Ben

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Ralston</B></div> <div> <B>Music................Walter Scharf</B></div> <div> <B>Producer...........Mort Briskin</B></div> <div> <B>Executive Producer.....Charles A. Pratt</B></div> <div> <B>Animals Trained by Moe DiSesso and Marionettes by Rene'</B></div> <div> <B>Special Effects by Bud David</B></div> <div> <B>Makeup by Jack H. Young</B></div> <div> <B>"Ben's Song" and "Start the Day" by Don Black and Walter Scharf </B></div> <div> <B>"Ben's Song" Performed by Michael Jackson*</B></div> <div> <B>Based on Characters Created by Stephen Gilbert</B></div> <bR> <div> <B><U>Dramatis Personae</U></B></div> <div> <B>Cliff Kirtland..Joseph Campanella(Body Chemistry, The Game, Hangar 18)</B></div> <div> <B>Billy Hatfield..Arthur O'Connell(Kissin' Cousins, Anatomy of a Murder)</B></div> <div> <B>Beth Garrison...Rosemary Murphy (For the Boys, Walking Tall)</B></div> <div> <B>Eve Garrison....Meredith Baxter (Family-TV, Family Ties-TV,)</B></div> <div> <B>Joe Greer.......Kaz Garas (The Devastator, Final Mission, Last Safari)</B></div> <div> <B>Danny Garrison..Lee Montgomery(Burnt Offerings, Midnight Hour, Mutant)</B></div> <div> <B>Policeman.......Norman Alden (Red Line 7000)</B></div> <div> <B>Kelly...........Paul Carr (The Severed Arm)</B></div> <div> <B>Ed..............James Luisi (The Red Light Sting)</B></div> <div> <B>Engineer........Kenneth Tobey(Davy Crockett,King of the Wild Frontier)</B></div> <div> <B>Reade...........Richard Van Vleet</B></div> <div> <B>Henry Gray......Scott Garrett </B></div> <div> <B>Mrs. Gray.......Arlen Stuart</B></div> <div> <B>George..........Richard Drasin</B></div> <bR> <div> <B><U>Critique</U></B><B>: Formally evil rat Ben is back, just trying to get along, bringing joy and love into the life of a lonely sickly boy, however, a callous and oversensitive public declares war. Although the scene at the supermarket is truly scary and the stuff of nightmares, the earnest characterization of the driven head cop, too self-sufficient to accept a light, and the drawn hopeless faces of the defenseless community are a bit overdone, given their basically annoying pest problem. The ethics conflict (defend Ben or destroy Ben) fizzles at the end due to the true friendship between Danny and Ben, plus the fact that Ben is now a migrant gatherer and responsible family man having sewed his wild oats as the symbol of absolute evil in the first movie. This makes him a little less horrifying. Ben is in a simple living space conflict that leads to some pushing and shoving. The Michael Jackson version of "Ben's Song" at the end is truly beautiful and its incorporation is actually touching and knocks the otherwise mediocre film up a notch. If you are really afraid of rats you might find this scary, but it is more of a sad story about a lonely boy with a rat for a friend than a horror movie about evil rats, as was the first. Actually the ending may be the only tear jerker on the horror racks. Please remind children viewing the film that rats, like locusts and gypsy moth caterpillars, shouldn't be nourished secretly because they will appreciate ruling the world all the more if it costs them a struggle.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B><U>Plot Summary</U></B><B>: Flashback to the end of </B><I><B>Willard </B></I><B>in which Willard mixes a bowl of pesticides and tries to destroy Ben with a broom, but is instead killed by Ben's army of rats. The townspeople hold a vigil outside Willard's estate. As police detectives survey the scene, Ben watches from the closet. The reporter Hatfield asks the Lieutenant how he is supposed to play down a second ripped apart body. He wants to see Willard's diary but is denied. A first search of the house shows no rats but a guard is posted until the board of health arrives in the morning. When one of the officers investigates the seemingly ratless house, he hears a sound in the walls and pries open a panel, unleashing an army of Ben's friends on himself. As the Lieutenant calls for the exterminator, he explains to Hatfield that according to his diary, "Willard Stiles trained thousands of intelligent rats". Little Danny Garrison, a fatherless survivor of heart surgery, his older sister Eve, and mother, a dress designer, live just a few blocks from all the excitement and with the next day comes an army of rats into the brush behind their house. As Danny plays with a balsa wood airplane in the yard, and plays with his marionette theater in the workshop, his activities are monitored by the head rat, Ben. Danny makes the six-year old mistake of sharing his lunch with the cute killer rat Ben and they quickly become friends, communicating just as Ben and Willard had before. That night, Ben and his friends knock over a fish and poultry truck leaving the driver a babbling wreck. Danny sits at the piano and easily composes an ode to his friendship with Ben which is as disturbing as it is beautiful. That night, the bad guys (rats) hit a grocery store where they display a strong preference for Kellogg's cereals. This time, however, they are discovered by a night watchman who reports "Millions of rats!". Danny asks his furry friend if he is the "real Ben" and accuses him of pulling the supermarket job. After initial denial, the rat confesses. Still, Ben appears to have a friend indeed in Danny, who advises him not to take so much from one place as "it upsets people" and hides him from a police search of his yard while the police spread rat poison. When the police leave, Danny shows Ben how the traps work and advises him to avoid them. A bully in a black turtleneck puts Danny in a half Nelson and calls him a sissy, but the unfortunate bully learns you shouldn't pick on people when he is run off by rats. The mother of the scratched up boy arrives with the police, but the only rat they find is a marionette creation. Danny's whole truth rule/agreement with his sister Eve is dented when he lies to the police about fraternizing with rodents. Dr. Marcus announces that Danny might need another operation and that he might die, but Ben keeps the sickly boy's spirits high with his nightly visits. From the hospital to the health spa, to the defenseless cheese shop, the rats continue their crime spree. While the sewer commission conducts a search of the cities drains, Ben shows Danny where the rats live in a closed off side drain where they can't be seen. Finally, Danny is exposed when his sister checks on him to find his bed full of rats. His mother then deduces that bully Henry didn't simply fall in the rose bush and calls the police. The police leave angry when Danny fakes a seizure to avoid giving them information. The umteenth search of the sewer is conclusive as the rats fell their fourth victim and injure another. As the war with the rats begins, Danny is discovered missing from his room. Sister Eve heads into the sewer, where Danny is having a real seizure. While both are below, the Lieutenant orders an all out assault with jackhammers, shotguns, and flame throwers just as Danny tells Ben to run. Both sides are in for heavy losses in the ill advised war beneath the city and Danny and Eve are caught in the middle. They part ways and escape as Ben and company are immolated.</B></div> </td> </tr></table></body>