TARGETS (1968)

In a studio screening room, the latest horror movie starring the living legend Byron Orlock is running. The response, even from Orlock himself, is tepid and Orlock announces his retirement. Sammy, the film's young director, has a new script he wants Orlock to read and gets drunk in Orlock's hotel room trying to talk him into it. Orlock remains adamant, saying he feels like an anachronism, with the horrors of real life outdoing those on the screen. Even the actor's charming assistant Jenny can't talk him into it. Sammy passes out (and he has a fun reaction to waking up in the morning in bed with Orlock) and the next day, Orlock agrees to attend an in-person publicity event at a drive-in which is showing his new film. In a parallel plotline, we follow young, cleancut Bobby Thompson who lives in suburbia with his wife and parents. We see him buy a lot of guns and ammo and arrive home for dinner. He seems quiet and passive, almost a bit too much so, and the next day, he gets up, calmly shoots his mother and wife dead (and the grocery delivery boy) and heads out to an oil refinery where he sets his guns up and starts randomly shooting at cars on the freeway, killing several people. When cops show up, he leaves and heads to a nearby drive-in theater, the one showing Orlock's movie, and settles in behind the screen, ready to pick up his shooting spree when the movie starts. Meanwhile, Orlock and Jenny arrive at the theater just as the shooting starts and, parked near the screen, are sitting ducks for Bobby's scattershot shooting.

This is a thriller, a piece of social commentary, and a satire all in one, and it’s notable for being the first movie from Peter Bogdanovich, who directs, writes and stars as Sammy. It's also one of the last movies made by Boris Karloff who gently parodies himself as Orlock. The film being unveiled at the drive-in is The Terror, a film Karloff made with Roger Corman a few years earlier, and there is very effective use made of the juxtaposition of Karloff on the big screen and Karloff at the theater. We also see a clip of Karloff in a very early film of his, The Criminal Code, and it's identified as such which permits direct identification of Orlock as Karloff, at least for film buffs. Karloff is subtle and effective, almost but not quite playing himself—he never retired, making at least four more movies after this before his death in 1969. Bogdanovich is also good if a bit artificial at times. The most effective performance comes from Tim O'Kelly (pictured) as Bobby. His steely, blank-faced blandness is scary, and the character never changes—no attempts are made at any kind of psychological explanation for his behavior. From his first appearance at the gun shop, he's single-mindedly preparing for the shootings. He is calm with just a touch of something disturbing behind his eyes. It's a stunning performance, which makes it all the odder that O'Kelly, who mostly did TV work, left acting just two years later. Despite its grim subject matter, most of the scenes focusing on Karloff are fairly light in tone; the violence is graphic but not sensationalized. Bogdanovich went on to direct another thirty movies, but this remains one of his best. [DVD]