As Grizzly turns 40, we look back at William Girdlers brief and dirty career.
Director William Girdler is a tough nut to crack.
Still others insist he was a brilliant filmmaker poised to become the next Spielberg.
Well, um, thats not exactly true, either.
He was even a little ahead of the curve.
Problem is, if youre only ten minutes ahead of your time, youre pretty well screwed.
But it didnt, and was roundly ignored into oblivion.
That may have been part of the problem.
Well, ten minutes later, the girls have been slaughtered and the film becomes something else completely.
The film may not have hadPsychos enduring brilliance, but still, right?
There he was ahead of the curve again.
Maybe give it a little twist to avoid the lawsuits?
The game at AIP was pretty simple.BlaculaandBlackensteinhad both been big hits, right?
So why not update it a bit?
He played it a little safer the next year with the Pam Grier vehicleSheba Baby.
The question was, where to go next?
Sam Peckinpahs violent spy thrillerThe Killer Elitehad been a modest hit in 1975.
Nielsen stars as an instructor at a US intelligence agency who trains anti-assassination operatives.
As in Peckinpahs original, this makes him both a danger to the Feds and a target for assassination.
Much action, espionage, car chases, and double crosses ensue.
In technical terms, the picture was miles ahead of his first two features.
And those few people who did see it at the time didnt care much about the sub-Bond onscreen skullduggery.
After that, Girdler parted ways with Sheldon and Flaxman, albeit amicably.
For a few weeks anyway.
Girdler read the script, loved it, and immediately decided they should all go back into business together.
Cheap knockoffs, after all, had become his specialty.
It was a perfect match.
None of that mattered.
It led to yet another lawsuit, this one brought by Flaxman and Sheldon.
The film was never completed.)
Most people seemed to miss theFrogsconnection, leading a lot of viewers to mistake it for a directGrizzlysequel.
And wouldnt you know it?
Yes, the pickings couldnt be much better.
In technical terms, the film is very much a throwback to Girdlers first two features.
In fact the actual animals play such a minor role here its easy to forget about them.
They pop up every now and again, but mostly were forced to endure these loathsome humans.
Theres no humor, no tension, nothing but an overwhelming sense of despair and rancor.
My God, my God,what a thing of wonder is 1978sThe Manitou.
Nothing in Girdlers past gave any hint he was capable of something this damnably weird.
Here Girdler wrote the script himself based on a cheap horror paperback.
Five years earlier the same sort of genre-mashing had worked forAbby, right?
At least for those two weeks.
So why not give it another go?
But becauseThe Manitouexists, I do.
Well, the film confused and disgusted audiences and critics alike, and it wasnt nearly the hitGrizzlyhad been.
Andrew Prine was already tapped to star.
