Written by / 6/13/2022 / No comments / , , , , , , , , , , , ,

WILLIAM SHATNER & ANDY GRIFFITH IN 'PRAY FOR THE WILDCATS'

Title: PRAY FOR THE WILDCATS Year: 1974 Rating: ***1/2

One of many Hollywood morality-tales against corporate competition, which ironically keeps showbiz going, and, combining the counter-culture biker flick era with city-guys-out-of-their-element DELIVERANCE, what's really behind PRAY FOR THE WILDCATS is a kind of DEATH OF A SALESMAN character in William Shatner, semi-fired from an advertising agency, and whose only chance is relying on bigwig client Andy Griffith...

Famous for playing a good guy on television... which also includes THE BRADY BUNCH Robert Reed and of course Shatner from STAR TREK (clad in familiar Starfleet-yellow) with Marjoe Gortner as the token youngster... there's more than a dash of Griffith's intimidating FACE IN THE CROWD persona... 

William Shatner and Andy Griffith in PRAY FOR THE WILDCATS

The opposite of Shatner, who's our affable buried lead playing a decade older, he's the most reluctant of the three, all practically forced to go on a dirt bike excursion into the desert wilds of Baja, California...

And there's domestic trouble-in-false-paradise back home, which is the primary flaw for WILDCATS including contrived, melodramatic voice-overs from scenes that occurred fifteen minutes earlier, and particularly the sporadic b-stories involving troubled, nagging, soap-operatic wives...

William Shatner in PRAY FOR THE WILDCATS with Robert Reed

From Angie Dickinson (who cheated on Reed with Shatner) to old-school housewife Lorraine Gary (Shatner's) to Gortner's pseudo-progressive girlfriend in Janet Margolin, this could've been an otherwise tightly-wound survival thriller (including the pivotal roundabout death of two hippies) without cutting back and forth from the gritty desert exterior to bland suburban-set interiors...

As if WILDCATS was catered mostly for a mainstream television audience, blunting genuine risks that the men-in-peril story promises, and yet, the entertainment value of an ABC Movie-of-the-Week is ever-present, and you'll want to see just how far Griffith will take things... if only he had the chance to escalate into a nefarious businessman's EASY RIDER than being too quickly hindered by Shatner's BORN TO BE MILD moral compass.

From PRAY FOR THE WILDCATS
William Shatner and Robert Reed in PRAY FOR THE WILDCATS
Marjoe Gortner and Robert Reed in PRAY FOR THE WILDCATS
Marilyn Hearn in PRAY FOR THE WILDCATS
Andy Griffith and William Shatner in PRAY FOR THE WILDCATS
Marjoe Gortner and Robert Reed in PRAY FOR THE WILDCATS
From PRAY FOR THE WILDCATS
Robert Reed in PRAY FOR THE WILDCATS
William Shatner in PRAY FOR THE WILDCATS
Robert Burton in PRAY FOR THE WILDCATS
Robert Burton in PRAY FOR THE WILDCATS
William Shatner and Lorraine Gary in PRAY FOR THE WILDCATS
Janet Margolin in PRAY FOR THE WILDCATS
Robert Reed in PRAY FOR THE WILDCATS
Robert Reed in PRAY FOR THE WILDCATS with William Shatner
Marjoe Gortner in PRAY FOR THE WILDCATS with William Shatner
Andy Griffith in PRAY FOR THE WILDCATS with John Brascia
Marilyn Hearn and Robert Burton in PRAY FOR THE WILDCATS
Marilyn Hearn and Robert Burton in PRAY FOR THE WILDCATS
Marilyn Hearn and Andy Griffith in PRAY FOR THE WILDCATS
Marilyn Hearn and Andy Griffith in PRAY FOR THE WILDCATS
William Shatner in Star Trek yellow for PRAY FOR THE WILDCATS
Andy Griffith in PRAY FOR THE WILDCATS
Marilyn Hearn and Robert Burton in PRAY FOR THE WILDCATS
Marilyn Hearn and Robert Burton in PRAY FOR THE WILDCATS
Robert Reed and Star Trek-yellowed William Shatner in Pray for the Wildcats
KINO LORBER BLU RAY of PRAY FOR THE WILDCATS
Andy Griffith in PRAY FOR THE WILDCATS
Andy Griffith in PRAY FOR THE WILDCATS with John Brascia
William Shatner in PRAY FOR THE WILDCATS
Robert Reed in PRAY FOR THE WILDCATS
Angie Dickinson and Robert Reed in PRAY FOR THE WILDCATS
Andy Griffith in PRAY FOR THE WILDCATS

Share This Post :
Tags : , , , , , , , , , , , ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.

All Time Popular

Featured Post

NAKEDLY INGITING THE ANIMATED CULT CLASSIC 'HEAVY METAL'

Title: HEAVY METAL Year: 1981 Rating: **** The best two stories from HEAVY METAL... producer Ivan Reitman's animated/cartoon anthology w...

WWW.CULTFILMFREAKS.COM

WWW.CULTFILMFREAKS.COM
Movie Reviews, Interviews, Articles and Pop Culture from White Heat to Blue City

RIP ACTOR KEN HUTCHISON

TOTAL HITS

Popular Trending

FOUNDED BY JAMES M. TATE

FOUNDED BY JAMES M. TATE
RANDOM QUOTE: "Ruthlessly, killingly beautiful." Gene Tierney, Scruples

FILM NOIR & NEO NOIR CRIME

FAVORITES SHORTLIST

1)OTLEY 2)HELL IS A CITY 3)ROBBERY 4)THE FEARMAKERS 5)CANYON PASSAGE 6)VIOLENT SATURDAY 7)HOT CARS 8)JUNGLE STREET 9)THE CROWDED SKY 10)THE ROARING TWENTIES 11) ANATOMY OF A MURDER 12)WHITE LIGHTNING 13)SWEENEY TWO 14)RAIDERS FROM BENEATH THE SEA 15)HARDCORE 16)THE BREAK 17)WHITE HEAT 18)AL CAPONE 19)HIDDEN FEAR 20)FALLEN ANGEL 21)SHARKS' TREASURE 22)THE ASPHALT JUNGLE 23)ASH WEDNESDAY 24)THE SYSTEM 25)AIR PATROL 26)THE STONE KILLER 27)SANDS OF THE KALAHARI 28)WILLIAM CONRAD'S BRAINSTORM 29)IMPASSE 30)THE MAN FROM LARAMIE FAVORITE ACTORS 1)DANA ANDREWS 2)JAMES CAGNEY 3)STANLEY BAKER 4)MARLON BRANDO 5)JACK NICHOLSON 6) CHARLES BRONSON 7)BURT REYNOLDS 8)WILLIAM LUCAS 9)TOM COURTENAY 10)GENE HACKMAN DIRECTORS 1)JACQUES TOURNEUR 2)RICHARD FLEISCHER 3)VAL GUEST 4)STANLEY KUBRICK 5)OTTO PREMINGER 6)ORSON WELLES 7)JOHN GUILLERMAN 8)JOHN LANDIS 9)JOHN CARPENTER 10)MICHAEL WINNER

BRITISH NEW WAVE CINEMA

RARITIES AND EXPLOITATION

HAMMER HORROR & THRILLER

Popular This Month

CHARLES BRONSON CINEMA

CINEMA OF DANA ANDREWS

WESTERN GENRE REVIEWS

PEAKING INTO THE SIXTIES

KICKING IN THE EIGHTIES

TALES AND REFLECTIONS

REVVING THE SEVENTIES

CINEMA OF BURT REYNOLDS

Most Popular Last Year