Hunter

I too still remember seeing this. Frequent Mission: Impossible guest star John Vernon played a government agent impersonating a subject, but not with a mask in this Bruce Geller production.

I always wondered if this was the basis for the short-lived series Hunter, starring James Franciscus and a pre-Dynasty, post-Big Valley Linda Evans.

Like threads of recovered memory, I still think from time to time about this movie, although more than thirty years passed since I saw it on TV.

What happened at the racetrack? What was the trigger for the brainwashed driver? What was the significance of the monkeys? What was the motivation behind the bad guys' plan? In fact, who were the bad guys? How much of this was written by L. Frank Baum?

In my memory, this movie is surreal, powerful, full of intrigue -- but it is not explicable. It cannot be pieced together from those threads of memory. I would welcome the chance to view it again, through adult perceptions rather than the prism of adolescence. It could be a disappointment, of course. But I believe Bruce Geller (Mission: Impossible) was involved in this TV movie, and the original MI episodes hold up quite well.

Before playing Dean Wormer in Animal House, John Vernon was consistently excellent as a heavy. This movie -- if we ever get to see it again -- is from those times earlier in the 70's.

Is this the movie from whence came the phrase:

Please stop the monkeys!

I saw such a movie, years ago, wherein a race car driver was brainwashed (by making him watch video of the winged monkeys from Wizard of Oz) and programmed to assassinate some VIP by (if I recall) crashing his car into the stands where said guy was to be seated at a specific race.

But I don't remember the name of the movie I saw, I am simply going by someone's claim that this is the movie, plus the Baum writing credit above. Anyone know for certain?

If so, this movie belongs in the special club of media which created some long-term cultural impact, and yet was itself forgotten. One can find 'stop the monkeys' references all over the net, yet nobody seems to know where it came from.

Reminds me of "We don't need no stinking badges", from The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

I remember seeing this film on late night TV in the early 1980's and thought it was an impressive thriller - with a tacky 70's look about it.

John Vernon was excellent.

I have been searching video shops for this movie for some time.

When this movie premiered I was in high school. It's stayed with me all these (25+) years, so that says it all. Good premise, satisfactory acting, spy thriller, etc. Too bad it's impossible to get now.