Straw Dogs (1971 film) days over schedule and $3 million over budget. Left with a limited number of directing jobs, Peckinpah was forced to travel to England to direct "Straw Dogs". Produced by Daniel Melnick, who had previously worked with Peckinpah on his 1966 television film "Noon Wine", the screenplay began from Gordon Williams' novel "The Siege of Trencher's Farm", with Peckinpah saying "David Goodman and I sat down and tried to make something of validity out of this rotten book. We did. The only thing we kept was the siege itself". "Straw Dogs" drew inspiration from Robert Ardrey's books "African Genesis" and "The
Charles Williams (U.S. author) Charles Williams (U.S. author) Charles K. Williams (August 13, 1909–April 5, 1975) was an American author of crime fiction. He is regarded by some critics as one of the finest suspense novelists of the 1950s and 1960s. His 1951 debut, the paperback novel "Hill Girl", sold more than a million copies. A dozen of his books have been adapted for movies, most popularly "Dead Calm". Williams was born in the central Texas town of San Angelo. After attending school through tenth grade, during 1929 he enlisted with the US Merchant Marine. He served for ten years before quitting to marry