Indirectly Bill Paxton is responsible for keeping me out of a jail cell in Wilmington. In the late ’90s, I had been brought on board to be a producer of shoestring budget feature film that was shooting around Wilmington, NC. It was about a charter fishing boat captain. Our actor Big Ed had moved down to Wilmington to act in Bill Paxton’s movie Traveller. We had arranged to lease a house to use as the captain’s place. We had shot for two days when police cars with lights flashing surrounded the house and we were ordered by the cops to come outside with hands up. Turns out the “friend” of the director who let us use the house had actually been evicted and was squatting on the property. We were screwed. And then a miracle occurred. The real estate agent pressing charges recognized our lead actor as her bus driver from when they lived in Brooklyn. We went from being booked and begging for bail to a joyful reunion. We were able to work out a deal with the agent to keep shooting since she wanted Big Ed’s career to continue. It was cheaper than lawyers’ fees for cast and crew. For this moment in my life, I’m eternally grateful to Bill Paxton. In a strange coincidence, Bill Paxton starred in one of the great comedies about a guy discovering someone lurking on his new property. The Vagrant gets into the anxieties of real estate.
Graham Krakowski (Aliens‘ Bill Paxton) is moving up at his company and is ready to buy a house instead of rent an apartment. It’s the thing grownups did in the 20th Century. While he isn’t quite in love with the fixer upper house, Graham gets the real estate agent (The Swinging Cheerleaders‘ Colleen Camp) to make an offer. He’s a homeowner. He’s not in the greatest of neighborhoods and spots a vagrant (Stand By Me‘s Marshall Bell) lurking on a nearby yard. Graham fears the homeless man means trouble. Everyone including the local cop Lt. Ralf Barfus (Scanners & Top Gun‘s Michael Ironside) thinks he’s just overblowing it until a neighbor turns up dead and missing fingers. There’s a serial killer in the city. Even though Graham spends a fortune to create an outrageous security system, he swears the vagrant is sneaking onto his property. Things take a twisted turn when he finds the vagrant in his kitchen one day. But Graham’s girlfriend (Silk Stockings’ Mitzi Kapture) had invited the guy inside. This leads to tension between the couple although not as much tension as when Graham finds a surprise in his basement.
The Vagrant comes from a time when Bill Paxton was making his more colorful films whether it be the equally twisted The Dark Backward or the great crime film One False Move. As he was making big films like Aliens, True Lies, Apollo 13 and Twister while still finding time to make movies that might not find a real audience until they hit home video. Paxton pushes himself physically in this film as a guy who gets caught in a serious real estate nightmare. You feel for him even though there are moments that you get a suspicion that he might be the real killer after all. Director Chris Walas serves up the paranoia along with touches of gore when victim reveals. I just feel bad that I couldn’t return the favor for Bill Paxton when the cops show up at his house. The Vagrant is a film that’s best watched after you’re set the security alarm at your house.
For anyone pondering what happened to the movie I produced with Big Ed. We had to suspend filming over a funding issue and then a hurricane hit Wilmington taking out the docks were shooting on. The film was canceled. We salvaged a short film out of the footage shot that played at a few festivals.
The video is 1.85:1 anamorphic. The transfer looks better than the DVD that came out a decade ago. The audio is LPCM 2.0 stereo which is a better mix than what you got on the VHS tape in the early ’90s. The movie is subtitled in English.
Vagrant Memories (15:52) has director Chri Walas remember making a movie for Mel Brooks. He talks about the once in a lifetime opporunity that he’s still dealing the scars. After doing special effects including the melting face in Raiders of the Lost Ark and David Cronenberg’s The Fly, he was offered to direct Fly II. While that film wasn’t a hit, he was able to make another film and Mel Brooks was up for producing The Vagarant. Walas talks about how a newspaper article made it easy for the studio to approve casting Bill Paxton. He gets into their working relationship on the film. He talks about the disastrous theatrical release. The Vagrant did get a second life on VHS.
You Are In Hell! (14:59) lets Actor Marshall Bell talk about being the Vagrant. John Landis let him off the set of Oscar early to interview for the role. The best part of the interview is the artwork behind Marshall.
Barfuss, Homicide (12:16) is Michael Ironside looking back. He talks about his fight scene with Bill Paxton that left them laughing. He still remembers the heat from the Pheonix, Arizona location. He had a lot of sympathy for Marshall Bell in the makeup. The two had worked on Total Recall and Starship Troopers.
Handling His Property (12:08) is Colleen Camp getting into what she felt the story was of the movie. She auditioned for the role with Mel Brooks in the room along with director Walas. She enjoyed the absurdity of the movie.
Theatrical Trailer (2:05) was produced even if the film didn’t play that many theaters.
Image Gallery has a dozen press photos, a preview ad, the poster, the VHS covers from around the world.
Arrow Video presents The Vagrant. Directed by Chris Walas. Screenplay by Richard Jefferies. Starring Bill Paxton, Michael Ironside, Marshall Bell, Mitzi Kapture, Colleen Camp, Patrika Darbo, Marc McClure, Stuart Pankin, Teddy Wilson & Derek Loughran. Running Time: 91 minutes. Rating: Rated R. Release Date: February 7, 2023.
