Daddy's Gone A-Hunting

Worthwhile B movie that fails to make the most of a good idea. And both Play Misty for Me(71) and Fatal Attraction(87) reworked its premise and plot. Mark Robson's direction is economical to a fault, and the film needs more detail and development;it feels perfunctory and thin like a made-for-TV film. And the supporting characters are cardboard.

The film has some effective scenes, generates interest and suspense, though the build-up is ultimately better than the payoff. Scott Hylands is very good and convincing but, Carol White is perhaps too stoic,and she doesn't garner much sympathy for her character. The rest of the cast goes through their paces without making an impression, except for an annoying housekeeper, and "Prissy",the cat. Ultimately, the subject matter and Scott Hylands' performance are what make it worthwhile. Hard to find film deserves a DVD release, hopefully with the trailer.

It would've been better if the character,'catherine' had been more sympathetic.

I apologize,but I was rooting for 'ken' to get away with it all. The story is different,though.A boyfriend terrorizing his ex-girlfriend because she aborted his child...it really could've been done better.

DADDY'S GONE A-HUNTING (1969) is a relatively obscure psycho-thriller that I knew nothing about before watching and ended up loving. It stars British starlet Carol White (POOR COW, CATHY COME HOME) as an aspiriing artist who arrives in San Francisco and begins to romance a young man she meets on the street. Before long she's pregnant, but the relationship sours and she aborts the baby. Unfortunately her former lover isn't about to take that lying down...

This is one of those stories that plays out with an economy of narrative which really works in its favour. There are some great jump cuts to drive the narrative forward while the entire focus is on the psychological cat and mouse games. The cast are all excellent and the characters strike the right balance between likeability and believability. The extended chase climax is a real nerve-shredder!

Newly-arrived in San Francisco from the UK, pretty young artist has a meet-cute with a strange, handsome photographer at the bus terminal (he throws a snowball at her head). He fixes her up with a job interview and they move in together, but he has responsibility issues and won't earn his share, throwing her out of her own apartment after she asks him to see a psychiatrist. Melodrama from screenwriters Larry Cohen and Lorenzo Semple Jr., from Cohen's original treatment, skips ahead fitfully; before we know it, the girl has had an abortion, the ex-boyfriend finds out and is furious, and she's gotten married to another man. Purports to be "adult entertainment", but director Mark Robson is still playing the same coy games (when the girl gets undressed to make love, the camera drops to her clothes hitting the floor). Unsettling scenes are entwined with phony soap opera hysterics, while the performers look somewhat unsure of themselves. ** from ****

Brit beauty Carol White ("Some Call It Loving") stars as Cathy Palmer, a newcomer to San Francisco. Almost immediately, a stranger named Kenneth Daly (Canadian actor Scott Hylands ("Death Hunt"), receiving an "introducing" credit) contrives a way to meet her. Initially, he seems quite charming, and they enter into a relationship for a while, until he starts revealing himself as a major league turd. She breaks it off with him, even aborting the baby that he had fathered. She moves on, and finds a new guy (Paul Burke ("Valley of the Dolls")), a rising politician, and gets pregnant by the new guy. Trouble is, Kenneth is not going to let her go unpunished. He begins to terrorize her, demanding that she kill her baby in order to atone for the death of his child.

This is a pretty decent movie, albeit with some flaws. It's kind of a mixed bag, with a lead character who's not terribly sympathetic, a script credited to Larry Cohen ("The Stuff") and Lorenzo Semple, Jr. ("Flash Gordon") that has lines both bad and good, a lack of complete credibility, and performances that are uneven. It does get better and better as it plays out, leading to a seven minute finale high above the city streets that will actually have people catching their breath. Director Mark Robson, who'd started out crafting some fine psychological black & white horror for producer Val Lewton, and graduated to bigger things like "Valley of the Dolls" and "Von Ryan's Express", handles things with a certain degree of style. The filmmakers don't seem too concerned with making viewers choose a side in the still-contentious "pro life" vs. "pro choice" debate, and mainly focus on making an entertaining, slick, tried-and-true revenge thriller.

Ms. White is lovely to look at, but doesn't make her character all that interesting. Hylands is fine, having a little more to work with; Kenneth supposedly was prepared to become a better man upon learning of impending fatherhood, so he takes the abortion thing VERY hard. Burke has little to do in the grand scheme of things. The very fine supporting cast includes such familiar faces as James Sikking ('Hill Street Blues') and Barry Cahill ("Coffy") as FBI agents, Mala Powers ("Cyrano de Bergerac") as Cathy's friend Meg, Walter Brooke ("The Graduate") as Jerry Wolfe, Mathilda Calnan ("Silver Streak") as Ilsa the maid, and Dennis Patrick ('Dark Shadows') as the abortion doctor.

Excellent location shooting and an effective pace help to make this reasonably engrossing, and worthy of another look from genre devotees.

Seven out of 10.