Gentle Giant

Gentle Giant (1967)

A wisp of a boy...A ton of bear...And a whole angry town trying to tear them apart

The Story of a boy and his bear. The TV series ‘Gentle Ben’ was spun-off from this movie.

Date of release
1967-10-25
TMDB
8.5 / 10 (2)
Runtime
1h 35m
Genres
Adventure, Family
Director
James Neilson

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Based on: Gentle Ben

Gentle Giant is a 1967 American drama film about a young boy's friendship with an American black bear, based on the 1965 book Gentle Ben by Walt Morey. It was produced by Ivan Tors, directed by James Neilson and written by Edward J. Lakso and Andy White. The film stars Clint Howard, Dennis Weaver, Vera Miles, Ralph Meeker, Huntz Hall, and Bruno the Bear. The film was released on November 15, 1967, by Paramount Pictures.

Production

Gentle Giant was another in a line of animal films for family audiences made by Ivan Tors during the 1960s, several of which spawned television series. His previous animal films had included Flipper (1963) (the basis for the TV series of the same name), Zebra in the Kitchen (1965), and Clarence, the Cross-Eyed Lion (1965) (the basis for the TV series Daktari). Gentle Giant likewise provided the basis for the TV series Gentle Ben.

The original Walt Morey novel was set in Alaska and involved a brown bear native to that state. For the film, the setting was changed to Florida, which was also the location of the Miami-based film studio established by Tors, and the bear was changed to an American black bear indigenous to the Everglades. Filming was done at Ivan Tors' studio, in Miami, in the fishing town of Port Salerno, Florida (P.O.

The film was one of Clint Howard's first feature film appearances and his first in a leading role, although he had made numerous appearances as a child actor on television shows. According to Clint's father Rance Howard (who also appeared in the film as one of Fog Hanson's gang), to audition for the role Clint, then aged 6, was required to do a screen test with Bruno the Bear, who knocked Clint down in the middle of the audition.

Animals for the film, including Bruno, the bear who mainly played the part of adult Ben, were provided and trained by Ralph Helfer's Africa U.S.A. animal ranch. In addition to Bruno, the film included several other black bears that portrayed Ben's mother, Ben's mate, Ben's cubs and/or Ben at different stages in his life. According to trainer Derrick Rosaire Sr. and his son Derrick Rosaire II, Rosaire Sr.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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