Grizzly (1976) on Netflix
An eighteen-foot grizzly bear kills hikers in a national park. Chief Ranger Michael Kelly wants the mountain cleared, but supervisor Charley Kittridge keeps it open to tourists and hunters.
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- Netflix2.9/5
- IMDb5.2/106,917 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes45%
Trailer
Plot summary
Don Stober, a helicopter pilot and guide who served in the military, flies visitors over a national park. Hikers Maggie and June break camp, and an unseen animal kills them both. Chief Ranger Michael Kelly and photographer Allison Corwin travel to the campsite and find the bodies, one partly buried. At the hospital, a doctor attributes the deaths to a large bear. Park supervisor Charley Kittridge blames Kelly, since Kelly and naturalist Arthur Scott were expected to have moved the park's bears out before the tourist season. The two men agree to clear hikers from the mountain and leave campers in the lowlands. Kelly brings Stober into the search, and from the air they spot Scott, dressed in animal skins, tracking the animal.
Cast
- Joan McCallas Allison Corwin
- Joe Dorseyas Charley Kittridge
- Kermit Echolsas Corwin
- Tom Arcuragias Tom
- Mary Ann Hearnas Margaret
- Harvey Flaxmanas Reporter
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Grizzly (1976)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The killer grizzly was played by a Kodiak bear named Teddy, 11 ft tall and the largest bear in captivity at the time, rented from the Olympic Game Ranch in Sequim, Washington. The crew was protected from the bear by a piece of green string running through the shooting locations and a ticking kitchen timer.
- Teddy the bear could not roar, so the crew threw marshmallows into his mouth and then held one in front of his face without throwing it, making him stretch for it; the roaring sound was added later in post-production.
- Despite its negative reviews, Grizzly was the top grossing independent film of 1976 with nearly $38 million worldwide, and it held that record until Halloween was released two years later in 1978.
- Executive producer Edward L. Montoro tried to keep the profits for himself instead of paying director William Girdler and writer-producers David Sheldon and Harvey Flaxman. The three sued him and he was ordered to pay them shares of the profits from the distribution deal.
- A sequel, Grizzly II: Revenge, was filmed in 1983 but was left unfinished because of production issues and was not completed and released until 2020, 37 years later.
