Open Season [Los Cazadores] * (1974, Peter Fonda, John Philip Law, Richard Lynch, William Holden, Cornelia Sharpe) – Classic Movie Review 9088

Director Peter Collinson’s violent, nasty and distasteful 1974 action thriller drama Open Season [Los Cazadores] is based on the novel The All Americans by David D Osborn, and stars Peter Fonda, John Philip Law, Richard Lynch, William Holden, Cornelia Sharpe and Alberto de Mendoza.

It is open season on humans for disturbed Vietnam War veteran buddies Ken, Art and Gregg (Fonda, Lynch and Law), as they trek off to the woods to enact their psychotically violent fantasies. They kidnap young woman Nancy Stillman (Sharpe) and middle-aged man Martin (Mendoza) and terrorise them in an isolated cabin up in the mountains, forcing Nancy to be their sex slave and Martin to be their cook and housekeeper, and then setting them free in the woods to hunt them. Enter vengeful Hal Wolkowski (Holden) planning to pick the gang off one by one.

Pretentious direction (all flashy camera effects and no substance) negates the violent view of the after-effects of war, and the obvious intention to create another serious-minded and quality-motivated movie along the line of Deliverance is ruined by the unpleasant glorification of the gang trio’s ugly actions. The quality cast are squandered.

Also in the cast are Helga Liné, Didi Sherman, Concha Cuetos, May Heatherly, Norma Castell and William Layton, plus veteran Spanish actor Simón Andreu, billed as special guest star, but not in the English-language prints.

Open Season [Los Cazadores] is directed by Peter Collinson, runs 103 minutes, is made by Impala and Arpa Productions, is released by Columbia Pictures (1974) (US), Columbia-Warner Distributors (1974) (UK) and Warner Bros. (1974) (Spain), is written by David D Osborn and Liz Charles-Williams, based on the novel The All Americans by David D Osborn, is shot in Eastmancolor and widescreen by Fernando Arribas, is produced by George H Brown and José Sainz de Vicuña, is scored by Ruggero Cini and is designed by Gil Parrondo.

A British-Spanish co-production, it is shot in Pinewood Studios, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, England, and Estudios Roma, Madrid, Spain, as well as on location in Spain at Aranjuez, Madrid; Autopista de Villalba, Villalba, Madrid; Martín de Valdeiglesias, Madrid; Segovia, Castilla y León, and also the McKinley River Valley, New Mexico.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 9088

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