Sunday, April 7, 2013

Tiger Walks, A 1964

Tiger Walks, A 1964



A Tiger Walks



Instead of telling the big-time editor of the town paper the simple facts of the incident, wanna be reporter Bob Evans reads his news report instead. "A tiger walks the streets of Scotia today while residents cower within their homes gripped by the primitive fear that jungle people have known through the centuries."



How did this Tiger come to walk the streets of Scotia?  Because the very drunk handler of the tiger kept poking it with a stick and taunting it. He also thought it would be macho to open his cage in order for him to prove who was the bigger bad-ass. Of course the Tiger took advantage of the open cage and jumped out scaring all the kids nearby. It chased a few of them down this alley.  Julie Williams (Pamela Franklin)  trips and is helpless on the ground. The camera zooms into her beautiful blue (I think they were blue) eyes as she looks at the camera with silent terror. Her best friend Moochie tries to pick up a piece of wood to shoo the hungry tiger away. Despite her first encounter with the tiger, she becomes his biggest supporter.



How did this Tiger come to this town in the first place? A circus truck breaks down in the little town and needs it’s tire fixed.  The owner goes off warning his two handlers to take care of mattes and to stay out of the bars.  One of the handlers is the legendary boy actor Sabu (Arabian Knights, Jungle Book) in his last film role before he died un unexpected young actor death. One incident flows into another. One decision leads to others having to make life or death decisions.  Everything happens for a reason, making it a strong script.



Johnny Shiloh (in his last Disney film) takes a back seat in his interaction with other characters. He has hit puberty and is less appealing then he was as a cute little mousecater.  But of course Superstar Disney actor Brian Keith takes center stage as Julies Dad, the Sheriff of the town, who just happens to be running for mayor. He takes the mantle and leads the tiger hunt. Conveniently the fog settles in, making a mysterious and disquieting atmosphere.



The film deals with politics, the power of the media and the deadliness of pride. The drunk tiger handler puts the whole town in danger because of his ego. The young army cadet who wants to be on TV shoots a person instead of the tiger as he is so eager to prove himself capable of hunting down the beast. The rest of the army wants to capture the Tiger and wants to hang it’s head on the wall of one of the higher ups. Bob Evans takes the opportunity to show off his newspaper skills instead of just reporting the incident. The Govender running for re-election wants to use this tiger opportunity to show how he can handle a situation. The film also pictures rather well the principle of subsidiarity. The sheriff wants to handle things with the townsfolks, the Gov wants to call in the national guard, thus risking the tiger running off into the hills.  \



The film also handles graphic situations non-graphically. The killing of one character is rather brutal and is left to the imagination.  There is no good reason to show blood and guts other then shock value. This also leaves the film wide open for a family audience. It doesn’t’ dumb down the story for kids but doesn’t it make it complicated for them either It’s a simple premise that plays out from beginning to end with a strong script, good cinematography, and good and memorable characters with fine acting. And lastly it has another catchy Disney tune.  It started out as Shoot that Tiger and ended with Save That Tiger, Save That Tiger.



You can let A Tiger Walk into your DVD home library. I should have returned the DVD sooner then I did as I ended up paying $16 in late fees for it.

No comments:

Post a Comment