The Beast Must Die (1974) – Review

There have been adaptations of The Most Dangerous Game, where a millionaire big game hunter decides he needs a real challenge, but this film ups the ante by having the prey be a werewolf instead of a human, Yet that was not enough for Amicus Pictures as we also get an Agatha Christie “And Then There Were None” mystery and a funky ’70s soundtrack thrown into the mix. I give you; The Beast Must Die.

Our story follows millionaire Tom Newcliffe (Calvin Lockhart), a wealthy, eccentric big-game hunter who has decided that hunting lions, tigers, and bears just isn’t thrilling enough. No, he wants to bag the ultimate prey—a werewolf. He believes one of his invited guests is secretly a lycanthrope, and as any self-respecting, unhinged rich guy would do he traps them all at his fancy countryside estate, and then covers the grounds with hidden cameras and microphones. He then turns the weekend into a deadly game of “Guess the Werewolf.” With the help of Pavel (Anton Diffring), his head of security, he hopes to identify and track down the creature and kill it. Also, Tom is a man with priorities, and those priorities are: (1) yelling, (2) pointing guns at people, and (3) yelling while pointing guns at people.

 

“This is your 8:00 am wake-up call.”

His guests are a mix of aristocrats, intellectuals, and shady characters, all of whom could have skeletons (or werewolf pelts) in their closets. The suspects include:

• Arthur Bennington (Charles Gray) – A smug, silver-haired disgraced diplomat who looks like he’s hiding something (maybe just the fact that he’s in The Rocky Horror Picture Show the next year).
• Dr. Christopher Lundgren (Peter Cushing) – A werewolf expert because, of course, this party needed one. He drops cryptic knowledge bombs in that crisp, old-world accent.
• Jan and Davina Gilmore (Michael Gambon & Ciaran Madden) – A  pianist and his ex-student, who is now his wife.
• Paul Foote (Tom Chadbon) – An artist with a history of cannibalism that landed him in jail.
• Caroline Newcliffe (Marlene Clark), Tom’s wife, who’s far too cool and mysterious to be completely innocent.

 

“This whole event is grounds for divorce.”

Tom informs his guests that no one will be leaving until he discovers which one of them is the werewolf. Naturally, they all think he’s lost his mind – a fair assumption – but when night falls and bodies start piling up they realize that he might be right. As paranoia spreads, Tom becomes more desperate to expose the beast. He sets traps, passes around a silver candlestick – silver being toxic to touch if you are a werewolf – and he even fills the air wolfsbane to trigger a transformation. But the werewolf proves to be clever, staying just out of reach while attacking under the cover of darkness. And before you can say “Wolfsbane” poor Tom becomes more and more unhinged as things heat up; his head of security is savaged to death on night one and then his helicopter is blown up and the pilot killed on night two.

 

“Watch me do my impression of Shaft on a bender?”

Between bouts of suspicion, gunfire, and philosophical musings on lycanthropy, Tom plays cat-and-mouse with the werewolf, leading to a gloriously over-the-top showdown in which he tries to outmaneuver the beast in the woods. The final battle is full of snarling jaws and Tom’s unwavering belief in his own hunting skills, and as the full moon reaches its peak the werewolf will finally be revealed itself in all its shaggy, low-budget glory, leading to a violent and “bloody” climax. Tom, ever the determined hunter, gets his wish—a final showdown with the ultimate prey. But will he survive to gloat about it, or will the beast not die and take its revenge?

 

“Be sure to call me if you ever decide to hunt vampires.”

Stray Observations:

• The movie opens with Newcliffe being hunted by his own men – this is to test his high-tech security measures – but as his ultimate prey is a werewolf how is this a proper test?
• His guests are selected because death seems to haunt all of them thus one of them could be a werewolf, but what if more than one guest turns out to be a werewolf? Did his plans take this into account?
• Dr. Christopher Lundgren explains that lycanthropy is eventually fatal to the host, that after several transformations the blood weakens and the body loses its ability to fight off infections due to a weakened immune system. So, are we talking about some form of supernatural AIDS?
• Tom has surveillance cameras in all of the guest rooms, so if one guest was missing from their room that would be a big tip-off as to the werewolf’s identity, but this possibility does not seem to ever occur to him.

 

“We’re bad at our jobs, aren’t we?”

Released in 1974 and directed by Paul Annett, and based on the short story “There Shall Be No Darkness” by James Blish, this movie doesn’t just mix genres it throws them into a blender and forgets to put the lid on. It wants to be a suspenseful whodunit, a tense horror flick, and a high-energy action movie, but the result is an incoherent mess. Lockhart spends half the movie monologuing and the other half sprinting through the woods like he’s late for a 1970s fashion shoot. Meanwhile, Peter Cushing delivers his lines with the enthusiasm of a man who has already mentally cashed his paycheck. Then we have any ending is quite unsatisfying, wrapping up in a way that makes you wonder if the filmmakers just ran out of money and decided to call it a day.

Note: This movie suffers from some of the worst “day for night” scenes ever filmed. It is all too painfully obvious that the “night” scenes were shot during the day.

The action sequences? Hilarious. Calvin Lockhart, in an effort to be the coolest werewolf hunter ever, spends half the movie running around his mansion in black silk and leather, wielding a variety of guns and not once looking cool or even competent. But who needs skill when you’ve got 1970s fashion and indiscriminate firepower? And let’s talk about this “werewolf.” In theory, a horror movie about tracking down a lycanthrope should have a solid transformation scene, practical effects, or at the very least, a menacing monster. Instead, the “beast” is—brace yourself—a large, fluffy dog. The werewolf attacks—if you can call them that—are laughably staged, and the film’s attempts at tension are undercut by its budget, which seems to have been spent entirely on security cameras that barely function. It’s hard to be scared when the monster in question looks like it just wandered out of a dog show.

 

“Who’s a good boy?”

But it gets worse. In an attempt to bring something new to the genre, producer Milton Subotsky insisted on a gimmick called the “Werewolf Break” where there was a 30-second pause that would allow the audience time to guess who the werewolf’s identity based on clues from the film. That’s right, the climax is postponed and the movie grinds to a halt and then straight-up asks the audience to guess the werewolf’s identity. Imagine watching a whodunit where the movie itself loses confidence and throws the mystery in your lap because it doesn’t know how to make it compelling. It’s an interactive gimmick that would make William Castle proud, except it’s handled so clumsily that it kills any remaining tension (assuming you were still invested at this point).

 

And don’t worry, who the werewolf is doesn’t really matter.

Even the legendary Peter Cushing couldn’t save this mess. His performance is as professional as ever, but he looks bored as if he realized halfway through that this wasn’t worth his time. The rest of the cast struggles with awkward dialogue, oscillating between wooden and wildly exaggerated, ensuring that no one watching ever becomes invested in these characters. Then there are those many ridiculous chase scenes through the woods that seem to go on forever and it feels like the movie is actively trying to put you to sleep. By the time the big reveal happens, you’ll either be as bored as Cushing or too frustrated to care. 

 

Is this a “Whodunnit” or a “Who Cares” mystery?

Is The Beast Must Die a good movie? Absolutely not. Is it an entertaining movie? Oh, without a doubt. It’s got ’70s fashion, Peter Cushing trying his best to make sense of the nonsense, a werewolf that might be a dog and a protagonist who spends the entire film aggressively ruining his own party. If you’re looking for a film that’s gloriously ridiculous, give it a watch. Just make sure to guess the werewolf before the break—or else.

Turkey Shoot (1982) – Review

I don’t know how the idea of making a dystopian movie combining Mervyn Leroy’s I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang with Richard Connell’s short story “The Most Dangerous Game” came to pass – I’m betting alcohol was involved – but director Brian Trenchard-Smith took that very unique mixture and gave us a film that could best be described as “interesting trash.”

This movie is set in the near future where an authoritarian government rules with an iron fist and the plot follows the experiences of three inmates—Paul Anders (Steve Railsback), a political dissident and pirate radio broadcaster, Chris Walters (Olivia Hussey), an innocent shopkeeper arrested when she tried to help a rebel who was chased into her store, and Rita Daniels (Lynda Stoner) who is suspected of being a prostitute — and they are all sent to a correctional camp run by ruthless overseer Charles Thatcher (Michael Craig). The inmates are dehumanized and forced to participate in violent games and torturous activities for the amusement of their captors. And what self-respecting prison wouldn’t also include a big bastard of a “head guard” to torment our heroes?

 

“How about a nice game of cracking skulls?”

As the prisoners struggle to survive they form alliances with other inmates, including the rebellious and sleazy Dodge (John Ley) and the enigmatic “Griff” (Bill Young), who is rumoured to have escaped the camp before. This group doesn’t so much work together to escape as they do their best to stay one step ahead of their brutal oppressors, they just so happen to be thrown into the mix with one another. There isn’t much time for character development in this movie so we don’t even have time for an expected romantic relationship between Paul and Chris – he does stand guard while she takes a shower which I guess is kind of romantic – but hearts and flowers have to be set aside as it’s now time for “The Most Dangerous Game” element to kick in.

Note: This movie may take place in a dystopian future where people are forced to play brutal games but it also has elements of the “Women in Prison” subgenre, thus we get the prerequisite shower scene.

We learn that every year Thatcher invites a small group of VIPs to his “re-education camp” to participate in a deadly 12-hour hunt, where they would each select a prisoner to be human prey in a “turkey shoot” in which their defenceless quarry will be released into the nearby wilderness to be stalked and killed by each of these armed hunters. This group of killers consists of State Secretary Mallory (Noel Ferrier), who is the head of the government’s re-education program, Jennifer (Carmen Duncan), a depraved aristocrat with a love of crossbows and killing women, and finally, the gleefully sadistic Tito (Michael Petrovitch) who brings along a circus freak to make things a little more interesting. This group of One Percenters are so joyfully evil it’s almost hard not to admire them.

 

“Didn’t anyone bring a glowing orb for us to fondle?”

Stray Observations:

• The character of tyrannical warden Charles Thatcher was a not-too-subtle attack on Britain’s then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
• Chris Walters is falsely accused of aiding rebels and is forced to participate as prey in a deadly 12-hour hunt, which has definite similarities to the 1987 Schwarzenegger film The Running Man.
• This is a totalitarian society where one prisoner is beaten to death simply as an example to the new prisoners, which is odd considering political dissident Paul Anders, who has escaped several such brutal camps, doesn’t get a bullet in the back of the head for being a repeated threat to the State, instead, he is just transferred to another camp. The whole “He doesn’t want me dead, he wants me broken” is a pretty lame justification.
• The sadistic Tito has an animalistic sidekick named Alph, who he claims to have found in a circus freak show, which is another weird addition to a dystopian action film.

 

“I used to work for a man named Doctor Moreau.”

Directed by Brian Trenchard-Smith, Turkey Shoot is a quintessential piece of Australian exploitation cinema, or Ozploitation if you will, that has garnered a bit of a cult following since its release back in 1982 and while the film promises a wild ride of violence, gore and political allegory there’s not much beneath its surface of its gratuitous thrills lies. It’s a film that struggles to balance its shock value with meaningful storytelling, and I will say this, the Australian setting does provide us with some beautiful locations for our characters to run through, I just wish they had as much depth as the scenery.

 

Doesn’t everything in Australia already want to kill you, who needs fascists?

Unfortunately, Turkey Shoot falls short in its narrative and the character development is subpar at best. The plot, while initially intriguing, devolves into a series of increasingly absurd set pieces that feel disconnected from any coherent thematic exploration. Our heroes are nothing more than thinly sketched caricatures, lacking the depth necessary to invest the audience in their fates and the script also relies on standard cliches, such as the villain toying with the hero instead of simply killing him. As a result, the film’s attempts at social commentary and political satire comes across as half-baked, failing to leave a lasting impact beyond the visceral spectacle.

 

Our heroes were given nice matching jumpsuits.

I will credit Brian Trenchard-Smith for his unapologetic commitment to excess, from graphic violence to gratuitous nudity, this film pulls no punches in its depiction of a society gone awry. The action sequences, though often over-the-top and campy, are executed with a certain flair that makes them undeniably entertaining. Moreover, the practical effects work, considering the film’s modest budget, adds a certain charm to the proceedings, making it a relic of its time. This is no Mad Max but it does deliver what fans of the genre were expecting to see in a film boasting this premise.

 

Does the hero mow down numerous goons? Check!

Furthermore, this film has faced criticism for its exploitative treatment of certain themes, particularly its portrayal of violence against women and while exploitation cinema often pushes boundaries, Turkey Shoot at times crosses into gratuitousness, undermining any potential commentary it may have intended to make. The film’s treatment of its female characters feels exploitative and regressive, of course, this is a product of its time but nonetheless uncomfortable to watch through a modern lens. What is bizarre for a film of this genre is that Carmen Duncan’s depraved aristocrat was given a somewhat sadistic lesbian aspect to her character but the film stopped short of giving viewers “girl-on-girl” action, which is about the only bit of restraint this film had to offer.

 

“Chris, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”

In conclusion, Turkey Shoot occupies a peculiar place in the annals of cult cinema. While it undoubtedly has its merits as a visceral, over-the-top exploitation flick, its shortcomings in narrative coherence and thematic depth prevent it from achieving true greatness. Fans of the genre may find plenty to enjoy in its outrageous antics and B-movie charm, but those seeking a more substantial cinematic experience may be left wanting. Ultimately, Turkey Shoot is another product of its time, reflective of the excesses and limitations of 1980s exploitation cinema.

Bonanza: The Hunter (1973) – Review

Running fourteen seasons, Bonanza is the second-longest Western series – only eclipsed by Gunsmoke which lasted twenty seasons – so the fact that the writers of either show would dip into the classic story “The Most Dangerous Game” is not at all surprising, sadly, this episode titled “The Hunter” would also be Bonanza’s swan song.

The plot of “The Hunter” kicks off with the introduction of the episode’s antagonist, Corporal Bill Tanner (Tom Skerritt), who is in prison after facing a military tribunal. He was a tracker for the army but whose taste for hunting humans turned him psychotic, resulting in him murdering women and children, and his defence of “It was my duty” is a key piece of understanding that this man isn’t right in the head. Unfortunately, he easily escapes from prison and before you can say “gun control” he has murdered again and acquires a horse and rifle. Enter our hero. Joseph ‘Little Joe’ Cartwright (Michael Landon) who is sent on a delivery run by his father Ben Cartright (Lorne Greene) and it’s while on route that he encounters Bill Tanner. Over a plate of beans, we get a little insight into the mind of Bill Tanner.

Tanner: “Anyone can track an animal down, cougar, deer. I don’t hold to killing animals. A man’s different. That’s the real test.”
Little Joe: “Test of what?”
Tanner: “Survival. Intelligence. Killing is natural to all animals, man is just the smartest animal, that’s all.”
Little Joe: “Come on, you don’t believe that. An animal doesn’t kill for pleasure it kills for food.”
Tanner: “It’s alright to kill for food then?”
Little Joe: “That’s the way nature planned it, I guess.”
Tanner: “Yeah…I guess.”

 

“You’re going to hunt me in the morning, aren’t you”

Little Joe wakes up in the morning to find his horse and supplies stolen. At first, he assumes that Tanner simply robbed him but that would have been great compared to Tanner’s real motive. It seems Tanner wants to prove two points, that he’s a good tracker and that animals don’t just kill for food – believing humans are animals and that Little Joe will eventually turn and try and kill him. It should be noted that if he’d been tracking someone like John Rambo he may have been proven right but that’s not the case here. Little Joe’s declaration that “We are men not animals” only gets a laugh in response, as well as the information from Tanner that he is “Giving you four hours to get away then I’m coming after you. Four hours!”

 

I’m getting the impression he’s not quite right in the head

Stray Observations:

• This episode was remade on Gunsmoke as “Matt Dillon Must Die” which while not the last episode in that series, it was the opener for its last season.
• There are absolutely no women in this episode, which was not something that tended to happen during Bonanza’s fourteen season run.
• Tanner coldly murders this hapless Mexican but then feeds the dead man’s dog. This action makes Tanner a more interesting psychotic killer and certainly not typical of what would be found on 70s television.
• One of the more interesting elements of this episode is the haunting whistling of “Frere Jacques” by Tanner, it gives his character an extra bit of unworldliness.
• Tanner gives Little Joe a four-hour head start, a considerably bigger lead than the fifteen minutes given to Gilligan in the episode “The Hunter” or Kelly and Scott in the episode of I Spy titled “The Name of the Game”
• Little Joe’s booby-trap sends a wooden spike through Tanner’s calf but the injury doesn’t seem to slow him down at all, we see him jogging at full speed in no time, which puts him in the category of unstoppable killers like Michael Myers and Jason Vorhees.

 

“Ki ki ki, ma ma ma, Tanner, Tanner, Tanner.”

Not only does this episode star Michael Landon but he wrote and directed it as well, and he does an admirable job on all fronts. Throughout this episode we get to see Little Joe broken into this wounded animal on the run, who only comes out on top when he utilizes the cunning of man, and he does a great job at building tension and the pacing never flags for a moment. This particular take on Richard Connell’s short story “The Most Dangerous Game” doesn’t reinvent the wheel but it doesn’t need to. Landon knew that to make this premise work all that was required was to provide compelling characters and with Tom Skerritt’s crazed Bill Tanner, we have that in spades. His psychotic obsession with tracking, something ignited and fuelled by his time in the army, gives us a villain with a distinctively darker edge and is a compelling figure. He’s not some big game hunter looking for a new challenge, he’s a cold-blooded killer with a thirst that can only be extinguished in death. His eventual defeat by Little Joe, while expected, has an extra layer of tragic pathos. Was this man always a monster or was it his time in the army that created him?

 

A surprisingly sad ending for such an evil man.

This was the last episode of Bonanza and arguably one of the best, the performances by both Michael Landon and Tom Skerritt were fantastic – though Skerritt does have the showier part and he gives us a truly disturbing and memorable villain – and while the premise of “The Most Dangerous Game” has been used in both movies and television this particular outing is especially noteworthy, in fact, tack on an extra thirty-minutes and you’d have a solid movie. Overall, this is a great and unusually dark episode of Bonanza and one I highly recommend.

The Suckers (1972) – Review

There have been many adaptations of Richard Connell’s short story “The Most Dangerous Game” – from the big to the small screen and with varying degrees of success – but in 1972 director Stu Segall took that well-told premise into the sexploitation genre and the result was…something.

As with most adaptations of Conell’s “The Most Dangerous Game” this movie deals with a rich psychotic hunter deciding humans are the ultimate prey, for this outing we have Steve Vandemeer (Steve Vincent) a once famous big-game hunter who has tired of tracking and killing animals and has moved on to a more “challenging” type of prey. The film opens with the arrival of Vandemeer’s guests, George (Norman Fields) and Cindy Stone (Barbara Mills), who own a modelling agency and two of their top models, Joanna (Laurie Rose) and Barbara (Sandy Dempsey). This does raise an important question “Who would consider these people as the most dangerous game?” I certainly wouldn’t consider one middle-aged man and three women from the world of modelling to be all that much of a challenge, then again, I’m not a world-class big-game hunter.

 

This looks more like one of those swinging “key parties” popularized in the 1970s.

We do have one extra guest who could give Vandemeer a proper contest, Jeff Baxter (Richard Smedley), a professional hunter and Vietnam vet who immediately questions the complete lack of game on Vandemeer’s estate. Our host assures him that “We wouldn’t have gone to the expense of bringing someone of your calibre here if I didn’t think that challenge wouldn’t be equal to your abilities.” But Baxter presses him on just what kind of game they are going to hunt. Vandemeer replies “Mister Baxter, since I stopped hunting, once in a while I get a craving for the challenge, I get a feeling that I once again want to go out and face death so to speak. And so, I send men to every section of the world to bring back the most dangerous game. I think this time we’ve found one that will be clever beyond your belief.” Really? Once again I must ask, seriously, “What is dangerous about fashion models?”

 

“Are you some secret super spy posing as a model?”

While this is an adaptation of Richard Connell’s short story “The Most Dangerous Game” it takes about fifty minutes for the “game” section of the movie to get finally going – which is not great when the movie is only eighty minutes long to begin with – with much of that screen time being spent on overly long softcore sex scenes, and which are about as erotic Bingo Night at an old folk’s home. After these tiresome scenes play out, we finally get to the “meat” of the picture with Vandemeer finally cluing his guests as to what game he will be hunting “Ladies, gentleman, you are here today because you are the hunted.”

I will say this, we don’t get the standard stuff of the hero trying to outwit the villain – well, not entirely, but he’s a very lame hero and only achieves one minor victory – what this movie offers that other adaptations never dared to depict, and that would blatant sexual assault.

 

“I brought you all here for some gratuitous sex and violence, also rape.”

Stray Observations:

• Actress Laurie Rose starred in two “The Most Dangerous Game” adaptations in 1972, the other being The Woman Hunt.
• This movie was filmed mostly around Bronson Canyon, sadly, we don’t get a good view of the infamous Batcave entrance.
• Vandemeer dresses in a safari suit and pit helmet on his hunt because he thinks he is a 1940 jungle movie. Would have loved to see him hunt Tarzan.
• Jeff Baxter is a former Green Beret who served in Vietnam, thus making him a “Most Dangerous Game.” This element was later used in Hard Target with Jean-Claude Van Damme.
• We are told about Vandemeer lassoing an orangutan in Rhodesia, and Jeff claims to have hunted snow leopards in the Andes. Unless these animals escaped from zoos, they have no business being on those continents.
• Vandemeer claims that raping one’s prey is an ancient right of those who hunt humans. I’m not exactly sure what “ancient right” he is referring to. Even Google couldn’t help me on this one.
• It’s not a proper 70s sexploitation film if we don’t get some girl-on-girl action and in that area, this film does not disappoint.

 

The Most Dangerous Bubble Bath.

Written and produced by Edward Everett, The Suckers is a godawful movie and one of the worst takes on the “Most Dangerous Game” premise, with poor direction by Stu Segall and a cast whose acting abilities are on par without you’d find in your average porn film of this era, this beyond the pale terrible. And I’m not even sure who the “Suckers” in the title is referring to. Is it the people who Vandemeer has lured to his private estate under false pretenses? Or does it refer to the people who paid good money to see this piece of dreck? Overall, this is nothing here to warrant even the barest of recommendations, it is a tasteless film that fails on all counts as it is neither thrilling nor erotic. This movie does not reach the levels of “So bad it’s good” but falls more in the category of best forgotten.

I Spy: The Name of the Game (1968) – Review

In the 1960s everyone was trying to jump on the James Bond bandwagon but it was not only the big screen that saw this influx of international intrigue, enter I Spy from NBC.  This action espionage series pitted a pair of intelligence agents posing as a tennis pro and his coach who would go on secret missions around the world while doing their best to look cool. Today we will be looking at these two spies as they become “The Most Dangerous Game.”

The plot of this episode finds US intelligence agents Kelly Robinson (Robert Culp) and Alexander “Scotty” Scott (Bill Cosby) lazily enjoying Acapulco until they meet up with Pentagon official Russ Conway (Kenneth Tobey) who tells them of their next assignment and it’s top priority. Turns out that a “former very important government personage” will be visiting an old friend from his West Point days, retired Brigadier General Manion (Lloyd Nolan), and while there these two plan on hunting out at Manion’s lodge. Kelly and Scott’s mission is to check out the security of the lodge while not alerting Manion as to their true purpose because the “former very important government personage” refuses to let any government agent near Manion’s lodge. He feels it would insult his old friend. Their mission, if they should choose to expect it, is to infiltrate their way into Manion’s confidence and check out the lodge without their real identities being exposed.

 

“This is more a case of Mission Improbable.”

The brilliant plan they come up with entails recruiting Manion’s girlfriend/mistress Tracy (Barbara Angely) to maneuver him into an orchestrated ambush where he would be then “rescued” by Kelly and Scott, which they hope would lead to an invite to his lodge. Things don’t go quite as planned. Manion may be a retired general but he’s not lost a step when it comes to combat and he easily dispatches the “assailants” sent against him, worst of all, he completely sees through the whole subterfuge. But Manion appears surprisingly cool with this whole setup, completely understanding that Kelly and Scott were simply doing their jobs, so he invites them up to his lodge.  Unfortunately, the same can’t be said of his feelings towards Lucy as he considers her actions to be a betrayal and “Betraying your commander in a time of war is treason. Punishable by death.”

 

“Is it okay if I toss you off this cliff?”

Kelly and Scott arrive at the lodge, not knowing that poor Kelly has been murdered, and they conclude that the security measures of Manion’s are perfectly in order. Scott radios their superiors to inform them that the place is clear for a visit by the “former very important government personage” but during a dinner conversation Kelly discovers that Manion is angry about his forced retirement from the military and he goes off on a right-wing rant about how the governmental bureaucrats are ruining America, leaving the country weak and vulnerable to enemy action. He even calls the “former very important government personage” a traitor. Realizing that this man is a little unhinged, Scott heads back to the radio room to warn his bosses of this new unsettling development. Unfortunately, he doesn’t get the chance. It’s at this point the episode enters the “Most Dangerous Game” plot line, with Manion sending our two heroes out into the jungle to be hunted by him and his South American minions. Can Kelly and Scott survive the evil machinations of a mad general? Will they make it out of the jungle alive? And will someone think of the children?

 

And when will the VIP arrive?

Stray Observations:

• It’s alluded that the “important guest” is an ex-president but if that were the case no matter what this VIP wanted the Secret Service would be required to ensure the place was secure.
• Fans of science fiction will recognize Kenneth Tobey as the hero from the Howard Hawks classic The Thing from Another World.
• Kelly and Scott are given a fifteen-minute head start, the same amount of time that the big game hunter gave in Gilligan in the episode of Gilligan’s Island titled The Hunter.
• At no point do we hear what Manion plans to do once Kelly and Scott fail to check in with the Pentagon. I’m sure two missing government agents would raise a red flag or two.
• Before entering the jungle, Kelly wisely removes his bright yellow jacket but Scott doesn’t seem concerned enough to remove his yellow turtleneck.

 

The Defiant Ones.

As the plot of “The Name of the Game” was a version Richard Connell’s short story “The Most Dangerous Game” there isn’t much spy action in this particular episode of I Spy, that said, we do get to see Robert Culp going all Rambo/jungle fighter on the men hunting them, he’s able to set up some nice jungle booby-traps to thwart their pursuers. Robert Culp and Bill Cosby have great chemistry and their banter is the highlight of this episode, sadly, at no time does the plot manage to develop any sense of suspense and that is the death knell of any decent espionage thriller. Overall, this wasn’t the best offering from I Spy and while Culp and Cosby do their best to keep viewers interested, the villain is rather boring and the plot paper thin. This is an episode fans of 60s television can skip.

Gilligan’s Island: The Hunter (1967) – Review

In my ongoing series of reviews on adaptations of Richard Connell’s short “The Most Dangerous Game,” there have been many interesting takes on his short story but today we will look at one of the more bizarre versions, where a hunter will attempt to bring down what most would consider “The Least Dangerous Game.”

Created by legendary television producer Sherwood Schwartz, Gilligan’s Island was a CBS sitcom that ran for three seasons, and dealt with seven castaways being shipwrecked on an uncharted island somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. The series had a fairly consistent formula, which consisted mostly of various attempts to get off the island being thwarted by the bumbling and hapless first mate, Gilligan (Bob Denver), much to the chagrin of his fellow castaways. Another key element to this series was the various visitors to the island, so many that one couldn’t help but wonder at the remarkable regularity and assortment of people who would find this uncharted island, all of whom either refuse or fail to help rescue the castaways.

 

“Skipper, are we that unlikable?”

What makes “The Hunter” stand out is how dark it is. There are no jungle boys or lost pilots to give our castaways hope, in this episode a man arrives on the island who decides to hunt and murder Gilligan. Not your typical sitcom fair. The plot kicks off when Gilligan spots a helicopter landing in the lagoon, sensing rescue is imminent he runs to tell his fellow castaways. Unfortunately, this helicopter is carrying a hunter named Jonathan Kincaid (Rory Calhoun) and his Asian manservant Ramoo (Harold Sakata). Kincaid is looking for game to hunt on the island but when he learns that there’s no game on this particular island he decides on a different sort of prey. When he realizes that no one knows of these castaways he confides in his servant that while there’s no game of the 4-legged kind on this island “I’ve always wondered what it be like to hunt the most dangerous game of all. Man.”

 

“If this works out, I could get my villain union card.”

Needless to say, the castaways are a bit distressed at this news. But who will he hunt? Looking over them, he decides that the Howells (Jim Backus and Natalie Schafer) wouldn’t give him much of a challenge and that the Skipper (Alan Hale Jr.) is too big a target while the Professor (Russell Johnson) would be too easy due to the belief that he’d over think things. Ginger (Tina Louise) and Mary Ann (Dawn Wells) are equally unfit for the hunt, commenting to Mary Ann “My dear, shooting you would be like shooting an Easter bunny.” So, by process of elimination, Gilligan is the only worthy choice. He informs the castaways that he will give Gilligan twenty-four hours to elude him, promising to rescue the crew and passengers of the S.S. Minnow, that is if Gilligan succeeds. Why the castaways believe this for a second is the true mystery here.

 

“What, don’t I look trustworthy?”

Stray Observations:

• Two years earlier the series Wild Wild West had done their own take on “The Most Dangerous Game” called “Night of the Sudden Death” and it was filmed mostly on the Gilligan’s Island lagoon set.
• Gilligan has a brief exchange with a North American brown owl but that species of owl wouldn’t be living on a South Pacific Island. Was it a castaway as well?
• You would think an experienced hunter like Kincaid would know there is no natural way for big game to be on this small uncharted island
• The helicopter Kincaid arrives in is a Bell 47 and as this island is said to be 250 miles south of Hawaii it’s hard to believe that a helicopter with a range of 245 miles would have safely reached our castaways.
• Gilligan is being hunted through the jungle but never considers the fact that his trademark red shirt and white hat don’t exactly provide the best camouflage.
• Gilligan has a brief exchange with a North American brown owl but that species of owl wouldn’t be living on a South Pacific Island. Was it a castaway as well?
• Bond fans may recognize Harold Sakata as he is best known as the villainous henchman Oddjob in the James Bond movie Goldfinger.
• The Professor is supposed to be the smart one in our group but he never thinks to tamper with the helicopter to keep Kincaid from leaving without them.

 

This is a guy who couldn’t turn a radio into a simple transmitter.

As stated, this is a surprisingly dark episode of Gilligan’s Island and is easily one of the most serious and suspenseful episodes of the entire series. Of course, as an adaptation of “The Most Dangerous Game” it pretty much had to have that darker element – the hunting and murdering of a person is pretty grim no matter how you look at it – but as this was a family sitcom of the 1960s there is a lot of comedy tossed in to lighten the mood. I particularly liked the exchange between Mr. Howell and Kincaid where the hunter is trying to determine if Thurston Howell the Third would be worthy prey.

Jonathan Kincaid – “Are you a hunter, Mr. Howell?”
Mr. Howell – “Uh, yeah, but I went on a tiger hunt, and I shot three of the terrible beasts in fifteen minutes.”
Kincaid – “Three in fifteen minutes, you must have been pleased.”
Mr. Howell – “Yes, but the directors of the zoo were furious!”

 

Jim Backus is a National Treasure.

That said, there are some questionable plot elements in “The Hunter” such as seven people not once trying to overpower these two interlopers, and sure, Oddjob is a formidable adversary and Kincaid has a gun but even Mrs. Howell was able to outmanoeuvre the manservant, and the Skipper and the Professor both had an opportunity to rest the gun away from Kincaid. I’m not asking for these guys to turn into Jean-Claude Van Damme but is putting in a little effort to save their Little Buddy too much to ask? There’s even a scene where Kincaid falls into a water trough and his gun is rendered useless but no one thinks this would be a good opportunity to act.

 

This is just embarrassing.

In conclusion, this is a very good episode of Gilligan’s Island and while it does have some dubious plot elements it not only shook things up by bringing a darker more serious tone to the series it also illustrated that while Gilligan is a bumbling goofball he can, in a pinch, prevail against even the most dangerous of foes. The less said the better about the rest of the castaways. As a sitcom adaptation of “The Most Dangerous Game” I’d give “The Hunter” top marks, if only for the brilliant idea of making Gilligan the most ludicrous game.