Skullduggery is a 1970

1970 in film

The year 1970 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* January 9 - Larry Fine, the second member of The Three Stooges, suffers a massive stroke, therefore ending his career....

 science fiction film

Science fiction film

Science fiction film is a film genre that uses science fiction: speculative, science-based depictions of phenomena that are not necessarily accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial life forms, alien worlds, extrasensory perception, and time travel, often along with futuristic...

 starring Burt Reynolds

Burt Reynolds

Burton Leon "Burt" Reynolds, Jr. is an American actor. Some of his memorable roles include Bo 'Bandit' Darville in Smokey and the Bandit, Lewis Medlock in Deliverance, Bobby "Gator" McCluskey in White Lightning and sequel Gator, Paul Crewe and Coach Nate Scarborough in The Longest Yard and its...

, Susan Clark

Susan Clark

Susan Clark is a Canadian actress, possibly best-known for her role as Katherine on the American television sitcom Webster, on which she appeared with her husband, Alex Karras.-Personal life:...

 and Edward Fox

Edward Fox (actor)

Edward Charles Morice Fox, OBE is an English stage, film and television actor.He is generally associated with portraying the role of the upper-class Englishman, such as the title character in the film The Day of the Jackal and King Edward VIII in the serial Edward & Mrs...

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The screenplay is based on the French novel Les Animaux dénaturés

Les Animaux dénaturés

Les Animaux dénaturés is a 1952 novel by Jean Bruller under his pseudonym Vercors, which was turned into the motion picture Skullduggery, starring Burt Reynolds...

 by Jean Bruller

Jean Bruller

Jean Marcel Bruller was a French writer and illustrator who co-founded Les Éditions de Minuit with Pierre de Lescure and Yvonne Paraf. During the World War II occupation of northern France he joined the Resistance and his texts were published under the pseudonym Vercors.Several of his novels have...

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Plot

On an expedition in Papua New-Guinea a tribe of apelike creatures is found. They are named the Tropis. Quickly they are being used as slaves by humans.

Then one of the Tropis is allegedly murdered. The following murder trial centers round the question: are the Tropis a form of humans or a form of animals?