Stalk the Wild Child (1976) (TV)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

Director:

William Hale

Writer:

Peter Packer (writer)

Release Date:

3 November 1976 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

A young boy who had been abandoned as a child and raised by wild dogs is taken to a university, where a team attempts to teach him civilized behavior. |

Cast

David Janssen	...	Dr. James Hazard
Trish Van Devere	...	Maggie
Ben Bottoms	...	Cal, as a youth (as Benjamin Bottoms)
Joseph Bottoms	...	Cal, as a young man
Jamie Smith-Jackson	...	Andrea
Allan Arbus	...	Gault
Marsha Warner	...	Secretary
Fran Ryan	...	Ellen Mott
Jerome Thor	...	Menzies
George Garro	...	Lockridge
Rhea Perlman	...	Jean
Morgan Upton	...	Hank
Michael Twaine	...	Juvenile Officer (as Michael Twain)
Barry Van Dyke	...	Volleyball Player
Steven Kavner	...	Student

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Charles Fries Productions

Realistic take on the trials of feral children

'Stalk the Wild Child' is probably one of cinema's more accurate interpretations of feral/wild children and the plight of rehabilitating them. In this film, we follow Cal, a young boy dumped in a forest as a toddler only to find a new family in the wolves who raise him. When he is discovered, aged around ten, it is a strenuous task for psychologist Dr Hazard and his assistant to reacclimatises this child, who thinks and acts very much in an animalistic manner, back into normal human society. Yet, while on the surface they do succeed to some degree, Cal experiences problems right into adulthood as his wolfish childhood is always lurking under the surface.

A far cry from fuzzy Disney -esque Mowgli stories, this film explores what it is to be a feral child and the ethics of the psychologists who try to help them. Often, the audience does wonder if Hazard is rehabilitating Cal for the child's sake or because it makes a good journal paper (an issue raised in the case of Genie, one of the world's most famous socially-isolated/feral children). It also deals with how such children cope with eventually being introduced to civilisation and how they fare in adulthood, where they can no longer always be protected from the public's glare and from their own past. What is most poignant is the wolves show Cal more love and care than many humans show each other.

'Stalk the Wild Child' is a film definitely suited to those with an interest in the realities of feral children and the complexities of their situation. It is a good visual companion to books covering this topic.