''The Ransom'' is a 1977 American

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre. ...

directed by Richard Compton and starring

Oliver Reed Robert Oliver Reed (13 February 1938 – 2 May 1999) was an English actor, known for his upper-middle class, macho image and his heavy-drinking, "hellraiser" lifestyle. His screen career spanned over 40 years, between 1955 and 1999. At the ...

Deborah Raffin Deborah Iona Raffin (March 13, 1953 – November 21, 2012) was an American actress, model and audiobook publisher. Early life Raffin was born in Los Angeles to actress Trudy Marshall and Phillip Jordan Raffin, a restaurateur and business exec ...

Stuart Whitman Stuart Maxwell Whitman (February 1, 1928 – March 16, 2020) was an American actor, known for his lengthy career in film and television. Whitman was born in San Francisco and raised in New York until the age of 12, when his family relocated to ...

and James Mitchum. It is also known by the

alternative title An alternative title is a media sales device most prominently used in film distribution. Books and films are commonly released under a different title when they are screened or sold in a different country. This can vary from small change to the ...

s ''Assault in Paradise'' and ''Maniac''.

Plot

Cast

as Nick McCormick *

as Cindy Simmons *

as William Whitaker * James Mitchum as Tracker * John Ireland as Chief Haliburton * Paul Koslo as Victor * Arch Archambault as Insp. Davey * Robert Lussier as Wolf * Dennis Redfield as Jackson * Kipp Whitman as Officer Steiner * Bill Allen as Carson the Butler * Daniel Knapp as T.J. Caulfield

Production

In a 1978 interview with the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'', co-screenwriter Ronald Silkosky said that the film had been heavily trimmed by

New World Pictures New World Pictures (also known as New World Entertainment, New World Communications Group, Inc., and New World International) was an American independent production, distribution, and (in its final years as an autonomous entity) multimedia com ...

prior to release.

Release

The film was rereleased several times with titles such as ''Assault in Paradise'', ''Maniac'', ''The Town That Cried Terror'' and ''Night Hunter''. An extended 104-minute alternate version is included as a bonus feature on the

Blu-ray disc Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of ...

release of the film by Code Red.

References

Bibliography

* Alastair Phillips & Ginette Vincendeau. ''Journeys of desire: European actors in Hollywood : a critical companion''. BFI, 2006.

External links

* * 1977 films 1977 thriller films American thriller films Films directed by Richard Compton New World Pictures films 1970s English-language films 1970s American films English-language thriller films {{thriller-film-stub