Truly Dreadful Film

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

This is one of those movies I really wish was available on DVD, as many of the early Aaron Spelling classics should be. It was years before I would see A FACE IN THE CROWD, but when I first saw this excellent TV thriller, I imagine it must've dropped a lot of jaws to see amiable Sheriff Andy Taylor cast against type as one mean 'sumbitch' - not only doing a great job at it, but having fun as well!Griffith glowers with gleeful menace as a rich lawyer whose hobby is big-game hunting. Sam Bottoms (THE LAST PICTURE SHOW) co-starred as an unsuspecting local from the town Griffith visits to bag his latest prey. He enlists Bottoms as a helper/guide, with the young man having no idea that Griffith's character is bored with the usual game, and has his (literal) sights set on bagging the ultimate trophy...MAN. Think of it as "DUEL" on-foot, as Bottoms, witness to a cold-blooded murder committed by Griffith, must make it back to town without food, water or most of his clothes, the deranged hunter dogging his every step. This story has been told in many forms, (the most well- known being THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME), but rarely has it been told this well or suspensefully since.

Andy Griffith got his start playing a bad guy in "A Face in the Crowd." Don't miss that one since it is one of the earlier films on the role of the media in politics. It also shows the way politicians use the good old boy image to mask the Machiavellian schemer beneath, e.g. Reagan, Clinton and Bush 2. Griffith had also just played a very bad dude in "Pray for the Wildcats" where he causes the death of two teenagers because the female rejects his dirty-old-man seduction attempts.This film sticks pretty close to the Robb White original novel (which I got in grade school in the scholastic books weekly reader program in the early 70's). I was very excited to see a movie version since I had just read the novel. The description of the effects of deadly dehydration in the desert are not realized in the movie since to be realistic would have required some serious make-up effects work.

This movie must have shocked a lot of people when it first came out because it was Andy Griffith's first villain role. He has since played several other "baddies" (such as in Murder In Coweta County his best). There was a story I read in high school called The Most Dangerous Game about a mad hunter with a taste for human prey. This grim chase thriller follows Andy as he hunts his young guide through the desert after an accidental shooting. Griffith must have had a ball shedding his image. This is one of those 70s films that is hard to catch today, but its worth your watch.

This is one of the best TV movies I have ever seen, and easily the most sadistic. Andy Griffith is absolute perfection as the crippled big city predatory lawyer and hunting enthusiast who turns guide and nature lover Sam Bottoms into his prey. His performance is a true work of art. But, all the entire players, including Noah Beery Jr. and James Best are perfectly cast. A true game of hearts, mind, and soul. Not to be missed. 10/10