User reviews

Mike Hammer (Mickey Spillane) is found drunk and passed out by a police cruiser in an alley; he's taken to excessive drinking since the abduction of his girlfriend and secretary Velma, and is no good to himself or anyone else. Given a second chance and a new license to carry his cannon like .45 by new-found friend and FBI agent Rickerby (Lloyd Nolan) he sets out to find Velma and in the process meets the beautiful Laura Knapp (Shirley Eaton) who he first sees in her bikini as she's getting a suntan on an inflated raft in her pool. She makes a good femme fatale and has a neat seduction scene with him in her dark living room one night. Rickerby puts Hammer on the trail of "The Dragon" (Larry Taylor) a Soviet killer who might be connected to Velma's disappearance as well. The plot is difficult to follow, names are tossed out, and the viewer's job is to try and connect the dots. The pace is all right, directed by veteran Roy Rowland, and Spillane, though he isn't Olivier, grows on you as the film heads into a surprisingly violent ending.

This film starring Mickey Spillane as his hero creation, Mike Hammer, does indeed have its moments. The problem is, if we splice those moments together and remove the rest, the film runs, at best, 20-22 minutes; maybe 25 if you add the opening credits. As such, this would made a great 30 minute 1950's television episode.

Spillane does a credible job of personifying his character, Mike Hammer. The key reason being, Hammer was crafted as a reflection of Spillane. Therefore, Spillane had only to play himself which, after a lifetime of practice, was not difficult.

Then we have to ask, what's wrong with this film? And the answer is, everything that comes between its 25 minutes of glory, as mentioned earlier. In essence, there simply is no film to speak of.

The truth of the matter is that, Spillane, should have been content with the chance to portray his character on screen for the first time -as he thought "Mike Hammer" should be portrayed - period. After all, for years he'd complained that he didn't like the previous screen portrayals (with particular venom reserved for Biff Elliot's performance in "I the Jury" in the mid 50's). But being a writer himself, he wasn't content, and interfered with the film's experienced screen writing staff. The net result was not good.

Spillane tried to paint in a specific background for the film, that included real bits of his life. The end product was right for a book, but not for a screenplay of a, supposed, action drama.

For instance, he insisted on including his close confidant and friend columnist Hy Gardner. Gardner's scene is long and boring, because Gardner himself is boring. If he wanted Gardner included, he should have allowed an experienced character actor to portray him, vigorously, via a good script.

One of Spillane's favorite bistros was one of New York's best German restaurants, located on 44th Street in Manhattan. The film spends a lot of dead time showing him walking to that location, and having protracted conversations with the other character actors in the darkened restaurant. The conversations are long and, for the most part, pointless. I'm certain however, for the publicity, the management was quite happy.

This film serves two purposes:(1) it does indeed show how the character of Mike Hammer should be portrayed to be true to the Spillane books.

(2) It shows how not to make a - almost "Film Noir" - detective film.

My suggestion, see Ralph Meeker as Mike Hammer in "Kiss Me Deadly". Now that's a detective film and that's "Film Noir".

Yeah, pals, I'll bet this is a dream of many writers, to portray his or her favorite character on the screen. I imagine Agatha Christy would have loved to portray Miss Marple, and Dashell Hammett possibly would have picked The Continental Op to portray.

That off my chest, I feel kindly toward this film and was glad for the opportunity to see Spillane as Hammer. I can't say he was terribly good, but one can at least say that his portrayal was interesting, and I don't mean that as a put-down.

It was also good as always to see Lloyd Nolan still around and adding to the film. This sure isn't the best Mike Hammer film, but I found it worth a look and imagine you will too.

Granted, the other posters have valid comments.......Spillane cannot really act. However, for some bizarre reason, his stilted, monotone delivery works for me.

My major complaint, regarding acting, would have to concern Scott Peters, as Hammer's former partner. He screeches his way through every scene he's in, and he makes it completely unbelievable that his character could ever have been friends with Hammer.

The soundtrack is indeed grating. The crashing score overpowers many of the scenes, derailing the film noirish approach to the material.

Eaton is indeed great, although the usually wonderful Nolan comes across as a bit cartoonish.

That all being said, I still recommend this film, if only for the experience of seeing Spillane play his own creation.

One side note: WHAT happened to Velda????

I was shocked to see a movie with a writer actually playing one of his characters, especially one as iconic--or, at least, notable--as Mike Hammer. I can only recall Stephen King playing in some of his scripts, but even then he did not tend to be a major, featured character. His stories have soared most with great actors, writing, and directing behind them ("The Green Mile," "Shawshank Redemption," "The Shining," "Misery," and many others).

Mickey Spillane is woefully short of King's humility, though. The movie has an intriguing plot, but is convoluted beneath the weight of bad acting and mostly wretched delivery. The dialogue is actually pretty believable, all things considered, but you can feel the crowd assembled on the screen is mostly amateurs. The amateurish feel coupled with the somewhat on-target dialog sort of coupled to create a more "fun" movie than what is probably intended and it stays thin on the noir-ish elements, which often seem clichéd in most movies anyway.

Spillane is generally horrible as a supposed slick lady's man--which Stacy Keach carried off much more believably with his charisma and acting chops, if not looks, on television. Spillane's pretty dry and one-note as Hammer, but at least he doesn't tend to ham it up. In fact, I'm not sure he is capable of ham.

Shirley Eaton is excellent as the eye candy and Hammer's love interest, but Spillane just butchers some of his lines with her; for example, when she asks Hammer if he loves her, Spillane lowly rasps in the back of his throat, "I think I do, baby." It's really a pretty lame attempt at being emotional. And, kissing together? Just horrible face-mashing and a real waste of such an exquisite beauty as Eaton's. Spillane just has no idea how to be expressive and believable; his face is just a pancake throughout the movie. It gives a certain "naturalism" to the movie, but probably not in a good way for someone that needs to be as dynamic as Mike Hammer.

Though it would have been very easy to have it, there is almost no dramatic tension in this movie, just a series of pasted-together scenes that Spillane meanders through. On a highly superficial level it works--the basic pieces ultimately fit--but there's no elegance to the design, probably due to lack of presentation on the part of most of the actors.

The story is good enough to be re-made as a true noir-ish exploit, but the acting and stylistic elements need a real working through.

Private detective Mike Hammer (Mickey Spillane) has been in a drunken stupor ever since his beloved assistant Velda had gone missing seven years earlier. His estranged friend Police Captain Pat Chambers was also in love with Velda. Pat asks Mike to talk to dying Richie Cole who Pat sees as his own son but Richie is only willing to talk to Mike. The case is more complicated and connected to the murder of a Senator.

This starts out fine with a fine premise. Mike is not just down and out. He's self-destructive. Spillane may as well call himself Mike Hammer. He is this character. This movie does need more action scenes despite plenty of murders. There is one shootout which looks a bit laughable although I love the brutality of the hand to hand fight that follows. Nailing down Dragon is something I have never seen. It could have shown the backfire even if it's done from far away. This is pulpy goodness.

With people like Stacy Keach, Darren McGavin and Ralph Meeker acclaimed for their portrayals of Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer, why he thought it would be a good idea to play his creation himself we'll never know. Were not McGavin or Meeker available for The Girl Hunters.

Mickey may have invented Mike Hammer, but that doesn't mean he can or should play him. That's what we got actors for. After this all I would say to him if he was still around is Mickey Spillane, stick to your own racket.

After a secretary of his disappears and is presumed dead Hammer goes on a seven year bender. But he gets brought back into the game unwillingly when a dying shooting victim will only talk to him. As angry as that gets police detective Scott Peters he has to go along with it. Hammer is back in the game.

It's all involved with the murder of a U.S. Senator as well. From the description he was a Joe McCarthy type character. Hammer gets to quiz Shirley Eaton who is the widow and high on the Washington, DC party circuit. The villains are of course those dirty Reds.

I noted that the late Robert Fellows was credited as well as Spillane himself with the screenplay. Fellows was a rightwing sort and for a while a producing partner with John Wayne. I think this one was sitting around gathering dust since Joe McCarthy was in his glory days. It certainly is dated.

Not much to say about the production itself. Nothing outstanding in it other than Spillane's horrible acting.

If The Girl Hunters proves anything it proves Mickey Spillane was not Noel Coward, the best interpreter of his own work.

Mickey also stars as P. I. Mike Hammer, who has been an alcoholic bum for the past seven years after his beloved secretary Velda disappeared. Police Captain Pat Chambers (Scott Peters) gets Mike sober in order to interrogate a a dying man who may know what happened to Velda.

Mike starts his own investigation, during which he meets wealthy society widow Shirley Eaton, who may hold the key to everything. A decent story and competent direction is undone by the casting of Spillane, who comes across like a constipated Merv Griffin sporting a crew cut and a weak voice. Eaton appears in a few swimsuits, but no gold body paint, unfortunately. There's a good fight scene in a barn between Hammer and a guy who looks like Oscar Homolka's little brother. This was a British production, set in New York, so you get to hear a lot of bad phony American accents.

"The Girl Hunters" opened in San Francisco the same week in 1963 as "Dr. No". Mickey Spillane's film got all the major publicity. However, the first outing of Sean Connery as James Bond altered action film history. Thereafter Pabst Blue Ribbon-drinking proles got muscled aside for dinner-jacketed U-speakers who knew that red wine didn't go with fish.

I saw "The Girl Hunters" three times that summer. I admit that I love it dearly. I have whistled the propulsive soundtrack themes for 45 years, conjuring up the film's attitude as I set my shoulders determinedly and prowl the urban landscape with a warily appraising squint.

I read the book twice that year. The second time I imagined Spillane's own curbstone-edged voice doing the first-person narration. It fit. My God, it fit. As an actor he didn't have the line-reading skills of a pro, but he had authenticity and a distinctive charm.

Robert Aldrich's Spillane adaptation "Kiss Me Deadly" (1955) has stature as a late-noir post-modernist metafictional commentary on the detective genre. Prophetically, Aldrich filmed it before most of those adjectives had meaning. However, only "The Girl Hunters" accurately conveys the feel of Mickey Spillane's fiction.

Aldrich and actor Ralph Meeker present a private eye opportunist seen from the outside--brutal, energetic, eyes on the main chance, cunning rather than bright. He's too large for his suit, a hustler busting out of his own clothes and the place he has in the world. A sly comment on slick, 1950's grassroots capitalist greed.

"The Girl Hunters" and star Spillane give you Mike Hammer the way he sees himself--reasonable, but dedicated; taking care of business the way he needs to in an uneasy environment. A solid citizen, good to friends, but "someone terrible", a civic benefactor with a .45 under his coat and the will to use it.

The only major difference I recall between book and screenplay comes when Hammer enters the tough waterfront bar where he's not welcome. The novel has a routine fight at the door. The movie shows Mike out-menace the ice pick- wielding bouncer while displaying his trademark homicidal grin, "the one with all the teeth."

Interestingly, Lloyd Nolan, the white-haired Fed in the film, portrayed Brett Halliday's detective Mike Shayne in seven movies for 20th Century-Fox in the 1940's. You might check out the DVD package. Its features discuss Halliday's books, solid mass market hardboiled mysteries.

Spillane took this type of urban adventurer and invigorated him with the Old Testament rigidity of Stonewall Jackson, Jack Dempsey's love of hands-on violence, and the populist wrath of a John Brown. His far more gutsy, hugely selling novels wove working class attitudes into fiercely climaxing revenge fantasies. The on-screen fight in "The Girl Hunters" between Hammer and the Dragon had no equal for pitiless savagery in 1963.

In 1923 Carroll John Daly put the first hardboiled wise-cracking private detective into pulp magazine print. He represents a different stream from Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. Daly's action tales have roots in rough-and-ready American culture. The big-talking river raftsmen in HUCKLEBERRY FINN and the folk yarns of Paul Bunyan and Pecos Bill display the same out-sized swagger as Daly's private eye Race Williams.

Williams admitted that he could walk into a room filled with clues and not find a single one. His style of detecting was to fling open the door and start shooting, then sort things out as they flew. Spillane read and admired Daly, writing him a revealing fan letter after achieving success.

Spillane gave the Race Williams bumptious folk hero contemporary visceral impact. He described his work as "the chewing gum of American literature". However, his books do more than exercise eye muscles.

America's classic paranoid rant remains the same for rich and poor, Left and Right: Somewhere, somehow, someone is doing me dirt and I won't stand for it any longer! From 1947 to 1952 Mike Hammer shot men and women, kicked the guilty as well as the innocent, and broke teeth other than his own exorcising that rage. He came back after a decade in THE GIRL HUNTERS novel, which focuses our smoldering abstract anger on a world-girdling spy ring at the service of the international Communist conspiracy.

Thank God it can be thrown into disarray by a lone American woman loose in the Soviet Union. (To learn what happens to Velda, the invisible Maguffin, read the book's direct sequel THE SNAKE.) Thank Him again that we have a howitzer-packing rogue private eye who can shrug off seven years of drunken debilitation (and repeated merciless beatings from a former best friend) to get ugly with foreign assassins nestled in our midst.

Philosopher Ayn Rand named Spillane in her Objectivist newsletter as her favorite author. Why? His stories did not deal in moral grey areas. Bad was black, good was white. She liked that. Yet the truth of Spillane's fiction has more twists.

Mike Hammer himself knows that he's a kill-crazy psycho. If you read nothing else of Mickey Spillane's, you might take time for the first chapter of ONE LONELY NIGHT. Hammer spends the rest of that book brooding over why a woman he has just saved from a gunman jumps to her death in an icy river after taking one searching look at the expression on his face.

He comes to the soul-soothing epiphany that he's a killer designed by nature to kill killers. That's his destiny. He's a walking American revenge machine, a wish-fulfillment figure from the unquiet depths of our national psyche.

"The Girl Hunters" presents this raw-hewn character straight, without any intermediary meddling. However you may like the approaches taken by Ralph Meeker or Armando Assante or Stacey Keach, the movie's credits have it right--Mickey Spillane is Mike Hammer. The Hammer on the page is a foot taller than Spillane on screen; otherwise they're identical.

Absorbing and worthy suspense film about secret organizations, blackmails , killings , corruption and a hard intrigue . Decently made by Roy Rowland who made this action picture for independent release based on a Mickey Spillane "Mike Hammer" novel starring Spillane himself , Girl hunters (1963) . That intrepid detective , Mike Hammer middlingly played by his creator Mickey Spillane , is caught up with communist spies , wicked girls , a suspicious widow of a murdered senator , called Laura Knapp : gorgeous bombshell Shirley Eaton , pre-Goldfinger , and a missing secretary .

Typical plot about a peculiar detective who has spent seven years in an alcoholic funk after the supposed death of his secretary , Velda , then he is brought back to the land of the living by his old friendly enemy, police lieutenant Pat Chambers ; later on , being trapped in the quicksand of love and caught up in a nightmare of murder and intrigue . Hammer is his usual judge-and-jury role but the is fast-paced . It results to be a twisted film Noir about murders , troubled relationships , treason , dark secrets , including an unforgettable dialog ; being based on the novel by Mickey Spillane himself and script from Robert Fellows and director Roy Rowland . Frustrated at seeing his scripts rewritten by others , the film's star, Mike Spillane , vowed that from then on he would play and write his own screenplays and therefore not have to see them get meddled with. Word-for-word and scene-for-scene virtually the same as the original novel. It packs an adequate realization , an original script , haunting atmosphere , intriguing events ; the reason for madness and murder prevail .

The motion picture was uneven but professionally directed by Roy Rowland . Veteran MGM B director Roy Rowland ended his career with three cheap westerns co-produced with MGM and shot in Spain . Roy sharpened his directing chops at MGM with a series of shorts starting in the 1930s, then moved up to features in 1943 . Roy spent quite a bit of time at the studio, from 1943-51 and again from 1954-58 ; he had the good fortune to marry the niece of Louis B. Mayer and was the father of actor Steve Rowland . While not one of the studio's top-rank directors , he was a good professional who had a considerable success . Most were B-movies, but he occasionally handled such A-graders . His first movies had success enough , such as : Our vines have tender grapes (1945) , Two weeks in love (1950) , Bugles in afternoon (1952) , Hit the deck (1955). His greatest hit was , of course , the fantasy movie titled The 5000 fingers of Dr T (1953) . He specialized in a variety of genres, including musicals : ¡Viva Las Vegas! (1956) The seven hills of Rome (57) , Two weeks with love (50) and dramas : Our wines have tender grapes 45 with Edward G Robinson (1945). He was also responsible for the tough, fast-paced Rogue Cop (1954), one of the few MGM films that could be considered "film noir" . Roy was a Western expert , as the last film he made at MGM was this "B" western with Stewart Granger, Gun Glory (1957) ; besides , he filmed Outriders with Joel McCrea , Bugles in the afternoon with Ray Milland and Many rivers to cross with Robert Taylor ; after which and then he traveled to Europe for a string of Spanish/Italian-made westerns, such as : Los Pistoleros De Casa Grande and Ley Del Forastero . His final film as director was a somewhat cheesy pirate movie (he was uncredited ; his Italian co-director Sergio Bergonzelli got sole credit) called El Tigre De Los 7 Mares and its sequel : Tormenta Sobre el Pacífico (1966) . He was associate producer on Nathan Juran's Spain-shot Western : Al Infierno, gringo (1969), after which he retired. The Girl Hunters(1963) rating : 6/10 , acceptable and passable thriller .

It isn't that Mickey Spillaine can't act that makes this movie so awful. It's everything--from the amateurish directing and Neanderthal script to the annoying trumpet blasts that rise out of the soundtrack.

There's absolutely nothing about this film that works. Everybody fawns over Mike hammer the whole time--with the exception of the mean cop who used to be his friend. There's your plot line.

Here's a long shot but it could be that the producers of Goldfinger saw this bomb and stole a couple of items from it (no one would know since about 16 people ever saw this film on its release). First Shirley Eaton--the only woman in this thing --went on to stardom as the golden girl. And there's a scene before the big fight where the bad guy fires his hat Oddjob-style at our hero.

What is about guys that can't act (and know it)? They seem to want to bring along others with the same deficiency. So Spillaine has several scenes with a real-life newspaper columnist that rank up there as some of the worst in the movie and, therefore, of all time.

If you want something to do while watching this turkey, count the number of times Hammer pulls on and off his trenchcoat. London Fog had to be involved in the production.

As for Mike Hammer movies, stay away from "Girl Hunters" and stick with Ralph Meeker and "Kiss me Deadly."

I must disagree with the previous reviewer, who had nothing good to say aboout this movie. The Girl Hunters is I agree unusual--but unusual in a good sense. The acting is excellent. The characters sound as one would imagine real DAs and real private eyes to sound. They don't sound like Robert Di Niro--but that is refreshing.

And the musical score is actually exceptionally lyrical and moving.

In some ways I like this movie even better than Kiss Me Deadly.

Each one gets an A- in my book.

Funny... this was produced by colorama features inc, but it's in black and whilte! A mike hammer story. Starring.... mike, i mean... mickey spillane and shirley eaton. It's okay. Some overacting and slow talking, john wayne style. And an odd extended close-up on spillane's eyes eight minutes in. When mike hammer hears that velda may still be alive, he goes looking for her. Big on the dramatic music, but kind of short on story. It kind of goes all over the place. Not the best mike hammer story. Whenever he needs to know something, he goes to one of his buddies and they do the legwork. You'll recognize the nasal voice of lloyd nolan.. he popped up in a lot of old noir murder films and cop shows. Directed by roy rowland, near the very end of his directing career. Directed shorts all through the 1930s.

The Girl Hunters should be required viewing for any writer with an urge to step out in front of a camera because here's what can go wrong. 1. Make sure you can act (Spillane's acting range rivals plywood). 2. Don't beat a single song in the soundtrack to death: There's one serviceable tune played by Eddie Calvert here that's treated like a farm animal; it's heard at least 15 times and is liable to drive you nuts. 4. Make sure the romantic subplot doesn't require suspension of disbelief: the babe (Shirley "Goldfinger" Eaton) here is in her early 20's and there's no convincing chemistry to explain why she'd peel off her bikini (what she wears 90% of the time in the picture) for the likes of the middle-agy private eye. (!!!Warning!!! unbelievably, they kiss... and trust me, what you see cannot be unseen). Spillane's appeal couldn't be his acting talent. What glue there is that holds the low budget thing together is veteran "Crime Does Not Pay" ex-MGM director Roy Rowland and the mildly interesting slant on vile commies... an angle that was already getting long in the tooth by 1963, outside of doomsday black comedies and big-budget political thrillers and the curiosity of seeing Spillane's interpretation of his own ham-handed character in what could be rightly called a vanity project. I doubt this baby was ever on the lower half of a double bill alongside Seven Days in May or The Manchurian Candidate. For the still-definitive Mike Hammer stick with Ralph Meeker (a vastly better actor) in Kiss Me Deadly made 8 years earlier.

You know the moment in "The Producers" when the Broadway theatre audience sits stupefied by the unbelievable awfulness of what they're seeing? I watched most of "The Girl Hunters" with a similar slack-jawed, eye-popping expression.

The ultimate vanity project, in which Mickey Spillane stars as his own ultra-macho detective, Mike Hammer. And, he's miscast! He can't act, can barely deliver his own awful dialogue, and is laughably terrible throughout the movie.

Even better, Mickey cast his also-can't-act pals in supporting roles. The tabloid columnist Hy Gardner never met a line of dialogue he couldn't butcher. Lloyd Nolan phones it in, looking like he's ready for the laxative commercials he would soon be doing. And then there are the assorted slabs of beef who pound Hammer and get pounded by him, in the trademark sadomasochistic Spillane style.

Of course he gets the girl (Shirley Eaton!!!). In fact, the most unwatchable shot in the whole movie is the slow track to a closeup of their mouths as they make out for the first time. I dare you not to blink.

And then there's the music! Laid on with a trowel, it's the same over-orchestrated catchy trumpet blues riff repeated a hundred times, usually crescendoing over a meaningless shot of Hammer walking down a hall, or driving up a road, punctuating exactly the wrong moments in a film that's just chock full of 'em.

Only 103 minutes, but I would have guessed two hours. Grill a steak, pour a scotch, fire up a cancer stick, and don't miss it!!

While never in the class of 'Kiss Me, Deadly', or even the original version of 'I, The Jury', 'The Girl Hunters' is an enjoyable detective movie featuring a surprisingly convincing portrayal of Mike Hammer by his creator Mickey Spillane. The film is well shot, mostly well acted and has a storyline that keeps you interested till the end. What lets it down is the intrusive and repetitive music and endless shots of Spillane/Hammer walking in and out of buildings/offices while putting on or taking off his trench coat. After a while both these elements become irritating, but not irritating enough to make you want to stop watching. Spillane is a suitably rough around the edges Hammer and is well supported by Lloyd Nolan as a helpful FBI agent and by the gorgeous Shirley Eaton as the only female character in the picture, the widow of a murdered senator. My personal favourite Mike Hammer film is the first version of 'I, The Jury' with Biff Elliott as Hammer. That film is pure noir and Elliott is excellent in the role. 'The Girl Hunters' tries hard and almost gets there, but noir was past it's sell by date and the old masters of the genre were mostly gone. This film gives a good facsimile and is very watchable, but do not expect 'The Big Sleep'.

MICKEY SPILLAINE is terrible as MIKE HAMMER. Thank goodness for lloyd nolan and the other veteran actors. Still wo a good lead this doesnt make it.

What caught my attention more than anything in The Girl Hunters (there wasn't much to choose from) was the exorbitant number of times we see Hammer take off, put on, or carry a jacket, or trench coat. Out of morbid curiosity, I--for a split second--thought I'd fast forward through it again to count, then thought naw, I couldn't bear a second viewing.