BENJI THE HUNTED MOVIE

Whether true or movie hype, it was claimed that the animal actor who played in the 1977 sequel and several more in the series was Higgins' daughter Benjean (although there were reportedly a number of 'stunt dogs' used throughout production on Benji the Hunted).Ĭamp wrote and directed his final (to date) entry in the series, Benji: Off the Leash! (2004), before turning the reins over to his son Brandon for the Netflix reboot of the franchise, once again simply called Benji (2018). With Higgins gone, Inn continued to supply Camp with look-alikes who could take on the lead role. But other sources say burial legalities prevented Inn's wish from being carried out, and the dog's remains are with Inn's daughters. One story has it that when Inn died in 2002, the urn containing Higgins' ashes was placed inside Inn's casket. The animal passed away in 1975 at the age of 17. Unfortunately, Higgins didn't live long enough to enjoy the fruits of his fame. Like many actors who get a taste of fame and just can't stay retired no matter how many times they declare it, Higgins jumped back into the biz with his greatest triumph of all, Benji. Higgins, as the pooch was known, worked on the series for six years before Inn 'retired' him.

He chose a cocker spaniel-poodle-schnauzer mix that he had rescued from the Burbank Animal Shelter in 1960. In the mid-1960s, Inn was called upon to provide a cute little dog for the girls of Petticoat Junction. Among Inn's other notable animal stars were Orangey, who appeared as 'Cat' in Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), and Elly May's abundant menagerie on the sitcom The Beverly Hillbillies. 'But the G-rated classification has to some degree become 'If it's G, it can't be for me.''Ĭamp found a willing collaborator in Frank Inn, a successful Hollywood animal trainer whose career began with uncredited training work on Lassie Come Home (1943). 'It has become an industry-caused thing,' Camp told Variety around the time of the release of the series' second movie, For the Love of Benji (1977). As a result, a lot of low quality family pictures glutted the market, at least in Camp's view. At the time, the market for G-rated films had been oversaturated by the 'four-wall' distribution practice, whereby a filmmaker or distributor rents a theater to show their feature and keeps all the box-office receipts. That popularity was precisely the aim of writer-director Joe Camp when he created the series in the early '70s, with the first film to star the lovable canine, Benji (1974). In the final encounter and chase with Timber Wolf, Benji tricks him by hiding in the bushes that shields the cliff behind it and sends Timber Wolf falling off the cliff to his death.īenji ultimately succeeds in having Mother Cougar adopt the cubs and in the final scene heads in the direction of the search helicopter to be rescued.Īpart from a news report at the beginning of the movie setting up the plot and three encounters with the Hunter, the action is entirely animal activity in the Wilderness.You gotta at least be curious about a lost dog who will kill another canine in order to save a kitten, but that's essentially what the titular hero does in this seventh of nine films in a series that is still one of the most popular family entertainments of all time. Unfortunately, one of the cubs is carried off by the Eagle. Meanwhile, Benji's master Frank Inn is searching for him by helicopter and Benji deliberately hides so as not to be prevented from saving the cubs.Ī black wolf named Timber Wolf relentlessly pursues the cubs. He finds another mother cougar and spends most of the movie trying to introduce the orphans to the mother so she will adopt them. Benji subsequently encounters four orphaned Cougar cubs, belonging to the killed cougar, and he attempts to shield them from predation. Benji attempts to comfort the dying animal, but he is chased away by him, who then retrieves the dead cat and marches off with her draped over his shoulders. Shortly after washing ashore, Benji sees the Cougar mother gunned down by the Hunter. Benji made friends with other animals including the Owl, the Fawn, the Ferrets, the Fox and the Raccoon. He finds himself struggling to survive in the wilderness, avoiding close encounters with Timber Wolf, a Brown Bear, and Mother Cougar.

This was the last Benji movie to star Benjean, daughter of Higgins, in the title role.īenji has become lost in a remote area of Oregon after a boating accident. Benji the Hunted is a 1987 children's drama film about a dog trying to survive in the wilderness.

Benji the hunted