The Worst Film Ever

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

The character, Dave Barrett, wasn't really a private investigator. He was - as the show's title infers - a "manhunter", a bounty hunter. Dave returned home, a WWI veteran, to find his family is having a hard time making ends meet due to the Great Depression.Dave decides to supplement the family's income by collecting the bounties on the Dillinger-esquire gangsters that were prevalent (apparently *very* prevalent in Kansas - who knew?) in those days.So Dave fixes a car up with hiding spots for some of his war souvenirs (seriously, a Colt .45 auto and a Thompson submachine gun - plus a bayonet, a shotgun, and a Winchester rifle! Dog could take lessons from this guy.) and set off each week to earn some extra milk and egg money.Maybe it wasn't quite historically accurate; but it was a fun show.

Back in the 1970s there were a LOT of detective shows and some nostalgia shows. The Manhunter was a detective show AND a nostalgia show. Dave Barrett was a private investigator. Actually, the show might have had a lot of stuff implanted into it, like the term "private investigator", from the 1970s and thus been somewhat unauthentic for the 1930s. Dave and his folks had a grain-and-potato farm in Idaho, as I recall. Kind of the middle of nowhere to be a private investigator. But Dave went to Kansas and Colorado and other places where there was crime. In one episode, Dave worked for a trucking company in Kansas to stop hijacking by a gang of criminals. In one episode, Dave and some locals were barricaded in a general store by a gang of criminals. One criminal decided to smash into the general store with a steam roller. Dave made a bomb to stop the steam roller. In one episode, Dave's father was pinned under his overturned Fordson and was taken to the hospital. Unfortunately, there was a gang of criminals at the hospital....