''The Name of the Game Is Kill!'' is a 1968 American

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre. ...

directed by

Gunnar Hellström Gunnar Hellström (6 December 1928 – 28 November 2001) was a cinema of Sweden, Swedish actor and Film director, director. Partial filmography * ''While the City Sleeps (1950 film), While the City Sleeps'' (1950) - Young Man in Restaurant * ...

and starring

Jack Lord John Joseph Patrick Ryan (December 30, 1920 – January 21, 1998), best known by his stage name, Jack Lord, was an American television, film and Broadway actor, director and producer. He starred as Steve McGarrett in the CBS television progr ...

Susan Strasberg Susan Elizabeth Strasberg (May 22, 1938 – January 21, 1999) was an American stage, film, and television actress. Thought to be the next Audrey Hepburn, Hepburn-type Ingénue, ingenue, she was nominated for a Tony Award at age 18, playing the ti ...

and Collin Wilcox Paxton.Lisanti p. 274 It was shot on location in

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

Plot

A man resting in a rural southwest setting is bludgeoned with a replica Venus de Milo statue and his body dragged to an open fire. Symcha Lipa (

), a Hungarian born and raised drifter, is resting at the side of a dusty Arizona road. He is picked up by Mickey Terry (

), who drives him to her home and offers him a shower before he goes on his way. Mickey lives with her mother and two sisters, but only the older sister, Diz ( Collin Wilcox Paxton), is there at the time. The sisters have a brief argument, with Diz implying that Mickey picked up Lipa to be her latest sexual partner. They are joined by the youngest sister, Nan (

Tisha Sterling Patricia Ann "Tisha" Sterling (born December 10, 1944)Hubler, Richard G. (June 1959)"A belle named Sothern" ''Coronet''. p. 44. Retrieved March 8, 2024. "Sterling enlisted to fight in World War II. They were divorced in 1949. But this time ...

), who has just been expelled from school for her latest incident of misbehavior, and the mother (T.C. Jones). The next morning when Lipa leaves the Terry home, he is run down by a car coming up behind him. He is knocked unconscious and spends three days in hospital, but suffers no lasting injuries. The investigating sheriff cautions him about the Terry household, telling him mysterious things have happened there, including the disappearance of Julio Lamberto, a man who spent time with the Terry women. Despite the warning, Lipa returns to the Terry home. Only Diz is there at the time. They have a long talk and Diz tells him about the time years before when her mother killed her abusive father. Later, greatly agitated, she tries to kiss Lipa, saying she wants to save him from Mickey. He easily moves away from her. When the other three women return home, Lipa asks the mother if he can work in the family business in return for room and board. His offer is accepted. Lipa goes to Mickey and they too have a long conversation. Mickey tells him she has fallen in love with him, but he tells her his capacity for love was lost in the aftermath of the

Hungarian Revolution of 1956 The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (23 October – 4 November 1956; ), also known as the Hungarian Uprising, was an attempted countrywide revolution against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic (1949–1989) and the policies caused by ...

. Mickey talks to Lipa about her father, and also mentions she had been involved with Julio Lamberto. Even though Lipa had previously told Mickey she was moving too fast in their relationship, they become lovers and decide to move to San Francisco. When they tell the rest of the family their intentions, the mother wishes them luck. They plan to leave the next day. It is almost Halloween and it will soon be Nan's birthday, so they decide to have a party that night to celebrate everything. Early in the festivities Nan goes missing. But she is soon found, she and Diz were merely working together to scare Lipa and Mickey. That night Lipa chats, separately, with the mother and Nan. In all, the four women tell very different stories of what happened to the father. They all say he was artistically accomplished, specializing in Venus Di Milo replicas. The women also mention their interactions with Julio Lamberto. The next day, Lipa and Mickey leave in the car, but have to return shortly after, as Diz had predicted they would, when Mickey realizes she does not have her money. When Mickey goes upstairs to look for it, Lipa is lured to a back room and knocked unconscious with a statue by Nan. She and Diz drag him to a furnace and open the grate and prepare to force his body in. Mickey and the mother arrive just in time to prevent it. As they struggle, Lipa regains consciousness. Nan, while calling out that Lipa must die, grasps at the mother's head and pulls. The mother is wearing a wig which Nan yanks off, and she is revealed, to the shock of all the sisters, to actually be their father. Diz, overwhelmed, babbles that she told Nan to kill Lipa because he was going to cause the family to separate. Diz then says that she hated her mother and killed her years ago. The father supports her version, saying that his wife was a wicked woman with low morals. Nan confesses to having killed Julio Lamberto. The father tells Mickey to go start her new life with Lipa in San Francisco. They drive off. The father returns to Diz and Nan and comforts then, and says they should have some tea. He removes three of the four pills he keeps in a locket around his neck, and drops one in each of the cups of tea he has prepared for them and for himself. While doing so he says, “It’s never too late to be a good father”. Out on the highway, Lipa asks Mickey what actually happened to her mother. The camera freezes on Mickey's face and her enigmatic, possibly sinister smile.

Cast

as Symcha Lipa *

as Mickey Terry * Collin Wilcox Paxton as Diz Terry *

as Nan Terry * T.C. Jones as Mrs. Terry *

Mort Mills Mort Mills (born Mortimer Morris Kaplan; January 11, 1919 – June 6, 1993) was an American film and television actor who had roles in over 150 movies and television episodes. He was often the town lawman or the local bad guy in many popular w ...

as Sheriff Fred Kendall * Marc Desmond as The Doctor

References

Bibliography

* Lisanti, Tom ''Fantasy Femmes of Sixties Cinema: Interviews with 20 Actresses from Biker, Beach, and Elvis Movies''. McFarland, 2001.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Name Of The Game Is Kill 1968 films 1960s thriller films American thriller films Films directed by Gunnar Hellström Films set in Arizona Films scored by Stu Phillips 1960s English-language films 1960s American films English-language thriller films