"I thought we really pushed it" – Fred Lincoln's strangely unnoticed commentary track line

A commentary track for The Last House on the Left featuring the three actors of the male gang members – David Hess, Marc Sheffler and Fred Lincoln – appeared more than twenty years ago, I believe for the Region 2 Anchor Bay release of the DVD. It's a notable track, both for its content and for how little that content has been examined by DVD and Blu-ray reviewers. I will be returning to that point in the future, but for now here's an example of what is on that track.

First, some background. About twenty minutes into the film, we see the drugged, bound and gagged Mari being kidnapped. She is carried over the shoulder of Krug, who runs to the waiting Cadillac and places her into the car's spacious trunk (boot if you're British like me!) to join the already confined Phyllis. Krug does this reasonably carefully, after Sadie tells him not to hurt them. The trunk is closed, then the gang get quickly into the car and drive off towards the woods.

Sandra Peabody remembered that scene as part of her interview with Szulkin (p60) and had this to say about it:

One serious scene was where that guy put me over his shoulder, ran down a couple of flights of stairs and threw me into a car. Those guys were kind of mean to me when they did that... especially that method actor [Hess] who was trying to be mean all of the time.

(The clarification is Szulkin's.) Sandra doesn't expand on what "mean" refers to in this context, but it seems reasonable to assume that it included some in-character comments, given what we've seen elsewhere. The term "serious scene" is also slightly odd given that pretty much all of Last House after the first few minutes is serious for Mari, but again Sandra doesn't expand.

David Hess also provides his recollections of the same scene:

I sprained my ankle going down that fire escape. [...] The scene was shot in downtown New York, not too far from the Fulton fish market. The fire escape itself was [...] really rickety and dangerous. When I think about the stuff I did, it's unbelievable! I could have been killed... but one didn't think about that.

The way Hess frames that comment, given what and who the scene involved, is very noticeable. As far as the movie itself goes, though, that would pretty much be that. What adds a new angle to it is Fred Lincoln's line on the commentary track, delivered as the car is driving away:

I thought we really pushed it because we really left 'em in the car till we got to Connecticut. But that was because we didn't have enough money to buy another car. We only had room for that many people.

On the face of it, this is an extraordinary comment by Lincoln. From the filming location, helpfully supplied by Hess, it is around twenty miles even to the Connecticut state line, let alone any of the woods locations within that state. Is he really saying that Sandra and Lucy Grantham were confined in a car trunk, bound and gagged, for an extended journey?

We don't have any specific corroboration or denials in any source that I'm aware of. As such, we need to rely on circumstantial evidence here. Let's see how it stacks up:

For the "trunk incident" happening:

• Lincoln's tone on the audio is flat and matter-of-fact – the other two men do not laugh, and neither does he.
• Last House on the Left was indeed shot on an extremely tight budget – figures vary, but AFICatalogue gives $90,000.
• Hess and Sheffler have both told eye-opening stories on the public record – Hess's rape threat, Sheffler's cliff threat.
• Sandra walked off set very early in the Connecticut shoot, even more understandable if she'd arrived this way.
• In 1971, even regular transport was routinely much more uncomfortable than today – choosing to travel in a trunk to avoid entrance fees at a drive-in or sports venue was not unheard of.
• Lincoln's "really pushed it" suggests something that wasn't routine even for a veteran like him. 

Against the "trunk incident" happening:

• Lincoln already knew Sandra from previous work together, as he points out in Celluloid Crime of the Century.
• He was able to talk her into returning after the walk-off, which suggests trust had not completely broken down.
• His income came from underground and adult movies – genres whose existence depended on flying under the radar.
• He was very much capable of telling off-colour jokes so dry that people were unsure whether they were jokes. 
• Wes Craven could be hands-off about Sandra's fear, but his own words suggest that physical danger would be over the line for him.
• No other person has, as far as I have been able to ascertain, ever said that this "trunk incident" happened. Not even Lucy Grantham.
• The scene is not shot in one unedited take: there is a cut just as the men get in which is where Sandra and Phyllis could have been let out of the trunk off-camera.
• Borrowing a car or even hiring a cab would have done the same job and been far cheaper than buying one. 

Assessing these arguments, I think the likelihood tilts strongly towards Lincoln not speaking literally about the incident.

The first key point is that about Craven. On a set as small as Last House's, the director would – or certainly should – know everything that went on, and something as irregular as this would absolutely have needed his active consent. He treated Sandra poorly – very poorly by modern standards – in terms of allowing her to remain genuinely terrified during a scene as extreme as Mari's torture and rape, but I find it hard to believe he would have allowed the genuine physical risk of her (and Lucy's) extended confinement in a car trunk in running traffic.

The other key factor is Lincoln himself. The journey was from New York to Connecticut, which meant it crossed state lines. A patrolman stopping the car and finding two young women shut in the trunk would immediately suspect kidnapping – and because the journey was interstate this would mean federal jurisdiction. Even in 1971, if you get hit with a suspected federal kidnapping charge you do not smooth it over by saying, "We're just making a movie, officer" and accepting a ticket. You are in big trouble.

As I noted, Fred Lincoln's livelihood came from a part of the film industry that operated in a grey area, cutting corners and shooting without permits as a matter of course. (Indeed, the Last House production itself lacked permits, as Wes Craven notes in Celluloid Crime of the Century.) A federal kidnapping investigation could have brought attention that was very much unwanted – it could even have meant the FBI deciding to seriously investigate the adult and grindhouse production industry. This would likely have been catastrophic for Lincoln and his associates in the same game.

As such, unless new evidence emerges that tips the balance back the other way, my judgement is that Lincoln was making a bone-dry joke. The upsides of transporting the two actresses in such an unsafe way were minor even for a scrappy production that needed to watch every penny; the downsides were potentially catastrophic not only for the film but for the entire low-budget movie ecosystem. Add to that Lincoln's connection with Sandra, which would give him an unusual personal reason to care about her, and the conclusion seems clear.

Assuming no new evidence does appear, perhaps the most important point to be made about whether the "trunk incident" happened is: what does it say about Sandra's experience on the Last House on the Left set that we need to ask the question at all?