Lancaster had earlier played a similar manipulative huckster in the filmThe Rainmaker (1956).The film was very popular and a box-office hit - on a budget of $3 million, it grossed $11.3 million dollars.It was shot in the uncharacteristic and unfashionable aspect ratio of 1.33, in protest to the current prevailing trend for CinemaScope features.The film was nominated for five Academy Awards (including Best Picture and Best Score (Andre Previn)) and won three: Best Actor for Burt Lancaster (his sole Oscar win of four Best Actor nominations), Best Adapted Screenplay (Richard Brooks), and Best Supporting Actress (Shirley Jones with her sole Oscar nomination, known for her squeaky-clean role in TV""sThe Partridge Family).He revealed his continuing affection for her when she noticed his watch where he kept a picture of her inside.As the chopper flew away, in the distance, Sgt.Elias (with his back to the camera) had pulled his pants down and was checking his groin area for crotch rot, as another looked on.[Note: A real-life mass murderer in the mid-1920s named Earle Leonard Nelson, dubbed with the macabre nickname "Merry Widow," strangled middle-aged women until he was hanged in 1928.Laurie was left to confront he masked 21 year-old killer Michael Myers (Tony Moran) by herself.[The credits listed Michael Myers"" age as 23.] He attempted to strangle her, but she was able to pull the mask away from his face for a moment.Alerted by the children""s screaming, psychiatrist Dr.Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasence), Michael""s doctor for 15 years, came to Laurie""s rescue and shot the hulking figure once, and then six more times (a total of seven times) - the crazed and wounded killer fell backwards from the second floor balcony and landed on the ground below.