Onscreen Oates is supported by Harry Dean Stanton, Richard B. Shull, Ed Begley Jr., Steve Railsback, Robert Earl Jones, Laurie Bird, Millie Perkins and Charles Willeford himself in the roll of Ed Middleton, described in his novel as "in his early sixties...he is a big man with a big voice and a big paunch. Except for a bumpy bulbous nose with a few broken blood vessels here and there on its bright red surface, his face is smooth and white, with the shiny licked look of a dog's favorite bone," leading me wonder if he wrote it aspiring to play the role himself a decade later.
Willeford more than holds his own among the stacked cast of character actors and personally I think it's a shame we didn't get more screen roles from him outside of a blink and you'll miss it appearance three years later in Corey Allen's David Carradine starring above average quality hixsploitation cinematic shit-kicker Thunder and Lightning.
The novel, narrated by mute Frank, gives the reader plenty of his thoughts and observations, but the film has no narration and relies on Oates' soulful eyes, impish grin and exaggerated body language to carry conversations while I relied on Heather and Mike to carry ours. I was comfortable doing so because it wasn't our first conversation around an adaptation of a great novel.
Many episodes earlier we had our first discussion about John Huston's film of Leonard Gardner's Fat City starring Stacy Keach, Jeff Bridges and Susan Tyrell. (Check that out here)For more from Heather be sure to follow her @mondoheather on Twitter and you can pick up The Bizarro Encyclopedia of Film Vol. 1 right here.
For more on Cockfighter, here's me and Johnny Shaw in conversation about Willeford and the films made from his books (Cockfighter, Miami Blues and The Woman Chaser - The Burnt Orange Heresy was not yet made).
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