When I first heard about the 1981 movie Roar, I somehow got it into my head that it is a documentary about Tippi Hedren (Hitchcock ingenue), Noel Marshall (then her husband), Melanie Griffith (her daughter), and a disastrous film shoot on their unlicensed big cat ranch. So imagine my confusion when the movie sure seemed to involve a lot of bad acting and quite realistic special effects. It turns out Roar is a family drama / accidental horror movie / eco-comedy (???), not a documentary — but the “effects” are real!

With a cast including over 130 largely untrained big cats, it’s no surprise that an actor for the male lead couldn’t be found, so Marshall took the role of Hank himself, with Hedren as his wife, Madelaine, and Melanie Griffith and Marshall’s two sons from a previous marriage as their children, visiting Hank’s amateur nature preserve from the big city. Hank’s unexpected absence when they visit, plus some malicious poachers and the aforementioned 100+ feline predators, leads to the action of the film, which largely consists of the main characters and a number of extras being mauled for real on camera.

Over 70 cast and crew members were injured during filming. Hedren contracted gangrene. Griffith nearly lost an eye and required extensive plastic surgery. Marshall had blood poisoning. Jan de Bont, the cinematographer (who later directed Speed and Twister), lost his scalp and required over 100 stitches.

For a more extended discussion of the bizarre nature of this movie (and to credit the article from which I shamelessly ripped off most of the above details), see Richard Brody’s 2020 New Yorker article “Noel Marshall’s ‘Roar’: Humans Were Harmed in the Making of This Film.”

Fun postscript:
I recently purchased a used copy of Hedren’s book The Cats of Shambala, about the making of this film, and look what I discovered inside!

“To Bob and Myrna, with a lion hug to two great friends! — Tippi Hedren (January 1990)

Have a great Night Thread, Avocados!