DEATH HUNT (director: Peter Hunt; screenwriter: Michael Grais/Mark Victor; cinematographer: James Devis; editors: Allan Jacobs/ John F. Burnett; music: Jerrold Immel; cast: Charles Bronson (Albert Johnson), Lee Marvin (Sgt. Millen), Andrew Stevens (Alvin), Carl Weathers (Sundog), Ed Lauter (Hazel), August Schellenberg (Deak), Angie Dickinson (Vanessa), Henry Beckman (Luce), Jon Cedar (Hawkins), Len Lesser (Lewis), Dick Davalos (Beeler), Scott Hylands (The Pilot), William Sanderson (Ned Warren), James O’Connell (Hurley), Maury Chaykin (Clarence); Runtime: 97; MPAA Rating: R; producer: Murray Shostak; 20th Century Fox; 1981)
“It’s stiffly directed by Peter Hunt.”

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

A crude, senseless and uninspiring thriller supposedly based on a true story. It’s stiffly directed by Peter Hunt(“1776″/”Gold”/”Shout at the Devil”) and weakly written by Michael Crais and Mark Victor. The star-powered cast is wasted in this mediocre adventure story.

In 1931, in the Yukon, a recluse, self-reliant trapper, Albert Johnson (Charles Bronson), buys the badly wounded loser of a dog fight to save his life from a vicious scoundrel (Ed Lauter). When the vile former dog owner comes to Johnson’s log cabin with an armed gang to steal the dog, one of the thugs is shot by Johnson in self-defense. The gang files false charges of murder against Johnson and the cagey, world-weary, drunken Mountie, Sergeant Millen (Lee Marvin), is asked to bring him in for questioning. Johnson refuses the order when the accuser’s gang is somehow deputized and recklessly fire at Johnson. The not too bright but tough guy Millen informs his Mounties that they have no choice but to track the innocent man down across the icy Canadian Rockies.

The scenery makes for a pretty site.Otherwise this unconvincing pic is an embarrassment. Angie Dickinson has an early cameo and then disappears.