Day of the Assassin
Directed byBrian Trenchard-Smith
Carlos Vasallo
Written byRobert Avard Miller
Robin Estridge
Produced byRobin Lubin
Ika Panajotovic
Carlos Vasallo
Release date
1979
Running time
94 mins
CountriesUSA
Mexico
Spain
LanguageEnglish

'Day of the Assassin (El día de los asesinos) is a 1979 American-Mexican-Spanish film directed by Brian Trenchard-Smith who called it "a trainwreck of a movie."[1]

Premise

Various treasure hunters journey to Mexico to find a fortune at the bottom of the ocean.

Cast

Production

The film was shot in Mexico and was a co production between Mexico, Spain and the USA. According to Trenchard-Smith the original director was to be Leslie Martinson who had just made Missile X – Geheimauftrag Neutronenbombe for producer Ika Panajotovic, who was producing Day of the Assassin. However Martinson left the project when his desposit did not arrive. Martinson and Trenchard-Smith shared the same agent; he persuaded the producers to hire Trenchard-Smith on the basis he had made a Bruce Lee film (The World of Kung Fu); the producers thought they were getting Robert Clouse and were disappointed to discover it was Trenchard-Smith.[1][2]

The female lead was meant to be Jill St. John but she left the project when her deposit did not arrive. She was replaced by Susana Dosamantes, who was dating the Spanish producer.[1]

Trenchard-Smith says Glenn Ford was to be paid $100,000 for two days' work and that his friend, Taylor Lacher, would be given a role. This part had been promised to the writer, Ribert Avard Miller, who was subsquently given a smaller part.[1]

Trenchard-Smith was fired in the sixth and last week of filming after refusing to shoot a scene where Chuck Connors' character commits a robbery. Producer Carlos Vassallo took over for the final few days and is credited as co director on some prints of the film.[1][2]

Reception

In his review of the film "Vern" said "The story is all made up of things you’ve seen a million times before, but I like these kind of things... it’s a pretty crappy movie and didn’t really keep my interest the whole time, but there’s something about it. I like those types of competing experts movies, it’s a good slumming cast and there’s just kind of a cool vibe to it."[3]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Trenchard-Smith, Brian (20 December 2014). "Brian Trenchard-Smith (Drive Hard) Talks the Dark Side of Co-Production – and the Time Glenn Ford Squeezed His Balls". Talkhouse.
  2. 1 2 Trenchard-Smith, Brian (2022). "Chapter 27 - Dia de los Assassinos". Adventures in the B Movie Trade. Trenchard Publishing.
  3. ↑ Vern (2 May 2009). "Day of the Assassin". Vern's Reviews on the Films of the Cinema.
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