Dumbed-down retread of 1971's sleeper hit "Willard", which begins with that film's anti-hero, Willard Stiles (Bruce Davison), getting killed by his former rodent friends while nose-twitching leader Ben supervises. Two blocks away, a precocious little boy with a heart condition befriends Ben and conceals him from the cops and neighborhood denizens. It is absolutely astounding that Gilbert A. Ralston's juvenile script passed muster with the producers (unless it was diluted by the filmmakers during production). This thriller is so silly--at one point with leotard and towel-clad ladies at a health spa taking to the hills when Ben's army invades their exercise lair--that the picture could only work as a black comedy (and it's too corny to fill even that bill). The sickly tyke (Lee Harcourt Montgomery) is far too studied a child actor to make his role convincing--and he's forced to carry this thing for over 90 minutes. The townspeople react to the rat-damage caused to a grocery store and to a terrified trucker as if they were extras in a German Expressionist drama, while frustrated cop Joseph Campanella is forced to interrogate the little brat while he plays Moonlight Sonata on the harmonica! * from ****
Review of Ben
