This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . (Learn how and when to remove these messages)
|
Willard | |
---|---|
Directed by | Daniel Mann |
Screenplay by | Gilbert Ralston |
Based on | Ratman's Notebooks by Stephen Gilbert |
Produced by | Mort Briskin |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Robert B. Hauser |
Edited by | Warren Low |
Music by | Alex North |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Cinerama Releasing Corporation |
Release date |
|
Running time | 95 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Box office | $14.5 million [1] |
Willard is a 1971 American horror film directed by Daniel Mann and written by Gilbert Ralston, based on Stephen Gilbert's novel Ratman's Notebooks . Bruce Davison stars as social misfit Willard Stiles, who is squeezed out of the company started by his deceased father. His only friends are a couple of rats raised at home, including Ben and Socrates, and their increasing number of friends. When Socrates is killed by Willard's boss, he goes on a rampage using his rats to attack.
Willard was released on February 26, 1971 by Cinerama Releasing Corporation, opening to mixed reviews but it was successful at the box-office, making it the 11th highest-grossing release of the year. [2] It was also nominated for an Edgar Award for Best Picture.
The film was followed by a 1972 sequel Ben , and a 2003 remake, also titled Willard , with Crispin Glover portraying Willard, and Davison making a cameo as Willard's father.
Willard Stiles is a meek social misfit who develops an affinity for rats. He lives in a large house with his cranky and decrepit mother Henrietta. On his 27th birthday, he comes home to a surprise birthday party thrown by his mother, where all of the attendees are her friends. After leaving the party in embarrassment, he notices a rat in his backyard and tosses it pieces of his birthday cake.
His mother tells him to eliminate the rats. Willard uses food and a plank bridge to lure them into a pit in the backyard, then begins filling the pit with water to drown them. However, moved by the rats' piteous squeals as they realize their plight, he replaces the plank, allowing them to get to safety. He later begins playing with a rat he names Queenie. A white rat, which Willard names Socrates, becomes his best companion. Other rats emerge, including a bigger black specimen whom he names Ben.
At work, Willard is tasked with an overwhelming number of accounts by his boss Al Martin, who usurped the business from Willard's father. Willard asks Al for a raise, having not received one since his father's death despite working after hours and weekends. Al refuses and pressures Willard to sell him his house. Willard sneaks into a party that Al is hosting, opens a rat-filled suitcase, and urges them to get the food. The guests are terrorized by the rats, and Al destroys the catering tables trying to fend them off. The next day Willard's mother dies. He is informed that she had no money and the house is heavily mortgaged.
Willard starts bringing Socrates and Ben to the office on Saturdays to keep him company while he is the only one there. His friend and temporary assistant, Joan, gives him a cat named Chloe to comfort him. He hands Chloe off to a stranger. Meanwhile, the rat colony is growing and Willard cannot afford to keep feeding them. After overhearing one of Al's friends boasting of a large cash withdrawal, he sneaks into the man's house and orders his rats to tear up the bedroom door. The man and his wife flee the house upon seeing the rats, and Willard steals the cash.
The next day, a worker spots the rats. Al bludgeons Socrates to death, devastating Willard. When Joan refuses to persuade Willard to sell his house to Al, he fires her and Willard, believing that unemployment will force Willard to sell. That night, while Al is at work, Willard enters the office with his rats. He confronts Al over the death of Socrates, the mistreatment of his father and Al's machinations to buy his house. As Al attempts to attack him, Willard orders the rats to attack Al. Disoriented by the swarming rats, Al falls out the window to his death, with the rats eating the corpse, much to Willard’s horror. After witnessing Al's gruesome death, Willard abandons the rats at the scene. The next day, he places his remaining rats into crates, submerges the crates in the water-filled pit until the rats drown, then buries the crates in the back yard. He then seals up any holes through which the rats could enter his house.
Willard has dinner with Joan at his house, telling her of his newfound self-confidence, which he attributes to her and Socrates. Over the course of their conversation, however, he sees Ben staring menacingly at him from a shelf. Investigating, he finds more hordes of rats in the basement. He orders Joan to leave and locks the door behind her. Willard offers Ben and the rats food, which he mixes with pesticide. Ben sniffs the pesticide box and squeals loudly, alerting the others. Willard chases Ben upstairs, cornering him in a storage room. He barricades the door against the other rats, leaving Ben to face him alone. While Ben eludes Willard's attacks, the rats gnaw through the door. Willard shouts, "I was good to you, Ben!" before the rats start to jump on him. Overwhelmed, Willard succumbs to the attack.
Filming took place in the summer of 1970, and the movie's credits list 1970 for the copyright; the film premiered in February 1971. [4]
The film earned rentals of $9.25 million. [5]
The film-review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 52%, based on 23 reviews, with a rating average of 5.6/10. The critical consensus reads: "Willard has an intriguing character study lurking within – but much of those elements, like many of the movie's characters, are swallowed up by rats". [6]
Vincent Canby of The New York Times dismissed the film as "a dull movie of no major consequence", with the rats "no more scary than fat, friendly hamsters, except for one or two shots when they are seen by the hundreds — and hundreds of anything might be a scary sight, even hundreds of bishops". [7] Variety said: "Neat little horror tale...some good jump moments, at least two stomach-churning murders committed by the rats, and superior production values with tight direction of Daniel Mann develop pic into sound nail-chewer". [8] Roger Ebert gave the film 2 out of 4 stars. [9] Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune also gave the film 2 out of 4 stars and wrote that although it "will have you keeping your feet up off the theater floor, Daniel Mann's slow direction will lower your eyelids. The acting credits, however, are top notch". [10] Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times wrote that "one could not ask for a more satisfying yet less pretentious hot weather suspense-horror entertainment. With its disturbed young hero, crumbling old mansion and macabre developments it immediately brings to mind Psycho . The more apt comparison, however, is with that much-cherished English comedy of some years back, The Green Man , in which Alastair Sim (at his drollest) went around blowing up a series of troublesome types". [11] Tom Milne of The Monthly Film Bulletin thought that the rats were "so well-mannered and prettily groomed that they are more likely to elicit coos of delight than shudders of fear...when the horrors do come, they are very tame indeed: not one single shot to match the chilling menace dispensed by the brooding crows in The Birds or the prowling felines in Eye of the Cat . Instead, Daniel Mann settles for facile effects, like the cut-in shot of rats tearing at a piece of raw meat while they are supposedly demolishing Ernest Borgnine, and gradually drives what might have been an unusually intriguing horror film pretty much into the ground". [12] Leonard Maltin gave the film 2 out of 4 stars in his annual home video guide, writing: "Touching story of a boy and his rats captured public's fancy at the box office, but [the] film's lack of style prevents it from being anything more than a second-rate thriller". [13]
Ben the rat won a PATSY Award as the best animal performer in a feature film for 1971. [14]
This section needs additional citations for verification .(January 2021) |
Elsa Sullivan Lanchester was a British actress with a long career in theatre, film and television.
Leonard Michael Maltin is an American film critic, film historian, and author. He is known for his book of film capsule reviews, Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide, published from 1969 to 2014. Maltin was the film critic on Entertainment Tonight from 1982 to 2010. He currently teaches at the USC School of Cinematic Arts and hosts the weekly podcast Maltin on Movies. He served two terms as President of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, and votes for films to be selected for the National Film Registry.
James Edmund Caan was an American actor. He came to prominence playing Sonny Corleone in The Godfather (1972) – a performance that earned him Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for Best Supporting Actor. He reprised his role in The Godfather Part II (1974). He received a motion-picture star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1978.
Bruce Allen Davison is an American actor who has appeared in more than 270 films, television and stage productions since his debut in 1968. His breakthrough role was as Willard Stiles in the 1971 cult horror film Willard. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, and won a Golden Globe Award and an Independent Spirit Award for his performance in Longtime Companion (1989).
Willard is a 2003 American psychological horror film written and directed by Glen Morgan and starring Crispin Glover, R. Lee Ermey and Laura Elena Harring. It is loosely based on the novel Ratman's Notebooks by Stephen Gilbert, as well as on the novel's first film adaptation, Willard (1971), and its sequel, Ben (1972). It was not billed as a remake by the producers, who chose instead to present it as a reworking of the themes from the original with a stronger focus on suspense.
Boogeyman is a 2005 supernatural horror film directed by Stephen Kay and starring Barry Watson, Emily Deschanel, Skye McCole Bartusiak, Tory Mussett, Charles Mesure, and Lucy Lawless. Written by Eric Kripke, Juliet Snowden, and Stiles White, from a story by Kripke, the film is a new take on the classic "boogeyman", or monster in the closet, who is the eponymous antagonist of the film. The plot concerns a young man, Tim Jensen, who must confront the childhood terror that has affected his life.
Gilbert Alexander Ralston was a British-American screenwriter, journalist and author. He was a television producer in the 1950s and a screenwriter in the 1960s. He created the television series The Wild Wild West and wrote scripts for Star Trek, Gunsmoke, Ben Casey, I Spy, Hawaii Five-O and Naked City. He wrote the screenplay for the 1971 movie Willard, which was based on the 1968 novel Ratman's Notebooks written by Stephen Gilbert.
Nosferatu the Vampyre is a 1979 gothic horror film written and directed by Werner Herzog. It is set primarily in 19th-century Wismar, Germany and Transylvania, and was conceived as a stylistic adaptation of Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula, taking the title, setting and titular character's design from F. W. Murnau's 1922 film Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror. The picture stars Klaus Kinski as Count Dracula, Isabelle Adjani as Lucy Harker, Bruno Ganz as Jonathan Harker, and French artist-writer Roland Topor as Renfield. There are two different versions of the film, one in which the actors speak English, and one in which they speak German.
Ben is a 1972 American horror film directed by Phil Karlson and starring Lee Montgomery, Joseph Campanella, and Arthur O'Connell. It is a sequel to the film Willard (1971). The film follows a lonely boy named Danny Garrison who befriends Willard's former pet rat named Ben. Ben becomes the boy's best friend, protecting him from bullying and keeping his spirits up in the face of a heart condition. However, Ben forms an army of deadly rodents while the police attempt to control it.
The Devil's Rain is a 1975 supernatural horror film directed by Robert Fuest. The ensemble cast includes William Shatner, Tom Skerritt, Ernest Borgnine, Eddie Albert, Ida Lupino and Keenan Wynn. John Travolta made his film debut in a minor role. During filming, Travolta converted to the Scientology religion after co-star Joan Prather gave him a copy of the book Dianetics written by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. Satanist Anton LaVey is credited as the film's technical advisor and appeared in the film playing a minor role. Although it takes place in an unspecified part of the American Southwest, the movie was shot in Durango, Mexico.
Return of the Fly is a 1959 American horror science-fiction film and sequel to The Fly (1958). It is the second installment in The Fly film series. It was released in 1959 as a double feature with The Alligator People. It was directed by Edward Bernds. Unlike the previous film, Return of the Fly was shot in black and white.
Father's Little Dividend is a 1951 American comedy film directed by Vincente Minnelli and starring Spencer Tracy, Joan Bennett, and Elizabeth Taylor. The movie is the sequel to Father of the Bride.
House of Horrors is a 1946 American horror film released by Universal Pictures, starring Rondo Hatton, Martin Kosleck and Robert Lowery. The screenplay was by George Bricker from an original story by Dwight V. Babcock. A sculptor enlists the assistance of a madman to kill his critics.
The Cat in the Hat is a 2003 American fantasy comedy film directed by Bo Welch in his directorial debut and written by Alec Berg, David Mandel and Jeff Schaffer. Loosely based on Dr. Seuss's 1957 book of the same name, it was the second and final live-action Dr. Seuss adaptation after How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000). The film stars Mike Myers in the title role along with Alec Baldwin, Kelly Preston, Dakota Fanning, Spencer Breslin, Amy Hill and Sean Hayes in supporting roles.
Ratman's Notebooks is a 1968 short horror novel by Stephen Gilbert. It features an unnamed social misfit who relates better to rats than to humans. It was the basis for the 1971 film Willard, its 1972 sequel Ben, and the 2003 remake of the original film. After the release of the original film, the book was re-released and re-titled Willard.
Fade to Black is a 1980 American psychological horror comedy film written and directed by Vernon Zimmerman, and starring Dennis Christopher, Eve Brent and Linda Kerridge. It also features Mickey Rourke and Peter Horton in minor roles. The plot follows a shy and lonely cinephile who embarks on a killing spree against his oppressors while impersonating classic film characters.
I Drink Your Blood is a 1971 American hippie exploitation horror film written and directed by David E. Durston, produced by Jerry Gross, and starring Bhaskar Roy Chowdhury, Jadine Wong, and Lynn Lowry. The film centers on a small town that is overrun by rabies-infected members of a Satanic hippie cult after a revenge plot goes horribly wrong.
Fright is a 1971 British thriller film starring Susan George, Ian Bannen, Honor Blackman, and John Gregson. The film follows a babysitter who is terrorized one evening by her employer's deranged ex-husband. Its original working titles were The Baby Minder and Girl in the Dark before it was titled Fright. It is said by many horror fans and commentators to be one of or even the first film in which an isolated babysitter is stalked by an unrelenting and psychopathic antagonist, rendering it the forerunner of dozens of movies to use similar premises over the following decades.
The Revengers is a 1972 Western film written by Wendell Mayes based upon a story by Steven W. Carabatsos. The film was directed by Daniel Mann and stars William Holden and Ernest Borgnine.
Stephen Gilbert was a Northern Irish author. On the strength of his early novels in the 1940s, Gilbert was accounted by E. M. Forster as "a writer of distinction", but he is chiefly remembered as the author of Ratman's Notebooks (1968) which sold over 1 million copies and was twice made into a horror film named Willard in the United States.