Poseidon-3 Review of The Day of the Wolves

The Day of the Wolves (1971)

If one wolf can kill several sheep, then...

[16 July 2007]

With a title like this, one might expect a cast like Leslie Nielson, Lynda Day George and Stuart Whitman pitted against a town full of rabid canines. In actuality, it's a heist flick with ambitions a bit beyond its budget. (The title is explained within the film as well.) Murray plays a mysterious ringleader who hires six men to carry out the elaborate scheme of fleecing an entire small desert town in a matter of three hours. They are each given numbers, instead of names, and he asks them to disguise themselves with beards and to wear gloves all the time in an effort to keep their identities secret, even from each other. They happen to converge on the town the very day they've assigned a new sheriff the previous one, Egan, having been deemed too strict and too cynical for what the city fathers assume to be an ideal town. Fortunately, Egan hasn't gotten around to fully vacating since he's practically all that stands between the seven numbered thieves and their targets. Egan gives an able enough performance, though it's nothing to write home about. As his wife, Hyer is handed a thankless and colorless role. She had been experiencing severe career slippage up to this film and wisely took a hike forever after. If she were going to slum anyway, it's a shame it couldn't have been in Irwin Allen's or Jennings Lang's disaster epics where at least she'd have been dressed nicely and photographed well. Murray seems to be enjoying a break from more comedic parts. Jason looks pretty good and does fairly well as one of the hired henchmen. Capps, as Number 6, has one of the swishiest walks that any ostensibly macho male character ever displayed on film. A novel concept is at least interesting enough to hold the viewer's attention, but it really can't fully take off thanks to a couple of things. First, the budget is very tight and so the settings, the lighting, the cinematography and the action sequences take a hit. The shootouts aren't too bad, but the scenes involving skydiving are hampered. Also, the script (written by the director, who also produced!) lacks zing and polish. A bit too much time is spent in the set-up and with the dullards of the town while more tense scenes would have been welcomed during the actual carrying out of the crime or perhaps a bit more development of the dénouement. There are also several bad actors on hand, apart from the name brand quartet. Stay alert, however, for the hilarious female extra who gets to say the line, "Pete Anderson's been hurt!" She and her crony look like the inspiration for Joy and Verla in the syndicated comic strip The Dinette Set and they amuse with their heinous over-listening to the scene at hand. One preposterous development has several of the henchman being shown clean shaven and then wearing full, year-long grown beards within a day or two – which look very fake – only to be later shown shaving them off as if they are real! That's probably the most ridiculous thing in the movie. Otherwise, it's really not too bad a time killer and has elements that surely inspired the makers of other later (and better) heist films. Distinctive character actor Helton has a brief, but amusing, cameo as a farmer.