Targets (1968)

User Rating:

7.5/10   

Director:

Peter Bogdanovich

Writers:

Polly Platt (story) and
Peter Bogdanovich (story) ...

Release Date:

15 August 1968 (USA)

Genre:

Thriller

Tagline:

TARGETS are people...and you could be one of them!

Plot:

Elderly horror-film star who, while making a personal appearance at a drive-in theater, confronts a psychotic Vietnam veteran who's turned into a mass-murdering sniper.

Plot Keywords:

Drive In | Sniper | Mass Murderer | High Powered Rifle | Projectionist

Cast

Tim O'Kelly	...	Bobby Thompson
Boris Karloff	...	Byron Orlok
Arthur Peterson	...	Ed Loughlin
Monte Landis	...	Marshall Smith (as Monty Landis)
Nancy Hsueh	...	Jenny, Orlock's Secretary
Peter Bogdanovich	...	Sammy Michaels, Director
Daniel Ades	...	Ludlum the Chauffeur
Stafford Morgan	...	Salesman (first gunshop) (Brass Rail)
James Brown	...	Robert Thompson, Sr.
Mary Jackson	...	Charlotte Thompson
Tanya Morgan	...	Ilene Thompson, Bobby's Wife
Timothy Burns	...	Room Service Waiter (as Tim Burns)
Warren White	...	Grocery boy
Mark Dennis	...	Ray, Salesman (second gunshop)
Sandy Baron	...	Kip Larkin, Dejay

Also Known As:

Before I Die

MPAA:

Rated R for violent content. (previously rated GP and R)

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Pathécolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Argentina:13 | Finland:K-18 (1970) | West Germany:18 (nf) | Brazil:14 | Norway:16 (1969) | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | USA:GP (cut version) (1971) | USA:R (original rating) | USA:R (re-rating) (2002) | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Saticoy Productions

Trivia:

The story Orlock tells of the servant fleeing death is W. Somerset Maugham's short story "The Appointment in Samarra."

Goofs:

Continuity: When Bobby comes home he parks his convertible Ford Mustang on the street. After being in the house all afternoon Bobby goes to retrieve a firearm from the Mustang's trunk and we see the Mustang is now sitting in the driveway.

Quotes:

Jenny: You really are in a foul mood.
Byron Orlok: Not at all. I'm just tired of your baleful looks.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Flight of Black Angel (1991) (TV)

Way ahead of its time . . .

Not a great film, but a very interesting one. I don't know of many movies that even attempt to talk about the relation between fictionalized film terror and real life horrors, but Targets tackles this difficult topic without overstating its point of view. Karloff as an aging horror actor gives one of the best performances of his career. It's also interesting to see a film with ambitions shot in "Corman time." Many of the shots appear to be single takes with actors slightly blowing their lines, camera cues almost accidental, and sets practically nil in their design. This adds to the sense of documentary that pervades the film. Use of sound is very effective and prefigures later films by people like Altman -- background voices and noise are used to great effect. PatheColor has never looked better -- its garish intensities add to the sense of a true 20th Century wasteland that can produce a casual killer like the film's smiling protagonist. Addressing issues that are more powerful today than when the film was made, Targets is a wildly ambitious take on modern life, a great coda to Karloff's career, and a vital interface between B movies and independent cinema.