dirty work, saying that he is no different than Cap, and tries once more to convince Locken to leave ComTeg and retire. Weybourne points out that a man like Locken has nothing else but his job. Locken declines Weybourne's job offer but keeps Collis' yacht and the bribe money as payment. He then sails away with Mac. Cast Production The Killer Elite was based on the novel Monkey in the Middle (later republished under the film's title) by Robert Syd Hopkins under the pseudonym Robert Rostand. Sam Peckinpah was assigned to direct The Killer Elite by United Artists head Mike Medavoy, who believed in Peckinpah's abilities but knew that it was virtually impossible for Peckinpah to obtain a job with any of the studios, as he had alienated many people in Hollywood. When the project came along, Medavoy knew that it was perfect for Peckinpah and gave it to him under the conditions that he work under Medavoy's strict supervision; Peckinpah agreed. The film was shot in March and April 1974 in San Francisco, with additional filming on location in Los Angeles. Locations included the San Francisco Yacht Club, Pier 70, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Marin Headlands, San Francisco International Airport, Chinatown, Portsmouth Square and the Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet. The building that explodes in the film's opening was an abandoned fire-department station located on the Embarcadero. It was to be demolished by the city for the Embarcadero Center redevelopment project, and Peckinpah changed the film's shooting schedule to take advantage of the event. Shots of the explosion were filmed from the Hyatt-Regency hotel across the street. The film marked the film debuts of Tom Clancy, better known as a singer and stage actor, and Tiana Alexandra, who was cast after karate expert Hank Hamilton, an advisor on the film, brought her to the producers' attention. She was a brown belt at the time, and she and her husband, writer Stirling Silliphant, were students of Bruce Lee. One report suggests that Alexandra was only hired after Silliphant insisted that his work on the film was contingent on her hire. Reception Richard Eder of The New York Times wrote, "Sam Peckinpah knows how to make movies but perhaps he has forgotten why. At least that is the feeling given by this bag of mixed, often damp fireworks about the alienation of people who do dirty tricks for the Central Intelligence