The Sentinel

Cristina Raines said the film crew used the exterior and interior of a brownstone in Brooklyn Heights for the film. Raines says many strange things happened there during shooting, especially when she was assigned an apartment to use as a dressing room and learned that the apartment had been rented by a priest.

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It was Beverly D'Angelo's first film.

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Chris Sarandon stated plainly that his experience making this film was the worst of his career and made him want to quit acting.

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Jeffrey Konvitz claims that casting an ensemble of older stars (Burgess Meredith, Ava Gardner, John Carradine, etc.) was a decision by Universal Studios because they had been successful with an ensemble in "Airport."

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After it leaked that director Michael Winner used real people with deformities for the dead rising from the Hell scene at the end of the film, there was some controversy around the film following its release.

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Jeff Goldblum was dubbed in every scene except one.

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Although Konvitz liked some scenes in the film (the party scene and the scene where she sees her dead father), he did not like that Winner failed to bring out the characters' complexity or that he over-lit the final scene. Konvitz believed the residents of Hell should have been seen in shadow in the final scene.

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(At about the 7th minute) The man talking to the girl in the red sweater as Cristina Raines and Deborah Raffin walk along the sidewalk.

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It was Tom Berenger's first film. He appears as the husband of the couple considering living in the building, in a small part at the very end.

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Cristina Raines, who was then under contract to Universal, nearly lost the lead role because of a female executive at Universal who was more interested in pushing other clients for the part and ignoring her. Raines was told this directly by Michael Winner, who went against the executive's wishes and still cast her. Cristina later said this may not have been such a good thing and that she did not like Winner's maddening approach to directing. The actress, who said she cried on her way to work every day, admitted in a recent interview that she has never watched this film because of the treatment she received on set.

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In his memoirs, Michael Winner says he wanted Martin Sheen to play the male lead, but the studio vetoed it, saying he was a TV name.

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The Sentinel author Jeffrey Konvitz refers to director Michael Winner as an egomaniacal maniac in his Blu-ray commentary.

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Michael Winner's biggest regret about this film was not casting Christopher Walken as the male lead and Beverly D'Angelo as the female lead.

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Cristina Raines claims she got more ideas about her character from Jeffrey Konvitz than from director Michael Winner.

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In his autobiography, Michael Winner says some unions backed several crew members who refused to eat with the deformed people hired by the production and even demanded a separate dining tent. Winner said he was ashamed of this disgusting behavior. However, in his Blu-ray commentary he said he planned to eat with the deformed people in protest but did not do so because it was too hot outside that day.

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Five Oscar-winning actors appear in this film: Martin Balsam, José Ferrer, Christopher Walken, Eli Wallach (an Honorary Oscar recipient) and Richard Dreyfuss (in a brief cameo). There are also eight more Oscar nominees: Chris Sarandon, Ava Gardner, Arthur Kennedy, Burgess Meredith, Sylvia Miles, Tom Berenger, William Hickey and Jeff Goldblum. All except Goldblum were nominated in acting categories.

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So where is the "The Sentinel" house? - 10 Montague Terrace, Brooklyn, NY, 11201 - Brooklyn Heights - And in 2018 - 20 units - and - 4 stories, it is still there. - Description of 10 Montague Terrace - At the intersection with Remsen Street, 10 Montague Terrace is a beautiful co-op just off the Promenade. The pre-war building was built in 1850 and has an elevator, a central laundry room and a common storage area.

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Universal hoped to sign Don Siegel as director, but ultimately dropped the project because of his discomfort with this genre of film.

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Kate Jackson was asked to play Alison Parker but turned the role down.

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In the commentary, Michael Winner calls himself an idiot for having turned down offers to direct James Bond films, The French Connection and King Kong.

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Jeffrey Konvitz said that if he could change one thing about the cast, it would be to choose a completely unknown actor for the sentinel. He also disliked that the sentinel in the film was not as described in the book.

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In the Blu-ray commentary, Jeffrey Konvitz mentions the third book in the Sentinel series, which explains why a Sentinel is needed on Earth even though there are many galaxies.

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Cristina Raines had constant problems with director Michael Winner.

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Michael Winner said he believed Beverly D'Angelo would have done a better job than Cristina Raines in the lead role.

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Oscar winner John Williams was initially supposed to compose the score. However, when Williams dropped out to work on a George Lucas project, Michael Small was to replace him. Small ultimately did not do the score either, which led to Golden Globe nominee Gil Mellé, who composed an eerie score blending elements of Williams, Jerry Fielding and James Horner.

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Michael Winner was against casting Chris Sarandon, believing Sarandon was a bad actor, and only allowed it because one of the producers liked him.

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Dick Smith and Michael Winner never got along throughout the film.

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It is also known as 'Hexxensabbat', which is German for witches' Sabbath.

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Michael Winner described former Universal Studios president Sid Sheinberg as a talisman who allowed his dogs to interrupt a private screening of the film's first cut at Sheinberg's home.

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That same year, Jeff Goldblum and Christopher Walken had small roles in Annie Hall (1977). They later appeared together in Man of the Year (2006).

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The book has a sequel titled The Guardian. In an ironic coincidence, 2006 saw the release of the completely unrelated films The Sentinel (2006) and The Guardian (2006), neither of which has anything to do with New York or supernatural activity.

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On Monsignor Franchino's desk there is a picture of Bishop Fulton J. Sheen.

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In his autobiography, Michael Winner says that producer Sid Sheinberg watched the film with him in a private projection room just before its release. However, two dogs kept entering and leaving the room during the screening. Winner was very upset about this.

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Beverly D'Angelo and William Hickey later appeared together in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989).

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Two actors in this film played Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV in two different adaptations of Frank Herbert's Dune: Christopher Walken in Dune: Part Two (2024) and José Ferrer in Dune (1984).

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The book about John Milton that Professor Ruzinsky gives to Lerman was edited by Maurice Kelley (1903-1996), an authority on Milton.

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