William Peter Blatty's masterpiece (and no, it's not The Exorcist)
When you hear William Peter Blatty, you'll always instantly think about The Exorcist. For good reason - it remains an excellent tale! However, in my view, his masterpiece was The Ninth Configuration.
Did you know that Groucho Marx was indirectly responsible for giving us the writer William Peter Blatty? Nothing more than a bit of trivia, but, how curious! As a young man, Blatty appeared on Groucho Marx’ iconic show ‘You Bet Your Life’ - and won ten thousand dollars. This allowed him to quit his job and from then on, he was a fulltime writer. He had written before then, but that moment, that money, clearly freed his pen and there was no stopping him then.
He wrote three novels in the sixties and one of them - entitled ‘Twinkle, Twinkle, “Killer” Kane' - would someday become Blatty’s forgotten masterpiece, the mad, the audacious, the hysterical, the horrific, the one and only, The Ninth Configuration.
Beware - a bit of near-unbearable hyping coming up: If you’ve never seen it, do take the time - it is a story about faith, told with outrageous storytelling joy - it’ll blow your mind, it’ll confuse, it’ll have you in stitches, it’ll scare you and move you to tears, it’ll have you question everything, it’ll give you scenes you’ll find near unbearable to watch - and it’ll leave you astounded. It is, truly, genius storytelling bravado and yet, every time I mention the film, people give me a blank stare. Most seem to have never even heard of it … and frankly, I can understand why. It isn’t a film that’ll be seen on TV, it is a film that makes for intense and, yes, uncomfortable viewing. Intrigued? You should be. Go watch it!
“The Ninth Configuration is hilarious yet thought-provoking, with endlessly quotable dialogue and an amazing barroom fight scene.” (Leonard Maltin)
As ever so often, quite a bit happened before that little novel - ‘Twinkle, Twinkle, “Killer” Kane’ - finally became a film. Blatty found his way into screenwriting and penned a series of Hollywood screenplays. You wouldn’t immediately expect it from the writer of The Exorcist, but, among many others, Blatty penned the Blake Edwards’ Inspector Clouseau comedy ‘A Shot in the Dark.’ Well, then came ‘The Exorcist.’ Published in 1971, the novel that would change the trajectory of his career into Hollywood stardom. The bestselling novel was soon adapted by Blatty himself for the silver screen, directed by William Friedkin - and just two years later the film was released. Blatty won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay and, to this day, The Exorcist remains one of the most iconic supernatural horror films ever.
“The finest large-scale American surrealist film ever made” (Peter Travers)
You’ve most likely seen The Exorcist and know that it is all about faith - well, so is The Ninth Configuration. Blatty had not forgotten about his little novel and, in 1978, reworked it and published ‘Twinkle, Twinkle, “Killer” Kane’ once again as ‘The Ninth Configuration.’ He would soon begin working on bringing the novel to the screen - with the intention of writing the script for William Friedkin to direct - Blatty himself called the story ‘bizarre material.’ Despite the success of The Exorcist, every studio passed on the script - not surprising once you’ve seen the film! It is bizarre material!
Finally, Blatty decided not just to direct it, but to also raise the film’s four million budget himself. He tossed in half of the money personally, and the Pepsi Company provided the other half - with one stipulation: the film had to be shot in Hungary, where Pepsi had a bottling plant and blocked money (while filming did take place in Hungary, the iconic castle is actually in Germany and the courtyard scenes were filmed in Austria).
When the film came out in 1980, it was hailed as a masterpiece - and was a complete commercial flop. Blatty went on to other things and the film faded away. It is recognized by critics and has a small cult following, but, by and large, it’s forgotten. Hence this little shout-out from me - it’s one of those films that’ll stay with you long after watching it and you’ll want to watch it again for the amazing performances of the stellar cast as much as for the truly hilarious and highly thought-provoking tale.
English film critic Mark Kermode wrote: “The Ninth Configuration is a breathtaking cocktail of philosophy, eye-popping visuals, jaw-dropping pretentiousness, rib-tickling humor and heart-stopping action. Blatty directs like a man with no understanding of, or interest in, the supposed limits of mainstream moviemaking. The result is a work of matchless madness.”
I think the above critic is spot on. As mentioned, among the many gems served up in this insane cocktail are the cast with their performances as intense as they are uproarious - and the mad dialogue just ridiculously quotable. Here a few lines:
“I know my rights, I demand to see my urologist.”
“I am a Buddhist. In case of emergency, call a lama.”
“You’re so dumb, you’re adorable.”
“Show me a Catholic, and I’ll show you a junkie.”
“The man in the moon tried to fuck my sister!”
“I think the end of the world just came for that bag of Fritos I had in my pants pocket.”
“Infinite goodness is creating a being you know, in advance, is going to complain.”
“If God existed, he’s a fake. Or, more likely, a foot. A giant, all-powerful, all-knowing foot!”
See what I mean?
I think I’ll leave it at that - if you dare to jump into The Ninth Configuration, I sincerely hope that you’ll enjoy it as much as I did. Cheers, D
One late night, (long before on demand) I caught a movie mid way through. It was bizarre. I completely forgot about it, until I read this and recognized the plot and that it starred Stacy Keach. I had no idea what it was titled or that it was written by William Peter Blatty. Great, well written and informative piece of work. Thanks!