Trivia / Rabid Dogs

• Extremely Lengthy Creation: Began production in 1973, premiered in 1996, 23 years later.
• Playing Against Type: A directorial example - Bava is well-known for his horror films with a surreal bent. This gritty, realistic crime thriller is an unusual territory for him and yet he knocks it out of the park.
• The Shelf of Movie Languishment: Complicated rights issues meant the film sat uncompleted for over twenty years, until it was finally finished by the director's son, using his father's script notes, shooting new footage to connect scenes and recreating the entire soundtrack from scratch. By that point, Bava had been dead for nearly 16 years.
• Troubled Production: The film was beset by issues from day 1, when the original lead actor was fired (see below) and replaced by someone who had to read all his lines of cue cards. Filming was shut down several times when the crew's checks kept bouncing. After principal photography, the producer went bankrupt and the raw footage was seized. After the Bava estate finally managed to secure the rights after years of court battles, actress Lea Lander swept in and cut together her own version of the film and screened it without the Bavas permission. It wasn't until 1998 that a "complete" version of the film (supervised by Bava's son Lamberto) was released.
• What Could Have Been: Initially, Al Lettieri was cast to play Riccardo, but was fired after showing up late and intoxicated on the first day of filming.
• Working Title: L'uomo e il bambino ("Man and Boy", the same title as the short story it's based on). During filming, it was changed to Ore 9 Semaforo ("9 A.M. - Red Light"), until finally settling on Rabid Dogs.

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