During production, the movie was lagging behind schedule and the company that had insured the film was pushing for Polanski to be replaced.
"I told them, 'Polanski is our star, he's the reason we're making the movie,' so we gave up the insurance policy and I covered the film myself," Hefner said. "It was a fascinating film, flawed but fascinating. It was directly related to the murders. There was a moment in which during the murder scene that he misaddressed the actress as 'Sharon.' It was such a dark and cathartic project. I only wish I had produced his next film, 'Chinatown.' . . ."
But Hefner's attentions in the 1970s were the massive success of his magazine. The man who started a vast empire with $8,000 and a 1950s vision of a smoking-jacket approach to smut doesn't dwell on regrets, but he might have made more Hollywood films if he could do it all over. Still, in his mansion, the flicker of old Hollywood looks a lot like twilight memories.
"So much of my life traces back directly to my childhood. Any time I go to Chicago, I always go back and walk the old neighborhood. Much of it is still there. The house I grew up in is still there, but the neighborhood has grown up. When you go back to your old neighborhood and your old home, everything seems smaller than you remember. The only thing that was larger than I remembered it was the movie theater. It seemed bigger than ever."
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geoff.boucher@latimes.com
