Directed by: Peter Bogdanovich.
Written by: Peter Bogdanovich.
Starring: Tim O'Kelly (Bobby Thompson), Boris Karloff (Byron Orlok), Arthur Peterson (Ed Loughlin), Monte Landis (Marshall Smith),
In
his debut film Targets Peter Bogdanovich contrasted real life horror with the
violence we see on movie screens. No matter how violent movies were then, or
have become now, they always pale in comparison to what people actually do to
each other. He came up with the idea for Targets when Roger Corman came to him
and told him that he wanted the young writer to direct a movie. Boris Karloff,
the famed horror legend, owed Corman two days of shooting and he wanted
Bogdanovich to shoot 20 minutes in those two days, add in another 20 minutes
from the 1962 film The Terror, also with Karloff, and then shoot another 40
minutes with other actors, thus making a full length film. After watching The
Terror, Bogdanovich had no idea how to make a film using any of that footage –
so he came up with an idea. Karloff would essentially play a version of
himself, the footage from The Terror (which he did not use 20 minutes of),
would be one of the characters movies (and a bad one at that), and then he
would add in a story inspired by Charles Whitman – who after killing members of
his family climbed the Bell Tower at Texas University and opened fire on the
people below. The result was Targets, a surprisingly suspenseful film, which
often gets mentioned on lists of the best directorial debuts of all time.
The
movie opens in a screening room with Byron Orlok (Karloff) watching the
conclusion of The Terror. He hates the movie and announces on the spot that he
is retiring. This angers the head of the studio who has already put money into
the next film by director Sammy Michaels (Bogdanovich himself) on the condition
that Orlok was going to play the lead. But Orlok has had enough. He is tired of
being viewed as a camp actor, his films no longer scaring audiences. He picks
up the newspaper and points to a story about a massacre and says this is real
horror, and he has had enough of the fake stuff. Grudgingly, he agrees to do a
public appearance the next day at a drive-in, which will show the horror film.
This will be his last public appearance, before he returns to England
It’s
here where we meet Bobby Thompson (Tim O’Kelly). He is clean cut and handsome –
an All American boy. We see him buying a rifle, and then putting it in the
trunk of his Mustang – that already contains at least a dozen guns. We see him
enjoy a nice family dinner with his parents and his wife, go target shooting
with the old man, and then sitting down to watch TV with the family. These scenes
are oddly disquieting, as they are seemingly innocent. But there is emptiness
to Bobby – and really his entire family. They are playing the happy family, but
they don’t feel like it. The next day, Bobby will murder his wife (as she comes
over to kiss him) and his mother, and an innocent delivery boy. He leaves a
note saying “I’ve killed my wife and my mother. I know they will catch me, but
before they do, many more will die”. Then he heads out to prove the note
correct – first shooting at cars on the freeway from his perch atop an
industrial complex, and then heading to the same drive-in where Orlok will be
that night.
There
is a little bit of a disconnect between the two stories, but for the most part,
they do work well together. The scenes with Karloff have a sad tone to them,
even though on the surface, they are quite funny. Karloff knew by this point,
very late in his career and his life that he was never really going to be taken
seriously as an actor. His Orlok knows this two, and while he is resigned to
the fact, there is a sadness about him as he goes through the motions for a
last time. The scenes with Bobby are tense and amazingly well staged by
Bogdanovich – especially when you consider that he was a first time director at
the time. Bogdanovich doesn’t even try to answer the question of why Bobby does
what he does – something that always frustrates some audiences, but for the
most part works. When someone decides to try and kill as many people as they
can, there is no real reason why. The climax at the drive in is tense and well
staged, but the ultimate conclusion, although well directed and acted by
Karloff, rings false.
When
Bogdanovich was done Targets, he thought he had made a great movie, and didn’t
want it to come and go as another quickie exploitation film by Corman, and
convinced him to try and let Bogdanovich sell it to a major studio. Robert
Evans saw it and loved it, but couldn’t get Paramount Paramount
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