Willard

Willard Stiles (Bruce Davison) is an introvert. His mother is bedridden. Her friends throw him a surprise birthday party and berate him for losing his father's business to Al Martin (Ernest Borgnine) who hired Joan (Sondra Locke) to take over his work. He has no friends but finds friendship with the rats in the backyard. Soon, his friends are multitudes willing to do his bidding.

The idea is there but this is shot in a flat, uninspired manner. The actors are either first rate or on their way. Borgnine is gloriously evil. Davison is a little green around the edges. This should be a lot more compelling. There should be more tension. It's got some creepiness but I would like more.

The progenitor of the 'when-good-animals-go-bad' trend in '70s schlock films, "Willard" brings us the story of a boy and his rat, or eventually his rats, given the fecundity of rodents. The movie has the look of '70s TV and in places could be an extended episode of "The Night Stalker" or "Night Gallery" (especially the close-ups of busybody neighbour Charlotte (Jody Gilbert)). Bruce Davidson is quite good in the titular role, playing Willard as a normal looking nebbish, which makes his ascent to ratte-führer even more incongruous. His mother is played by the great Elsa Lanchester (one of the few actresses who could out-ham husband Charles Laughton) and Ernest Borgnine rounds out the main cast as Willard's lascivious dirt-bag of a boss. The story, script and direction are pretty simple, although there are some good jump-cuts to show people can be rats too (the best is the cut from the humans stuffing their faces at a particularly unappetizing buffet to the rats stuffing their snouts in Willard's basement). The rat wranglers earned their pay, as some scenes include hundreds of the rodents and Davidson seems completely at ease with the animals, which contributes to the film's verisimilitude. More fun than scary (unless you are musophobic) and not particularly gruesome, the movie appeals more to boomer nostalgia than to cinematic connoisseurship. Followed by a sequel "Ben", which contains the prettiest ode to a rat ever put on film.

This movie scared the pants off me as a kid - literally! Now I like rat movies as much as the next guy, but this one was CREEEEEPY! I suppose it was Ernest Borgnine's performance as Mr. Martin, Willard's boss, that made the whole movie so disturbing. It's so creepy because it's true! I once had a boss who reminded me of Ernest Borgnine, but fortunately I never tried to bring my pet rat to work with me!

Anyway, here's my advice - if you like rat movies, or movies with Ernest Borgnine, then see "Willard" tonight. If you DON'T like Ernest Borgnine and you DON'T like rat movies, then maybe "Willard" is not for you. I don't want to give any more of the plot away, but IF you do decide to watch "Willard", make sure you don't see it alone!

A mousy, introverted young man befriends and teaches rats basic commands. Soon his home and life are preoccupied with this rodent infestation, coming particularly close to two rats, Ben and Socrates. Willard is played with great skill by Bruce Davison, communicating to the audience his despondency with family life as well as with his job. He has a love-hate relationship with his dotty, doting mother, played with the usual charm only Elsa Lanchester can exude. His relationship with his mother's friends is distant, and with his employer Martin, disastrous. Martin is played with relish by Ernest Borgnine, making the audience feel little sympathy for his fate. Naturally, Willard trains the rats to do "bad" things and this leads to a battle of wills between Willard and the main rat Ben(the lead character in the film's sequel BEN). Overall, the film is rather slowly paced, but well-acted and rewarding in the end.

1970's "Willard" looks and feels like a TV movie under the direction of Daniel Mann, based on Stephen Gilbert's 1968 novel "Ratman's Notebooks," emphasizing rats in a promotional campaign that earned an astonishing $12 million at the box office (my local theater paired it with another Cinerama release, "The House That Dripped Blood"). Those coming in expecting a horde of vermin would likely be surprised to find it a genuinely tragic human drama that never quite veers into horror territory, thanks to yeoman work from Bruce Davison in his sympathetic portrayal of Willard Stiles, who lost the family business to employer Al Martin (Ernest Borgnine) upon the death of his father, Elsa Lanchester typecast as Willard's dotty mother Henrietta. The film opens with Henrietta's overly protective friends celebrating Willard's 27th birthday, forcing the withdrawn youth to retreat to the relative safety of the backyard, where his cake attracts a small rat family. Willard's only escape from the abusive bullying of boss Martin is the tenderness of new girl Joan (Sondra Locke), and his obsessive training of the rats in his basement, cutting an opening in the screen to allow easy access. After his mother's unexpected death, Willard engages his tiny companions in a little espionage, spoiling an important get together at Martin's home, then stealing enough money to pay off his mortgage by frightening a wealthy patron out into the street. This was one of Borgnine's most vivid characterizations, a loathsome cad you just love to hate (the sign on his desk reads, "do unto others before they do unto you"), and his eventual comeuppance proves a sure audience pleaser, although the sight of his corpse lying on the ground is enough for Willard to turn his back on the rats and do away with them, only to learn too late that he's clearly outnumbered. We surmise early on that Mr. Stiles already has a screw loose, reminding us how it feels to be treated like a doormat by your worst employer, the ability to fight back an eternal impulse that only a select few might take advantage of. The rats look too cuddly to be scary (think of hamsters with long tails!), but with such repugnant humans populating Willard's universe it's no wonder that he becomes more attached to white rat Socrates and black rat Ben, the latter surviving for the inevitable sequel and Michael Jackson theme song.