Pray for the Wildcats

I agree with Teresa. This movie is a cheesy. But, on the other hand, I thought Andy Griffith did a fine job of being a bad guy for once. William Shatner, of course, played the part of William Shatner, but then, I just like him because he's Captain James T. Kirk of the starship Enterprise. Robert Reed was pretty good, too, and if you see this film, check out the interior of his house--I swear it's the same house as the one in the Brady Bunch! And sure, the film is completely dippy, and the plot's weird, and the effects are royally hand-made, but I still think this is a film worth watching, if only for the interaction between the well-known television personalities. Besides, where else do you get a chance to see William Shatner referring to someone else as "The captain?" The don't make 'em like this anymore...maybe that's a good thing. But see it anyway!

This film begins at an advertising agency with three employees named "Warren Summerfield" (William Shatner), "Terry Maxon" (Marjoe Gortner) and "Paul McIlvan" (Robert Reed) trying their best to retain the account of a wealthy businessman by the name of "Sam Farragut" (Andy Griffith). The problem is that Sam Farragut is not a nice man to do business with as he is both arrogant and extremely cruel. In fact, he is so arrogant and cruel that, in order to flaunt his power over them, he demands that they accompany him on a 600-mile dirt bike ride through the Baja Desert to an isolated site where he is setting up his next business venture. Needless to say, this long hard ride through the desert is not what any of them really want to do but for the sake of their careers they all reluctantly agree. What they are soon to find out, however, is that there is an even worse side to Sam Farragut than any of them could imagine and that all of them will soon be faced with a decision that might weigh heavily upon their consciences for the rest of their lives. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this was a decent made-for-television movie which suffered somewhat because of that format. It also had Andy Griffith acting in a role that was totally uncharacteristic of him-at least for that particular time. It also had several different sub-plots which, in some cases, could have used a bit more depth as well. Be that as it may, this turned out to be a solid film for the most part and I have rated it accordingly. Average.

The coolest video store in the world, Movie Madness, has a VHS copy of this film here in Portland, I rented it one night a few years ago and was stunned at the wondrously awful hilarity it contained. The sight of Andy Griffith trying to erase his good guy image by hassling a young couple in a Mexican cantina, droning on about "hippies", Marjoe Gortner and his "main man" speech, Shatner and Robert Reed, at one point, having a conversation about what to do with Griffith, which just sounds like Captain Kirk and Mike Brady having a tete-a-tete. But the capper is Angie Dickinson doing absolutely NOTHING. She's supposedly married to Robert Reed, but having an affair with Shatner, yet there's no evidence of it, at all. Such a shame. GO find this film, have some friends over and soak up the bad-ness. - mh

One of many Hollywood morality-tales against corporate competition, which ironically keeps showbiz going, and, combining the counter-culture biker flick era with city-guys-out-of-their-element DELIVERANCE, what's really behind PRAY FOR THE WILDCATS is a kind of DEATH OF A SALESMAN character in William Shatner, semi-fired from an advertising agency, and whose only chance is relying on bigwig client Andy Griffith...

Famous for playing a good guy on television... which also includes THE BRADY BUNCH Robert Reed and of course Shatner from STAR TREK (clad in familiar Starfleet-yellow) with Marjoe Gortner as the token youngster... there's a bit of Griffith's intimidating FACE IN THE CROWD persona, herein a bully with everything to gain and nothing to lose...

The opposite of Shatner, the buried lead playing a decade older, he's the most reluctant of the three, all practically forced to go on a dirt bike excursion into the desert wilds of Baja, California...

And there's domestic trouble-in-false-paradise back home, which is the primary flaw for WILDCATS including contrived, melodramatic voice-overs from scenes that occurred fifteen minutes earlier, and particularly the sporadic b-stories involving troubled, nagging, soap-operatic wives...

From Angie Dickinson (who'd cheated on Reed with Shatner) to old-school housewife Lorraine Gary (Shatner's) to Gortner's pseudo-progressive girlfriend in Janet Margolin, this could've been an otherwise tightly-wound survival thriller (including the pivotal roundabout death of two hippies) without cutting back and forth from the gritty desert exterior to bland suburban-set interiors...

As if WILDCATS was catered mostly for a mainstream television audience, blunting genuine risks that the men-in-peril story promises, and yet, the entertainment value of an ABC Movie-of-the-Week is ever-present, and you'll want to see just how far Griffith will take things... if only he had the chance to escalate into a nefarious businessman's EASY RIDER than being too quickly hindered by Shatner's BORN TO BE MILD moral compass.

Sam Farragut (Andy Griffith) is a rich jerk who fully realizes how powerful this makes him. Instead of just allowing the advertising agency to handle his company, he controls them--insisting the three execs working for him MUST go on a long, long motorbike ride across Baja...or no contract. Once on the trip, Sam turns out to be a real piece of work...an amoral guy who drinks, brawls and womanizes-- acting nothing like the Andy Griffith we've all grown to love. He's a lot like Satan on a cycle!

Among the three execs are Warren (William Shatner), Paul (Robert Reed) and Terry (Marjoe Gortner). All three are extremely flawed men and only Terry seems excited about making this trip. Paul is hiding a secret but Warren's is the darkest of all...he knows he's being terminated from his job and is showing hints that he might use this trip as a way to kill himself! What does come of all this?

This is certainly one of the strangest made for TV movies of its era. That's saying a lot since "The ABC Movie of the Week" often featured weird plots--such as women impregnated by aliens, monsters living in the chimney and reincarnated witches! But this strange is because the folks play so against type...especially Griffith! But is this strangeness any good? Well, yes. Despite the plot being extremely difficult to believe and the actors playing so against type, the basic issues going on in the film are compelling-- especially when Griffith's character does some very horrible things. The only BIG bad thing about all this is the ending with Shatner in the surf--not THAT is amazingly stupid! All in all, well worth seeing just because of its novelty.

By the way, if you are curious who Marjoe Gortner is, read him IMDb biography. This guy was VERY prolific on TV in the 70s but his life before this is really, really interesting. He's not particularly good in this film, however. Also, I think it is very likely NOT unintentional that the four men all sport shirts that look almost exactly like "Star Trek" shirts--red, blue and yellow! You really notice their Trekkiness in the cantina scene...complete with the black collars! Apart from missing the Enterprise emblem, they are almost dead ringers!