From The Farmer's Daughter to The Borgia Stick

Inger Stevens and Don Murray have a laugh with director David Lowell Rich
on the set of The Borgia Stick. Source: Scan from my collection.

While filming The Borgia Stick for NBC in New York in fall of 1966, Inger was interviewed. The Borgia Stick was unique in that it would be shown on television first then be released to theaters across the country. Inger, always so well-spoken in interviews, commented:

It is one of 11 such movies being filmed by Universal. Don Murray, Barry Nelson and Fritz Weaver are the male leads in it. It can best be described succinctly as a super-cool melodrama. We're on a four-week schedule but it may run to five, depending upon the weather. We'll shoot indoors for about nine days at a studio on Manhattan's west side, and will go on location around the city the rest of the time. The film, I understand, is budgeted at close to one million dollars.

Inger Stevens and Don Murray in The Borgia Stick. Source: scan from my collection.

When Inger was asked if this budget was too low and the filming schedule too short, she replied:

Not at all. It isn't when you have everything highly organized. I just finished working on a major film, The Long Ride Home [my note: this film also goes by the title A Time for Killing.] which was shot in eight weeks in the Arizona desert. That's just about three and a half weeks longer than we'll spend on The Borgia Stick. A good performer doesn't think or worry about a short schedule. He strives for quality whatever its length may be.

First, Inger responded seriously and then she laughed as she delivered the second sentence:

I always find the characters I play interesting to me. I also always find that they become more interesting in relation to how badly you need the money you will receive for playing them.

Inger had recently ended her run as Katy Holstrum when The Farmer's Daughter series ended in the spring of 1966. Inger adjusted well to the change in routine commenting:

I like doing movies presently because the roles are dramatic ones. It is the type of material with which I was involved before taking on the comedy role of Katy on tv. Only by varying your roles can you learn more and more about your craft and sharpen your skills.

Luckily for us The Borgia Stick, which is a film I find to be cleverly written, full of action and perfectly cast, is available to watch on Youtube! It really is one of my favorite films to watch often. If the embedded video does not play, click here.

Source:

"This Farmer's Daughter is Pretty Bright." The Tipton Daily Tribune. October 14, 1966.