Fever Pitch

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Directed by Richard Brooks
Produced by Freddie Fields
Written by Richard Brooks
Starring Ryan O’Neal, Catherine Hicks, Giancarlo Giannini, Bridgette Andersen, Chad Everett, John Saxon, Hank Greenspun, William Smith
Music by Thomas Dolby
Cinematography William A. Fraker
Editing by Jeff Jones
Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date November 22, 1985
Running time 96 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Box office $618,847 (United States)

Fever Pitch is a 1985 American film starring Ryan O’Neal, and written and directed by Richard Brooks.

This turned out to be the final film for Brooks, director of such acclaimed images as Blackboard Jungle, Elmer Gantry, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and In Cold Blood.
The film failed at the box-office after it grossed only just a little more than $600,000, Fever Pitch was nominated for four Razzie Awards, like Worst Image, as well as contributing to O’Neal’s later Razzie nomination for Worst Actor from the Decade.

Co-starring within the film were Giancarlo Giannini, Chad Everett, John Saxon and Catherine Hicks. The original music score was composed by Thomas Dolby.
Fever Pitch has not been released on DVD. It has no relation towards the other Fever Pitch films, the 2005 baseball-themed romantic comedy starring Drew Barrymore or the 2000 soccer-themed story with Colin Firth.

Plot

Steve Taggart is actually a Los Angeles sports writer who becomes obsessed with gambling. He volunteers to complete a series of articles for the newspaper on a compulsive gambler he calls “Mr. Green,” who is, in actual fact, himself.

Taggart gets deeper and deeper into debt, compounding his problems with linked loan sharks, like the risky Dutchman.

The complications spill more than into Taggart’s individual life, as when he brings his daughter towards the racetrack and is physically assaulted by a bookie to whom he owes money. Taggart’s newspaper editor (John Saxon) loves the series he’s been running and has been advancing the writer considerable income, still unaware that Taggart is really the risk-addicted Mr. Green.

Taggart goes to Gamblers Anonymous to try to obtain straight, also becoming acquainted with Las Vegas high-roller Charley Peru to try to get even and also get the Dutchman off his back.

To celebrate kicking his gambling habit, Taggart goes proper back to the dice tables, exactly where his remedy to obtaining out of debt turns out to become continuing to gamble until he can win all the cash he wants.

Cast

Ryan O’Neal as Steve Taggart
Catherine Hicks as Flo
Giancarlo Giannini as Charley
Bridgette Andersen as Amy
Chad Everett as Dutchman
John Saxon as Sports editor
Hank Greenspun as Sun publisher
William Smith as Panama Hat
Keith Hefner as Sweeney
Patrick Cassidy as Soldier
William Prince as Mitchell

Production

The newspaper editorial office scenes have been all filmed at the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, which always had a popular horse racing web page, and solid sports gambling coverage. A lot of Herald Examiner and Los Angeles Times staffers had bit components in the film. The Herald Examiner newspaper closed in 1989.

Licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses materials from the Wikipedia.