Facts > Films > Night of the Living Dead
Night of the Living Dead (1968) Facts
| Director(s) | George A. Romero |
| Producer(s) | Karl Hardman, Russell Streiner |
| Featured Cast | Karl Hardman, George A. Romero, Russell Streiner |
| Total Facts | 80 |
'George A. Romero' saw very little profit from the film when thanks to his lack of knowledge regarding distribution deals, the distributors walked away with practically all of the profits.
'George A. Romero' smashed a butterfly on set to prepare everyone for a difficult scene, much to they're shock. It was such an unpleasant moment in an otherwise pleasant shoot.
'George A. Romero''s feature debut.
Tom Savini was originally hired by George A. Romero to do the makeup effects for this film. The two were first introduced to each other when Savini auditioned for an acting role in an earlier film that never got off the ground. Romero, remembering that Savini was also a makeup artist (he had brought his makeup portfolio to show to Romero at the audition), called Savini to the set of his horror movie. However, Savini was unable to do the effects because he was called to duty by the US Army to serve as a combat photographer in Vietnam.
Duane Jones, in his final interview before his death admitted he had never seen any of the other "Dead" movies, nor any other George A. Romero movie.
Judith Ridley read for Barbara originally but she felt out of her depth in the role.
Judith Ridley still has her outfit from the film. The pants became her painting pants. And her shirt became a dishrag.
Judith Ridley worked as a receptionist for Karl Hardman and Marilyn Eastman, which led to her getting the part in the movie.
S. William Hinzman and Karl Hardman, two of the original $300 investors had small roles due to a shortage of available talent. Another investor was a butcher, who provided some blood and guts.
S. William Hinzman based his characteristic saunter (and, subsequently, that of each other zombie) on a film with Boris Karloff, the title of which he could not remember. In that film, Karloff played a man risen from the dead, and walks with a characteristic ungainly saunter.
George A. Romero has readily admitted that Herk Harvey's Carnival of Souls was a big influence in his making of this film.
George A. Romero was the one operating the camera when S. William Hinzman (the cemetery zombie) attacks Barbara in her car by smashing the window with a rock. When Hinzman shattered the window, the rock barely missed Romero.
Bill 'Chilly Billy' Cardille, who played the television reporter, was indeed a local Pittsburgh TV celebrity. Known as "Chilly Billy" Cardille, he hosted a horror movie program on Channel 11 and occasionally reported the news.
200 extras were cast in the parts of townspeople and zombies.
According to George A. Romero, the film was originally ten minutes longer but the distributor pressured him to cut it down.
According to the George A. Romero commentary track on the Elite laserdisc and DVD version of the film, the original working print and working elements and materials for the film no longer exist - they were destroyed as a result of a flood that filled the basement where the materials were stored (which was the same basement used in the movie).
Actor/co-producer Karl Hardman (Harry Cooper, the father in the basement), also served as makeup artist, electronic sound effects engineer, and took the still photos used for the closing credits.
Allegedly 'George A. Romero' never did his own laundry during filming. He just bought new clothes instead.
As George A. Romero explains it on "The Directors: The Films of George A. Romero", the day the final editing and voice-over dubbing was complete (4/4/1968), he and John A. Russo literally "threw" the film into the trunk of their car and drove to New York to see if anyone wanted to show it. While driving through New York on the night of April 4th, 1968, Romero and Russo heard news on the radio that Martin Luther King had been assassinated.
Assuming the movie takes place on the spring time change (according to the dialog at the beginning) after the date (December 1966) on the calendar in the house (a reasonable assumption from the condition of the body in the house), the movie begins on the night of 30 April 1967 and ends the next morning, which is May Day. However, for the sequels, Romero has treated the timeline of the Dead saga with a bit of malleability; in the movie novelization of Dawn of the Dead he notes "The stock market had plummeted way below the lowest point of the Carter administration" and refers to an upcoming election. Day of the Dead features a copy of the novel Salem's Lot, published in 1975, after Night of the Living Dead came out; it seems peculiar that this publish still saw publication in a world where "ghouls" actually exist. Diary of the Dead takes place isochronally with Night of the Living Dead yet features modern computers. Of course, even Night of the Living Dead references technology far advanced than that available at the time of the film's release (i.e. the Venus probe).
At between 51 and 52 minutes into the film, going by the Elite laserdisc/DVD release, there is a very visible jump cut. The distributors wanted some of the "talky" bits trimmed down, so, about 6 minutes was cut from a basement scene involving the Coopers. The jump is quite clearly visible because at one point Harry is facing one direction and then immediately in the next frame, he is facing another.
At the time of the film's release, any work that did not include a copyright notice was assumed to be public domain. Since the film makers forgot to include this notice, the film slipped into the public domain. In was not until 1 March 1989 that a copyright notice was no longer required.
Barbara (Judith O'Dea) was originally meant to be the sole survivor of the zombies' onslaught. This idea is incorporated into the remake of Night of the Living Dead.
Bosco chocolate syrup was used to simulate the blood in the film.
Columbia Pictures was the only major Hollywood studio interested in distributing this film, but eventually passed because it was in black-and-white at a time when movies had to compete with new color televisions. Ironically, Columbia did distribute the 1990 color remake. American International Pictures (AIP) considered releasing the film, but wanted George A. Romero to shoot an upbeat ending and add more of a love story subplot.
During production, the film's title was still being chosen. The working title was simply "Monster Flick".
During the filming of the cemetery sequence, shot on two separate days, an unexpected accident caused a fast change of script. The car driven by Barbara and Johnny into the cemetery was actually owned by the mother of Russell Streiner. Unfortunately, sometime between the two filming sequences, someone ran into the car and put a dent in it that would easily be visible on camera. George A. Romero rewrote the scene so the car would come to a stop by crashing into a tree.
During the filming of the new footage for the 30th anniversary edition, actor/composer Scott Vladimir Licina (Reverend John Hicks) suffered a heat stroke in the cemetery and was hospitalized for a few days.
Filmed at Tim Hornish's grandmother's house in Zelionople.
In the 30th Anniversary Edition, the car that drops off Debbie Rochon at the medical center is driven by Marilyn Eastman (Helen Cooper) and owned by Karl Hardman (Harry Cooper).
In the scene where Ben is nailing wooden boards to the door, small numbers can be seen on them. These were written on the backs of the boards so they could be removed and replaced in between shots, preserving continuity. Some numbers are visible because some of the boards were nailed on backwards.
In the scene where Ben moves the body upstairs to another room, we can see that its face is intact. This was in fact Kyra Schon who doubled as the upstairs body as it was felt that a mannequin would look unrealistic.
None of the cast are credited at the start of Night of the Living Dead. Perhaps because the film has no major stars whatsoever.
One of the first films to graphically depict violent murders on screen.
One of the last big hits of the drive-in era.
One of the most successful independent films ever made.
One of the original ideas for the script before its many revisions called for Barbara to be a very strong, charismatic character. Instead, George A. Romero and the producers loved Judith O'Dea's portrayal as a catatonic and terrified young girl much better, and edited the script to accommodate the part. Eventually, the idea of Barbara being a strong, central character would be revisited in Tom Savini's 1990 remake.
One of the Walter Reade Organization's publicity stunts was a $50,000 insurance policy against anyone dying from a heart attack while watching the film.
One of the working titles for this film was "Night of Anubis". Anubis is the god of embalming/mummifying in the ancient Egyptian (Kemetan) religion. The title was changed once Romero learned that very few understood the reference.
One of the working titles for this film was "Night of the Flesh Eaters". Originally, the beings attacking the characters were extraterrestrial in origin, either aliens or humans possessed by an alien pathogen, presumably covering a NASA satellite returning from Venus. Eventually, it was decided that the dead would rise and devour the living, presumably due to radiation that was carried by a NASA satellite returning from Venus.
Originally, one idea for the script called for Harry Cooper to die from the gunshot wound received from Ben before his daughter became a zombie, which would have resulted in Helen coming down the stairs to find him eating their daughter, rather than the daughter eating him. It was decided that this would probably be far too disturbing and graphic and was changed back to the idea of the daughter becoming a zombie first.
Readers Digest tried to warn people away from watching the film in 1968 by claiming if it's ever watched, it will inspire cannibalism.
Screenwriter John A. Russo appears as the ghoul who gets his forehead smashed by Ben with a tire iron. He also allowed himself to be set on fire for real when nobody else wanted to do the stunt.
Some of the groans made by S. William Hinzman when he's wrestling with Russell Streiner in the cemetery are authentic. During the struggle, Streiner accidentally kneed Hinzman in the groin.
The body upstairs in the house was made by director George A. Romero, who used ping-pong balls for the eyes.
The character of Ben was originally supposed to be a crude but resourceful truck driver, with no specification to race. After Duane Jones, in real-life a self-serious, erudite academic, auditioned for the part, director and co-writer George A. Romero re-wrote the part to fit his performance.
The character of Ben was originally written as an angry person. When Duane Jones was given the role, he expressed concern that the character be rewritten to remove some of the anger - such as the scene where Ben hits Barbara - afraid of how it would be widely perceived in the United States at the time to see a black man acting in this way. The nation was still plagued with high racial tensions during the late sixties; the film was released to theaters shortly after the assassination of Martin Luther King. Nonetheless, George A. Romero and most of the rest of the predominantly white crew decided against it, thinking they were being "hip" by not changing it. Years later, Romero lamented that he had not taken Jones' concerns more into consideration, and thought that he was probably correct. He's expressed that he wishes he could speak with the late Jones again, asking him how he felt about the film's legendary status, and believes Jones would just say "Who knew?" and laugh.
The Chevy truck seen in the new footage is not the same one seen in the original footage. The filmmakers for the new footage were fortunate enough to find a truck owned by a local resident that bore a near-perfect resemblance to the original truck. The owner was kind enough to let them borrow his truck for the film.
The Cooper family are partly played by a real family. Karl Hardman (husband Harry Cooper) is the real life father of Kyra Schon (daughter Karen Cooper). However contrary to what is elsewhere reported (and was previously reported here on IMDb) Marilyn Eastman (wife Helen Cooper is not in any way related to either Karl or Kyra.
The ending originally had Ben surviving but it was changed to something far more shocking. Having the hero die after all.