Bert I. Gordon's The Food of the Gods

Marjoe Gortner as Morgan.

Is it possible to feel nostalgic about a Bert I. Gordon movie?

Mr. B.I.G. was known for making movies about giant people (The Amazing Colossal Man), enormous insects (Beginning of the End), and large prehistoric creatures (King Dinosaur). He was not known making good movies. Thankfully, there is no correlation between a film's quality and its nostalgic value. Hence, I feel no guilt about enjoying a recent viewing of The Food of the Gods (1976), which I originally saw at a tiny cinema in my hometown of Winston-Salem, NC.

Very loosely based on H.G. Wells' 1904 novel, The Food of the Gods finds a professional football player named Morgan (Marjoe Gortner) taking friends on a hunting trip to a remote island off the coast of British Columbia. When one of the friends is killed by what appears to be a giant wasp, Morgan seeks help at a local farm. He discovers that the farmer and his wife (Ida Lupino) have been feeding a mysterious substance to their chickens--which has caused the animals to grow to gigantic proportions.

Pamela Franklin in a bad hat.

After burying his friend on the mainland, Morgan returns to the island and learns that the substance has also been consumed by wasps and rats...causing them to grow dangerously large as well. A businessman (Ralph Meeker), whom the farmer had approached, wants to buy the rights to the growth substance. He and his associate (Pamela Franklin) soon find themselves trapped on the farm with Morgan, the farmer's wife, and three others as the giant rats strategize how to surround and devour the humans.

The Food of the Gods was one of several Man vs. Nature films produced during the 1970s. Other similar-themed movies include Frogs (1972), Grizzly (1976), and Day of the Animals (1977). It's to Bert Gordon's credit that The Food of the Gods might actually be the best of this bunch. Yes, the characters are two-dimensional, the dialogue sometimes silly, and--let's be honest--acting expectations are low when your leading man is Marjoe Gortner and your chief villain is a white rat.

On the plus side, The Food of the Gods moves quickly, takes advantage of its atmospheric location (Bowen Island in British Columbia), and boasts passable special effects. Plus, it features Pamela Franklin (The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, The Innocents) and I'd watch her in any movie. That said, it's hard to stomach the scenes where she flirts with Marjoe as they battle giant rodents.

Giant rats destroy an RV!

The Food of the Gods made $5 million at the box office, making it one of the forty highest-grossing films of the year. Bert Gordon followed it up with the wacky Empire of the Ants (1977), starring Joan Collins and Jacqueline Scott (one of our favorite interviewees). A belated sequel to Gods, titled Food of the Gods II or the slightly better Gnaw: Food of the Goods II, appeared in 1989. It bears no resemblance to the first film, other than a growth serum and giant rats.

Interestingly, Bert Gordon made an earlier, even looser adaptation of The Foods of the Gods in 1965. Called Village of the Giants, it stars a young Ron Howard as a boy genius who invents a "goo" that causes humans to grow to 30 feet in height. Several teenagers consume it and proceed to terrorize their town. It's sometimes listed as one of the worst films ever made--and I wouldn't argue with that. However, it's admittedly fun to watch because of the cast. In addition to Howard, it stars Beau Bridges, Tommy Kirk, Tisha Stirling, Johnny Crawford, Joy Harmon, and Ryan O'Neal's lookalike brother Kevin. The Beau Brummels are also on hand to perform a couple of songs.

Pamela Franklin Reveals the Third Secret and Takes on Miss Brodie

Actress Pamela Franklin.

With the exception of Hayley Mills, Pamela Franklin may have had the best 1960s career of any young actor. She started the decade with a spellbinding performance in The Innocents (1961). She sparkled in the offbeat Disney film A Tiger Walks (1964) and Hammer's underrated suspense film The Nanny (1965). However, Pamela Franklin's best performances were reserved for the unusual thriller The Third Secret (1964) and the Maggie Smith classic The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969).

The Third Secret opens with the apparent suicide of renowned British psychoanalyst Dr. Leo Whitset. It's an unexpected event that shakes American journalist Alex Stedman (Stephen Boyd), one of Whitset's patients, who is convinced that the doctor wouldn't take his own life. When Whitset's teenage daughter, Catherine (Pamela Franklin), seeks out Alex, she expresses the same doubts. The two eventually team up to find Whitset's murderer, focusing their investigation on three patients: an art gallery owner (Richard Attenborough), a secretary (Diane Cilento), and a barrister (Jack Hawkins).

Pamela Franklin and Stephen Boyd.

The core of The Third Secret is the somewhat disturbing relationship between Alex and Catherine. At times, it projects a father-daughter vibe, but then it lapses into an uncomfortably adult-like friendship between a 33-year-old man and a fourteen-year-old girl. It's no wonder that Catherine's uncle assumes the worst when he finds the two of them alone in Catherine's bedroom in her empty home.

As she did in The Innocents, Pamela Franklin gives a remarkable performance as a youth who behaves well beyond her years. She keeps The Third Secret afloat as it rambles occasionally towards its surprisingly satisfactory conclusion. Incidentally, the first secret is what we don't tell other people and the second secret is what we don't tell ourselves. And the third secret is....well, I'm not telling (a good print of the movie is currently on YouTube).

Four years after The Third Secret, Pamela Franklin played one of the "Brodie Girls" in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, which was written by Jay Presson Allen (Marnie) and based on the 1961 novel by Muriel Spark. 

Maggie Smith as Miss Brodie.

Maggie Smith stars as the title character, a forceful teacher at a girls' boarding school in Edinburgh in the 1930s. Popular with her students and armed with tenure, Miss Brodie defies the school's headmistress and teaches whatever she wants (e.g., she sings the praises of Mussolini and Franco). Miss Brodie enters into a relationship with the school's conservative choir teacher (Gordon Jackson), but still harbors passionate feelings toward the married art teacher (with whom she had a brief fling).

As the years go by, Sandy (Pamela Franklin), one of Miss Brodie's favored students, becomes disillusioned toward her mentor. She becomes the art teacher's mistress, but breaks it off after learning he is still infatuated with Miss Brodie. Following the death of a fellow student, Sandy decides that Miss Brodie has become a dangerous influence and takes matters into her own hands.

Pamela Franklin as Sandy.

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is Maggie Smith's movie and her tour-de-force performance earned her both Oscar and BAFTA best actress awards. However, Pamela Franklin holds her own in the climatic confrontation between Miss Brodie and Sandy. She earned a BAFTA supporting actress nomination, but lost to her co-star Celia Johnson, who played the schools' headmistress. (For the record, Rod McKuen's song "Jean" was also Oscar-nominated; the singer Oliver's cover of it reached #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 later in 1969.)

Pamela Franklin's career stalled unexpectedly in the 1970s after a move to the U.S. She appeared in a Green Acres episode that served as a failed backdoor pilot for a sitcom called Pam. She was a frequent guest star in TV shows like Cannon, Medical Center, and Fantasy Island. She occasionally starred in movies, with The Legend of Hell House probably being her best film during this period. Pamela Franklin retired from acting in 1981 at the age of 31.