Darth-Helmet Willard Stiles (Bruce Davison) is a social misfit with a lousy job ran by a boss named Al Martin (Ernest Borgnine) and a dominating mother named Henrietta (Elsa Lancaster). He makes friends down in the basement with rats even a big one which he names as Ben, he not only can communicate with the rats but they can follow his command even to kill people.Co-starring Sandra Locke, this 1971 horror thriller is one of the better killer animal movies. This movie kicked off Bruce's career and this movie was shot on a small budget by Cinerama releasing and became a surprise box-office hit in the summer of 1971. After this movie's success Borgine was offered higher salary since then, the film spawned a sequel and a remake in 2003. Based on an obscure novel called "The Ratman's notebooks", this is a chilling and very enjoyable killer rat take on Psycho and quite similar in aspects to Hitchcock's masterpiece. This movie with Jaws's success lead to killer animal films that dominated the 70s and early 80s and made people fear rats. I like Davison's performance as the social misfit turned villain and Willard is a sympathetic character you feel bad for and feel like booing at his boss Al Martin whom was superbly performed by Ernest Borgnine and the mother was nicely performed by the Bride of Frankenstein herself.

Wizard-8 As you may know, "Willard" was a big hit at the box office back in 1971. Probably the offbeat (and then quite original) premise explains part of this, though I think that the fact that the trailer included the part where Bruce Davison says, "You made me hate myself! Well, I like myself now!" attracted many moviegoers as well. Anyway, how is the movie through today's eyes? Well, it has top notch performances. Certainly, Davison is great playing a young man who is breaking down mentally, but kudos also has to go to Ernest Borgnine, who plays a real creep who is at the same time believable. Also, the movie also has a kernel of interest at any moment. However, the pacing by today's standards is quite slow at times; some fat could have been trimmed. Though at the same time, there are some moments where a bit more information should have been provided, like why Davison decides to befriend rats in the first place. Despite these problems, I think the movie does deserve a look, at the very least as a cultural artefact. And as I said, the movie is never dull despite being sluggish at times.

Scott LeBrun Bruce Davison memorably portrays the title character in this entertaining animal-themed thriller that was a big hit back in its day. Willard Stiles is a wimpy, awkward doormat of a man, regularly chewed out by his demanding boss Martin (Ernest Borgnine) and harangued by his clingy, equally demanding mother Henrietta (Elsa Lanchester). He has zero friends in the world, until he decides to take pity on the scores of rats infesting his property. He even gives the two most dominant characters names: "Socrates" is a gentle white rat, "Ben" a more aggressive brown rat. Willard soon becomes able to get the rats to do his bidding, which comes in handy in such matters as revenge.It's not hard to see why "Willard" would have connected with audiences back in 1971. The relationship between the boy and his rodents is admittedly touching, and the head rats Socrates and Ben are very well trained (as well as rats can be trained). Now, granted, you don't always sympathize with Willard. Sometimes he comes off as a real jerk. But you feel bad for him often enough to enjoy his revenge. For example, getting the rats to ruin a backyard dinner party held by Martin. You also hope that his budding relationship with a lovely temp employee (the appealing Sondra Locke) will better his situation, or at least brighten him up a bit. For this viewer, it didn't matter so much that the film "lacked style"; it was still a reasonably entertaining story (based on the book "The Ratman's Notebooks" by Stephen Gilbert) told in capable enough fashion by screenwriter Gilbert Ralston and director Daniel Mann. The music score by Alex North is simply wonderful.Borgnine provides excellent support, obviously having fun with playing a mean, conniving boss who seems to take a perverse pleasure in humiliating Willard in front of others. Lanchester is just right during the amount of screen time that she gets. Michael Dante, Jody Gilbert, John Myhers, J. Pat O'Malley, and others comprise a fine supporting cast.The clear lesson to be learned from this one is simply this: if you have very few friends in this world, do NOT turn your back on them, no matter how small they may be.Followed by a sequel, "Ben", just one year later, and a second adaptation of the book in 2003 (with Crispin Glover as Willard, R. Lee Ermey as Martin, and Jackie Burroughs as Henrietta).Seven out of 10.

dbdumonteil Well,not for me;the first version of "Willard " which I saw when it was theatrically released did not scare me at all.It's one of these very rare movies the remake of which is better.Crispin Glover is far superior to the nice Bruce Davison;the only actor that was really impressive was Ernst Borgnine ,but R. Lee Hermey is not chopped liver either particularly when he delivers his famous line about Mickey Mouse .The first version lacks humor (present in the remake ,the scene of the computer -and the mouse- when the villain watches dirty pictures is hilarious ),and is marred by bland sentimental scenes .Actually the nightmare begins when the film ends.The rest could be an average episode from an average sitcom.