The scene opens upon a sprawling mansion which lies nestled near the foothills of tall mountains.
Inside,three men enter a large trophy room.The oldest man is a commanding presence:tall,grey-haired,possessing a surface congeniality which barely masks his true,vicious nature.He is accompanied by a middle-aged man in a dark suit(a trust officer)and a slender young man(the old man's son.)
Col.Archie Dittman,Sr. - hunter extraordinaire - takes a snifter of brandy from his body servant,Tom. Tom(son of an Igbo tribal chieftain)is Oxford-educated,but an animist who still prays to tribal gods.
A racist,Col.Dittman refers to Tom as "a specimen" and "a savage,like all of his breed."
Col.Dittman calls hunting "my life's work";the old man describes,in glowing detail,how he stalked and killed a huge lion(the head of which is on the wall)one dark,rainy night on the African veldt.
Archie Dittman,Jr.(hostile toward his reprehensible father)continues to drink brandy during his father's self-important diatribe.
Now Dittman Sr. trains his attentions upon his son,Archie Jr.,a recent college graduate.He derogates the boy as "a pallid hand wringer,"but mostly as "doing little but occupying space."
Col.Dittman's life-philosophy is sociopathically simplistic:man must kill other species before being killed himself;that is the basic equation of survival.
Mr.Pierce(the trust officer)expresses disdain for wanton,purposeless killing.Dittman Sr.counters that he kills purposefully:to show his superiority over what he kills.
Col.Dittman now discusses the reason for the trust officer.In Dittman's briefcase are $2M in stocks and bonds,to be turned over next week to Archie Jr. as an inheritance.
Dittman now wants a codicil appended:that if in 15 days his son,Archie, has not shot and killed an animal,the trust will be dissolved.
The trust officer advises that Archie could sue his father,but Col.Dittman admonishes that if Archie tries,he will dribble away the funds on highly-speculative ventures,and convert the $2M by next week into waste paper.
On the stairs,Archie screams hysterically at his father,asking maybe if he wants him to shoot a child.The father retorts,coldly,that the world is a bloody hunting jungle,and one either stalks with the hunter,or runs with the quarry.
The father taunts Archie to shoot him.Archie takes aim,but the African servant,Tom,seizes the gun.
In the trophy room,Tom tells the trust officer that he has stayed for the boy's sake,in order to protect him.
Col.Dittman confronts Tom,standing in native attire before the fireplace,invoking his tribal gods.Dittman asks Tom to pray for a successful hunt.Tom replies that that is not his objective.
Tom also informs Dittman that the Igbo hunt for survival,not for the pleasure of killing.
The next day,Col.Dittman takes Archie out to hunt whitetail deer.He tells Archie to hit the deer in the shoulder,above the middle of the body,for a clean kill.
Archie aims,but doesn't fire.Enraged,Col.Dittman slaps Archie hard across the head,causing the gun to misfire.The deer,wounded,sprints off;the father snarls that they will have to track the blood trail of the dying animal.
At the mansion,Col.Dittman savagely excoriates an emotionally-prostrate Archie.The old man growls about a 3-1/2 hour trek because Archie shot the deer in the lungs.Although Archie made the required kill - it was not a "clean" one.
Dittman enters the trophy room,demanding that Tom open a window;Tom stands there,impassively.Dittman complains that his head feels hot - and peculiar.
The trust officer wants to take formal leave of Col.Dittman.Tom tells him not to enter the trophy room because the father has been punished. The trust officer enters anyway - and stares at the wall in open-mouthed horror.
Tom informs the man that his African gods have show the hunter what it is like to be the victim.
Tom tells the trust officer to take the boy with him;a traumatized Archie shambles down the stairs,and leaves.
Inside the trophy room,Tom pours a snifter of brandy and elevates the glass to the source of Mr.Pierce's horror:a wonder of taxidermic(and occultic)magic - Col.Dittman's head,carefully preserved and mounted on a wooden shield attached to the wall.Tom proclaims,solemnly:"Now there is a trophy - the king of the jungle."
Raymond Massey's performance as the sadistic,bullying Col.Dittman was magnificent.Dittman was just as powerful,leonine - and as vulnerable - as the numerous species he hunted,and collected, over the course of a bloody lifetime.
Tom Troupe(Mr. Pierce)was effective as the officer of the Colonel's trust fund.He was ambivalent,because of divided loyalties:he represented the father's interest,but felt a deep concern for Archie,and the soul-battering being delivered by his selfish,brutal father.
Herbert Jefferson,Jr.(Tom)was perfect as the Igbo body servant:educated, correct,polite,imperturbable - but seething underneath with rage at the TRUE savage - the hateful old man whose "masculinity" was defined by the number of creatures he killed in a lifetime.
Barry Brown(Archie Dittman,Jr.),one of the most sensitive actors of the 1970's,was absolutely convincing as the martyred son,pilloried by his sadistic father for not sharing the blood lust that pervaded - and possessed the old man's dark and violent soul.
The ending of this excursion into horror was fairly predictable,but the episode is well worth watching - not only for the offbeat outcome,but also to appreciate the talents of four very fine actors.
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