Wild Boar Hunt

Wild Boar Hunt (1940)

** (out of 4)

Part of Warner's "Bow and Arrow Adventures" series, this nine-minute short introduces us to Howard Hill, a skilled bow expert who helps a farmer track down a wild boar who is killing his chickens. I'm pretty sure this is the first film I've seen from this series and it was rather hit and miss. The hit parts were the actual trick shots with the arrow, which were quite entertaining to watch as we get some pretty impressive long shots. The misses are pretty much the rest of the film, which goes from cheap to cruel. There are several silly shots of the boar, which are obviously fake and there are a few moments where you can even see that the creature is just some sort of prop with someone opening and closing its mouth. The film takes a rather ugly turn towards the end when the dogs get the boar cornered while the hunters try to catch up to kill it. It's obvious that the boar is tied up during some of the shots so seeing this wasn't all that impressive. The boar also suffers a somewhat slow death on camera so boar lovers should be warned.