serial killer leads him to a psychiatric unit which will test both the veteran detective’s faith and the very manner in which he sees the world around him. While the fingerprints of notorious studio interference are all over it, The Exorcist III: Legion is very much the work of William Peter Blatty, whose fascination with theology burns bright in every surreal and shocking scene.
Sadly, the visually audacious and thematically powerful The Exorcist III: Legion would be William Peter Blatty’s last film, leaving behind just a taste of what this gifted creator could have achieved cinematically if given the right opportunities…
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