‘Twilight zone’ trial a Hollywood feast

Press, 14 October 1986, Page 37

‘Twilight zone’ trial a Hollywood feast

By

RONALD CLARKE

of Reuters Los Angeles A defence lawyer, Leonard Levine, said the only thing missing from the trial was popcorn and sweets.

“If we could sell tickets, we would make more money on this trial than the movie made,” declared another defence lawyer, Arnold Klein. Hollywood is tuned in to the trial of the film director, John Landis, and four associates on charges of involuntary manslaughter in the deaths of the actor, Vic Morrow, and two children during the filming of “Twilight Zone: The Movie.” Film studios would reject the trial script as unbelievable and unplayable - a cast of at least 100 witnesses, the death scene shown in colour on a 7.5-metre screen and a glamorous raven-haired prosecutor whose car has number plates including

the initials HRH, for Her Royal Highness. The seven well paid defence lawyers repeatedly call for the case to be thrown out of court.

Four years ago, Landis, whose films include the box office hits, “Animal House” and “Trading Places,” was shooting a Vietnam war scene on the outskirts of Los Angeles.

Morrow, aged 53, gathered Renee Chen, aged six, and Myca Dinh Lee, aged seven, in his arms and scurried across a riverbed.

Special effects explosions lit the night sky. A helicopter hovered above. In seconds, the helicopter spun out of control. Morrow and Lee were decapitated and Chen was crushed.

The prosecution alleges that debris thrown up by the explosions hit the helicopter’s tail rotor and the accident was caused by criminal negligence on the part of Landis and his fellow accused.

If found guilty, Landis, the associate producer, George Folsey, the unit production manager, Dan Allingham, the special effects co-ordinator, Paul Stewart, and the helicopter pilot, Dorcey Wingo, could each be sentenced to six years imprisonment. The Lea Purwin ' D’Agostino, told the Superior Court jury of five women and seven men — which took a month to select — that Landis was striving for realism at any cost and ignored advice to use dolls instead of children. When warned of possible danger, she said, Landis had replied, “You haven’t seen anything yet. Don’t be so squeamish.” Landis’s lawyer, James Neal, a special prosecutor in the Nixon Administration Watergate scandal, said the helicopter crash was an unforeseeable accident. Of the accused, he said, “None of these gentlemen intended to hurt anyone”.

One of the most dramatic episodes in the trial, which has run for five weeks and is likely to last four months, came when the jury was taken to a cinema to watch a film of the crash.

The jury stared into the eyes of Morrow and the children as the helicopter spun out of control and crashed. As the churning water cleared, there was no sign of the actors.

“You can’t not see what you saw, that three people were killed for a lousy

movie,” Ms D’Agostino told reporters. The witnesses during the trial are expected to include two of Hollywood’s most celebrated actors, Don Ameche Ralph Bellamy, who co-' starred in “Trading Places.”

The bearded Landis spends hours during the trial looking intensely at his fingertips, pressed closely together.

He holds hands with and kisses his wife, Deborah, during breaks. At lunchtime, a van whisks the couple and all the defendants to exclusive restaurants.

Ms D'Agostino, who is said to have a worn a different costume at each session so far, knows the film business. She was an administrative assistant to David 0. Selznick, producer of “Gone With the Wind,” and was once a girlfriend of the British actor, Peter Sellers. She also managed a night club before settling for a law career. In the court, she depicts herself as one against seven lawyers. “When they all stand up and object, I find it amusing - like a barbershop septet,” she said.

The trial forced Landis to withdraw from a SUS2S million ($49.75 million) film, “Dick Tracy.” But a close friend said no matter which way the trial goes, it will not upset Landis’s career. "He is too good and Hollywood is too greedy,” the friend said.