The Girl Hunters (1963)

User Rating:

5.6/10   

Director:

Roy Rowland

Writers:

Robert Fellows (writer)
Roy Rowland (writer)

Release Date:

June 1963 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

Trapped in the quicksand of love...Caught up in a nightmare of murder and intrigue!

Plot Keywords:

Police Brutality | Shower | Swimming Pool | Murder | Beautiful Woman

Cast

Mickey Spillane	...	Mike Hammer
Shirley Eaton	...	Laura Knapp
Scott Peters	...	Police Captain Pat Chambers
Guy Kingsley Poynter	...	Dr. Larry Snyder
James Dyrenforth	...	Bayliss Henry
Charles Farrell	...	Joe Grissi
Kim Tracy	...	Nurse
Hy Gardner	...	Himself - the Columnist
Lloyd Nolan	...	Federal Agent Arthur Rickerby
Benny Lee	...	Nat Drutman
Murray Kash	...	Richie Cole
Bill Nagy	...	Georgie
Clive Endersby	...	Duck-Duck
Ricardo Montez	...	Skinny Guy (as Richard Montez)
Larry Cross	...	Red Markham

Runtime:

98 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono | Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Norway:16 | Australia:M (2007) | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | UK:A (original rating) | UK:12 (DVD rating)

Company:

Fellane

Quotes:

Mike Hammer: ...Rickety
Art Rickerby: That's Rickerby.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Collateral Damage (2002)

Worth watching for one reason: it's hilariously bad

You know the moment in "The Producers" when the Broadway theatre audience sits stupefied by the unbelievable awfulness of what they're seeing? I watched most of "The Girl Hunters" with a similar slack-jawed, eye-popping expression.

The ultimate vanity project, in which Mickey Spillane stars as his own ultra-macho detective, Mike Hammer. And, he's miscast! He can't act, can barely deliver his own awful dialogue, and is laughably terrible throughout the movie.

Even better, Mickey cast his also-can't-act pals in supporting roles. The tabloid columnist Hy Gardner never met a line of dialogue he couldn't butcher. Lloyd Nolan phones it in, looking like he's ready for the laxative commercials he would soon be doing. And then there are the assorted slabs of beef who pound Hammer and get pounded by him, in the trademark sadomasochistic Spillane style.

Of course he gets the girl (Shirley Eaton!!!). In fact, the most unwatchable shot in the whole movie is the slow track to a closeup of their mouths as they make out for the first time. I dare you not to blink.

And then there's the music! Laid on with a trowel, it's the same over-orchestrated catchy trumpet blues riff repeated a hundred times, usually crescendoing over a meaningless shot of Hammer walking down a hall, or driving up a road, punctuating exactly the wrong moments in a film that's just chock full of 'em.

Only 103 minutes, but I would have guessed two hours. Grill a steak, pour a scotch, fire up a cancer stick, and don't miss it!!