The Girl Hunters [Blu-ray]

Of all the actors who have portrayed Mike Hammer, Micky Spillane IMO captured Hammer the best. Of all Mike Hammer films, TV show etc., "The Girl Hunters" was the truest to the novel - which I particularly value. During the "special feature" interview with Spillane about the film he was put out that the movie studio wouldn't spend the money to do it in color, but I think black and white gave the film the perfect "noir" atmosphere. The supporting cast was well chosen and certainly helped bring the novel to life. Veteran actor Loyd Nolan did a solid turn as a "government" i.e. CIA agent, and of course Shirly Eaton (soon after to be famous for "Goldfinger") was as beautiful as she is talented as the "Femme fatale". Finally there is an old time newspaperman named Hy Gardner who plays himself. From the perspective of the early 21st century it is pleasantly nostalgic to hear a member of the main stream media (from an earlier time) talking to Hammer about someone who "...hates the commie punks as much as we do." However this is Mickey's movie. He would be the first to say he wasn't an actor, but I say it's too bad he didn't play his famous character many times more.

If you are a film noir fan, this is a must have, not for the film itself, but for the lively interview with Mickey Spillane who is even more entertaining than one of his characters. His stories in the interview recall a time long ago and a kind of real New York personality that I haven't seen in years. Lloyd Nolan is in the film, which makes it a keeper for me. Although Nolan was born in California, he has a believable New York attitude that comes from the time when New York wasn't the sophisticated city it pretends to be now. There are twists in the film and murders, of course. It isn't as dark as some noir, but it has enough cynicism for noir lovers. And it has the added attraction of seeing a writer become his character. As Shirley Eaton says, there probably was some of Mickey Spillane in Mike Hammer to begin with.

The version I received was just a narrative about the movie - no movie!

After the mild dissapointment of my original order being lost in transit and the delay of having to wait for a replacement order. I have to say that this film was exactly what I was looking for. I had not seen this film in decades and even though no one could accuse Mickey Spillane of being the worlds greatest actor I have to say that I enjoyed it more now than when I orginally saw it. Happy to add this to my film collection.

I love the film noir genre and was curious about the famous Mickey Spillane and that was the reason behind this purchase. The film is OK & Mickey is little stiff as an actor but the story is interesting.

I loved the film. I knew right away who the (blond bombshell) killer was. I read a lot of Mickey Spillane when I was a kid and knew what his favorite murderers would be. I loved the music. There were a few places where he put in scenes that he loved whether they were appropriate or not. I write screenplays and I could see the end coming a mile away, but I still loved it. Spillane telegraphed the ending way early, but so what? I have always loved Lloyd Nolan and he was terrific (as always) as the FBI man.I believe several scenes from this film found their way into James Bond films. Okay by me.

i like the girl hunters. I first saw it when I was i n the army in Germany. I have the movie on vhs but have played it so much the sou nd track is wearing out.. I have looked for it o n dvd before but couldn't find it. I have the hardback first edition on my library shelf. it is the best. I would give it 5 stars and recommend it to any mike hammer lover.

In the literary world, the Mike Hammer books have always been considered disreputable, unlike those involving Sam Spade or Philip Marlow so it's probably appropriate that the Mike Hammer adaptations that have made it to the big and small screen have been such a mixed bag. On the one hand, Robert Aldrich's Kiss Me Deadly from 1955 is considered one of the best films of its kind ever made and was an acknowledged influence on some of the directors of the French new wave. On the other hand, My Gun Is Quick made just two years later is a bore that is pretty much completely forgotten. The only other good Mike Hammer adaptation that I've seen was 1982's criminally underrated I, the Jury scripted by cult filmmaker Larry Cohen who hoped to jumpstart a new series of Mike Hammer theatrical films. I, the Jury was fast paced, sexy, violent fun that almost perfectly captured the sleazy pulp appeal of Mickey Spillane's books, even if star Armand Assante was perhaps a little too handsome to be playing Mike Hammer. Unfortunately, most people probably know the character from the dreadful TV series starring Stacy Keach which was campy garbage.The Girl Hunters from 1963 falls pretty squarely in the lousy adaptation category. The script and direction actually aren't bad, but someone came up with the gimmick of using author Mickey Spillane to portray his own creation, Mike Hammer. While Mickey Spillane looks the part just fine he can't act a lick, and it's impossible to get past the fact that his lead performance is so stiff and unprofessional--especially when compared with those of his more seasoned co-stars. It may be surprising to somebody watching The Girl Hunters but this isn't Mickey Spillane's first big screen acting gig--nine years earlier he co-starred in a B-movie called Ring of Fear along with then very popular but now completely forgotten celebrity animal trainer Clyde Beatty. I have never seen that film so I don't know whether Mickey Spillane was any more effective there. The only other acting gig I'm aware of for Mickey Spillane was an early episode of Columbo, but he played a barely fictionalized version of himself and since he was the murder victim he was only in a couple of early scenes before being knocked off.Mickey Spillane offers very stiff line readings, doesn't seem capable of expressing even a single human emotion plausibly and pretty much makes 1970's porn star actors look like Lawrence Olivier by comparison. It's hard to fathom why the producers and director didn't realize Mickey Spillane couldn't act early in the shoot and replaced him. The only explanation I can come up with is that the producers were more interested in the gimmick of Mickey Spillane playing Mike Hammer than in actually making a good movie.The plot involves Mike Hammer at an all time low, a beat up drunk lying in the streets who is picked up by the police. You might expect that Mike Hammer's condition at the beginning of the film would have something to do with the plot and that the movie would be told in flashbacks, but that isn't the case. The police want Mike Hammer because a man was shot and is on the verge of dying in the hospital. Ballistics surprisingly show that bullet he was plugged with came from the same gun that killed a senator in a case that has remained unsolved. Police figure that if the dying man identifies who shot him that will lead to the senator's killer, but the dying man will only talk to Mike Hammer.Surprisingly, Mike Hammer has never seen the dying man before in his life. Not surprisingly, the dying man provides cryptic information rather than the specific identity of the shooter, but part of that information involves a woman whom Mike Hammer thought long dead so he sobers up and starts his own investigation into the man's murder and the strange circumstances surrounding the senator's death, which was written off as a burglary gone bad but appears to be something else altogether.The plot in The Girl Hunters is a little hard to follow, but coherent plotting was never really Mickey Spillane's strong point. His books were about hard-boiled action, hard-boiled attitude, sex, and violence--which is something 1982's I the Jury got right better than any other Mike Hammer adaptation including even the much more highly regarded Kiss Me Deadly. Still, the plot is diverting enough to maintain viewer interest even if you don't always know exactly what's going on.Fans of Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer character, however many are actually left (Mickey Spillane never came back into fashion like another writer of disreputable crime fiction, Jim Thompson) will undoubtedly want to see this one. Hardcore fans of private eye films will also likely find this diverting enough. But if you don't fall into either of those two categories then The Girl Hunters is probably not worth sitting through. It's ultimately more of a curiosity than a worthwhile film.