Deliver Us from Evil ** (1973, George Kennedy, Jan-Michael Vincent, Bradford Dillman) – Classic Movie Review 11,592

George Kennedy stars as Walter ‘Cowboy’ McAdams.

Director Boris Sagal’s men’s men 1973 made-for-TV crime adventure drama film Deliver Us from Evil stars George Kennedy, Jan-Michael Vincent, Bradford Dillman, Jack Weston, Jim Davis, Charles Aidman and Allen Pinson.

Six male hikers go camping in the mountains, kill a parachuting skyjacker criminal, and then go crazy and fight among themselves over his lovely stolen loot of $600,000, in this enjoyable if predictable TV movie version of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.

It’s not quite Deliverance either, but the spectacular backdrop of the Oregon wilds, the strong performances by a good cast, and Boris Sagal’s snappy direction together certainly manage to deliver us from boredom.

It originally premiered as an ABC Movie of the Week on 11 September 1973.

The plot accesses the story of real-life skyjacker D B Cooper who on 24 November 1971 hijacked an airliner, extorting $200,000, and then parachuted out of the plane, never to be seen again. There is a movie about this too: the 1981 The Pursuit of D B Cooper.

Jan-Michael Vincent stars as Nick Fleming.

The cast are George Kennedy as Walter ‘Cowboy’ McAdams, Jan-Michael Vincent as Nick Fleming, Jack Weston as Al Zabrocki, Bradford Dillman as Steven Dennis, Charles Aidman as Arnold Fleming, Jim Davis as Dixie, and Allen Pinson as the Skyjacker.

The film was originally called Fair Game.

It was shot in Mount Hood in Oregon’s Cascade Mountains.

Kennedy explained: ‘It’s a masculine film.’

Kennedy explained: ‘It’s a masculine film, shot against the masculine country essential to an action-suspense drama. We expect it to be compared with The Treasure of Sierra Madre.’ So, actually, it is meant to be predictable.

George Kennedy (February 18, 1925 – February 28, 2016) appeared in more than 100 films and TV shows. He played Dragline in Cool Hand Luke (1967), winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He was the only actor to appear in all four Airport films, and played Police Captain Ed Hocken in The Naked Gun trilogy.

Deliver Us from Evil is directed by Boris Sagal, runs 77 minutes, is made by Playboy Productions, is released by American Broadcasting Company (ABC) (1973) and Warner Home Video (2010) (US) (DVD), is written by Jack B Sowards, is shot by Bill Butler, is produced by Ron Roth and is scored by Andrew Belling.

Warner Home Video released it on DVD on 6 September 2006.

Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,592

Link to Derek Winnert’s home page for more reviews: http://derekwinnert.com/

J-M Vincent with Airwolf star Ernest Borgnine.

J-M Vincent in The World’s Greatest Athlete.