‘Willard’ TV trailer title, 1971
Daniel Mann‘s Willard crawled into theaters in June of 1971. This creepy tale of the socially-awkward Willard and his band of trained killer rats ended up as the eleventh top-grossing film of the year. The story is based on Stephen Gilbert’s novel, Ratman’s Notebooks.
Mom always said ‘Don’t play with rodents in bed.’ (Bruce Davison in ‘Willard,’ 1971)
Willard stars Bruce Davison (Deadman’s Curve) as the title character, Ernest Borgnine portrays Willard’s boss, Al Martin and Elsa Lanchester co-stars as the troubled young man’s mother. Sondra Locke, in one of her first film roles, appears as love-interest, Joan.
I saw Willard when I was a young whippersnapper. I’m not sure if I saw it in the theater or a bit later on TV, but even at the age of six, I enjoyed it. I couldn’t come up with a proper theatrical trailer but here’s a rather good television promo. Nibble it.
Previously on Trailer Tuesday: ‘The Groove Tube’ (1974)
In Ernest Borgnine’s autobiography, he mentions that the filmakers used peanut butter to get the rats to swarm over him. Wouldn’t just a decent-sized shoe be enough to combat the little varmints?
Couple of steel-toed boots and you’ll be good.