Stylish but barely mediocre overall

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Peter Bogdanovich scored his first critical success with Targets that starred an elderly Boris Karloff playing an elderly star of Gothic horror films hardly a stretch for the man's talents. In fact a whole lot like William Henry Pratt in real life. Karloff is telling the producer of his next film that this is it, despite verbal commitments he wants to retire. He's not reaching the newer generation he fears and his films are called camp. Time to just quit.Peter Bogdanovich who also plays the writer of that project that he's turning his back on urges Karloff to reconsider as does Nancy Hsueh Karloff's girl Friday and Bogdanovich's girl friend. He does however have a personal appearance at a drive-in showing one of his films.But while Karloff is musing about retiring, a very disturbed young man has built himself quite an arsenal. One fine day Tim O'Kelly a veteran of Vietnam who has built himself quite an arsenal decides just matter of factly to go on a human shooting spree. He kills his wife and then mows down a few more on the Freeway and then sets himself up at the drive-in to await the night's events.O'Kelly is a frightening young man and this film sadly set a trend for making Vietnam veterans psychotic villains on screen. It lasted for over a decade. No doubt O'Kelly learned his weapon skill for combat, but lots more veterans came home without going psychotic. In any event O'Kelly's baby face and All American looks are what makes his performance all the more frightening.As for Karloff this was ironically his last film away from the horror genre. When he died the following year he had about four posthumous films awaiting release. Talk about dying with your boots on. In real life the farthest thing from his mind was retiring. The film is set up for the inevitable meeting between the old master of the horror film genre and a purveyor of some true life horror. It's worth the wait to see what happens.

To see this movie now is to appreciate the genius of both Karloff as an actor and Peter Bogdanovich as a director. (As an actor he's passable, but he could direct and edit with the best of them).Karloff plays Byron Orlok, an aging horror film star now reduced to making second-rate horror flicks and thinking that he's no longer needed or even relevant. While he contemplates his future, in another part of the city, a young man (Tim O'Kelly) murders his family in cold blood and then proceeds to go on a shooting spree. The trail of murder comes to a head when both worlds collide in an art-imitates-life (or is it the other way around?) moment at a drive-in theater.The acting is exemplary here with Karloff a standout essentially playing himself and ably supported by Bogdanovich as screenwriter/director Sammy Michaels and Nancy Hsueh as Karloff's loyal assistant and (possible?) love interest of Sammy.Bogdanovich wisely eschews blood as much as possible and builds the tension with long shots and quick cuts at key moments in the movie. The lack of a musical score actually enhances rather than detracts from the movie. But really, Karloff is the whole show and for that and that alone, this film must be seen. It's a tribute to his genius and Bogdanovich's direction that Targets is as good as it is. Forty-six years later, it can still hang with the best suspense pictures around.

Targets is directed by Peter Bogdanovich who also co-writes the screenplay and story with Polly Platt and Samuel Fuller. It stars Boris Karloff, Tim O'Kelly and Bogdanovich himself. Story is patterned around real life mass murderer Charles Whitman, who in 1966 murdered 16 people during a shooting rampage at the University of Texas in Austin.Cineaste Peter Bogdanovich's debut directing effort, sadly, to this day remains a topical hot spot. Released as it was just after the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy, Targets carried much relevance even though it was hardly a success at the box office. Over the years it has come to gain a cult following that is much deserved, the low budget production value actually helping to keep it uneasily potent.Story is structured by way of two separate narrative threads, one sees Karloff as veteran horror film actor Byron Orlock, who sees himself as an anachronism and announces his retirement from movie making. His reasoning, warranted, is that his type of horror is way behind the times, the real horror is out there on the streets, bleakly headlined in the local newspaper. The other thread concerns Bobby Thompson (O'Kelly), a handsome boy next door type who has a pretty wife but finds himself unemployed and still living with his parents. He is a ticking time bomb, his mind soon to fracture and devastation will follow. The two stories converging for a bloody finale at a drive in movie theatre, where Orlock is making a special guest appearance, the old time horror of the movies coming face to face with the real terror of the modern world.Though uncredited by choice, the screenplay belongs to Fuller, something that Bogdanovitch has always been keen to point out, and it's with the writing where the film gets its quality factor. The messages within are serious and handled evenly by Bogdanovitch, his pacing precise and in Karloff he has the perfect icon from which to underpin the story. True enough the acting around Karloff is sub-standard, notably from the director himself, but with Bogdanovich deliberately keeping the psychological explanation for Bobby's actions vague, film manages to rise above its flaws to leave an indelible mark. 8/10

Targets (1968) **** (out of 4)The history behind the film is known by just about everyone as Roger Corman owned two more days worth of shooting with Boris Karloff so he told director Bogdanovich to make a movie with these two days as well as footage from THE TERROR. You'd expect a young director would just turn out another piece of junk but instead Bogdanovich decided to do something different and the end result is one of the best movies of its kind.The story has a veteran horror movie star (Boris Karloff) wanting to retire because in the current times people aren't afraid of fake monsters any more but a young writer (Bogdanovich) tries to talk him into one more picture. While this is going on a young man (Tim O'Kelly) from a normal family suffers a break down, packs up his guns and goes on a shooting spree. TARGETS has been called a love story to Karloff, a propaganda piece about gun control and various other things but there's no question that the film contains a terrific jolt that certainly grabs one by the throat and doesn't let go. The first two-thirds of the film are pretty much separate films as we bounce back and forth between the stories before the two finally meet at the end. Both sections of the story are terrific because they're so well made, raw and honest. If you're a fan of Karloff it's great fun seeing him playing someone who is basically himself. You can imagine him being unhappy with films like THE TERROR so seeing him react to a screening of it was fun as was another sequence where he's watching THE CRIMINAL CODE on television. There are several shots at low-budget horror films, which are pretty funny and one certainly feels like they're in the business because of all the behind the scenes stuff. The stuff dealing with the killer is also very strong stuff and intense as well. When he goes on the three killing sprees you can't help but hold your breath and even though the film is tame by today's standards you still get thrown for quite a jolt. The shootings are very raw, realistic and they come off extremely disturbing to watch. Bogdanovich does a masterful job with not only his direction of the material but the screenplay itself is quite good. It's certainly nothing ground breaking but it's the simple nature of it that makes it work so well made. The film really does have a documentary feel to it and this just adds to the creepiness of the material. Karloff's performance certainly ranks as one of the greatest of his career and it was the perfect way for him to end his career and one could only wish that this was his final picture but he went onto do some truly horrible Mexican films before his death. He has no problem playing himself but many actors say playing yourself is the hardest thing you could do. Karloff certainly fits the role perfectly and showed that he could still act when given the right material. O'Kelly gets very few lines but his quietness perfectly captures the killer mental state. The supporting cast fit their roles just fine as well. TARGETS might have meant to have been a cheap horror flick but thankfully the director decided to do something else instead. This is certainly a Roger Corman picture like no other and a film that contains a certain rawness that is hard to forget.