Tue 19 Nov 2013
A Movie Review by Dan Stumpf: THE GIRL HUNTERS (1963).
Posted by Steve under Mystery movies , Reviews[8] Comments
THE GIRL HUNTERS. Colorama Features, 1963. Mickey Spillane (Mike Hammer), Shirley Eaton, Scott Peters, Guy Kingsley Poynter, James Dyrenforth, Charles Farrell, Kim Tracy, Hy Gardner, Lloyd Nolan. Based on the novel by Mickey Spillane. Director: Roy Rowland.
A film with credentials is The Girl Hunters, directed by Roy Rowland and co-written by Mickey Spillane who also portrays his own creation, Mike Hammer.
Casting-wise, this is just about plu-perfect. The ideal actor in a part that was (subconsciously, at least) written just for him, even by him. It’s like Onan Meets Pygmalion, and the fact that the rest of the film is somewhat routine cannot dim the brilliance of this concept.
For the record, The Girl Hunters deals with Mickey/Mike’s search for his missing-presumed-dead Girl Friday Velma, who disappeared years ago, turning the once-tough PI into a gutter-drunk . Which is where the story opens.
Two minutes later, M/M gets a clue that Velma may still be alive and he’s the Old Hammer once more. Clean and sober now (if still a little reminiscent of Thomas Hobbes’ description of Life — nasty, brutish and short), M/M becomes a trenchcoated juggernaut, mowing through the legions of cheap punks, commie spies and panting dames who beset his path.
Like I say, this is all fairly routine stuff for anyone familiar with Spillane: there’s a helpful but handcuffed-by-the-law G-Man (played by Lloyd Nolan, still smooth and professional 20 years after his days as a B-movie PI but looking a bit bored), a helpful but nerdy plot-device newsman Hy Gardner, always there with information to move the story along, and helpful but slightly-suspect Black Widow Shirley Eaton, whose crusading anti-communist husband was killed by a burglar who didn’t set off the alarm while riffling the safe with the Government Secrets, and if you can`t pick the Killer out of this lineup you just don’t know your Spillane.
In terms of execution, it’s all a little bland, but the acting is surprisingly not-awful. Surrounded by consummate professionals, Spillane lives up to the thesping around him, looking very relaxed and convincing, and while I wouldn’t care to see him play King Lear, I have to say that he delivers his lines well … which, since he wrote them, may be less surprising than I thought.
November 19th, 2013 at 10:10 am
By a happy coincidence, I just watched this film (for about the tenth time) last night, so especially enjoyed Dan’s comments. Max Allan Collins has written extensively about the story behind the making of the film. The fact that this is such a perfect Hammer/private eye movie is a real artistic triumph over the adversity of its considerable sub-par production values. For me, every actor and scene works perfectly. Dan neglected to mention my favorite scene: Mike is in a tough waterfront dive. Punk swags up to him, tells him to get out and jams an ice pick into the bar between them to make his point. Mike silently reaches into his pocket and pulls out a .45 ammo clip. Doesn’t show the guy the gun, mind you, just the spare clip. Thumbs loose a bullet that rolls across the bar and stops in front of the punk. Quoth Mike: “Eat it.” Tense heartbeat. Then the punk swallows the bullet and scampers away. Mike pockets the clip and continues with his business. Now that is some serious, understated hardboiled shit. As the movie’s credits properly state: “Mike Hammer IS Mickey Spillane.”
November 19th, 2013 at 2:24 pm
I love this movie. We need a high quality Blu-ray of it. Try and catch Spillane in Ring of Fear where he plays himself.
November 19th, 2013 at 4:18 pm
The best line comes when Pat Chambers drags the booze soaked Hammer before the dying man who will lead him on the quest for Velda:
“I thought Mike Hammer was a big guy?”
Hammer: “I’ve been sick.”
A self deprecating humor you don’t expect from Spillane, who knew physically he was much shorter than the superman he created in readers minds.
And I’ve always been impressed how much they make London look like NYC in this film. I knew both cities fairly well, and save the London alleys look cleaner than 60’s NYC in most scenes I can’t tell.
On an offbeat note I’ve always considered One Lonely Night, TGH, and The Snake as a self contained trilogy within the saga, the Velda Trilogy if you will. The three books are surprisingly close to the Hero’s Journey from Hero With a Thousand Faces replete with the symbolic death, resurrection, and return from the underworld.
But then I’ve always said that at least at the unconscious level Spillane’s works have a depth that most readers respond to even if they don’t realize it. Why was the reaction against Spillane and Fleming so visceral? I think because they both touched an unconscious trigger that either evoked a sort of fanatic devotion or an unreasonable distaste. Both had considerable storytelling skills and vivid styles, but both also seemed to write at a symbolic level Jung would have recognized.
Doyle, Hammett, Chandler, even Christie manage the same thing, a level of intimacy with the reader often only found in literary works. It is a gift truer to Homer and Shakespeare than most modern writers. Twain found it, so did Hemingway. I don’t these writers equal those, only that as Jung observed of Haggard’s She, even popular literature can tap the subconscious in profound ways.
November 19th, 2013 at 6:25 pm
Well said, David.
January 26th, 2014 at 5:16 pm
…great to read all this;couldn’t sleep trying to come up with name of dame encountered in pre-beatles, post cliff richard london….name was velma, which is why am here…..spillane books are awesome-as teenagers at a prestigious glasgow school, we swallowed them whole…..
August 6th, 2014 at 9:51 pm
It’s “Velda”. “Velma” was the girl with glasses on “Scooby-Doo”.
December 26th, 2014 at 3:04 pm
I always enjoyed this above all the other Hammer films even (gasp) Kiss me Deadly. Who could portray Hammer any better than his creator Spillane. Whenever I read a Hammer novel I imagine Spillane as Mike Hammer in my minds eye.
June 14th, 2020 at 6:27 pm
The Girl Hunters is a fun film, one I’ve watched several times. For me, Kiss Me Deadly is the best Hammer film and Ralph Meeker the best Hammer, then Stacy Keach in the first series. I’m aware Spillane hated the movie. What makes Girl Hunters sparkle is the appearance of Shirley Eaton.