I had heard that "The Name of the Game Is Kill!" had a big twist at its end when I first learned about the movie, so I made an extra effort not to learn any more about the movie before watching it so that the big twist would not be spoiled for me. Just a few minutes ago, I finished watching the movie. Was the so-called big twist worth the wait? Eh, not really. While I admit that I was not expecting it, at the same time it was a twist that has been done in many other movies before and since. Maybe in 1968 the twist was more fresh, but today it doesn't seem all that special. So that leaves the rest of the movie to make up for things. I will admit the low budget and crude look give the movie a kind of raw spirit at times, making the story more convincing than had it been done with a lot of polish. And there are a few mildly creepy moments here and there. But for the most part, the story plays out in a humdrum fashion. It doesn't help that there are a few plot details that are not made clear by the freeze-frame end, leaving me mystified with what exactly happened in the tragic (I think) past of the characters. I've seen many thrillers that are a lot worse, I admit, but all the same there isn't enough here to make this a real grabber.

Decent psycho thriller doesn't offer much that fans of this kind of thing haven't seen before, but it manages to be enough of a curiosity to deserve rescuing from obscurity.'Hawaii Five-O' star Jack Lord is front and centre as Symcha Lipa, an amiable Hungarian refugee turned hitchhiker. He's given a lift by young Mickey Terry (lovely Susan Strasberg), and he agrees to stay with her and her family for a while. He and Mickey seem to be falling in love, but first they must deal with this disturbed family of hers: two sisters, Diz (Collin Wilcox Paxton) and Nan (Tisha Sterling), and their matriarch (T.C. Jones).Very moodily photographed by Vilmos Zsigmond, on an obviously very low budget, "The Name of the Game is Kill!" isn't without its pleasures, mainly the go-for-broke performances of the attractive female cast. Lord is reasonably convincing as a foreigner and makes his character likable enough that you wish that he would have just moved on. Sexy young Sterling has a moderately fun little dance number to "Shadows" by The Electric Prunes. (It's worth nothing the fact that there are two second generation talents here, with Strasberg being the daughter of Lee Strasberg and Sterling the daughter of Ann Sothern.) Led by Swedish director Gunnar Hellstrom, who mostly worked in TV ('Gunsmoke', 'Dallas'), the filmmakers do capture an appropriate sense of isolation. Rounding out this minimal group of actors is Mort Mills, the highway patrolman of "Psycho", as a police chief.Unfortunately, Gary Crutchers' screenplay is too predictable to completely work. The supposed "big twist" in this tale is too obvious right from the start.Six out of 10.

This movie was interesting at best for this time era. It was a true thriller and most appealing to audiences around the world. I especially liked the differences between the three sisters, in which they all had various personalities and desires for this Hungarian drifter that happened to stop at the gas station in need of help. Jack Lord played a most interesting role as did the other members of the cast and I had found the sisters to be very desirable to Jack Lord and he did not see what was ahead of him before they tried to kill him by running him over the bridge. Each sister played a very different role in what they had in store for this Hungarian man and in the end it was a cliff hanger. Very much enjoyed for a film produced in the late 60's. A remake of this film would be very enlightening. Jeanelle Todd

I saw this as a teenager in 1968 at the theater when it was first released, and had fond memories of it being a fairly eerie thriller. A recent viewing of a 16mm print left me with less fond memories. It is basically an extended Alfred Hitchcock Hour TV show program padded an extra 30 minutes, and in color. Not that this is bad in itself because the Hitchcock Hour was often very good, and at worst, just plain good. But this film could have stood trimming to an hour and the tightening up would have helped. It doesn't help the film that Jack Lord carried an obviously phony foreign accent, and had not yet found his acting stature that he would eventually find in Hawaii Five-0. It would have improved this film by 100% had he just not used the bad accent, and been a plain hitch-hiking American ranch-hand. It also didn't help that TC Jones as the Mom absolutely telegraphed the fact that Mom was really Dad, especially since he had become famous for his portrayal of the female nurse who was really a male psycho-killer in the Hitchcock Hour episode "An Unlocked Window" just a few years earlier. If you recall that episode, you'll remember it was a big surprise to viewers when first aired, and consequently a much lesser surprise here. What this film has going for it is good performances by the three wacky daughters, nice desolate scenery, and a secret mystery that has several possible solutions. Plus the fact that it has been nearly impossible to see.