A Little Game

A Little Game is decent enough for a TV movie, although it's a long way from being brilliant. The film takes obvious influence from the likes of The Bad Seed, in that it follows a young problem child with murder in mind. There were some really good seventies TV movies, so while this one is OK in its own right, it pales in comparison to some of its counterparts. The main problem with the film is that the problem child fails to be intimidating and comes off as being more pathetic than frightening. Mark Gruner was clearly the wrong kid for the central role - and that's a shame as the film really rests on his shoulders. Obviously, you can't expect great things from a film like this; but unfortunately this one does little more than merely tell a story, and the story itself doesn't have much more to it than just the central theme. I imagine that this may have been better when caught on TV in the seventies than it was for me watching it on DVD at home, but basically it hasn't aged well and there isn't much to it. I'm not saying it's not worth bothering with - but it's certainly not worth going out of your way for either.

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 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.

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...

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.