Fear City was Ferrara's first collaboration with editor Anthony Redman, who would work on many of his subsequent films: "I'd been hired as a replacement for Jack Holmes, who'd walked off the project. I had already seen The Driller Killer, and I also remember going to see Ms .45 with my then-girlfriend: when we left the theatre, she said 'I'd like to do that to you'! But I didn't immediately make the connection between those films and the director I'd been asked to work with, and the first time I saw him, I just thought 'I'd like to kick this guy's ass'! I started looking at the footage that was already cut: it all seemed fine, except for one reel that had been assembled in some bizarre, incomprehensible fashion. I asked Abel and Nick to come into the cutting room, showed them this reel, and said 'Who is responsible for this? Jack Holmes is a professional editor. I know he had nothing to do with this. You guys were sneaking in here and recutting everything, weren't you? No wonder this guy left. You wouldn't let him do his job. He wasn't being paid enough for this'. Then everything went smoothly, and I became part of Abel's team: I told him 'you've got too many Italians; you need at least one Jew'! We established a pattern whereby I would do the first cut of each film by myself. Abel wouldn't be present in the cutting room: I wouldn't let him in" (8).

WATCH Anthony Redman's commentary on FEAR CITY


Footnotes

8- Anthony Redman, conversation with the author.


NOTE: This is an excerpt from the book ABEL FERRARA: THE MORAL VISION by Brad Stevens available at FAB Press.