# The Girl Hunters (film)

The Girl Hunters is a 1963 British crime drama film directed by Roy Rowland and starring Mickey Spillane, Shirley Eaton, Lloyd Nolan and columnist Hy Gardner. It was written by Spillane, Robert Fellows and Rowland, adapted from the 1962 Spillane pulp novel of the same name. Exteriors were shot on location in New York with studio scenes in London.
Producer Robert Fellows intended to follow the film with another based on Spillane's 1964 novel The Snake, but the second film was never produced.

## Plot

Ever since his assistant Velda went missing, private detective Mike Hammer has been drinking and he is now homeless. Although Hammer hasn't worked a case in seven years, his old police friend Capt. Pat Chambers asks for his assistance on a job. Chambers and Hammer were both in love with Velda, which had ended their friendship. The case involves a senator who has been murdered.
Hammer is needed to talk with Richie Cole, a dying sailor who refuses to speak with anybody else. According to federal agent Art Rickerby, not only has Richie been shot by the same gun recently used to kill a politician, he is actually an undercover federal agent.
Hammer's investigation leads to Laura Knapp, the late senator's widow. She is beautiful and seductive, but Hammer does not trust her. He learns that they are caught in the fallout from a network of spies operating during World War II. Now a killer nicknamed the Dragon is trying to silence people who had information about the spy operation. Hammer finds and kills the Dragon. He confronts Laura with his suspicions about her involvement. Laura fires a shotgun that Hammer had rigged to backfire in order to test her loyalty. It is not clear if Velda is still alive.

## Cast

* Mickey Spillane as Mike Hammer
* Shirley Eaton as Laura Knapp
* Scott Peters as Police Captain Pat Chambers
* Guy Kingsley Poynter as Dr. Larry Snyder
* Charles Farrell as Joe Grissi
* Kim Tracy as nurse
* Hy Gardner as himself – the columnist
* Lloyd Nolan as Federal Agent Arthur Rickerby
* Benny Lee as Nat Drutman
* Murray Kash as Richie Cole
* Bill Nagy as Georgie
* Hal Galili as a thug with an ice pick

## Production

Spillane recalled meeting crime figure Billy Hill in London and invited him to the film set. According to Spillane, Hill provided firearms that were used in the film. Spillane also noted that the producers surrounded him with actors who were shorter than he was.

## Reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Mickey Spillane's plots are usually excessively complicated, and the present one almost defies synopsising. It doesn't matter very much, however, as the film is mainly an excuse for tough-guy talk about some insane plot for world conquest engineered by the "commies", and a series of violent, sadistic fights (some details of which have been cut by the censor). Roy Roland's style does little to lift the film from the gutter ... and the Anglo-American cast produces a rich variety of misplaced accents. The film's main point of interest is the appearance of Spillane himself as Mike Hammer: thick-set, with the face of a pugilist and the walk of a sprightly gorilla, he bites out his lines as other men bite off cigars, and is confinually taking off his macintosh before engaging in bouts of thuggery and romance. Though his talent as an actor may be dubious, he is certainly a devil for punishment."
Variety wrote: "Adapted to the screen [Spillane's] latest exploits make for a slick and entertaining adventure meller. The Girl Hunters also debuts author Spillane portraying his rough 'n' tumble hero for the first time on the screen. He turns in a credible job in the role. ... There's plenty of action, romance and movement in the tidy feature, with an occasional dash of rakish comedy and Spillane gruesomeness to please his fans and crime-action filmgoers. .... Director Rowland has gotten effective performances out of his principal cast, which gets solid support from a host of the inevitable Spillane plot-feeding secondary characters."
The Radio Times Guide to Films gave the film 2/5 stars, writing: "Author Mickey Spillane plays his own creation, hard-boiled private eye Mike Hammer, in this all-American B-movie that, for tax reasons, was based and financed in Britain. Little is made of a promising plot about murder and corruption in American politics, while Spillane is shown to have more ego than acting talent. British starlet Shirley Eaton plays a blonde femme fatale who, fatally, doesn't know one end of a shotgun from the other."
Leslie Halliwell said: "Comic strip thuggery with the author playing his own slouchy hero; the general incompetence gives this cheap production an air of Kafkaesque menace."