Daddy's Gone A-Hunting

1969 "What made you leave him, Cathy ... was it the way he made love, or why?"
6.2| 1h48m| en
Details

A mentally disturbed man stalks a woman who had once aborted the child he had fathered.

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TinsHeadline Touches You
Lovesusti The Worst Film Ever
UnowPriceless hyped garbage
Gutsycurene Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.
Scott LeBrun Brit beauty Carol White ("Some Call It Loving") stars as Cathy Palmer, a newcomer to San Francisco. Almost immediately, a stranger named Kenneth Daly (Canadian actor Scott Hylands ("Death Hunt"), receiving an "introducing" credit) contrives a way to meet her. Initially, he seems quite charming, and they enter into a relationship for a while, until he starts revealing himself as a major league turd. She breaks it off with him, even aborting the baby that he had fathered. She moves on, and finds a new guy (Paul Burke ("Valley of the Dolls")), a rising politician, and gets pregnant by the new guy. Trouble is, Kenneth is not going to let her go unpunished. He begins to terrorize her, demanding that she kill her baby in order to atone for the death of his child."Daddy's Gone A-Hunting" may be best known for the theme song (with music by John Williams and lyrics by Dory Previn), but in fact this is a pretty decent movie, albeit with some flaws. It's kind of a mixed bag, with a lead character who's not terribly sympathetic, a script credited to Larry Cohen ("The Stuff") and Lorenzo Semple, Jr. ("Flash Gordon") that has lines both bad and good, a lack of complete credibility, and performances that are uneven. It does get better and better as it plays out, leading to a seven minute finale high above the city streets that will actually have people catching their breath. Director Mark Robson, who'd started out crafting some fine psychological black & white horror for producer Val Lewton, and graduated to bigger things like "Valley of the Dolls" and "Von Ryan's Express", handles things with a certain degree of style. The filmmakers don't seem too concerned with making viewers choose a side in the still-contentious "pro life" vs. "pro choice" debate, and mainly focus on making an entertaining, slick, tried-and-true revenge thriller.Ms. White is lovely to look at, but doesn't make her character all that interesting. Hylands is fine, having a little more to work with; Kenneth supposedly was prepared to become a better man upon learning of impending fatherhood, so he takes the abortion thing VERY hard. Burke has little to do in the grand scheme of things. The very fine supporting cast includes such familiar faces as James Sikking ('Hill Street Blues') and Barry Cahill ("Coffy") as FBI agents, Mala Powers ("Cyrano de Bergerac") as Cathy's friend Meg, Walter Brooke ("The Graduate") as Jerry Wolfe, Mathilda Calnan ("Silver Streak") as Ilsa the maid, and Dennis Patrick ('Dark Shadows') as the abortion doctor.Excellent location shooting and an effective pace help to make this reasonably engrossing, and worthy of another look from genre devotees.Seven out of 10.
Sugarbehr1967 The premise of the movie is simple enough..Cathy, a young, beautiful girl arrives in America to find work, meets Kenneth, a handsome young photographer, they fall in love, but it turns out the young man isn't all he seems to be, and when she learns she's pregnant, she decides she doesn't want him-or the baby and has an abortion, and he decides to seek revenge.The setting is San Francisco, and the visuals are well played out in the city, along with a taut, tense script by Lorenzo Semple and Larry Cohen, with sure footed direction by Mark Robson, fresh off of his smash hit 'Valley of the Dolls' two years earlier. The cast includes Mala Powers as a sympathetic coworker of Cathy's who talks her into the abortion, Paul Burke (fresh off of his work as Lyon Burke in 'Valley') as Cathy's new husband, a senator wanna be, and of course, Scott Hylands, who as Kenneth, brings a creepiness to his role, but at the same time, you do feel for him as the spurned lover who wants revenge for the abortion that Cathy decides to get.The only weak link in this movie is Carol White as Cathy. Beautiful as the young Brit who arrives to seek work and becomes involved in a nightmare, is harsh, childish, and for most of the movie, a total bitch. You never feel how Paul Burke's character fell for her, suddenly they are wedded, and there is very little passion between them in their scenes. She comes across shrill, completely obnoxious, and downright hateful. You wonder if she really wanted to have a baby in the first place with the way she acts. For the most part, this movie is a fine addition to the 'damsel in distress' genre, but having a heroine that is more sympathetic might have worked much better.
marbleann I haven't seen this movie in years. It is rarely shown on cable. I was just a kid when I fist saw this movie. And even then I got the message. A very scary one. A young woman goes out with the Scott Hyland character. She soon finds out that he is not Mr Wonderful and in matter of fact he is a nut. She finds she is pregnant and she obtains a abortion. She moves on with her life and marries Paul Burke and she gets pregnant. The ex finds out about it and decides to kill everyone who has anything to do with her abortion and is after her to kill the baby she is carrying. This movie must of been the poster movie for the right to life movement, but it is scary. The message is do not have a abortion because in the end people are going to pay for it in a bad way. Well the message should of been watch out for psychopathic boyfriends and use birth control. I don't know what I would do if I was in her position but whatever I did I would hope people would not get killed over it. I loved this movie, even though it does political undertones. It is scary because I can see something like that really happening. Scott Hylands was excellent, he scared me. I just wish this movie would come out on DVD.
scottydog2 It would've been better if the character,'catherine' had been more sympathetic. I apologize,but I was rooting for 'ken' to get away with it all. The story is different,though.A boyfriend terrorizing his ex-girlfriend because she aborted his child...it really could've been done better.