Calafrio

A mousy, introverted young man befriends and teaches rats basic commands. Soon his home and life are preoccupied with this rodent infestation, coming particularly close to two rats, Ben and Socrates. Willard is played with great skill by Bruce Davison, communicating to the audience his despondency with family life as well as with his job. He has a love-hate relationship with his dotty, doting mother, played with the usual charm only Elsa Lanchester can exude. His relationship with his mother's friends is distant, and with his employer Martin, disastrous. Martin is played with relish by Ernest Borgnine, making the audience feel little sympathy for his fate. Naturally, Willard trains the rats to do "bad" things and this leads to a battle of wills between Willard and the main rat Ben(the lead character in the film's sequel BEN). Overall, the film is rather slowly paced, but well-acted and rewarding in the end.

Willard Stiles (Bruce Davison) is an introvert. His mother is bedridden. Her friends throw him a surprise birthday party and berate him for losing his father's business to Al Martin (Ernest Borgnine) who hired Joan (Sondra Locke) to take over his work. He has no friends but finds friendship with the rats in the backyard. Soon, his friends are multitudes willing to do his bidding.

The idea is there but this is shot in a flat, uninspired manner. The actors are either first rate or on their way. Borgnine is gloriously evil. Davison is a little green around the edges. This should be a lot more compelling. There should be more tension. It's got some creepiness but I would like more.

My mom remembers seeing "Willard" when it first came out, and so she encouraged me to see it. It tells the story of Willard Stiles (Bruce Davison), an outcast who still lives with his mother Henrietta (Elsa Lanchester). But Willard discovers that their house has some other inhabitants: rats. He quickly befriends the critters, and then turns them into a sort of army who will obey all his commands. To add to this situation, Willard and his mother believed that his father died naturally, but it begins to look like Willard's boss Al Martin (Ernest Borgnine) may have been involved.

The old, dark house, and the young man living with his mother might bring to mind "Psycho", but "Willard" seems to me to be more of a story of an outcast taking revenge on the world that rejected him.

The progenitor of the 'when-good-animals-go-bad' trend in '70s schlock films, "Willard" brings us the story of a boy and his rat, or eventually his rats, given the fecundity of rodents. The movie has the look of '70s TV and in places could be an extended episode of "The Night Stalker" or "Night Gallery" (especially the close-ups of busybody neighbour Charlotte (Jody Gilbert)). Bruce Davidson is quite good in the titular role, playing Willard as a normal looking nebbish, which makes his ascent to ratte-führer even more incongruous. His mother is played by the great Elsa Lanchester (one of the few actresses who could out-ham husband Charles Laughton) and Ernest Borgnine rounds out the main cast as Willard's lascivious dirt-bag of a boss. The story, script and direction are pretty simple, although there are some good jump-cuts to show people can be rats too (the best is the cut from the humans stuffing their faces at a particularly unappetizing buffet to the rats stuffing their snouts in Willard's basement). The rat wranglers earned their pay, as some scenes include hundreds of the rodents and Davidson seems completely at ease with the animals, which contributes to the film's verisimilitude. More fun than scary (unless you are musophobic) and not particularly gruesome, the movie appeals more to boomer nostalgia than to cinematic connoisseurship. Followed by a sequel "Ben", which contains the prettiest ode to a rat ever put on film.

Made the mistake of reading the book before seeing the movie; the movie, as a consequence, couldn't possibly live up to my expectations. Nor did it. But that's not a put-down. While there were some things that irked me (the mother rat's humble "thanks" at one point, the rubber rats all too much in evidence at the birthday party, etc.), Bruce Davidson and Ernest Borgnine deliver solid performances that help keep one focused on the twisted relationships that are the core of this film. (Elsa Lanchester as Willard's mewling mother also deserves mention.) I don't know how this one would hold up today, but, back in 1971, it was a must-see.