- Directed by Daniel Mann
- Written by Gilbert Ralston, Stephen Gilbert
- Stars Bruce Davison, Elsa Lanchester, Sondra Locke, and Ernest Borgnine
- Run Time: 1 Hour. 35 Minutes
- Trailer: Willard (1971) – Official Trailer (HD)
Non-spoiler Judgment Zone
It’s like fifty years old, so it’s probably not a spoiler to say this is the best “rat movie” ever made. Yes, we both like it, and to was good enough to get a remake in 2003 (which we’ll review at some future date, so we recommend it.
Synopsis
Credits roll over clips of a metal foundry, with workers hard at work. Willard’s walking out, done for the day, but his boss, Martin stops him and hands a big packet of work over to him that he needs done over the weekend. It takes just long enough that Willard misses his bus.
He gets home and his mother and her ancient friends give him a birthday party. They invited Mr. Martin to the party, but of course, he doesn’t come. They all say Willard needs to toughen up and become more aggressive, but he’s a quiet, introverted guy. It seems Martin stole the business from Willard’s father a few years back.
Willard goes out in the backyard to sulk and notices a rat on the ground. He throws a piece of cake at it to make it go away, but the rat has the opposite reaction: it likes the cake. Later, his mother gets on him for letting the house fall apart; she even saw a rat in the yard. And when is he going to talk to Martin about his job?
Before long, Willard has a whole little family of rats in the backyard that he feeds regularly. They’re almost tame.
Monday morning, he’s a bit late for work, and Martin isn’t happy. Willard gets chewed out once again for being behind. He even hired an assistant for Willard so he gets caught back up. He threatens to fire Willard if he doesn’t get caught up. Work just gets worse, but at least he can work on training his rats once he gets home.
His overbearing mother asks him if he killed the rats, and he lies and says he did. His mother’s a hypochondriac, and she calls up Charlotte to come over and help with the house. Willard doesn’t like Charlotte.
Willard teaches the rats to understand his words. He names a few of the smarter ones Queenie and Socrates, and the big one is Ben. He starts breeding them, and before long, there are a lot of rats.
Willard argues with Martin, and Martin offers to buy their house. Martin yells at Willard for not sending out his anniversary invitations on time, but he did. Willard decides to pack up a whole bunch of rats and set them loose at Martin’s party. This has predictable results for the partygoers. Willard scoops the rats into his bag and goes home.
The next morning, Martin gets a phone call; he goes out to the office and tells Willard to go home because his mother is sick. When he gets home, he finds Charlotte going through their stuff, as his mother has died. Willard immediately throws out Charlotte, but he invites the rats to live in the cellar.
The lawyer explains that the house is heavily mortgaged, but there’s no money. Willard says he has no intention of selling the huge old house. A bunch of people come over after the funeral, including Martin and Charlotte. Willard’s happier with his rats.
Charlotte comes over again and just lets herself in. She also wants him to sell the house. He yells at her and takes away her keys.
He decides to take his favorites, Ben and Socrates, with him to the office on Saturday when no one else will be around. He goes into the office’s storeroom and lets them out. Later on, Joan comes back into the office and takes Willard outside to find that she’s bought him a cat. The cat really wants into his briefcase. He ends up dumping the cat with a stranger.
When he gets home, he finds that his house is going to be sold for taxes. He needs money, as he owes $2500 in back taxes. The rats eat a lot, and he yells at them for eating and breeding too much.
He asks Charlotte for money, and she isn’t very forgiving. His mother’s other friends aren’t much use either; they all say he needs to sell that old house.
There’s a big-money customer talking about carrying $8000 at the office the next day, and Willard writes down the address. That night, he breaks in and has the rats chew through the man’s bedroom door. They find the rats and run out of the house while Willard steals the money from the man’s money clip.
Willard overhears Martin talking about his plans for Willard’s house and knows that Martin is going to fire him for leverage. Martin tries to bully Joan into helping him convince Willard to sell the house, but she refuses. Martin fires her.
Willard packs up his two rats and takes them to the office again, as usual. The two rats are noisier than usual, and Willard warns them to be quiet. As Martin gives Willard his termination notice, one of the office ladies goes into the storeroom and sees the rats. Martin kills Socrates as Ben (and Willard) hides and watches.
Willard drives back into work that night with a car full of hundreds of rats. He confronts Martin with all the rats with him. With his captive audience, he finally tells Martin everything that’s on his mind. “Tear him up!” Commands Willard. And they do, very quickly.
Willard goes home, leaving Ben and the other rats behind. When he gets home, he starts to kill the other rats in their cages.
The next day, Willard and Joan have dinner. Halfway through, he sees Ben sitting on a shelf in the house; he found his way home. He checks the basement, and there are more rats down there than ever before.
He throws Joan out and confronts Ben, who bites him. Willard agrees to feed Ben and the gang, but he grabs a box of rat poison instead. Ben reads the label on the rat poison box and squeaks out a warning to the others. Willard then attacks Ben with a broom, but we see who’s the boss now…
Commentary
I saw this when I was little, and I could have sworn it was black and white. Maybe that was just the kind of TV I had back in those dark ages. It did leave an impression back then, as my first pet was a hamster I named “Ben.”
Bruce Davison certainly has a crazy “look” here, so his actions are believable and you don’t doubt he’d do all this. He’s pouty, moody, and is definitely a 70s version of “emo.” He looks more like a teenager, but at the birthday party, they all mention he’s 27 here.
There are only two really recognizable “actor-rats” in the film, but there are hundreds and hundreds used in various sequences. Have we seen the last of Ben the rat? I suspect not…