The Killing Floor

Director: Bill Duke Bill Duke

Overview

Don't pass up The Killing Floor on the mistaken notion that the film is a western shoot-em-up or cop drama. The title refers to that special area in the Chicago stockyards where the cattle are slaughtered (yes, we know: yeccch. But it happens). The story relates the true-life attempts to set up an interracial union at the stockyards during World War II. Nothing happens in the film that is not logical or understandable, so don't expect a last minute mano-y-mano duel fought with meat cleavers or some such. Well (and sometimes graphically) produced for PBS' American Playhouse, The Killing Floor stars Damien Leake as a southern black sharecropper seeking a better life in Chicago.

Product Details

Release Date:	11/24/2020
UPC:	0850003924953
Original Release:	1984
Rating:	NR
Source:	Film Movement
Region Code:	A
Sound:	[stereo, Dolby Digital Mono]
Language:	English
Time:	1:58:00

Special Features

Introduction by Director Bill Duke; Q&A with Damien Leake and Elsa Rassbach; The Making of The Killing Floor: Pandemic Era Conversations; Interview with Producer-Writer Elsa Rassbach ; Booklet with new essays by Professor James R. Barrett, University of Illinois, and Professor Joe William Trotter, Jr., Carnegie Melon University

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Damien Leake	Frank Custer
Ernest Rayford	Thomas Joshua
Moses Gunn	Heavy Williams
Alfre Woodard	Mattie
Jason Green	Frank Custer Jr.
Jamarr Johnson	Lionel Custer,Sarah Custer
Paul Eaton	Mattie's Father
Mary Alice	Lilah Dean
William Pierce	Newsboy
Tony Stokes	Army Recruiter
Stephen McKinley Henderson	James Cheeks
Jimmy Spinks	Black Worker
Wandachristine	Woman in Bar
Dick Sollenberger	Supervisor
Dennis Farina	Harry Brennan
Miklos Simon	Dan Michora
Clarence Felder	Bill Bremer
Vernon R. Schwartz	Jimmy O'Rourke
Wally Taylor	Robert Bedford
Phillip East	Joe Hodges
Henryk Derewenda	John Kikulski
Patrick Nugent	Jack Johnstone
Gene Janson	Dennis Lane
James O'Reilly	John Fitzpatrick
Michael Nowak	White Worker
John Mahoney	Thomas Condon
Ward W. Ohrman	Secretary of Labor
John Cothran	Man
Nathan Davis	Judge Alschuler
Barbara Redlinski	Michalina Michora
Gerry Becker	Meyer
Bob Riley	Nelson Morris
James Lashly	Man
Michael J. Kovacs	Hungarian Witness
A.H. Sturgis	Interpreter
Rick Sparks	White Youth
Frank Rice	Dewitt
Jeris Poindexter	Lonnie
Cynthia Baker	Tess O'Rourke
Richard Lavin	White Worker
Michael Dunn	White Youth
Robert Kurcz	Policeman
Letitia Toole	Mrs. Bethea
Sam Sanders	Man
Joe Krowka	Militiaman No. 2
Howard Elfman	Militiaman No. 3
Corney Morgan	Policeman
Ted Levine	Commander
Michael Myers	Minister
J. McLaughlin-Gray	Man
James Eichling	White Man
Connie Szerszin	White Woman
Bill Bremer	Actor
Bill Duke	Actor
Elizabeth Swados	Composer

Technical Credits

Leslie Lee

Bill Duke	Director
George Manasse	Producer
Elsa Rassbach	Executive Producer
Leslie Lee	Screenwriter