A Little Game

Ugly, nasty, repellent film about sick kid who plots the murder of mom's new boyfriend. Even though the kid skulks around acting creepy all the time, mom (of course) refuses to believe there is anything wrong with her baby, which he uses to his advantage. Not as sleazy as SAILOR WHO FELL FROM GRACE WITH THE SEA which utilized some of the same ideas, but why would anyone want to watch garbage like this, except to see what poor Katy Jurado (HIGH NOON) had sunk to in her waning years, playing a servant? Only good thing is the brief running time; some reviews here claim they haven't seen it in years---if you really MUST see it (which I do not understand), there are bootlegs kicking around on the Net.

This film was made 50 years ago when psychotic kids with guns was a rarity or nonexistent.

A typical TV movie for its time as far as quality. It might have been a thriller then but now it is pretty benign. I think it is worth a watch if only to see lovely Diane Baker after her film career was over.

Within minutes of his return home from military school, we can tell that Robert (Mark Gruner) is no ordinary boy. Upon his arrival home with his mum (Diane Baker) and her new husband (Ed Nelson), we really get to know Robert. He's home for Christmas with his classmate, Stu (Christopher Shea), whom he treats as a subordinate.

Mum, blinded by her love for her son, can't see what the stepfather sees, that there's just something not quite right with Robert. Something strange. Possibly dangerous. Of course, we can see it too. Robert never puts on airs. He's insufferably mean, nasty, and obviously unbalanced. Bluntly said, this is one creepy, vicious kid!

From what Robert says and writes in his diary, we know that bad things have happened in the past, and will most likely happen again. Soon.

A LITTLE GAME is a magnificent made-for-TV, "killer kid" movie from the golden age of the tele-horror film. Gruner plays Robert up to be an unrepentant, malevolent force. In the annals of such movies, he's in the upper level. Nelson portrays one of the best characters of his career, and Howard Duff is the perfect private detective. Special mention for Ms. Baker, whose character must pretend -even to herself- to be oblivious to what she fears most.

When the title is explained, it all gets even more terrifying...

This was such a great movie, I can still remember being 11 years old and watching it on Halloween. The thing that REALLY stuck with me is that the main character (a BAD little kid) was being portrayed by the kid who did the voice of LINUS in the original Charlie Brown shows. Until I saw this movie I had a somewhat romantic view of military school, but this crushed any notion of that. I sure wish I could see it one more time but since in 1971 there were no VCR's in peoples living rooms, that is pretty much an impossibility. Christopher Shea played the role of a youth from a dysfunctional family who seems to be getting away with murder at his military school by making them look like accidents. "One of our boys just fell off the quadrangle!" The picture had the most Hitchcockian feeling for a "made-for-TV" movie, a sleeper that would have done excellent at the box office for sure.

The kid in this movie is every adult's nightmare. The boy pulls one heinous trick after another, including murder, to get his way. As usual, another character suspects the kid of wrongdoing, but no one believes the little darling is capable of mayhem. One of the best creepy made for TV movies from the 1970's.