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The High Powered Rifle
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Wikipedia article
'The High Powered Rifle' is a 1960 American action film produced and directed by Maury Dexter and written by Joseph Fritz. The film stars Willard Parker, Allison Hayes, Dan Simmons, John Holland, Shirley O'Hara and Terrea Lea. The film was released in September 1960, by 20th Century Fox.
It was also known as 'Duel in the City'.
Plot
A private eye is attacked by an assassin.
Cast
*Willard Parker as Stephen Dancer
*Allison Hayes as Sharon Hill
*Dan Simmons as Lt. Sam 'Mac' Donald
*John Holland as District Attorney
*Shirley O'Hara as Jean Brewster
*Terrea Lea as Terrea Lea
*Leonard P. Geer as Gus Alpert
*Clark Howat as George Merkle
*A.G. Vitanza as Little Charlie Roos
Production
In the mid 1950s 20th Century Fox created a separate film company to make second features in CinemaScope initially called Regal Pictures, then Associated Producers Incorporated or API. Each of their features was shot in seven days in black and white with a budget of $100,000. Unlike other B Picture producers, Regal and API maintained motion picture union standards of salaries and schedules. With Fox's decreasing main feature production schedule, there was a fear that API would have to be disbanded as there were not enough main features to support (which eventually happened in the mid 1960s).
As an experiment, Robert Lippert told API producer Maury Dexter he wished to make films at half the budget and release them as double features in the manner of American International Pictures and Roger Corman's Filmgroup.
Dexter was skeptical, but made his directorial debut when he leapt to the challenge. He completed the film at $50,000 on actual locations, including the house of Gary Cooper's mother.pp, 103*104 Weaver, Tom 'Maury Dexter Interview' in 'I Talked with a Zombie: Interviews with 23 Veterans of Horror and Sci-fi Films and Television' McFarland 18 Apr 2014
Dexter said the film's title came from Lippert and Harry Spaulding had to write a script to suit it. It was Dexter's directorial debut.
References
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