During the production of Capone, director Steve Carver staged a sequence involving a submachine gun, timed explosions, bullet hits, stunt performers, and moving cars. According to Carver in a 2020 interview, Ben Gazzara—playing Al Capone—was supposed to begin the chain reaction by pulling the trigger at a carefully coordinated moment. Instead, Gazzara jumped the cue and fired too early. The premature shot set off the other effects before the stunt team and vehicles were ready, producing what Carver described as a 'tremendous occurrence' in which stuntmen and cars suddenly went out of control. The director said that many people could have been seriously injured, turning a routine piece of low-budget gangster-movie spectacle into a potentially fatal set accident. Gazzara apologized the following day, but the incident reinforced Carver’s description of the actor as difficult to manage during the shoot. The film’s production was already being mounted in the fast, economical Roger Corman tradition, with Carver later acknowledging that footage from earlier Corman projects was reused; the near-miss illustrated how quickly such tightly budgeted action work could become dangerous when practical effects, firearms, and stunt choreography fell out of sync.
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AI concept artworkArchive Record · 1970s
Ben Gazzara Jumped the Cue and Nearly Turned Capone’s Action Finale into a Real Disaster
Capone (1975) / 1970s
During the production of Capone, director Steve Carver staged a sequence involving a submachine gun, timed explosions, bullet hits, stunt performers, and moving cars. According to Carver in a 2020 interview, Ben Gazzara—playing Al Capone—was supposed to begin the chain reaction by pulling the trigger at a carefully coordinated moment. Instead, Gazzara jumped the cue and fired too early. The premature shot set off the other effects before the stunt team and vehicles were ready, producing what Carver described as a 'tremendous occurrence' in which stuntmen and cars suddenly went out of control. The director said that many people could have been seriously injured, turning a routine piece of low-budget gangster-movie spectacle into a potentially fatal set accident. Gazzara apologized the following day, but the incident reinforced Carver’s description of the actor as difficult to manage during the shoot. The film’s production was already being mounted in the fast, economical Roger Corman tradition, with Carver later acknowledging that footage from earlier Corman projects was reused; the near-miss illustrated how quickly such tightly budgeted action work could become dangerous when practical effects, firearms, and stunt choreography fell out of sync.
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