Pray For The Wildcats

Pray For The Wildcats. 1974 was a stellar year for films. It was the year we were treated to “The Godfather Part II,” one of the best movies ever made. It was also the year of the release of a lesser known title “Pray For The Wildcats.” This movie did not grace the big screen - but, like The Godfather Part II, it had a top cast and mesmerizing plot that kept you tuned in to the TV. Except for commercial breaks when you ran to get something in the fridge.

Andy Griffith - the beloved sheriff of Mayberry - stars as Sam Farragut, a businessman who convinces a bunch of ad executives to take a trip with him to Baja, California on motorcycles. The ad executives are played by none other than William Shatner, Robert Reed and Marjoe Gortner.

Angie Dickenson also stars as Reed’s wife, who is having an affair with Shatner’s character. Marjoe Gortner was a big name in 1974, having been a big hit in the documentary “Marjoe” that exposed evangelical healing. He was still a couple years away from his big screen break - “Food Of The Gods,” but was still a hot commodity. Shatner and Reed were, of course, riding high from “Star Trek” and “The Brady Bunch,” respectively. Ironically, Reed had left “The Brady Bunch” just before the last show as it was “too silly.”

He had bigger ambitions. Pray For The Wildcats was one of them.

Griffith gets the guys really cool jackets and shirts that look exactly like the shirt that Shatner wore in Star Trek, only without the emblem. In fact, Shatner and Griffith wear the same mustard yellow colored shirts. Gortner and Reed have different colors. But the guys all match as they head off to Baja, California.

Prior to the trip, Gortner’s girlfriend tells him she’s pregnant. Not something that he wants to hear. Reed’s wife is fooling around on him and Shatner is contemplating suicide. They all need a vacation. But not quite the one that Griffith has in store.

It’s hard to picture the loveable Andy Taylor pounding down shots of Tequila and lewdly ogling a girl young enough to be his granddaughter in a seedy Mexican bar, but Hollywood is where the magic happens. As the girl dances closer and closer to Sheriff Taylor, his eyes get a wild look in them that you never saw before - even when he ate some of Aunt Bea’s cooking.

Making things even more tense is Marjoe, who is busy pounding on the table like he’s been snorting speed capsules or having a seizure. Or both. Robert Reed just looks on mildly. He’s probably thinking “at least I don’t have to put up with Cousin Oliver.”

Enter Shatner - gold Star Trek shirt and all and bad toupee - he looks at the scene and appears disturbed at Griffith’s lust crazed look. Before he can do anything to get the group out of there, Griffith takes another shot of tequila, jumps up and proceeds to “dance” towards the girl.
Sure, DeNiro was good as the young Don Corleone in “The Godfather Part II,” but was he really playing against typecast? He wasn’t that well known back then and he didn’t do one bit of dancing. But Griffith…he dances like….hmmmmm doggie!

After he tries to molest the young girl and punches her boyfriend, Mayberry’s sheriff is led out of the bar by Captain Kirk and the rest of the group where they proceed to get back on their road trip. But our hero is not done yet. No sooner are he and Gortner alone that he comes across the young girl and her boyfriend camped out in the desert. When the boyfriend refuses to take $100 from Griffith in exchange for sex with his girlfriend, Griffith gets mad. Madder even than the time that Opie shot that mama bird. He smashes the radiator of the hippie van and takes off, Gortner looking embarrassed, in tow.

Of course, they later learn the hippie boyfriend died trying to walk for help and the girlfriend is hanging on for dear life in the Mexican hospital. This is when the guys seem to have a bit of a conscience, particularly Gortner, who was accessory to the fact. They start to think that maybe ole Andy isn’t….well, a nice guy. Even if he did give them matching jackets and cool Star Trek shirts.

Shater especially struggles with his conscience, much like Al Pacino’s character in Godfather Part II when he realizes that it was Fredo who betrayed him. But then, for anyone who has seen both films, it is an easy comparison to make. When they learn the girl has died, Griffith is happier than….well, a slippery worm on a bad hook. He decides to take the little Mexican kids for dangerous wheelie motorcycle rides up and down the streets. The sheriff of the town is very nice and accommodating, just like Sheriff Taylor. But not as shrewd. He has no idea what happened to “the heeepies.”

So the guys decide to turn on Griffith who they realize is a real sociopath killer. And in a grueling motorcycle race that rivals the tension felt during the senate trial in The Godfather Part II, Griffith’s character finally drives off a cliff.

Not everything ends happily ever after, though. Just like in The Godfather, the finale includes deaths. Gortner’s girlfriend had an abortion. Angie Dickenson asks Mike Brady for a divorce. But Shatner….decides….to…live.

And thankfully he does. Because now he is hawking personal injury law firms on TV. With a really naturally toupee, I might add. And where is Pacino? No where. He makes one movie every other year or so and you never, ever see him advertising stuff on TV.

So 1974 was a good year for film. Although I think the Academy was way off in awarding The Godfather II and DeNiro Oscars, they had no choice. Pray For The Wildcats was a TV movie and not eligible. But Pray For The Wildcats didn’t even win a lousy Emmy. I just don’t get it.