On March 11, Turner Classic Movies is showing The Stunt Man (1980). It’s on a list of Overlooked Masterworks that I’m working on.
Steve Railsback plays a fugitive chased on to a movie location shoot. The director (Peter O’Toole) hides him out on the set as long as he works as a stunt double in increasingly hazardous stunts. The man on the run is attracted to the leading lady (Barbara Hershey). It doesn’t take long for him to doubt the director’s good will and to learn that not everything is as it seems. Shot on location at San Diego’s famed Hotel Del Coronado. Listen to Director Robert Rush describe his movie in this clip.