Daddy's Gone A-Hunting (1969)....originated from the fertile mind of writer Larry Cohen who specialized in 'high concept' screenplays before that briefly used phrase entered and exited the Hollywood corridors of power.
Cohen excelled in scripts centered around one startling idea or plot point.......scripts that could be easily pitched and explained to nervous, impatient studio executives looking for a slate of films that wouldn't get them fired.
Using abortion, then illegal, as a plot point for a mad psycho thriller would make most established screenwriters queasy at the idea, but you can bet it didn't faze Cohen a bit.
So off we go to scenic San Francisco, where a newly arrived Brit (Carol White, a lower budget Julie Christie) meets cute with a feisty, charming struggling photographer (Scott Hylands).
After shacking up together, it doesn't take long for White to realize Hyland's a dangerous wacko and a prime funny farm candidate. When she realizes he's impregnated her, after a few misgivings she opts to abort the baby. Then she promptly meets, falls in love with and marries an aspiring local politico (Paul Burke)
No sooner has she popped out a baby boy for Burke, when the hellish Hylands re-surfaces to stalk and terrorize her, demanding she kill Burke's baby as proper penalty for offing his infant. Well, fair is fair, after all.......
When a horrified White won't go along with that program (big surprise), Hylands abducts the baby and goes on the run across the city, doping the kid with codeine and lugging him around in a pet carrier. (This doesn't go well for him when he hops a cable car with his new 'pet'
Not a bad set-up for a suspense thriller. And you'd think this movie would have turned out better since it was the hands of veteran slick studio craftsman Mark Robson....("The Prize" "Valley Of The Dolls" "Earthquake", "Peyton Place", some the classic Val Lewton horror films.)
Technically, Robson makes all the right moves in ratcheting up the chills, the creepy moments and the sense of unease that a story like this requires to engage an audience.
But he fails miserably in two key departments and because of these wrong-headed moves, the movie never gets out of mediocre low gear.
The first failure (its worst) - the lackluster, charisma-free cast. White, and Hylands are 3rd tier, bland uninteresting actors, with no ability to generate or depict any real recognizable human emotion. Even as the film goes through all the thriller machinations, you couldn't care less what happens to these people...they're barely there..
The second failure (and this one's surprising) - even though the film boasts no less than John Williams as its composer, his score is skimpy, non existent through long stretches and does absolutely nothing to underline and/or accentuate the action and sense of dread. (Just compare this to the ripe, rip roarin' score he wrote for DePalma's "The Fury")
For a thriller, that's death valley.
Williams only major contribution comes down to a pathetic annoying title song. After we finished watching the film, we daydreamed how this film might have turned out with two major stars in the lead and a full-bodied Bernard Herrmann score. Sad sigh......
At some point in the the production, ,Lorenzo Semple Jr., another high concept scribbler (the "Batman" series) signed on a co-screenwriter, but he didn't help the film one way or the other. Even Brian DePalms knew you couldn't make a mainstream thriller with deadhead, boring actors, no decent score and expect anyone to pay attention.
After this film, Larry Cohen had much better luck directing his own outrageous scripts (like the immortal "It's Alive" and "Q". They may have lacked the professional sheen of a Mark Robson, but they were a guilty pleasure joy to watch in their raggedy imperfection.
As for "Daddy Goes A-Hunting".....nothing but a 1 star dud. (*)
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