By Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Sun-Times
May 11, 1995
Illinois filmmaker Robert Hicks has a resume that reads like a movie script.
The 24-year-old writer and director of “The Glass Chain” (now playing at the Elgin Fox Theatres in Elgin) got his show business start as a soprano in a Chicago Symphony Orchestra chorus when he was 10. By the time his voice changed in 1984, he had sung solos on three Grammy-winning albums.
As a sophomore at the University of Southern California, Hicks landed his first Hollywood gig in the Charlie Sheen comedy “Hot Shots.” Besides acting a bit role in the film, he choreographed the flight deck sequences.
“I decided after auditioning for `Hot Shots’ that my strength was behind the camera rather than in front of it,” Hicks said during a visit to his hometown of St. Charles. “It actually seemed easier, too.”
Making “The Glass Chain,” about three octogenarians searching for treasure lost decades ago by Al Capone’s gang, was no simple task. Hicks, who shot the movie in the Fox Valley area, raised money from local businesses and hired his actors (including former Chicago Bear Otis Wilson) on deferred payment.
The scenes, including flashbacks to the 1920s, look so slick it’s difficult to believe he shot the movie on a budget of $158,000.
“I called up people I knew with vintage cars and said, `I’d like to put your car in my movie,’ ” Hicks said. “Everyone was cool with the idea except when I said, `But I have to drop one of the cars in the river.’ Luckily, one of my neighbors had a restoration project that was identical to his 1923 Model T, so we used his show car on land and sank his restoration project.”
While Hicks’ screenplay at times is shaky and difficult to follow, the production values are right on. Using a borrowed Panavision camera, Hicks completed the film in just over five weeks in the fall of 1993. It took another eight months to edit it.
Hicks now is working on his next film, “Cast of Hawks,” a suspense piece about a former World War II aviator haunted by memories of his lost crew. His hope this time around?
“That I have a bigger budget.”
