''Stone Cold Dead'' is a 1979 Canadian film directed by

George Mendeluk George Mendeluk ( ua, Джордж Менделюк) (born March 20, 1948, in Augsburg, Bavaria) is a German-born Canadian film director, television director and writer of Ukrainian descent. Throughout his career he has amassed a number of cred ...

and starring

Richard Crenna Richard Donald Crenna (November 30, 1926 – January 17, 2003) was an American film, television and radio actor. Crenna starred in such motion pictures as '' The Sand Pebbles'', '' Wait Until Dark'', '' Un Flic'', ''Body Heat'', the first thre ...

and

Paul Williams Paul Williams may refer to: Authors * Paul O. Williams (1935–2009), American science-fiction author and poet * Paul L. Williams (author) (born 1944), FBI consultant, journalist * Paul Williams (journalist) (1948–2013), American founder of mu ...

Premise

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most pop ...

detective (

) searches for a

serial killer A serial killer is typically a person who murders three or more persons,A * * * * with the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant period of time between them. While most authorities set a threshold of three ...

who shoots prostitutes. The detective is also determined to arrest the pushy

pimp Procuring or pandering is the facilitation or provision of a prostitute or other sex worker in the arrangement of a sex act with a customer. A procurer, colloquially called a pimp (if male) or a madam (if female, though the term pimp has still ...

s, and a few undercover cops get killed as they try to infiltrate the hooker trade.

Cast

Production

Crenna said he was drawn to the film partly because his character survives the events of the plot, something that few of his characters had done recently. Mendeluk used both actresses and real-life Toronto prostitutes during filming. Shooting took place during November and December 1978 in Toronto, and production ended in February 1979. It was based on the novel ''The Sin Sniper'' by

Hugh Garner Hugh Garner (February 22, 1913 – June 30, 1979) was a British-born Canadian novelist. Biography Early life Hugh Garner was born on February 22, 1913, in Batley, Yorkshire, England. He came to Canada in 1919 with his parents, and was raised in ...

Reception

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program TV listings, listings information as well as entertainment and television-related news. The company sold its print magazine division, TV Guide Magazine, TV Guide Mag ...

'' rated it 1/5 stars and called it a "typical crime thriller". Crenna later said that he thought the content was not Canadian-specific enough.

References

External links

* * * 1979 films Canadian crime drama films Dimension Pictures films English-language Canadian films Films scored by Paul Zaza 1979 directorial debut films 1970s English-language films Films directed by George Mendeluk 1970s Canadian films {{1970s-Canada-film-stub