On October 30, 1981, the adventure comedy Roar had its world premiere in Sydney, Australia. Starring talent agent Noel Marshall in his only movie role, the film centers on Hank, a naturalist from America living in East Africa with lions and other large cats. Hank’s family comes to visit him at his compound and soon finds themselves at the mercy of the wild animals while he’s away, fending off their attacks as best as they can. Also featured are Marshall’s real-life family members, including his then-wife Tippi Hedren—best known for her role in Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds—and Hedren’s daughter, Melanie Griffith.
Marshall and Hedren initially conceived the idea for the movie while on location in Africa for Hedren’s 1970 film Satan’s Harvest. It was there that they discovered a pride of lions living in an abandoned plantation house, after which they were informed that their population had been shrinking due to hunting and poaching.
“The lions were sitting in the windows, they were going in and out of the doors,” Hedren told Parade magazine in 1994. “It was such a unique thing to see, and we thought, for a movie, let us use the great cats as our stars.”
Remembering ‘Roar’, The Movie That Let 132 Big Cats Loose on Its Cast and Crew
It would be another 11 years before Roar made it to theaters. During that time, Marshall and Hedren raised lion cubs in their Los Angeles home, believing it would reduce the risk of injuries on set. But when principal photography finally began in 1976, 132 lions, tigers, and other large cats were involved in the production. If that sounds like a set-up for some horrific attacks, that’s because it absolutely was.
When all was said and done, at least 70 members of the cast and crew were believed to have been injured, though it’s been suggested that the total number could be over 100. Marshall alone was bitten multiple times and contracted gangrene somewhere along the way. Cinematographer Jan de Bont was practically scalped by a lioness and required somewhere between 120 and 220 stitches, depending on the source. Then there was Melanie Griffith, who was clawed in the face so badly she ended up having to get reconstructive surgery.
As a result, Roar has been referred to as “The most dangerous movie ever made.” And somehow, believe it or not, nobody got sued over it at any point. However, despite all the time and effort put into it—not to mention all the blood spilled in the process—the film reportedly only made $2 million against its $17 million budget. It would be the last time Marshall appeared in or directed a movie.
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