ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Adam Hursey is a pharmacist specializing in health informatics by day, but his true passion is cinema. His current favorite films are Back to the Future, Stop Making Sense, and In the Mood for Love. He has written articles for Film East and The Physical Media Advocate, primarily examining older films through the lens of contemporary perspectives. He is usually found on Letterboxd, where he mainly writes about horror and exploitation films. You can follow him on Letterboxd or Instagram at ashursey. His April Movie Thon list is here.

April 23: Off Field On Screen — Draft a film that has a sports figure as its star. Bonus points if it’s not a biography of themselves!

Before grabbing a gun and taking on his iconic role in The Rifleman, Chuck Conners had already led a varied, interesting life. Like most men of his generation, he served in the military, putting any aspirations he had on hold while serving his country during World War II. Upon discharge, he went back to his first love–sports. And not just one. Well before athletes such as Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders (and, less successfully, Michael Jordan) attempted to excel at multiple professional levels, Conners played in both the NBA (for the Boston Celtics) and MLB (for the Brooklyn Dodgers and Chicago Cubs). Fun fact from Wikipedia: Conners was the first player in the NBA to break a backboard, which broke due to taking a shot, not a slam dunk. I would love to see how this happened! What material did they use to make backboards back then? Was it wood? Was it termite infested? Inquiring minds want to know.

Conners soon realized that he was not going to make a career out of either sport, so he did what many former athletes do when pivoting to a new occupation–try acting. After minor roles in various film and television series, Conners landed the role that would change his life–Burn Sanderson in Walt Disney’s Old Yeller. Sanderson shows up to the Coates’ ranch looking to reclaim his egg-sucking yellow dog. What could have been a villainous sort of role quickly turns wholesome as Sanderson sees the need for Old Yeller to stay with Travis, giving tips about marking hogs and even warning him about “hydrophobie” in the area (AKA Chekov’s Rabies).

As luck would have it, the producers looking to cast the lead in The Rifleman took their children to see Old Yeller and were struck by the fatherly screen presence of Conners, increasing their offer and giving him the role that would, for better or worse, define him for most of his career. 

After The Rifleman, Conners was typecast in similar roles, unable to break away from the clean cut image of Lucas McCain. But thanks to films in the 1970s such as The Mad Bomber, Tourist Trap, and the miniseries Roots, Conners was able to showcase his talent extended beyond playing Mr. Nice Guy. In fact, similar to Andy Griffith, he might have excelled even more under sinister roles.

In 1987, Conners took on the role of Mr. Warren, the religious, uptight new director of Camp North Pines in Summer Camp Nightmare. While the film’s title suggests that it is attempting to capitalize on the summer camp based slasher films that were popular earlier in the decade, Summer Camp Nightmare is less about the horrors of a killer and more about the horrors of unchecked humanity. Based on a 1961 book entitled The Butterfly Revolution, the campers in this film find themselves elevating counselor Franklin to what initially feels like a harmless rebellion against Conners Mr. Warren, but quickly devolves into a full out dictatorship where anyone who goes against Franklin’s policies are eliminated.

The film starts out as a fun time. It is rare to find horror films set in a camp to actually have campers. All of the characters are likable here–the sort of camp I always wish I had been able to attend, but never did out of fear of being bullied (hey, it was the 80’s. Bullying kids with glasses was very en vogue).  Mr. Warren is an easy person for the youth to rebel against. He only allows religious programming on the television in the common area. He begrudgingly allows the boy’s and girl’s camps to intermingle, but quickly forbids it at the first appearance of tom foolery. And Franklin appears to be innocent enough, a quiet counselor who jumps into the water to save our narrator Donald. But his rise to power at the camp ends up being a metaphor for the dangers of Communism (the original novel was written at the beginning of the Cold War, which was wrapping up by 1987). 

Conners is not given much to do here. The role is pretty one note. But I do love seeing him in these twisted sort of roles. Nothing tops Tourist Trap, but it does not have to. Summer Camp Nightmare might be light on horror, but I still found it to be interesting enough to recommend. It is a film that definitely should be rescued from VHS, having never even received a DVD release. I would buy it. If nothing else, just for the performance of a song where two guys sing the song by Fear entitled Beef Bologna, much to the chagrin of Chuck Conners.