This unusual, multi-talented artist (producer, director, screenwriter, actor, novelist) managed to make several personal and eccentric films within the Hollywood studio system of the 1970s and 80s while remaining very much on its margins. As a writer-director, Richert (pronounced Richard) had completed only three fiction features by 1996. All are characterized by unusual intelligence, mordant wit, volatile father-son relations and skillful direction of some top-notch performers. One, "Winter Kills" (1979), has become a cult classic embraced by savvy audiences, critics and filmmakers.
Helming his own adaptation of Richard ("The Manchurian Candidate"; "Prizzi's Honor") Condon's novel, Richert crafted a jet black comedy starring Jeff Bridges as the younger brother of an assassinated president who becomes embroiled in a mind-boggling conspiracy as he searches for the real assassin. Though "Winter Kills" was his first fiction feature as a director (having previously helmed several "cinema verite" documentaries), Richert managed to round up an extraordinary cast in support of Bridges including John Huston as the patriarch power broker, Anthony Perkins, Toshiro Mifune, Sterling Hayden, Eli Wallach, Dorothy Malone and Elizabeth Taylor. Not surprisingly, his powers of persuasion are legendary.
Production began in 1976 and screeched to a halt a few weeks before completion when union representatives arrived on the set. "Winter Kills" was shut down for non-payment of salaries. MGM impounded the negative and the production went into bankruptcy. A bad situation became surreal as one of the neophyte producers was found dead in his apartment, handcuffed and shot through the head, while the other was arrested for drug smuggling as part of the biggest marijuana bust in California history. The making of the film had become every bit as dark, convoluted and absurd as its plot.
While struggling to raise money to complete "Winter Kills", Richert scripted (from a Larry Cohen story) and directed another off-beat satire starring Jeff Bridges, "The American Success Company/American Success/Success" (1979). The targets were capitalism and machismo as Bridges portrayed a rich and passive young man who spices up his life by developing an alternate persona. Made in Munich with German tax shelter money, the film was barely released to mixed reviews. Deemed quite funny but uneven, "The American Success Company" has its share of ardent admirers including Steven Spielberg who owns a print that he shows to friends.
Meanwhile, Richert convinced Avco-Embassy to put up the money for two more weeks of shooting on "Winter Kills". He reassembled the necessary cast members and finally finished the film in late 1978. The $6 million budget had inflated to $8 million but many creditors were never paid. "Winter Kills" was released briefly in 1979 to mostly perplexed reviews and quickly pulled by the studio in favor of a less estimable flop, "Goldengirl", with Susan Anton. In contrast, the reputation of Richert's film has only grown over the years.
In 1980, Richert and former studio exec Claire Townsend formed the Invisible Studio, an unorthodox distribution company which re-released "The American Success Story" as "American Success" in 1981 (the title was later shortened to "Success"). "Winter Kills" was revived, re-edited and re-released with its original ending restored in 1983.
Richert arrived in Hollywood by bus at age 17 around 1961. By age 18, he was a press agent for the "Steve Allen Show" and subsequently worked as a freelance speechwriter for the chairman of Westinghouse (the show's sponsor). Between assignments, the nineteen-year-old Richert wrote his first novel, "Aren't You Even Gonna Kiss Me Goodbye?", which was published in 1966. Impressed by Milos Forman's acclaimed feature "Loves of a Blonde" (1965), he sought out the Czech filmmaker to direct his adaptation of the novel but the collaboration never materialized.
The influence of Forman and some theater experience inspired Richert to become interested in acting and directing. He entered filmmaking with a documentary entitled "Presidents' Daughters" featuring interviews with Margaret Truman, Linda Bird Johnson, Tricia Nixon and others. Twelve minutes of this footage was broadcast on a 1969 installment of CBS's "60 Minutes". Much of the material was suppressed by the Nixon White House and the film was subsequently lost. Richert produced the absorbing 'cinema verite' documentary "Derby" (1971), about a young roller derby enthusiast, and produced and directed the more sedate "First Position" (1972) about young lovers at the American Ballet School. He entered fiction filmmaking as the producer and screenwriter of "Law and Disorder" (1974), a social comedy-drama starring Carroll O'Connor and Ernest Borgnine, which marked the American debut of Czech director Ivan Passer. Richert also spent ten days writing the safely sanitized screenplay for a comic biopic of NYC madam Xaviera Hollander, "The Happy Hooker" (1975).
Richert left filmmaking for about a decade and returned as the writer-director of "A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon" (1988). Featuring River Phoenix in one of his first starring roles, this thoughtful social comedy was the film version of Richert's novel "Aren't You Even Gonna Kiss Me Goodbye?" Reviewers found it less than wholly successful but were struck by its intelligence, sensitivity and fine performances, particularly from Ann Magnuson as an unhappy divorcee. Richert and Phoenix would work together again--both as actors--in Gus Van Sant's "My Own Private Idaho" (1991). Richert was a Falstaffian Fagin-figure while Phoenix was a narcoleptic hustler. Richert has subsequently resurfaced sporadically as a character actor in "The Client" (1994), playing a shady character, and on an episode of the light-hearted ABC-TV crime drama "The Marshal". He also helmed an episode of that series. As of 1996, Richert had a backlog of unproduced screenplays and several projects in various stages of development including the script for "Prizzi's Family", a sequel to "Prizzi's Honor".