All the Kind Strangers (1974)

Growing up, my introduction to the great hard-boiled work of Mickey Spillane was the TV series 'Mike Hammer', in which Stacy Keach was the ninth of the 11--so far--to portray the private eye. I was sad when the series was cancelled because he had been jailed for smuggling cocaine, but I always kept an eye out for his fine acting in the realm of cinema. This led to my great enjoyment of his work in 'The Ninth Configuration', 'W.', and 'Escape from L.A.', and when I saw that he was in this TV-movie, found in my 50-film Mill Creek pack, 'Nightmare Worlds', I was extremely enthused, though I had never seen any films by director Burt Kennedy, though I had heard of him. Keach is definitely one of my favourite character actors in contemporary or recent (post-1970) cinema.

Though on a very low budget, with seven children and two adults, a car and a farmhouse, this 'Children of the Corn'-meets-'Deliverance'-meets-'Lord of the Flies' is really worth your time. It brings mood, despair and desperation together in a bewitching concoction, and is suspenseful, without resorting to gore or other gimmickry (judging from the lurid glances Keach's Jimmy got from the oldest girl, Martha, I think I can assume any modern-day remakes wouldn't pass up that plot-possibility, or possible incest between the coming-of-age characters), and at the same time, without resorting to cheesy, Hallmark-movie-of-the-week pat easy solutions to the crisis that not only the two kidnapped adults face, but the seven children, in their bleak, desperate, no-future situations do as well.

Heartily recommended for the whole family. This is one film that parents and their children could watch together and talk about afterwards, for such questions as, 'Why did the children feel it was necessary for parent-type people to be around?' I wish more self-obsessed teenagers and young adults of today could watch this and think about how blessed they really are to have the parents and family that they do have. It might make an important difference in their lives. THAT is one of the beautiful and compelling mysteries of cinema.