The Capture of Bigfoot (1979)

The Capture of Bigfoot (USA, 1979) 92 min color DIR-PROD-DOP: Bill Rebane. SCR: Ingrid Neumayer, Bill Rebane. CAST: Stafford Morgan, Katherine Hopkins, Richard Kennedy, Otis Young, John F. Goff, George “Buck” Flower.

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This feeble cash-in on the 1970s Sasquatch craze takes its inspiration from King Kong, transposing the monster of Skull Island to a native legend nestled in the snowy hills of Wisconsin. Richard Kennedy wins the film’s overacting award as Olsen, who hires hunters to go out into the bushes and capture the Sasquatch, in the intent to put the missing link in a carnival sideshow! In the movie’s opening, two unlucky souls have captured a baby Bigfoot monster, but the adult Sasquatch comes to its rescue, in the process killing one man (as seen with the stunt dummy in a snowsuit that gets tossed into a snowdrift), and maiming the other.

This incident is enough to raise the attention of game warden Garrett (Stafford Morgan), and must break away from having cocoa in his cabin with girlfriend Karen (Katherine Hopkins). Before long he realizes Olsen’s plot to capture Bigfoot for monetary gain, and recruits the assistance of Jake the poacher (Buck Flower!) to stop his plans. Meanwhile, Olsen has hired two more hunters, Burt (John F. Goff) and Jason (of all people, Otis Young- Jack Nicholson’s partner in The Last Detail). Jake puts Garrett in touch with an elderly native named Daniels (Nelson C. Sheppo), who tells him about the legend of Arak, the monster they’ve been hunting, who helped the Arak Indian tribe, and that the creature must be freed from Olsen.

This scenario, co-written by Rebane and Ingrid Neumayer, seems made for family viewing, despite the occasional curse word. The film is never scary because of the silly props and cartoon-like acting (intentional or not). As usual for Rebane, the film is a mixture of tones: comic relief is added with a sheriff who likes to imitate Humphrey Bogart and John Wayne; there is genuine sentimentality in a brief moment where friendly grins are exchanged between a boy and little Bigfoot, until the larger Sasquatch exercises its parental instinct and comes roaring to the little one’s supposed rescue. The adult Sasquatch, Arak, is often seen in long shots or behind bushes, one assumes to accentuate the enigma of the creature, but more likely to obscure the fact that we’re seeing a tall actor in a silly patched together furry white costume. (Janus Raudkivi plays the monster in his one and only screen role.) Admittedly, the smaller Bigfoot costume is rather well done.

While a pleasant enough watch, The Capture of Bigfoot is a mediocre affair, lacking the proper panache to scare or entertain us. It is more amusing however to see the amount of people with the surname of Rebane that appear in the final credits. (Our director once again uses his “Ito” pseudonym for his cinematography credit.) Randolph Rebane really has the most enchanting performance, as the little Bigfoot, especially in the moment cited above. This was not the last time people with Rebane surnames were used as actors: Angel Rebane played the baby monster that popped out of the egg in end of Rana: The Legend of Shadow Lake. This movie is also a family affair in that even Buck Flower’s daughter Verkina has a small role as a victim when the adult Arak menaces a ski lodge (sort of).

This film was featured in Elvira’s Movie Macabre TV series (where I first caught it in the 1980s), and was also available on VHS. Retromedia includes the title in its DVD set, Bigfoot Terror.

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Updated from its original publication in Vol. #1, Issue #24, excerpted from a larger piece on Bill Rebane. Much of the article has been dispersed accordingly in reviews of the films that have now been released on Arrow’s amazing box set, Weird Wisconsin: The Bill Rebane Collection.