Daddy's Gone A-Hunting (1969)

Simply Perfect

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

This film is like a fun bad TV movie. It has a thrilling story but the film is marred by the stale performances by the lead actors. If you've never heard of Carol White it's no wonder. She is sweet but gives her part no energy. Her line readings are flat and don't add any life at all to this thriller. She looks like a bargain basement copy of Julie Christie but with out the charm. This seemed to be her big break in Hollywood after having had some success in England. Here she displays why there was no reason she would ever become a star. Why was she cast in this? There must have been countless other actresses who could have brought some fury to character. This part required a bit of madness and Carol was just too ordinary to deliver. But I suppose a film featuring abortion was a sensitive subject then and perhaps bigger stars did not dare take the part.The early scenes of the film seem contrived and trite when the characters meet. The changes that show time progressing are quite corny and dated but the late sixties fashions are cool. Carol White, though, looks short with that heavy hair-do which gives the impression that she has no neck. The film picks up after the dreary first half. There are some neat twists and turns that keep this film from being totally forgotten. The ending is exciting even though the lead actors don't show any tension in their performances. You can't tell if Carol White is terrified or ready to do anything to help her baby. Her character goes to great lengths plot wise but you could never tell by looking at her face. So, over all it's fun and chilling thriller thanks to the plot but not the actors.

After the man she's been seeing turns out to be mentally (and financially) unstable, Cathy aborts his baby and moves on with her life. She eventually marries a political hopeful and once again finds herself pregnant. While shopping for a crib, she sees her former flame, Kenneth, working as a department store Santa. He spots her too, but the real bad news for Cathy is that he notices she's carrying another child. Bad news for her and her baby, but would Kenneth resort to killing a child as vengeance for the death of his own?Mark Robson (The Seventh Victim, Valley of the Dolls) directs this morbid little gem, a film with some rather potent subject matter, particularly for the time it was made. Melding the incredibly touchy subject of abortion with a psycho-suspense storyline, Robson crafts an effective film full of bizarre mood and situations. As Cathy becomes more and more guilty over what she did, we see how it works into her psyche, and images as simple as toys yapping on a table take on a rather perverse feeling that gets under the viewer's skin. Robson knows how to utilize such elements to their maximum effect, though never in an overly graphic manner. The use of subtlety and implied horror goes a long way here.As Kenneth, Scott Hylands is one of the creepiest nutcases you'll see. He has the most unnerving eyes, and a rather blank glare that truly makes one feel uncomfortable. The scene where he learns of the abortion is downright chilling. He puts Cathy through some real psychological torment, one of the standout moments being a nasty surprise he leaves under her car. Carol White plays Cathy, and she's fine in the role, but I find her character to be quite unlikable due to her incessant bitchiness.This is a great film, well acted, well directed... The climax is quite thrilling as well. This is not your typical psycho story, and it is really quite unique in it's storytelling. Disturbing and effective, I highly recommend this one.

I hardly see how this qualifies as an endorsement of right-to-life politics. Apart from very superficial charm, the father (Kenneth) has no redeeming features whatsoever and, on top of that, he goes out of his way to menace the baby Cathy has with her husband. In fact, early in the picture (during the oh-so-mechanical exposition setting up the "thriller" part of the movie), she seems reluctant to have the abortion and willing to go home to London, presumably to have the baby there and raise him/her with the help of family. It's only AFTER Kenneth learns about the baby, proposes to Cathy, is rejected by her, slaps her across the face in public and threatens to stalk both her and his child-to-be that she decides to have the abortion, presumably to get Kenneth out of her life once and for all. The abortion sequence itself doesn't show much, but it's hardly glamorized as a "choice." If anything, the movie makes it clear why many women have abortions because that "choice" is the best one among a series of bad ones.The abortion angle in the plot, however (pre Roe v. Wade), is one of the movie's few really interested angles (as well as the use of San Francisco as a backdrop).

I suppose Right-to-Life supporters will find a workable premise in this film for their political agenda. Another reviewer has noted that and this requires no further comment. However, this film did stick in my mind after having seen in in '69. The only actor of note was Paul Burke who was the young cop in TV's Naked City. I found myself wondering who were Scott Hylands and Carol White? Truth is, after having refreshed my viewpoint visiting this site, I still bring up little memory of them beyond this film. The film itself is an interesting story of a young ne'er-do-well who lives on the edge (his only productive activity is trying to build a Rube Goldberg arrangement to condition his cat not to eat his bird) who gets dumped by his live-in love who aborts his kid. She goes on to marry Paul Burke, handsome, successful and our kinda guy. Later, the dumped boyfriend strangles the doctor (with his stethoscope, of course) and kidnaps the ex-girlfriendie's kid. It goes on from there with a decent thriller ending, showing that you don't mess with mothers. All in all, not a bad film for an evening's viewing, albeit I, like the first reviewer, have serious reservations about the mixed message of choices women make about their bodies. But, that's a discussion topic for another time and place...