An interesting film in that was a thrown together concept which helped established a new, adept, director on the film scene. Roger Corman proposed the idea to a young enthusiastic Peter Bogdanovich with the only stipulation that he had the use of Boris Karloff for only 2 days as well as some older footage of a film he had made with Karloff. Bogdanovich, with his wife Polly Platt, fleshed out an idea for the film utilizing a recent news item of a sniper in Texas who randomly shot people from a tower. Bogdanovich brought it to a friend and in the space of a couple of hours Samuel Fuller was able to pinpoint the areas of strength and weakness while essentially rewriting the entire script. He urged Bogdanovich not to mention him in the credits for fear it would detract from his friend, who also starred in and directed the feature. Bogdanovich's character's names "Sam Michaels" is his recognition for his friend 'Samuel Michael Fuller' and his important part in the development of the film "Targets". The film itself is little more than a curiosity for film buffs, which when completed was bought, begrudgingly by Paramount for $150,000. Relatively unexploited violence but quite allegorical for American society, I would say this is another recognizable entry in the American history of cinema.

Gary W. Tooze