Targets (1968)

Director:

Peter Bogdanovich

Writers:

Peter Bogdanovich (screenplay)
Polly Platt (story) ...
(more)

Release Date:

15 August 1968 (USA)

Genre:

Horror | 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 | Delivery Boy | High Powered Rifle | Dead Woman On Ground

Cast

Tim O'Kelly	...	Bobby Thompson
Boris Karloff	...	Byron Orlok
Arthur Peterson	...	Ed Loughlin
Monte Landis	...	Marshall Smith (as Monty Landis)
Nancy Hsueh	...	Jenny
Peter Bogdanovich	...	Sammy Michaels
Daniel Ades	...	Chauffeur
Stafford Morgan	...	Salesman - 1st Gunshop
James Brown	...	Robert Thompson Sr.
Mary Jackson	...	Charlotte Thompson
Tanya Morgan	...	Ilene Thompson
Timothy Burns	...	Waiter (as Tim Burns)
Warren White	...	Grocery Boy
Mark Dennis	...	Salesman - 2nd Gunshop
Sandy Baron	...	Kip Larkin
Geraldine Baron	...	Larkin's Girl
Gary Kent	...	Gas Tank Worker
Ellie Wood Walker	...	Woman on Freeway
Frank Marshall	...	Ticket Boy
Byron Betz	...	Projectionist
Paul Condylis	...	Drive-In Manager
Mike Farrell	...	Man in Phonebooth
Carol Samuels	...	Cashier
Jay Daniel	...	Snack Bar Attendant
James Morris	...	Man with Pistol
Elaine Partnow	...	Other at the Drive-In
Pete Belcher	...	Other at the Drive-In
James Bowie	...	Other at the Drive-In
Anita Poree	...	Other at the Drive-In
Robert Cleaves	...	Other at the Drive-In
Kay Douglas	...	Other at the Drive-In
Raymond Roy	...	Other at the Drive-In
Diana Ashley	...	Other at the Drive-In
Kirk Scott	...	Other at the Drive-In
Susan Douglas Rubes	...	Other at the Drive-In (as Susan Douglas)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Jay Daniel	...	Snack Bar Attendant (uncredited)
Git Luboviski	...	Woman in Car at Drive-In (uncredited)
Milton Luboviski	...	Man in Car at Drive-In (uncredited)
Don Steele	...	Deejay on Radio (voice) (uncredited)

Directed by
Peter Bogdanovich

Writing credits
Peter Bogdanovich		(screenplay)
Polly Platt		(story) and
Peter Bogdanovich		(story)
Samuel Fuller		co-screenwriter (uncredited)

Produced by
Peter Bogdanovich	....	producer
Daniel Selznick	....	associate producer
Roger Corman	....	executive producer (uncredited)

Cinematography by
László Kovács		(director of photography) (as Laszlo Kovacs)

Film Editing by
Peter Bogdanovich		(uncredited)

Production Design by
Polly Platt

Costume Design by
Polly Platt		(uncredited)

Makeup Department
Scott Hamilton	....	makeup

Production Management
Paul Lewis	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Gilles de Turenne	....	assistant director (as Gilles De Turenne)

Art Department
James Campbell	....	properties
Scott Fitzgerald	....	assistant art director

Sound Department
Verna Fields	....	sound editor
Sam Kopetzky	....	sound

Special Effects by
Gary Kent	....	special effects (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Richmond L. Aguilar	....	gaffer (as Richmond Aguilar)
Tom Ramsey	....	key grip
Peter Sorel	....	assistant cameraman
Bill Pecchi	....	grip (uncredited)

Editorial Department
Mae Woods	....	editorial assistant

Music Department
Charles Greene	....	producer: radio music
Brian Stone	....	producer: radio music

Other crew
Joyce King	....	continuity
Frank Marshall	....	assistant to the director
James Morris	....	production assistant

Production Companies

• Saticoy Productions (as A Saticoy Production)

Distributors

• Paramount Pictures (1968) (USA) (theatrical) (as Paramount) (A Gulf+Western Company)
• Terminal Video (2013) (Italy) (DVD)
• Obelisk Film (1974) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• Paramount Gateway Video (1982) (USA) (VHS) (panand scan for Paramount Home Video)
• Paramount Home Video (2003) (USA) (DVD) (widescreen)
• Paramount Filmes do Brasil (2004) (Brazil) (DVD)

Other Companies

• Cinema Research  titles
• Columbia Pictures Corporation  we thank: for permission to use a sequence from Howard Hawks' "The Criminal Code"
• Ryder Sound Services  re-recording (as Ryder Sound Service)

Also Known As:

MPAA:

Rated R for violent content (re-rating) (2002)

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Pathécolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Norway:16 (1969) | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | USA:R (original rating) (PCA #21904) | USA:GP (cut version) (1971) | USA:R (re-rating) (2002) | Singapore:PG | Argentina:13 | Finland:K-18 (1970) | West Germany:18 (nf) | Brazil:14 | USA:TV-PG (TV rating)

Filming Locations:

Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Saticoy Productions

Trivia:

Peter Bogdanovich planned to have Boris Karloff actually appear in the film for about 20 minutes with two days of filming, and have the stock footage from The Terror (1963) add another 20 minutes of screen time for Karloff. In the final movie, Karloff is actually on screen (not counting the scenes from "The Terror") for about 30 minutes and shot all his scenes in five days.

Goofs:

Continuity: Exterior of Thompson home does not match layout of interior sets. When Bobby pulls up in front of house, front door is set flush in a wall that runs entire length of building; yet when he enters, there is windowed wall that runs along right side of entry hall that could not possibly coexist with exterior.

Quotes:

Kip Larkin, Dejay:OK, groovy, groovy. Now, um, somebody announces me on the PA, uh, laddies and janes, papas and mamas, here's your boss dis daddy, the winner spinner with the sounds around, Kip the Hip Larkin, le-e-t's hearken Larkin...
Sammy Michaels:All right then, after you finish plugging your show you introduce Mr. Orlok and we can get on with it.
Kip Larkin, Dejay:No plugs, not Kip the Hip, I am just gonna tell 'em what a big thrill this is for me, and that's no put-on. When I was a kid, Mr. O., I musta dug your flicks four zillion times. You blew my mind.
[...]

Movie Connections:

References Blow-Up (1966)

Peter Bogdanovich's debut is his greatest film!

This small in budget, huge in talent picture had the terrible timing of being completed before, but released after Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy Sr. were assassinated. The toll those two events had in 1968 almost guaranteed "Targets" would never be seen by audiences that could watch Tim O'Kelly and keep his character in mind as a Charles Whitman figure rather than a politically motivated gunman. Bogdanovich's first directing turn also marked the swan song of Boris Karloff. The two of them together were a dynamite pairing and it's a shame we didn't get more from this movie loving duo.

Clips from Roger Corman's "The Terror" (with Karloff and a really young Jack Nicholson) are strategically inserted, as Boris plays an actor who's synonymous with big screen terror. And as his career is winding down, the changes frightening him in society are not costumes, on the lot sets and ghoulish cosmetics, but real human monsters who destroy any remaining sense of safety in the world with high powered rifles and other firearms. His Byron Orlok is an old man who knows his time is short and makes the most of each day he continues to live. Bogdanovich's Sammy is in awe of the legend, while most of the industry hustlers Byron has to deal with are only interested in the hype and money.

Enter Tim O'Kelly and his family. The parents are salt of the earth types and Tim's wife is his rock. Then why does this clean cut young man in his twenties during the era of the love generation look and feel so out of step with modern life? We'll never really know. Those mass murderers in the making only reveal certain key clues when it's too late to stop their plans.

Sam Fuller provided help, whipping the script into shape, as the director acknowledges in his commentary. It's better that those wanting to see this smaller, quiet film not know all of it's plot. Calling a story with much gunfire "quiet" is peculiar, but the sound editing of Verna Fields is the unsung hero of "Targets", where the bursts of lethal noise alternate with a serene soundtrack stripped down to not too much era music (Bogdanovich had a handful of obscure 60's tunes to sparingly use) and, thankfully, none of the din cluttering most 21st century movies, letting us hear the full tones of each person's voice sans cranked up score and effects.

"Targets" is a terrific and overlooked time capsule from an era before school shootings were an almost weekly event in the news and when there seemed to be a solution for ending violence in our future. It's an almost quaint trip back inside a cautious sense of optimism we'll not share again.