Producer Edward Bass has always been a part of the entertainment world. Even as far back as his childhood he can remember making trips to New York and Las Vegas with his parents, where he was able to make backstage visits to some of the most important entertainers of the time, figures like Milton Belle, Frank Sinatra and Harry Belafonte. As a teenager, he would hold impromptu get together where now famous entertainers would give concerts or hold audience.
In the early part of his career he managed many of these entertainers careers. Edward Bass has managed a wide range of talent including that of famed Julio Caesar Chavez, whom he helped rise to stardom. Later he took up the art of producing and his repertoire included musicals like “Great Moments on Stage,” “Stardust” and “The Bob Hope Day.” It is only now that he has decided to take on the roles of writer, director and producer in the new film project of “Belle.” This film is based on the true story of the famous Norwegian-American woman serial killer from the early 20th century.
The story came to his attention when a friend purchased the old La Port Indiana farm where it is said she buried the bodies. “It is the character, and not the genre, that fascinates me most,” says producer Edward Bass. This is in keeping with Bass, as he is known to take on a wide diversity of different projects. The film is to chronicle the events of Anabelle Gunness, a woman said to have killed all of her husbands and many of the admirers she wrote to. She also killed her step children and her own children. Most of the remains were buried at the farm, but were only uncovered after a severe fire burned and killed her.
As the story goes, she would lure wealthy men to her home, convince them to marry her, put insurance policies and funds in her name and then she would brutally kill them, a feat not difficult for her since she is said to have been a woman of about 5 foot 8 inches and weigh about 200 pounds. It was only after several of her husbands began to disappear mysteriously that she became a suspect.
Producer Edward Bass believes this to be a fascinating project and one he has decided to fund, help in the writing of, and direct. He believes it is a mystery of a typebut not so much of a “who done it, instead more of a “Why done it.” “This is almost a classical theme where a woman is looking for love, but never quite grasps it and is never happy when she does find it” says Bass. Edward Bass believes this story to be a real interest and challenge. He thinks his experience in the entertainment world will bring a new perspective to this story, and this may be so, as most of Basss other films and plays have been written and filmed in a very complex way. Besides, most people in the industry will testify to his uncanny ability to choose the perfect actor for the perfect role.
