Pray for the Wildcats (1974)

Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

The movie is made so realistic it has a lot of that WoW feeling at the right moments and never tooo over the top. the suspense is done so well and the emotion is felt. Very well put together with the music and all.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

"Pray for the Wildcats" is a TV "movie of the week" from 1974 about four businessmen (Andy Griffith, William Shatner, Robert Reed and Marjoe Gortner) who take a trip through the desert wilderness of Baja California on dirt bikes. Griffith plays Sam Farragut, an arrogant mogul who thinks money is power and anyone can be bought if the price is right; and, if they can't, well, they'll just have to be discarded one way or another. Needless to say, the trip doesn't go as pleasantly as planned.If you didn't think it was possible for Griffith to play a robust villain you need to see this film. Andy just eats up the role of the dastardly Farragut. Not only is his performance a pleasure to behold, it rings true! All the other actors are perfectly cast, as are the wives and girlfriend of the three subordinate bikers, Lorraine Gary, Angie Dickinson and Janet Margolin respectively."Pray for the Wildcats" is a morality tale in the manner of "Deliverance," except that the crime is inverted and the trip takes place in the SW desert/coast rather than a wild river in Georgia. Although a TV movie, "Pray for the Wildcats" is every bit as good as "Deliverance" and perhaps even better. And, thankfully, it doesn't contain anything as hard to watch as that infamous "squeal like a pig" scene.Judging from the reviews, many will ridicule such commendations. In fact, for reasons that elude me "Pray for the Wildcats" is often mocked as "campy" and "unintentionally funny." Really? I don't see this at all; and anyone who thinks it's campy obviously doesn't know what camp is. This is clearly a serious drama/adventure/thriller with the requisite soap operatics, but nothing overkill and definitely within the realm of believability. Another overdone criticism is Shatner's hairpiece, which is odd since it definitely LOOKS like his natural hair (not that it is).The real reason reviewers make fun of "Pray for the Wildcats" is because (1.) it's a TV movie and (2.) three of the stars had well-known TV shows -- The Andy Griffith Show, Star Trek and The Brady Bunch -- and, gee, I guess there's no way they could really act and break away from their typecast roles. But they can and do superbly in "Pray for the Wildcats." Another thing I love about this film is the powerful message: ***SPOILER ALERT*** One man sins greatly, but has zero remorse and tries to cover it up through his power and money; another man also sins, but realizes his mistake and ultimately proves his character; the other two show that they believe money and position are more important than justice and therefore prove their lack of character. ***END SPOILER*** The film was shot in Arizona and Baja California and runs 100 minutes.GRADE: A+

Are you a Marjoe fan? A Brady on a Silver Platter? A Cracker Eater? A Shatnerologist? Look no further! There's "Pray for the Wildcats": A cheesy TV movie where Marjoe, Robert "Brady Bunch dad, later 'Pat' the sex-change doctor on Medical Center" Reed, Andy "Cracker Boy" Griffith and William the "One True" Shatner (OTS) play four yuppies who take a motorcycle ride down Baja. Kind of like "Deliverance" on dirt-bikes.This film is dominated by a superlatively bad performance by Mr. Griffith. No doubt trying to overcome his wholesome (good cracker! GOOD cracker!) image, he administers a real Deep Hurting in a non-stunning role-reversal of "Deliverance". He tries to score with a traveling hippie's main squeeze in a cantina, but fails miserably. After a few minor brawls and scuffles, he resorts to bribery after catching up with them outside of town ("I'm sort of a hippie myself! A hippie with MONEY!!"). Failing again, he trashes their vehicle in the middle of the desert, condemning the poor young couple to a slow death by starvation and dehydration.From there the plot goes downhill, literally. The toupeed one (Shatner) naturally saves the day by running Mr Ritz, er Griffith, off of a cliff (from which he drops in ever-so-slow-motion to his fiery demise on the rocky beach below. Oh the pain!!) Shatner then runs his own dirt-bike into the ocean, and follows with his usual over-acted agony dance around the burning wreckage. The end.....or IS it!?!?! It's probably out of print. Find it if you can!!!

ABC hyped the premiere of this pop culture mind bender as "the television event of the decade". They may have been right. Written by Hack, I mean Jack Turley, it's a heavy-handed quilt of morality clichés as we follow three advertising execs (Shatner, Reed and Gortner) willing to do anything to land a big account. They make Darrin Stephens and Larry Tate look like models of integrity. This time, they agree to go on a motorcycle road trip to Mexico with a crazy rich (or is that Ritz?) cracker played by Griffith in an image-shattering performance. He forces them to wear matching leather jackets emblazoned with a "Baja Wildcats" logo, while underneath sporting what look exactly like extra-large long-sleeved Star Trek t-shirts. With a set-up like this, how can you go wrong? Well, for one thing, trying to jam in a bunch of soap opera backstory before the big ride.Shatner, wearing one of his funniest toupees (with sideburns to match), is having a serious midlife crisis. His job is in jeopardy, he's cheating on his wife, and, worst of all, the boss tells him to get some new suits with wider lapels (this is the 70s, after all). He takes out a life insurance policy and contemplates suicide for much of the movie. In a reversal of Griffith's performance, Shatner actually underplays his role but does it so turgidly; he still comes off as a pompous ham.Then we have Reed, still decked out in a full-Brady afro. He's married to Dickinson and things aren't going so well for them either. (In fact, she's the one having an affair with Shatner.) It's impossible to watch today and not read gay subtexts into Reed's dialogue, especially when he tells Dickinson, "The man you married lived in an apartment with only one closet." Delicious.Meanwhile, Gortner plays a proto-yuppie prick, willing to sell-out and sacrifice anything and anyone for the sake of his career. He can't even give his girlfriend a committed answer when she tells him she's pregnant. Willing to abort it if he says so, Gortner can't be bothered right now with making a decision. He's got a road trip to run. The women gather together to say goodbye and the Wildcats begin their fateful odyssey. That's too bad for us watching because we now have to squirm through what seems like an hour (it isn't, though) of random motorcycle mania. Worse than the similar biker bores in THE ACID EATERS, try not to fall asleep because you'll miss some of the most incredible made-for-TV moments ever devised.The first takes place in a cantina. Griffith has been tossing back tequila boilermakers and makes a drooling play for some poor hippie girl dancing her little hips off. The expected fight breaks out and our trio now have to face the fact that Griffith may be a total psycho. Gortner gets drunk and tries not to care. However, Reed and Shatner have a real heart-to-heart talk about responsibility and whether all this is worth some advertising job. The scene ends with another classic Reed-subtext line as he asks a heavily buzzed Shatner, "I'm going' back to the hotel. You wanna tag along?" Shatner declines the invite with a warm and knowing smile.The other key scene involves Griffith's confrontation with a hippie couple swimming nude on a beach. He and Gortner ride in and the bad vibes start almost immediately. Griffith shows an interest in the girl and offers the boyfriend a hundred dollars for her, flaunting the whole hippie free love ethic. The boyfriend tells him to get lost, but Griffith loses it in a completely different way. He grabs a hatchet and starts taunting, "C'mon hippie, let's go! C'mon freak!" Instead of bodies, Griffith butchers the hippies' van, pretty much dooming them to slow death because of the distance they would have to walk to reach help. Of course, Gortner plays the quivering toady.Back in Mexico, Shatner finally shakes off his suicidal bent with the realization that he's a better man than Griffith. Referring to the head Wildcat, Shatner says, "He's like acid. He makes people do anything." Reed remains ambivalent and Gortner continues as a self-denying scumbag.I won't reveal the ending, but I'm sure most of you have a good idea who won't survive. As I said, it's a morality play, but holds little weight as such. The value of this movie relies purely on 60s/70s pop culture appreciation. It's a predictably scripted, flatly directed late-period biker film, led by three attempts at a stereotype breakout. It's also a fun failure and well worth seeking out.

I first saw this in 6th grade, a "Movie of the Week", if I remember correctly. The next day at school was abuzz with, "Can you believe it? I didn't know Andy Griffith could BE like that!"Oh, the classic lines, just from Ol' Andy: --"Come on , hippy!...I'm sort of a hippy myself-a hippy with MONEY!" --"It's just you and me, baby...we're getting' it ON!"Griffith's motorcycle performance--oh, the split-leg whooping!--gives one cause to yearn for more movies like this. Just where ARE those 1970s-vintage TV movies? Get these things on DVD before it's too late!Marjoe Gortner doesn't disappoint, either, if early-1970s pseudo-psychedelic "lingo" brings chills to your spine. His attempt at "drumming" in the Mexican bar while Andy Griffith accosts the hot hippy chick is nothing short of screaming hilarity. "The Simpsons" writers would have nothing on this movie, would that "Pray for the Wildcats" was SUPPOSED to be funny.William Shatner and Robert Reed almost steal this thing with their "understated" acting (holy cow, did I just call Shatner "understated"?!). Shatner "philosophizing" is what is "priceless" not all the crap in those credit-card commercials. The female characters, particularly those played by Angie Dickinson and Lorraine Gary, are damn near side-splitting in their "serious", but extremely stupid--even for 1974--dialogue. Their discussion about the affair Dickinson has with Shatner, and her fears about his eventual life choice, would have Oprah AND Dr. Phil p***ing their pants. It's absolutely, moronically, hilarious.I wish this movie had been more popular and remembered. What "The Simpsons", "South Park" or "King of the Hill" could have done spoofing this thing is chill-inducing (the GOOD kind) in and of itself.Bob Bates Orlando, FL