Like last week's THE BORGIA STICK, HUNTERS ARE FOR KILLING is an early made-for-TV crime movie that impressed me when I saw it as a kid. Burt Reynolds, before he was a movie star, plays an ex-con who returns to his hometown determined to prove that he didn't commit the murder for which he was convicted. Melvyn Douglas is his stepfather, who hates him and blames him for his own son's death. Although I didn't really know at the time what a Gold Medal novel was, what I recall of this movie tells me that it had a certain Gold Medal feeling to it, with Reynolds' character being surrounded by people he can't trust while trying to ferret out the truth. In addition to Reynolds and Douglas, the cast includes the gorgeous Suzanne Pleshette and a vast array of character actors including Martin Balsam, Larry Storch, Don "Red" Barry, and A. Martinez. I don't think the movie ever had an official release on DVD or VHS, there are no clips from it on YouTube, and I couldn't even find a publicity picture from it on-line. But I remember quite well watching it at my aunt's house in Brownwood, Texas, and liking it. As I recall, even my dad, who wasn't a big fan of mystery movies, enjoyed it. I'd be curious to know if any of you reading this remember it. UPDATE: As Todd Mason points out in the comments, this movie was released on VHS under the title HARD FRAME (a decent title for the storyline, but a little lacking compared to the original, I think). Copies both new and used are available on Amazon if any of you want to check it out and still have a machine that will play videotapes. (The image on the VHS box above is rather deceptive, since Burt was much younger, and as I remember, sans mustache, when this movie was made.)
This crime drama was one of the first made-for-TV movies in the mid-Sixties, and it made a big impression on me when I saw it. Don Murray and Inger Stevens play a typical suburban couple who are actually anything but. They're not really married, and they work for the mob. But then they make the mistake of falling in love and want to get out of their life of crime, which leads to all sorts of complications, especially when their best friend and next-door neighbor is a cop (played by Barry Nelson, who is a great trivia answer since he was the first actor to play James Bond on-screen). THE BORGIA STICK takes a rather low-key approach, as I recall, without a lot of blood and thunder until the end, but it generates plenty of suspense anyway. Lots of good character actors in the cast, including the villainous Fritz Weaver and Sorrell Booke. The big plot twist at the end, which I remember more than 40 years later, seems to me now like it must have been awfully predictable, but it didn't seem that way at the time. I recall being really surprised and impressed by it. According to the reviews on IMBD, THE BORGIA STICK holds up well. I haven't seen it in decades, myself, but I wouldn't mind watching it again. It's never been released on DVD, although gray market copies can be found.
Since I mentioned this last week in my post about the movie IMMORTALS, I thought it would make a good Overlooked Movies and TV post this week. I think it qualifies as both movie and TV related, since, while these were individual films, many of us first encountered them in a syndicated TV package that ran under the umbrella title THE SONS OF HERCULES.
I was a faithful viewer, that's for sure. They ran on one of the local channels every week for a long time, sometimes on Friday night but usually on Saturday or Sunday afternoon. The Wikipedia article about the series lists 14 films that were included in the package:
Ursus, Son of Hercules (Ursus) 1961, starring Ed Fury (a.k.a. Mighty Ursus in England)
Mole Men vs the Son of Hercules (Maciste, the Strongest Man in the World) 1962, starring MarkForest
Fire Monsters Against the Son of Hercules (Maciste vs the Monsters) 1962, starring Reg Lewis
Venus Against the Son of Hercules (Mars, God Of War) 1962, starring Roger Browne
Triumph of the Son of Hercules (The Triumph of Maciste) 1962, starring Kirk Morris
Ulysses vs the Son of Hercules (Ulysses Against Hercules) 1962, starring Mike Lane
Medusa vs the Son of Hercules(Perseus The Invincible) 1962, starring Richard Harrison
Son of Hercules in the Land of Fire (Ursus In The Land Of Fire) 1963, starring Ed Fury
The Tyrant of Lydia vs the Son of Hercules (Goliath and the Rebel Slave) 1963, starring Gordon Scott
Messalina Against the Son of Hercules (The Last Gladiator) 1963, starring Richard Harrison
The Beast of Babylon vs the Son of Hercules (Hero Of Babylon) 1963, starring Gordon Scott
The Terror of Rome vs the Son of Hercules (Maciste, Gladiator of Sparta) 1964, starring MarkForest
Son of Hercules in the Land of Darkness (Hercules The Invincible) 1964, starring Dan Vadis
The Devil of the Desert vs the Son of Hercules (Anthar the Invincible) 1964, (aka The Slave Merchants or Soraya, Queen of the Desert) starring Kirk Morris, directed by Antonio Margheriti
I would have sworn there were more than that, but I could be wrong, certainly. If the list is correct, then I must have watched those 14 movies over and over again. What can I say? I was ten years old. I didn't care. I just wanted to see swordfights, chariot battles, and babes in togas.
One thing I'm sure of: I watched the series enough that I still remembered the theme song after all these years.
