Grizzly (film)
Encyclopedia
Grizzly is a 1976 horror film
directed by William Girdler
. The film is about an 18-foot man-eating Grizzly bear
that terrorizes a National Forest
. The film stars Christopher George
, Andrew Prine
and Richard Jaeckel
. Widely considered a Jaws
rip-off, Grizzly used many of the same plot devices as its shark predecessor, a huge box office success during the previous year 1975.
In 1983, a sequel Grizzly II: The Predator
was planned and shot, but never released and provided early roles for both Charlie Sheen
and George Clooney
.
The giant grizzly bear in the film is portrayed by the mother of Bart the Bear
.
pilot and guide Don Stober (Andrew Prine
) flying individuals above the trees of a vast National Park
. He states that the woods are untouched and remain much as they did during the time when the Native Americans
lived there.
Two female hikers are breaking camp when one of them is attacked and killed by a bear. The second woman finds apparent safety within a nearby cabin until the bear tears down a wall to reach her. The National Park's Chief Ranger Michael Kelly (Christopher George
) and photographer Allison Corwin (Joan McCall
), daughter of the park's restaurant owner, decide to follow a Ranger to the primitive campsite to find the two female hikers. They discover the woman's mangled body inside the destroyed cabin. Allison stumbles across the remains of the first woman while photographing the search.
At the hospital, a doctor tells Kelly that the women were killed by a bear. The Park Supervisor Charley Kittridge (Joe Dorsey
) blames Kelly, saying the bears were supposed to have been moved from the park by him and Naturalist Arthur Scott (Richard Jaeckel
) before the tourist season began. Kelly and Kittridge argue over closing the park, and decide to move all hikers off the park's mountain while allowing campers to remain in the lowlands. Kelly calls Scott, who says all bears are accounted for and this specific bear must be unknown to the forest.
Stopping for a break near a waterfall while searching the mountain, a female Ranger
complains to her male partner that her feet are sore and she is going to go soak them in the stream. Her male partner goes on to search R4 while she approaches the waterfall to soak. She does not see the bear waiting for her under the falls and she is attacked and killed. Kelly recruits the helicopter pilot Stober to assist in the search. Flying above the forest, they see what they believe to be an animal, only to discover the Naturalist Scott adorned in an animal skin while tracking the bear. He informs them the animal they are looking for is a prehistoric grizzly bear
(a fictional pleistocene
Arctodus
ursos horribilis) standing at least 15 feet tall. Kelly and Stober scoff at the notion.
At the busy lowland campground, the grizzly tears down a tent and kills a woman. Kelly once again insists on closing the park, but Kittridge refuses. The attacks are becoming a national news story and to counteract this, Kittridge allows amateur hunters into the forest. Kelly, Stober and Scott, now a team, are disgusted by this development. Later, a lone hunter is chased by the bear but he evades the animal on foot, falling into a river and floating to safety. Later that night three hunters find a bear cub, that they believe is the cub of the killer grizzly, so they use it as bait for the mother. But the grizzly finds and eats the cub without the hunters noticing. Scott concludes that the bear must be a male. A Ranger at a fire lookout tower
on the mountain is attacked by the grizzly, the animal tearing down the structure and killing the Ranger.
Kelly and Kittridge continue to argue over closing the park. Frustrated by the politics of the situation, Scott sneaks away to track the grizzly on his own. On the outskirts of the National Park, a mother and child living in a cabin are attacked by the grizzly. The mother is killed and the child survives, but is severely mutilated. Stunned by this development, Kittridge finally allows Kelly to close the park and ban all hunters.
Stober and Kelly now go after the elusive grizzly alone, setting up a trap by hanging a deer
carcass from a tree. The grizzly goes for the bait and the men chase the animal through the woods. When they return, they discover the grizzly has tricked them and taken the deer carcass. Tracking on horseback, Scott finds the remains of the carcass and calls Stober and Kelly on the radio. He is going to drag the deer behind his horse and create a trap by leading the grizzly towards them. The grizzly surprises Scott, killing his horse
and knocking him unconscious. Scott awakens to find himself alive, but half-buried in the ground. The grizzly immediately returns and kills him.
Kelly and Stober discover Scott's body and in despair, decide to return to the helicopter
to find the grizzly from the air. They immediately spot the bear in a clearing and quickly land. The grizzly attacks the helicopter, swiping the craft causing Stober to be thrown clear. The grizzly kills Stober and then turns on Kelly, who frantically pulls a bazooka
from the helicopter. Before the bear can reach him, Kelly fires the bazooka at the grizzly, killing the animal instantly. For several seconds, Kelly sadly stares at the burning remains of the grizzly and then walks towards Stober's body.
, Grizzly was criticized as being a thinly veiled rip-off of the now-classic shark
thriller. Like Jaws
, Grizzly has an unusually large animal preying upon unsuspecting tourists, one of whom is played by Susan Backlinie
, who also played the shark's first victim in the celebrated opening scene of Jaws.
Christopher George
plays Chief Ranger Michael Kelly, skilled at his job but lacking experience when dealing with the dangers of bears, a role similar to Roy Scheider
's Police Chief Martin Brody in Jaws. Kelly must rely on the expertise of naturalist Arthur Scott (Richard Jaeckel
), just as Brody recruits marine scientist Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss
).
Kelly is thwarted by Supervisor Charley Kittridge (Joe Dorsey
), who refuses to close the National Park for political reasons. In Jaws, Brody is refused permission to close the summer beaches by Mayor Larry Vaughn (Murray Hamilton
).
A bounty is put on the grizzly bear, just as an award is offered for the shark in Jaws. The bounty leads to chaos, as hundreds of hunters fill the woods in Grizzly, while huge numbers of boats filled with hunters leave the harbor in Jaws.
During the final hunt for the grizzly bear, Kelly is led by helicopter pilot, Vietnam War
veteran and forest guide Don Stober (Andrew Prine
), just as Brody's shark expedition is led by boat captain, World War II
veteran and sea guide Quint (Robert Shaw
).
The bear in Grizzly is killed in similar fashion to the shark in |Jaws in that both creatures' destruction is dramatized by a large explosion.
during a family camping trip. Co-producer and co-writer David Sheldon thought the idea would make a good film following the success of Jaws
. William Girdler discovered the script on Sheldon's desk and offered to find financing as long as he could direct the film. Within a week, Girdler was able to obtain $750,000 in financing from Edward L. Montoro
's Film Ventures International
movie distribution company.
, with many local residents cast in supporting roles. Catherine Rickman, who played one of the first victims, was actually the daughter of Clayton Mayor Frank Rickman. Though unintentional, the casting of Christopher George
, Andrew Prine
and Richard Jaeckel
marked the second time this trio of actors starred together in the same film. They had previously played supporting roles in the 1970 western
Chisum
starring John Wayne
. A Kodiak bear nicknamed "Teddy" performed as the killer grizzly
. "Teddy" was 11 feet tall and was the largest bear in captivity at that time. The bear was rented from the Olympic Game Ranch in Sequim, Washington
where it was kept behind an electric fence. The crew was protected from the bear by an a piece of green string running through the shooting locations, and a ticking kitchen timer. This resembled (to the bear) an electric fence. Actors and crew members were instructed to always stay on the camera side of the string. The bear did not actually roar, so it was tricked into making the motions of roaring by throwing several marshmallows into its mouth and then holding a final marshmallow in front of its face but not throwing it. The bear would stretch for it. The sound was artificially produced.
The original artwork for the Grizzly movie poster
was created by the popular comic book
artist Neal Adams
. A novelization by Will Collins was published as well.
on May 1, 1984, Edward L. Montoro
said he considered Grizzly to be the best film he ever produced. Montoro founded his production company, Film Ventures International
(FVI) in 1968 in Atlanta, Georgia
. His company distributed exploitation films and B-movies. Montoro's most successful effort as producer was Grizzly, earning $39 million dollars worldwide. Montoro chose to keep the profits for himself, claiming the film ran over-budget. This caused director William Girdler
and the film's co-producers and co-writers Harvey Flaxman and David Sheldon to file-suit. Girdler returned to FVI the following year to direct the similarly themed The Day of the Animals, also produced by Montoro. The film was not as successful as Grizzly, and Girdler and Montoro parted ways.
In 1980 Montoro picked up the Italian film Great White
, a thriller about a shark attacking tourists, for release in the United States. Montoro spent several million dollars on advertising, but the executives at Universal Pictures
thought the film was too derivative of Jaws
(a similar complaint leveled at Grizzly). Universal filed suit and won, and Great White was pulled from the theaters. The lawsuit and setback cost FVI several million dollars.
Mutant was the final film produced by Montoro. Opening in 1984, the film's budget and minor box office performance caused further damage to FVI. Montoro was also involved in a major divorce
settlement. Sometime in 1984, Montoro took one million dollars from FVI and vanished never to be seen again. FVI collapsed the following year. It has been speculated Montoro fled to Mexico
, but his whereabouts remain unknown.
was a nickname for an original film entitled "Predator: The Concert" filmed in 1985 in Hungary
but never released to theaters. David Sheldon, the co-producer and writer of Grizzly wrote the screenplay with his screenwriter wife Joan McCall. The cast included Charlie Sheen
, George Clooney
and Laura Dern
, who were discovered by them and were unknown at the time. The main scenes for Grizzly II: The Predator were completed, but before the special effects with a huge electronic-mechanical bear could be used, the executive producer Joseph Proctor disappeared with the funds. The filmed footage of the live bear
, however, attacking a live rock concert
was also shot in Hungary. There have been attempts to recut and film more scenes, but to date, the film has never been released.
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
directed by William Girdler
William Girdler
William Girdler was an American filmmaker. In a span of seven years, from 1972 to 1978, he directed nine feature films in such genres as horror and action...
. The film is about an 18-foot man-eating Grizzly bear
Grizzly Bear
The grizzly bear , also known as the silvertip bear, the grizzly, or the North American brown bear, is a subspecies of brown bear that generally lives in the uplands of western North America...
that terrorizes a National Forest
United States National Forest
National Forest is a classification of federal lands in the United States.National Forests are largely forest and woodland areas owned by the federal government and managed by the United States Forest Service, part of the United States Department of Agriculture. Land management of these areas...
. The film stars Christopher George
Christopher George
Christopher John George was an American television and film actor who was perhaps best known for his starring role in the 1966-1968 TV series The Rat Patrol. He was nominated for a Golden Globe in 1967 as Best TV Star for his performance in the series...
, Andrew Prine
Andrew Prine
Andrew Lewis Prine is an American film, stage, and television actor.-Early life and career:Prine was born in Jennings, Florida. After graduation from Andrew Jackson High School in Miami, Prine made his acting debut three years later in an episode of CBS U.S. Steel Hour...
and Richard Jaeckel
Richard Jaeckel
Richard Hanley Jaeckel was an American actor of film and television.-Life and career:Jaeckel was born in Long Beach, New York. A short, but tough guy, he played a variety of characters during his fifty years in movies & television and became one of Hollywood's best known character actors...
. Widely considered a Jaws
Jaws (film)
Jaws is a 1975 American horror-thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg and based on Peter Benchley's novel of the same name. In the story, the police chief of Amity Island, a fictional summer resort town, tries to protect beachgoers from a giant man-eating great white shark by closing the beach,...
rip-off, Grizzly used many of the same plot devices as its shark predecessor, a huge box office success during the previous year 1975.
In 1983, a sequel Grizzly II: The Predator
Grizzly II: The Predator
Grizzly II: The Predator is an unreleased horror sequel to the popular film, Grizzly. The film is notable for featuring early appearances of future superstars George Clooney, Charlie Sheen, and Laura Dern in small supporting roles...
was planned and shot, but never released and provided early roles for both Charlie Sheen
Charlie Sheen
Carlos Irwin Estevez , better known by his stage name Charlie Sheen, is an American film and television actor. He is the youngest son of actor Martin Sheen....
and George Clooney
George Clooney
George Timothy Clooney is an American actor, film director, producer, and screenwriter. For his work as an actor, he has received two Golden Globe Awards and an Academy Award...
.
The giant grizzly bear in the film is portrayed by the mother of Bart the Bear
Bart the Bear
Bart the Bear was an Alaskan Kodiak Bear that appeared in several Hollywood films. Previously, Bart's mother appeared in the films Grizzly and Day of the Animals. Animal trainers Doug Seus and Lynne Seus of Wasatch Rocky Mountain Wildlife, Inc., in Heber City, Utah, trained Bart...
.
Plot
The film opens with a military veteran helicopterHelicopter
A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by one or more engine-driven rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forwards, backwards, and laterally...
pilot and guide Don Stober (Andrew Prine
Andrew Prine
Andrew Lewis Prine is an American film, stage, and television actor.-Early life and career:Prine was born in Jennings, Florida. After graduation from Andrew Jackson High School in Miami, Prine made his acting debut three years later in an episode of CBS U.S. Steel Hour...
) flying individuals above the trees of a vast National Park
National park
A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individual nations designate their own national parks differently A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or...
. He states that the woods are untouched and remain much as they did during the time when the Native Americans
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
lived there.
Two female hikers are breaking camp when one of them is attacked and killed by a bear. The second woman finds apparent safety within a nearby cabin until the bear tears down a wall to reach her. The National Park's Chief Ranger Michael Kelly (Christopher George
Christopher George
Christopher John George was an American television and film actor who was perhaps best known for his starring role in the 1966-1968 TV series The Rat Patrol. He was nominated for a Golden Globe in 1967 as Best TV Star for his performance in the series...
) and photographer Allison Corwin (Joan McCall
Joan McCall
Joan McCall is an American actress, screenwriter and minister. Her first film roles were in the 1976 horror/adventure hit Devil Times Five and Grizzly...
), daughter of the park's restaurant owner, decide to follow a Ranger to the primitive campsite to find the two female hikers. They discover the woman's mangled body inside the destroyed cabin. Allison stumbles across the remains of the first woman while photographing the search.
At the hospital, a doctor tells Kelly that the women were killed by a bear. The Park Supervisor Charley Kittridge (Joe Dorsey
Joe Dorsey
Joe Dorsey is an American character actor. This familiar supporting player is probably best known for his portrayals of tough roles in films, even though most of his work in films and in television has been brief....
) blames Kelly, saying the bears were supposed to have been moved from the park by him and Naturalist Arthur Scott (Richard Jaeckel
Richard Jaeckel
Richard Hanley Jaeckel was an American actor of film and television.-Life and career:Jaeckel was born in Long Beach, New York. A short, but tough guy, he played a variety of characters during his fifty years in movies & television and became one of Hollywood's best known character actors...
) before the tourist season began. Kelly and Kittridge argue over closing the park, and decide to move all hikers off the park's mountain while allowing campers to remain in the lowlands. Kelly calls Scott, who says all bears are accounted for and this specific bear must be unknown to the forest.
Stopping for a break near a waterfall while searching the mountain, a female Ranger
Park ranger
A park ranger or forest ranger is a person entrusted with protecting and preserving parklands – national, state, provincial, or local parks. Different countries use different names for the position. Ranger is the favored term in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Within the United...
complains to her male partner that her feet are sore and she is going to go soak them in the stream. Her male partner goes on to search R4 while she approaches the waterfall to soak. She does not see the bear waiting for her under the falls and she is attacked and killed. Kelly recruits the helicopter pilot Stober to assist in the search. Flying above the forest, they see what they believe to be an animal, only to discover the Naturalist Scott adorned in an animal skin while tracking the bear. He informs them the animal they are looking for is a prehistoric grizzly bear
Grizzly Bear
The grizzly bear , also known as the silvertip bear, the grizzly, or the North American brown bear, is a subspecies of brown bear that generally lives in the uplands of western North America...
(a fictional pleistocene
Pleistocene
The Pleistocene is the epoch from 2,588,000 to 11,700 years BP that spans the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....
Arctodus
Arctodus
Arctodus — known as the short-faced bear or bulldog bear — is an extinct genus of bear endemic to North America during the Pleistocene ~3.0 Ma.—11,000 years ago, existing for approximately three million years. Arctodus simus may have once been Earth's largest mammalian, terrestrial carnivore...
ursos horribilis) standing at least 15 feet tall. Kelly and Stober scoff at the notion.
At the busy lowland campground, the grizzly tears down a tent and kills a woman. Kelly once again insists on closing the park, but Kittridge refuses. The attacks are becoming a national news story and to counteract this, Kittridge allows amateur hunters into the forest. Kelly, Stober and Scott, now a team, are disgusted by this development. Later, a lone hunter is chased by the bear but he evades the animal on foot, falling into a river and floating to safety. Later that night three hunters find a bear cub, that they believe is the cub of the killer grizzly, so they use it as bait for the mother. But the grizzly finds and eats the cub without the hunters noticing. Scott concludes that the bear must be a male. A Ranger at a fire lookout tower
Fire lookout tower
A fire lookout tower, fire tower or lookout tower, provides housing and protection for a person known as a "fire lookout" whose duty it is to search for wildfires in the wilderness...
on the mountain is attacked by the grizzly, the animal tearing down the structure and killing the Ranger.
Kelly and Kittridge continue to argue over closing the park. Frustrated by the politics of the situation, Scott sneaks away to track the grizzly on his own. On the outskirts of the National Park, a mother and child living in a cabin are attacked by the grizzly. The mother is killed and the child survives, but is severely mutilated. Stunned by this development, Kittridge finally allows Kelly to close the park and ban all hunters.
Stober and Kelly now go after the elusive grizzly alone, setting up a trap by hanging a deer
Deer
Deer are the ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. Species in the Cervidae family include white-tailed deer, elk, moose, red deer, reindeer, fallow deer, roe deer and chital. Male deer of all species and female reindeer grow and shed new antlers each year...
carcass from a tree. The grizzly goes for the bait and the men chase the animal through the woods. When they return, they discover the grizzly has tricked them and taken the deer carcass. Tracking on horseback, Scott finds the remains of the carcass and calls Stober and Kelly on the radio. He is going to drag the deer behind his horse and create a trap by leading the grizzly towards them. The grizzly surprises Scott, killing his horse
Horse
The horse is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus, or the wild horse. It is a single-hooved mammal belonging to the taxonomic family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, single-toed animal of today...
and knocking him unconscious. Scott awakens to find himself alive, but half-buried in the ground. The grizzly immediately returns and kills him.
Kelly and Stober discover Scott's body and in despair, decide to return to the helicopter
Helicopter
A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by one or more engine-driven rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forwards, backwards, and laterally...
to find the grizzly from the air. They immediately spot the bear in a clearing and quickly land. The grizzly attacks the helicopter, swiping the craft causing Stober to be thrown clear. The grizzly kills Stober and then turns on Kelly, who frantically pulls a bazooka
Bazooka
Bazooka is the common name for a man-portable recoilless rocket antitank weapon, widely fielded by the U.S. Army. Also referred to as the "Stovepipe", the innovative bazooka was amongst the first-generation of rocket propelled anti-tank weapons used in infantry combat...
from the helicopter. Before the bear can reach him, Kelly fires the bazooka at the grizzly, killing the animal instantly. For several seconds, Kelly sadly stares at the burning remains of the grizzly and then walks towards Stober's body.
Jaws comparisons
Released in May 1976, less than one year after JawsJaws (film)
Jaws is a 1975 American horror-thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg and based on Peter Benchley's novel of the same name. In the story, the police chief of Amity Island, a fictional summer resort town, tries to protect beachgoers from a giant man-eating great white shark by closing the beach,...
, Grizzly was criticized as being a thinly veiled rip-off of the now-classic shark
Shark
Sharks are a type of fish with a full cartilaginous skeleton and a highly streamlined body. The earliest known sharks date from more than 420 million years ago....
thriller. Like Jaws
Jaws (film)
Jaws is a 1975 American horror-thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg and based on Peter Benchley's novel of the same name. In the story, the police chief of Amity Island, a fictional summer resort town, tries to protect beachgoers from a giant man-eating great white shark by closing the beach,...
, Grizzly has an unusually large animal preying upon unsuspecting tourists, one of whom is played by Susan Backlinie
Susan Backlinie
Susan Backlinie is a former actress and stuntwoman. She is known for her role as Chrissie Watkins, the first victim in Steven Spielberg's 1975 blockbuster Jaws.-Personal life:...
, who also played the shark's first victim in the celebrated opening scene of Jaws.
Christopher George
Christopher George
Christopher John George was an American television and film actor who was perhaps best known for his starring role in the 1966-1968 TV series The Rat Patrol. He was nominated for a Golden Globe in 1967 as Best TV Star for his performance in the series...
plays Chief Ranger Michael Kelly, skilled at his job but lacking experience when dealing with the dangers of bears, a role similar to Roy Scheider
Roy Scheider
Roy Richard Scheider was an American actor. He was best known for his leading role as police chief Martin C...
's Police Chief Martin Brody in Jaws. Kelly must rely on the expertise of naturalist Arthur Scott (Richard Jaeckel
Richard Jaeckel
Richard Hanley Jaeckel was an American actor of film and television.-Life and career:Jaeckel was born in Long Beach, New York. A short, but tough guy, he played a variety of characters during his fifty years in movies & television and became one of Hollywood's best known character actors...
), just as Brody recruits marine scientist Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss
Richard Dreyfuss
Richard Stephen Dreyfuss is an American actor best known for starring in a number of film, television, and theater roles since the late 1960s, including the films American Graffiti, Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Goodbye Girl, Whose Life Is It Anyway?, Stakeout, Always, What About...
).
Kelly is thwarted by Supervisor Charley Kittridge (Joe Dorsey
Joe Dorsey
Joe Dorsey is an American character actor. This familiar supporting player is probably best known for his portrayals of tough roles in films, even though most of his work in films and in television has been brief....
), who refuses to close the National Park for political reasons. In Jaws, Brody is refused permission to close the summer beaches by Mayor Larry Vaughn (Murray Hamilton
Murray Hamilton
Murray Hamilton was an American stage, screen, and television actor who appeared in such memorable films as The Hustler, The Graduate and Jaws.-Early life:...
).
A bounty is put on the grizzly bear, just as an award is offered for the shark in Jaws. The bounty leads to chaos, as hundreds of hunters fill the woods in Grizzly, while huge numbers of boats filled with hunters leave the harbor in Jaws.
During the final hunt for the grizzly bear, Kelly is led by helicopter pilot, Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
veteran and forest guide Don Stober (Andrew Prine
Andrew Prine
Andrew Lewis Prine is an American film, stage, and television actor.-Early life and career:Prine was born in Jennings, Florida. After graduation from Andrew Jackson High School in Miami, Prine made his acting debut three years later in an episode of CBS U.S. Steel Hour...
), just as Brody's shark expedition is led by boat captain, World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
veteran and sea guide Quint (Robert Shaw
Robert Shaw (actor)
Robert Archibald Shaw was an English actor and novelist, remembered for his performances in The Sting , From Russia with Love , A Man for All Seasons , the original The Taking of Pelham One Two Three , Black Sunday , The Deep and Jaws , where he played the shark hunter Quint.-Early life...
).
The bear in Grizzly is killed in similar fashion to the shark in |Jaws in that both creatures' destruction is dramatized by a large explosion.
Inspiration
The idea for Grizzly began when the film's producer and writer Harvey Flaxman encountered a bearBear
Bears are mammals of the family Ursidae. Bears are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans, with the pinnipeds being their closest living relatives. Although there are only eight living species of bear, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats throughout the Northern...
during a family camping trip. Co-producer and co-writer David Sheldon thought the idea would make a good film following the success of Jaws
Jaws (film)
Jaws is a 1975 American horror-thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg and based on Peter Benchley's novel of the same name. In the story, the police chief of Amity Island, a fictional summer resort town, tries to protect beachgoers from a giant man-eating great white shark by closing the beach,...
. William Girdler discovered the script on Sheldon's desk and offered to find financing as long as he could direct the film. Within a week, Girdler was able to obtain $750,000 in financing from Edward L. Montoro
Edward L. Montoro
Edward L. Montoro was an American film producer and distributor known for releasing exploitation films and B-movies during the 1970s and 1980s through his company Film Ventures International...
's Film Ventures International
Film Ventures International
Film Ventures International is an independent movie production and distribution company originally situated in Atlanta, Georgia during the 1970s. FVI garnered a notorious reputation within the industry for producing films which were highly derivative of many blockbusters of the era...
movie distribution company.
Production
Grizzly was filmed on-location in Clayton, GeorgiaClayton, Georgia
Clayton is a city in Rabun County, Georgia, United States. The population was 2,019 at the 2000 census. The city is the county seat of Rabun County and is located in the Blue Ridge Mountains.-History:...
, with many local residents cast in supporting roles. Catherine Rickman, who played one of the first victims, was actually the daughter of Clayton Mayor Frank Rickman. Though unintentional, the casting of Christopher George
Christopher George
Christopher John George was an American television and film actor who was perhaps best known for his starring role in the 1966-1968 TV series The Rat Patrol. He was nominated for a Golden Globe in 1967 as Best TV Star for his performance in the series...
, Andrew Prine
Andrew Prine
Andrew Lewis Prine is an American film, stage, and television actor.-Early life and career:Prine was born in Jennings, Florida. After graduation from Andrew Jackson High School in Miami, Prine made his acting debut three years later in an episode of CBS U.S. Steel Hour...
and Richard Jaeckel
Richard Jaeckel
Richard Hanley Jaeckel was an American actor of film and television.-Life and career:Jaeckel was born in Long Beach, New York. A short, but tough guy, he played a variety of characters during his fifty years in movies & television and became one of Hollywood's best known character actors...
marked the second time this trio of actors starred together in the same film. They had previously played supporting roles in the 1970 western
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
Chisum
Chisum
Chisum is a 1970 Warner Bros. Technicolor western motion picture starring John Wayne, Forrest Tucker, Christopher George, Ben Johnson, Glenn Corbett, Geoffrey Deuel, Andrew Prine, Bruce Cabot, Patric Knowles, and Richard Jaeckel....
starring John Wayne
John Wayne
Marion Mitchell Morrison , better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and producer. He epitomized rugged masculinity and became an enduring American icon. He is famous for his distinctive calm voice, walk, and height...
. A Kodiak bear nicknamed "Teddy" performed as the killer grizzly
Grizzly
Grizzly may refer to:* Grizzly bear , a North American bear* Grizzly , a Marvel Comics character* Grizzly , a novel in Gary Paulsen's World of Adventure series...
. "Teddy" was 11 feet tall and was the largest bear in captivity at that time. The bear was rented from the Olympic Game Ranch in Sequim, Washington
Sequim, Washington
Sequim is a city in Clallam County, Washington, United States. The 2010 US Census counted a population of 6,606. Sequim is located along the Dungeness River near the base of the Olympic Mountains...
where it was kept behind an electric fence. The crew was protected from the bear by an a piece of green string running through the shooting locations, and a ticking kitchen timer. This resembled (to the bear) an electric fence. Actors and crew members were instructed to always stay on the camera side of the string. The bear did not actually roar, so it was tricked into making the motions of roaring by throwing several marshmallows into its mouth and then holding a final marshmallow in front of its face but not throwing it. The bear would stretch for it. The sound was artificially produced.
The original artwork for the Grizzly movie poster
Movie poster
A movie poster is a poster used to advertise a film. Studios often print several posters that vary in size and content for various domestic and international markets. They normally contain an image with text. Today's posters often feature photographs of the main actors. Prior to the 1990s,...
was created by the popular comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
artist Neal Adams
Neal Adams
Neal Adams is an American comic book and commercial artist known for helping to create some of the definitive modern imagery of the DC Comics characters Superman, Batman, and Green Arrow; as the co-founder of the graphic design studio Continuity Associates; and as a creators-rights advocate who...
. A novelization by Will Collins was published as well.
Edward L. Montoro and Film Ventures International
In an interview with The Hollywood ReporterThe Hollywood Reporter
Formerly a daily trade magazine, The Hollywood Reporter re-launched in late 2010 as a unique hybrid publication serving the entertainment industry and a consumer audience...
on May 1, 1984, Edward L. Montoro
Edward L. Montoro
Edward L. Montoro was an American film producer and distributor known for releasing exploitation films and B-movies during the 1970s and 1980s through his company Film Ventures International...
said he considered Grizzly to be the best film he ever produced. Montoro founded his production company, Film Ventures International
Film Ventures International
Film Ventures International is an independent movie production and distribution company originally situated in Atlanta, Georgia during the 1970s. FVI garnered a notorious reputation within the industry for producing films which were highly derivative of many blockbusters of the era...
(FVI) in 1968 in Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
. His company distributed exploitation films and B-movies. Montoro's most successful effort as producer was Grizzly, earning $39 million dollars worldwide. Montoro chose to keep the profits for himself, claiming the film ran over-budget. This caused director William Girdler
William Girdler
William Girdler was an American filmmaker. In a span of seven years, from 1972 to 1978, he directed nine feature films in such genres as horror and action...
and the film's co-producers and co-writers Harvey Flaxman and David Sheldon to file-suit. Girdler returned to FVI the following year to direct the similarly themed The Day of the Animals, also produced by Montoro. The film was not as successful as Grizzly, and Girdler and Montoro parted ways.
In 1980 Montoro picked up the Italian film Great White
Great White (film)
Great White is a 1980 Italian horror film directed by Enzo G. Castellari and starring James Franciscus and Vic Morrow. The film is extremely similar to Steven Spielberg's Jaws.-Plot:...
, a thriller about a shark attacking tourists, for release in the United States. Montoro spent several million dollars on advertising, but the executives at Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures
-1920:* White Youth* The Flaming Disc* Am I Dreaming?* The Dragon's Net* The Adorable Savage* Putting It Over* The Line Runners-1921:* The Fire Eater* A Battle of Wits* Dream Girl* The Millionaire...
thought the film was too derivative of Jaws
Jaws (film)
Jaws is a 1975 American horror-thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg and based on Peter Benchley's novel of the same name. In the story, the police chief of Amity Island, a fictional summer resort town, tries to protect beachgoers from a giant man-eating great white shark by closing the beach,...
(a similar complaint leveled at Grizzly). Universal filed suit and won, and Great White was pulled from the theaters. The lawsuit and setback cost FVI several million dollars.
Mutant was the final film produced by Montoro. Opening in 1984, the film's budget and minor box office performance caused further damage to FVI. Montoro was also involved in a major divorce
Divorce
Divorce is the final termination of a marital union, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between the parties...
settlement. Sometime in 1984, Montoro took one million dollars from FVI and vanished never to be seen again. FVI collapsed the following year. It has been speculated Montoro fled to Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, but his whereabouts remain unknown.
The "Sequel"
The so-called sequel Grizzly II: The PredatorGrizzly II: The Predator
Grizzly II: The Predator is an unreleased horror sequel to the popular film, Grizzly. The film is notable for featuring early appearances of future superstars George Clooney, Charlie Sheen, and Laura Dern in small supporting roles...
was a nickname for an original film entitled "Predator: The Concert" filmed in 1985 in Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
but never released to theaters. David Sheldon, the co-producer and writer of Grizzly wrote the screenplay with his screenwriter wife Joan McCall. The cast included Charlie Sheen
Charlie Sheen
Carlos Irwin Estevez , better known by his stage name Charlie Sheen, is an American film and television actor. He is the youngest son of actor Martin Sheen....
, George Clooney
George Clooney
George Timothy Clooney is an American actor, film director, producer, and screenwriter. For his work as an actor, he has received two Golden Globe Awards and an Academy Award...
and Laura Dern
Laura Dern
Laura Elizabeth Dern is an American actress, film director and producer. Dern has acted in such films as Smooth Talk , Blue Velvet , Fat Man and Little Boy , Wild at Heart , Jurassic Park and October Sky...
, who were discovered by them and were unknown at the time. The main scenes for Grizzly II: The Predator were completed, but before the special effects with a huge electronic-mechanical bear could be used, the executive producer Joseph Proctor disappeared with the funds. The filmed footage of the live bear
Bear
Bears are mammals of the family Ursidae. Bears are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans, with the pinnipeds being their closest living relatives. Although there are only eight living species of bear, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats throughout the Northern...
, however, attacking a live rock concert
Rock concert
The term rock concert refers to a musical performance in the style of any one of many genres inspired by "rock and roll" music. While a variety of vocal and instrumental styles can constitute a rock concert, this phenomenon is typically characterized by bands playing at least one electric guitar,...
was also shot in Hungary. There have been attempts to recut and film more scenes, but to date, the film has never been released.