‘Venom’: the movie Klaus Kinski only made because it paid more than ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’
Not many actors would reject the opportunity to work with Steven Spielberg simply because there was more money to be made elsewhere, but it should go without saying that Klaus Kinski wasn’t like anyone else.
Outside of his career-defining stint as Werner Herzog’s best friend/worst enemy/delete where applicable, Kinski always marched to the beat of his own drum. The five films he starred in for Herzog are what history will remember him for, but that barely scratched the surface of an eclectic – and eccentric – career.
Kinski appeared in well over 100 features during a career that stretched four decades, and he was never particularly beholden to any genre or nation. He performed in multiple languages, worked all over the world, and never met a genre he didn’t fancy trying at least once, although one of the greatest blockbusters of all time remains a notable exception.
Spielberg was already on top of the directorial world by the time he and George Lucas put their industry-altering heads together to concoct the character of Indiana Jones, which by extension made Raiders of the Lost Ark one of the hottest tickets in town before a single frame had even been shot.
It was about as guaranteed a smash hit as Hollywood had ever seen as a pulpy adventure from the masterminds behind Jaws and Star Wars, but Kinski didn’t fancy committing to the movie if it wasn’t worth his time financially.
Ronald Lacey’s Arnold Toht made for an instantly memorable villain, with the actor doing a sterling job of weaselling his way towards world domination without getting his hands too dirty, at least until he’s dispatched in an iconic moment of face-melting during the unforgettable third act finale. It was an unnervingly evil performance, but the part was Kinski’s if he wanted it.
Instead of working with Spielberg, Lucas, and Harrison Ford, not to mention having his visage ripped right off by the Ark of the Covenant, Kinski instead signed on to star in the lo-fi British horror thriller Venom as Jacques Müller for the sole reason that it paid more than Raiders of the Lost Ark.
He wasn’t the only slumming legend in it for the paycheque, either, with Oliver Reed taking second billing. Directed by Piers Haggard, the suitably ludicrous story finds a band of international criminals – led by Kinski – kidnapping a ten-year-old child and holding them to ransom. However, they get more than they bargained for when a venomous black mamba gets loose and flees into the ventilation system of the building where the grandson of a wealthy hotelier is being held hostage.
Part of the reason why Kinski turned down Raiders of the Lost Ark – besides the remuneration – was that he found the script to be “moronically shitty”. And yet, he was convinced that a B-tier creature feature about an escaped snake was an infinitely better proposition than the first entry in the Indiana Jones franchise, underlining that in the acting game, it’s always money that talks loudest at the end of the day.
