Trivia / Burnt Offerings

• Deleted Scene: In his DVD Commentary, director Dan Curtis explains that he dropped an entire 15-minute opening with the family in New York, seeing the ad about the house for rent in the paper and Ben getting a parking ticket, because it was "boring".
• Fatal Method Acting: Averted. While shooting the film's finale, where Ben flies out the attic window and falls, the film's stuntman had a near-disastrous accident. He projected himself too far out from the window, and the crew waiting below had seconds to move the safety padding for his landing. The stunt man almost missed the padding, landing a mere foot or so from the end of it.
• Hide Your Pregnancy: Karen Black was four months pregnant during the shoot, and she explains that her belly was concealed with some clever wardrobe tactics (although from certain angles, her pregnancy is more visible).
• Hostility on the Set: Bette Davis didn't gel with a couple of her costars.
  • She reportedly had conflicts with Karen Black, feeling Black did not extend her an appropriate degree of respect, and that her behavior on the film set was unprofessional.
  • She detested Oliver Reed, refering to him as "that man" and only speaking to him when they shared onscreen dialogue. After filming, she described him as "possibly one of the most loathesome human beings I have ever had the misfortune of meeting".
• Write What You Know: The haunting flashbacks that Ben Rolf has about the creepy chauffeur were based on an actual childhood experience of Dan Curtis. Curtis recalled as a young child being at his mother's funeral and seeing a chauffeur laughing outside of the funeral parlor which disturbed him deeply. He wrote the memory into the film, and the chauffeur became a most eerie character.

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