Remember Tippi Hedren bellyaching about Alfred Hitchcock's cruelty, having birds attack her during the filming of The Birds? That was 1963. Thirteen years later, she and her "husband", Noel Marshall, started filming this nightmare.
It was hard to pay attention to the plot, but, according to IMDb, "A naturalist living with big cats in East Africa expects a visit by his family of four from Chicago. A mix-up leaves him searching for his family, who have been left in the clutches of wild lions."
They gathered together dozens of animals, mostly lions, untrained and untamed walking around loose, with cast and crew wandering around among them.
"This was probably one of the most dangerous films that Hollywood has ever seen," Tippi enthused. "It's amazing no one was killed."
Tippi's daughter, Melanie Griffith, was mauled and had her face torn open. They thought she was going to lose an eye. Didn't bother Tippi who thought reconstructive surgery was a normal part of film production.
Since it was filmed in California, I don't know where they got the zebra that the lions ate.
Noel Marshall was attacked repeatedly and got gangrene. Took him years to recover. Tippi was bitten in the head. That bloody scene was left in the movie. The DP had to have his scalp sewn back on.
All this and more for a movie that couldn't possibly have turned out any good.
Watching it was less traumatic than I thought it would be. Got it on DVD from Netflix.
You might recall that Jodie Foster was mauled by a lion while making the Disney movie Napoleon and Samantha and the bear once sat on Clint Howard on the set of Gentle Ben. At least the victims of Roar! were adults.
No comments:
Post a Comment