Deliver Us from Evil (1973) (TV)

User Rating:

7.3/10   

Director:

Boris Sagal

Writer:

Jack B. Sowards (writer)

Release Date:

11 September 1973 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama

Plot:

Five men hiking in the mountains discover an injured skyjacker who parachuted from a plane with $600,000. They kill him, then start fighting each other over the money.

Plot Keywords:

Skyjacker | Blaxploitation | Hijack | Murder | Wilderness

Cast

George Kennedy	...	Walter 'Cowboy' McAdams
Jan-Michael Vincent	...	Nick Fleming
Bradford Dillman	...	Steven Dennis
Charles Aidman	...	Arnold Fleming
Jim Davis	...	Dixie
Jack Weston	...	Al Zabrocki
Allen Pinson	...	Skyjacker

Runtime:

75 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Playboy Productions

"Survivor" before there was "Survivor"

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

This was one of the first made-for-TV movies and it is a good one. A group of hikers hear on a radio about a skyjacker taking over an airplane and collecting a ransom. Soon thereafter they see a parachutist coming down in the mountains near them. When they run across a lone hiker, they chase him and one of the hikers shoots him to death. Sure enough, the lone hiker is the skyjacker and his backpack has $600,000.00 in it.

The group debates about what to do and decides to split the money and go home and say nothing. (Sort of a mountain version of "Deliverance"--of which it is certainly derivative--meets "A Simple Plan"). Of course along the way nature starts punishing them for their sins and the hikers face increasingly difficult obstacles which kill them off one by one until, crossing a glacier in a snow storm two of them abandon their packs heavy with money while the greediest stays behind, refusing to give up the money but being forced to try and burn it to keep from freezing to death.

George Kennedy, Bradford Dillman, Jack Weston and Jan-Michael Vincent all give good performances in this movie. "A Simple Plan" told a similar story but about 25 years after "Deliver Us From Evil" did but didn't necessarily tell the story any better. It is probably impossible to rent this movie and almost impossible to see it re-run on TV. That's a shame because it is worth watching.