Ninth Configuration, The

Alternative title: Twinkle, Twinkle, Killer Kane.
Synopsis: Feature film. Theological thriller in which some critics have seen parallels with Hamlet in its theme of madness. In a gothic castle called Center 18, the US military attempts to establish whether a group of apparently traumatised Vietnam veterans, and one astronaut, Billy Culshaw (Scott Wilson), are faking their insanity. When psychiatrist, Hudson Kane (Stacy Keach) arrives to take charge he is persuaded by Cutshaw and fellow inmate Lt Reno (Jason Miller) to go along with the men’s delusions and engage in play therapy. Lt. Reno is directing Hamlet with a cast of dogs (`We need a basset hound for Hamlet’). As the Center plunges into insanity, Cutshaw challenges Kane to prove the existence of god.
Language: English
Country: United States
Medium: Film
Technical information: Colour / Sound
Year of release: 1979
Duration: 117 mins; 10,585 feet

Director

William Peter Blatty

Producer

Cinematographer

Screenplay

Art Direction

Cast

Jason Miller	Lieutenant Frankie Reno
Joe Spinell	Lieutenant Spinell
Scott Wilson	Captain Billy Cutshaw
Stacy Keach	Col. Vincent Kane, ‘Colonel Hudson Kane’

Notes: DVD special features: feature-length audio commentary by William Peter Blatty and author/documentary filmmaker Mark Kermode featurette, additional scenes, 2 alternate endings, cast/director career highlights.
General: The screenplay is adapted from Blatty’s 1966 novel Twinkle, Twinkle, "Killer", Kane. Blatty has stated that he regards The NINTH CONFUGURATION as the ‘true sequel’ to The EXORCIST for which Batty also wrote the screenplay. The film emerged in several versions. most of which were constructed by Blatty himself. In 1985, unsatisfied with existing versions, Blatty definitively cut the film for a New World re-release in 1985, creating the 117 minute version which stands as the approved assembly. The final cut omits a scene in which Reno and Spinell argue about casting Hamlet.

Cinematographer Gerry Fisher was also the cinematographer for Tony Richardson’s HAMLET (1969).
Awards: Golden Globe, USA. 1981 Award for Best Screenplay-Motion Picture.
Reviews: For a review by Mark Kermode for Sight and Sound visit http://www.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/review/153. A differently edited version of this film was reviewed in Monthly Film Bulletin No.566, March 1981.

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British Universities Film & Video Council