GIRL HUNTERS
UK, 1963, 103 minutes, Black and white.
Mickey Spillane, Shirley Eaton, Lloyd Nolan.
Directed by Roy Rowland.
Girl Hunters is a Mickey Spillane- Mike Hammer story. Already Biff Elliott in I, the Jury and Ralph Meeker in Kiss Me Deadly portrayed Hammer in the '50s. Armand Assante portrayed him in the remake of I, the Jury and Stacey Keach portrayed Mike Hammer in the television series.
However, this is an opportunity to see Mickey Spillane himself portray his fiction hero. Spillane is stocky, sullen, an unglamorous private eye. The whole production, filmed in England, is B-budget: black and white photography (though Panavision) with English cast including Shirley Eaton (who was at the same time the Goldfinger girl) and Lloyd Nolan guest starring as a CIA agent.
The film is enjoyable enough in its blunt way - and has a particularly brutal ending. While it has the marks of the traditional private eye story, the plot focuses on international espionage and portrays the Soviet Union as the villain of the piece. This is in keeping with the atmosphere of the early '60s with the Berlin Wall, the Cuba missile crisis and the Bay of Pigs.
1. Entertaining Mickey Spillane thriller, Mike Hammer story, the American private eye? The Soviet Union as the overall villain of the early '60s?
2. Black and white photography, the use of Panavision, British production? B-budget production? Musical score and theme?
3. The title, the ironies?
4. Mickey Spillane as Mike Hammer: appearance, style? The booze, waking up, the antagonism to Chambers, Cole and the interview, the story about Velda, the bullets? The agent and the international espionage information? The contacts with Hy Gardener? The files? Explanations of what happened, the leads, Laura as the hostess, his infatuation with her, the bullets, the fights in the bar? Continual clashes with Chambers, the plan, the murders, the relationship with Laura? The information, the killer and his trail, the final fight, the brutality? The confrontation with Laura and her death with the rifle? Mike Hammer as the seedy private eye type? The techniques of the voice-over, seedy office, the loner?
5. The agent, his information, contacts with Hammer, identifying the conspiracy? In on the end?
6. Chambers, Velda, his hostility, bashing of Hammer? His help with the investigation?
7. Laura and her role, married to the senator, the hostess, sexy, the ingenuity with the rifle, the revelation of the truth, her being the spy, death by her own rifle?
8. The credibility of the red conspiracy, background in World War Two, the deaths of the chief, the senator? International agents?
9. International agents meet private eyes? Persuasive or not? An enjoyable Mickey Spillane thriller?
