Bless the Beasts & Children *** (1971, Bill Mumy, Barry Robins, Miles Chapin) – Classic Movie Review 11,254

‘Who were the misfits? The men who killed for sport… or those who fought for the buffalo!’…

Producer-director Stanley Kramer’s 1971 Bless the Beasts and Children is based on Glendon Swarthout’s novel, and stars Billy Mumy, Barry Robins, Miles Chapin, Darel Glaser, Jesse White, Ken Swofford and Vanessa Brown.

It is a warm-hearted and good-natured but sometimes irritating picture about six wayward social misfit lads on a camping vacation at a summer camp for boys running away and setting out to release a penned-in herd of buffalo before they are set to die from a rifle club’s slaughter.

It is ideal material for nice liberal director Kramer, who does flavoursome, meticulous and characterful work.

The Barry De Vorzon – Perry Botkin Jr song ‘Bless the Beasts and the Children’ was Oscar nominated as Best Original Song and became popular in US.

It is shot at Prescott, Arizona, and Jerome, Arizona.

Bless the Beasts and Children runs 109 minutes, is made by Stanley Kramer Productions, is released by Columbia Pictures, is written by Mac Benoff, is shot in Technicolor by Michel Hugo, and is scored by Barry De Vorzon and Perry Botkin Jr, with Art Direction by Lyle R Wheeler.

It is Barry Robins’s only film appearance.

RIP Perry Botkin Jr, who died on January 18, 2021. The Oscar-nominated, Grammy-winning composer known for ‘Nadia’s Theme’ was 87.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,254

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