Daddy's Gone A-Hunting

DADDY'S GONE A-HUNTING might be of interest to film academics looking to analyze attitudes about abortion and motherhood in the wake of the 60s sexual revolution. For those wanting a good thriller, they'll have to look elsewhere. Leadenly paced and poorly acted (with one exception), this movie feels like it was made for television. It boggles the mind to think the director was responsible for some of the best Val Lewton chillers back in the 1940s.

The single bright spot is Scott Hylands as the stalker villain. His stare is chilling and his vengeful plot is truly disturbing. Such a shame the woman he's menacing isn't up to snuff-- Carol White's performance is wooden and her character is often unlikable, treating the people around her like garbage when it isn't warranted. This makes it very hard to root for her, a deadly problem for a suspense thriller.

Also, that title song is truly putrid, dated in the worst possible way and almost comical in how it blatantly describes on-screen action. Hard to believe the legendary John Williams was responsible for that travesty-- though to be fair to him, most of the score is alright, if nothing exceptional.

Brit beauty Carol White ("Some Call It Loving") stars as Cathy Palmer, a newcomer to San Francisco. Almost immediately, a stranger named Kenneth Daly (Canadian actor Scott Hylands ("Death Hunt"), receiving an "introducing" credit) contrives a way to meet her. Initially, he seems quite charming, and they enter into a relationship for a while, until he starts revealing himself as a major league turd. She breaks it off with him, even aborting the baby that he had fathered. She moves on, and finds a new guy (Paul Burke ("Valley of the Dolls")), a rising politician, and gets pregnant by the new guy. Trouble is, Kenneth is not going to let her go unpunished. He begins to terrorize her, demanding that she kill her baby in order to atone for the death of his child.

This is a pretty decent movie, albeit with some flaws. It's kind of a mixed bag, with a lead character who's not terribly sympathetic, a script credited to Larry Cohen ("The Stuff") and Lorenzo Semple, Jr. ("Flash Gordon") that has lines both bad and good, a lack of complete credibility, and performances that are uneven. It does get better and better as it plays out, leading to a seven minute finale high above the city streets that will actually have people catching their breath. Director Mark Robson, who'd started out crafting some fine psychological black & white horror for producer Val Lewton, and graduated to bigger things like "Valley of the Dolls" and "Von Ryan's Express", handles things with a certain degree of style. The filmmakers don't seem too concerned with making viewers choose a side in the still-contentious "pro life" vs. "pro choice" debate, and mainly focus on making an entertaining, slick, tried-and-true revenge thriller.

Ms. White is lovely to look at, but doesn't make her character all that interesting. Hylands is fine, having a little more to work with; Kenneth supposedly was prepared to become a better man upon learning of impending fatherhood, so he takes the abortion thing VERY hard. Burke has little to do in the grand scheme of things. The very fine supporting cast includes such familiar faces as James Sikking ('Hill Street Blues') and Barry Cahill ("Coffy") as FBI agents, Mala Powers ("Cyrano de Bergerac") as Cathy's friend Meg, Walter Brooke ("The Graduate") as Jerry Wolfe, Mathilda Calnan ("Silver Streak") as Ilsa the maid, and Dennis Patrick ('Dark Shadows') as the abortion doctor.

Excellent location shooting and an effective pace help to make this reasonably engrossing, and worthy of another look from genre devotees.

Seven out of 10.

A surprisingly potent and strangely disregarded psycho-stalker picture marked by taut direction and capable performances, it also benefits from its appealing San Francisco location filming. It's a distressingly plausible scenario...girl aborts the child of her former lover, latterly marries another man, and becomes pregnant again. The first lover, now quite clearly a dangerously unbalanced nutcase, shows up to settle the score.

A briskly paced little nail-biter which occasionally goes a tad bit over-the-top, DADDY'S GONE A-HUNTING is ripe for a much-deserved reinvestigation.

6.5/10

It would've been better if the character,'catherine' had been more sympathetic.

I apologize,but I was rooting for 'ken' to get away with it all. The story is different,though.A boyfriend terrorizing his ex-girlfriend because she aborted his child...it really could've been done better.

Worthwhile B movie that fails to make the most of a good idea. And both Play Misty for Me(71) and Fatal Attraction(87) reworked its premise and plot. Mark Robson's direction is economical to a fault, and the film needs more detail and development;it feels perfunctory and thin like a made-for-TV film. And the supporting characters are cardboard.

The film has some effective scenes, generates interest and suspense, though the build-up is ultimately better than the payoff. Scott Hylands is very good and convincing but, Carol White is perhaps too stoic,and she doesn't garner much sympathy for her character. The rest of the cast goes through their paces without making an impression, except for an annoying housekeeper, and "Prissy",the cat. Ultimately, the subject matter and Scott Hylands' performance are what make it worthwhile. Hard to find film deserves a DVD release, hopefully with the trailer.