10 Things You Didn’t Know About Death Wish II

There are times I think I may be the biggest Charles Bronson fan in the world, but then I remember I can’t hold a candle to Paul Talbot.

Talbot has written two books about Charles Bronson, Bronson’s Loose! The Making of the Death Wish Films and Bronson’s Loose Again! On the Set with Charles Bronson. Talbot also provided the commentary track for Shout Factory’s special edition release of Death Wish II on Blu-ray. Talbot truly is the world’s preeminent Charles Bronson expert in.

Shout Factory’s release is a must for any Charles Bronson fan and the commentary track is overflowing with behind the scenes information. So courtesy of Shout Factory and the knowledge base of Paul Talbot, I present to you…

10 Things You Didn’t Know About Death Wish II

1. The screenplay for Death Wish II was actually set in San Francisco, but due to budge constraints the movie was shot in Los Angeles. During the opening credits when Jill Ireland’s character Geri Nichols is reading the crime statistics on the radio, they were the actual stats of San Francisco at the time of shooting.

2. Cannon’s Menahem Golan was originally going to direct Death Wish II, but Charles Bronson would only agree to be in the film if Michael Winner, the director of the original Death Wish, directed the film. Winner and Bronson would also work together on Death Wish 3.

3. Ransom Walrod, who played the mysterious man on the boat, actually owned the boat used in the film. There were more scenes shot with Paul Kersey and his daughter Carol interacting on the boat, but all of those additional scenes ended up on the cutting room floor. As I discussed previously in my 5 Questions: Death Wish II  post, Walrod worked on numerous films as a marine advisor.

4. Death Wish II was shot in 44 days. It had a budget of $2.5 million and that did not include Charles Bronson’s $1.5 million fee for starring in the film.

5. In the screenplay, Paul Kersey became a manager of a radio station in Los Angeles. Michael Winner liked the radio station setting but wanted to keep Paul Kersey in his original architect vocation, so they had Kersey designing the new KABC building as a compromise. The original screenplay had station manager Kersey discourating his reporters from investigating the vigilante too deeply while focusing most of their efforts on the local news. This explains the line in the film where Kersey says “That’s it kiddo, give ’em the local news”. That line survived despite the script rewrites.

6. Speaking of the script, writer David Engelbach was on set the night they shot the scenes at Point Fermin Park in San Pedro. Vincent Gardenia, who was reprising his role of Detective Frank Ochoa from the original, asked David to write his character some last words.

7. Here’s one that blew my mind… the guy who got away when Paul Kersey helps the married couple in the parking garage was not Nirvana, but instead an unnamed thug who wore a similar hat. For years now I was positive that was Thomas Duffy’s character.

8. Robert F. Lyons, who played KABC radio employee Fred McKenzie, was fired by director Michael Winner during the production of the film. He was actually fired on the day they were shooting Carol’s funeral scene and Lyons was to be a part of it. Bronson was a fan of Lyons work for years and actually wanted him to play the apprentice in 1972’s The Mechanic. That role would go to Jan-Michael Vincent instead.

9. Isaac Hayes was originally set to do the score for Death Wish 2, but director Michael Winner decided to give the job to his neighbor at the time, the legendary Jimmy Page.

10. The 1966 Corvette that Geri Nichols drives in the movie was actually owned by Jill Ireland. In the original screenplay for Death Wish 4, Ireland’s character was supposed to return and reunite with Paul Kersey. That never happened so the last we see of her in the Death Wish franchise is when she drives off at the end of the movie.