The Resurrection of Zachary Wheeler (1971)

One of my all time favorites.

Good concept, poorly executed.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

THE RESURRECTION OF ZACHARY WHEELER is a weird little sci fi movie most probably forgotten by today's audiences. Certainly the low budget of the thing is off-putting, but if you can overcome the film's deficiencies then you might just enjoy it nonetheless. This is a fun little cloning thriller that plays out with the same kind of verve as a Michael Crichton film or the likes of THE CHINA SYNDROME.Leslie Nielsen stars in the straight role of a reporter who witnesses a politician being mortally injured in a car accident. Before long the whole thing is hushed up, so he takes it upon himself to investigate and uncover the truth, which is that the government have begun a cloning scheme in order to harvest spare parts. There are a few chase scenes here, alongside some moments involving people in dodgy blue make up, and it's all very limited. But the film covers the same paranoid government conspiracy ground as many a '70s thriller, and Nielsen gives a solid performance as the lead. Bradford Dillman and Angie Dickinson play in support.

TV reporter Harry Welsh happens to be a witness to a car accident involving the US Senator Clayton Zachary Wheeler. Welsh see this as a good news story, but after taking him to the hospital and getting ready to broadcast it. The senator has suddenly disappeared and has been taken away to a secret hospital in New Mexico. No one believes Welsh and for not detracting his bulletin he is fired, as news came in that the Senator was on a fishing trip. So decides to go ahead and investigate, because he knows that it was the senator he saw half-dead in the car crash. When Wheeler finally comes around, he learns of the new medical technology governed by an elite group, which involves cloning people, and using these identical (but empty) vessels to harvest the organs for important transplants.What a cheap little unknown gem! I picked up the video at a pawnshop, and when I decided to give it a look. To my surprise the video was still in its packaging, despite the video cases roughed up look. Before the likes of some medical thrillers involving Michael Crichton's "Coma (1978)" and such, this one does seem way before its time and a blue print for those paranoia medical thrillers. The concept behind the film definitely stands up more so today, because of touchy issue of stem cell research. For such low budget restraints it relies more so on story telling by developing a riveting mystery, clever ideas and moody characters. While the action here is very little and extremely dry, it doesn't foil some well placed tension that's sustained by such simple diversions (like fleeing) then anything explosive. On show are raw camera-work and quite a distant, but more often an energetic and high pitch music score that resembled that the golden age of cinema. Make-up for the clones was well conceived and they did provide some startling images. Pacing can get rather stodgy and you call it a rather colourless display, but where it mostly counts, Director Bob Wynn and co have done a fine job with what they had to work with here. At least when it does slow down it gets straight back into it.The technically well-defined script (that dabs in a touch of sharp wit) goes into thorough detail about the ethics of such power governed by political influence. Where this technology can easily be corrupted and how life is a privilege, where everybody deserves a choice. No matter if these clones can't think on their own behalf, they still can breath, which counts for something. While extremely chatty, they're just so many interesting facets, conspiracies and questions in this thought-provoking material. It could have turn into a shoddy and daftly mess, but the theories thrown up are plausibly integrated. After thinking it might lead to something big. It pretty much leaves you in an insecure state (as there's no real conclusion), which can annoy if you're looking for answers. The performances aren't anything special and for some could be too blunt, but I thought Leslie Nielsen in the lead as Harry Welsh gave in a focused and likable turn. Bradford Dillman as Senator Wheeler, Angie Dickinson as Dr Diana Johnson and James Daly as Dr Redding were more than reasonable.At best it's conventional film-making, which simply sticks to its strengths.

This film did remind me of the kinds of ideas in Crichton's novels - especially his early medical fiction. Who would have guessed that a now-forgotten low-budget B-movie would actually end up more timely almost 40 years after its original release? I don't know of any earlier film treatments of the subject of cloning than this film - I really wonder what audiences thought when this first came out, as the plot line of the film must have seemed really wild back then. I don't particularly care for remakes - especially of good movies like this - but now would be a terrific time for a remake of this story, possibly with a better budget. As it is, the film stretches its budget pretty well, but I would have appreciated greater attention to the scientific aspects of the cloning (possibly with some special effects). Additionally, because all of the real-life politicians seem to be weighing in on the stem cell and medical ethics issues, the political aspects of the story would fit perfectly into a remake, where they could be fleshed out in greater detail. I guess this movie just has me thinking more of what it could have been than what it is. On its own level, it is a surprisingly thoughtful low-budget film that concentrates on ideas, rather than action. For that, it is well worth searching out.On a final note, it has a ridiculous non-sequitur ending that had me giggling, but the ending seems to fit a cheap movie like this, whose filmmakers certainly couldn't afford a lot of explosions and gunfights .

Elements of COMA and THE SIXTH DAY here, basically the moral, social and scientific implications behind cloning. Perhaps even more relevant today given the arguments being bandied about in the public forum for and against stem-cell research.Dying Senator Zachary Wheeler is whisked into a government-funded and hushed-up medical facility in "no questions asked" Mexico for "treatment." Reporter Nielsen smells a story - the "scoop" of the century as it turns out!Without giving too much away, the basic premise turns out to be assembly-line cloning for random organ donation or whatever spare parts are needed - remarkably similar in ethical background to the entire stem-cell debate.Thinking persons' sci-fi.