MovieChat Forums > The World's Greatest Athlete (1973) Discussion > The Tiger

The Tiger

posted 15 years ago by Liz10
5 replies | jump to latest

The Tiger is THE best part of this movie. It is amazing how they got the tiger to do the "tricks" he did. I especially found the scene where the tiger is in the small boat alone rocking on the water to be quite amazing. Would have liked to have seen how they filmed that one. I assume there was a double perhaps for Vincent in the playful wrestling scenes? Maybe not. Some might say it was animal abuse---but I am sure the tiger was well cared for and most likely never stepped foot in the wild.
The movie is good family fare, perhaps a bit corny, but fun just the same. Well casted.

[–] ajprice-1 15 years ago

Apparently you and I are watching this movie at the same time. I've been all over the Internet looking for some information about the tiger or tigers used in the filming. I can't believe there's not something out there....he's not even listed in the cast members, as most animals are. I've been closely watching the scenes where Nanu & Harri interact and either they've got an amazing stuntman double or it really is Vincent. Is it video trickery where the tiger appears with the landlady, the girlfrient, etc? If not, that is one docile beast! One person posted in the comments that he/she saw some of the filming years ago and mentions an interaction with the tiger. Perhaps we'll get some response about that. That's the problem with old movies and the Internet....I can get just too wrapped up in the minutia...but it's fun to have your curiosity satisfied.

[–] Liz10 15 years ago

I agree totally. I sure would like to know about the handler of this tiger and about the tiger itself. What a costar!
It could be really Vincent as back then the insurance would not be outrageous on the star. Nowadays studios etc would not risk a teeny scratch on their actor. It would have been impossible to use a stunt double for Vincent in at least half of the scenes. I did not pay half as much attention to the movie unless the tiger was in the scene.
Probabley the ONLY scene with any trickery could have been the landlady. I am not sure the technology was up to parking the tiger in the stands either. I would not be surprised that Jane character had to sit there with the real tiger with the hat on his head. I should check and see if the tiger's head moved----but it sure did not look like a fake.
An oscar should have gone to the tiger!

[–] ajprice-1 15 years ago

I keep chipping away at this. Couldn't find anything new about the tiger or trainer, but noticed that the only stuntman listed was Dick Warlock, who is well-known from a stint as Michael Myers in the Halloween movies. Warlock was born in 1940, which would make him 33 when this movie was shot. I thought that made him a little old to stand in for Vincent until I noticed that Vincent was born in 1944 and so almost 30 when he played Nanu. You know that someone out there knows all about this...hope they have as much time to waste as the both of us and will wander into this board with some information!

[–] maggieameanderings 10 years ago

This is l-o-n-g after your post, but maybe you'll come back and check it someday.

I, too, am wowed by the tiger and the interaction with the cast. BYU-TV shows The World's Greatest Athlete regularly and I try to catch it whenever it comes on because, well, Jan-Michael Vincent in a loincloth and the tiger. The only scene where I've noticed they use a fake tiger is part (just part) of the scene where they've returned from Zambia and are entering the boarding house. In the section with the landlady mistaking the tiger's tail for a scarf, the upright tiger you see full-length is a fake. Everything else is real. (That's for scenes where a substantial portion of the tiger is shown. There are some scenes where only a part of the tiger like a tail or a bit of fur is shown, and I couldn't say. I'm watching the cropped, full-screen version, not wide-screen so in the grandstands all I see sometimes is a bit of the tiger's cheek.) I've looked closely at the tiger wrestling scene and it does seem to be Jan-Michael Vincent in it which is unbelievable by today's standards. That tiger has JMV's face in its jaws at one point and its jaws around the back of JMV's neck at another point. It is JMV in the scene where the tiger runs and leaps on him. Jan-Michael Vincent had this absolutely amazing interaction with that tiger, and it's a damn shame that he probably can't remember it. How sad. I would have loved to have been able to interact with a tiger like that and come away from it safely. It would be something that I'd remember for the rest of my life. But, due to his severe alcoholism, Jan-Michael Vincent seems to have lost much of his memory.

Any rate, I was fascinated by the tiger and its trainers and tried to find what information I could. After many different searches on Google, I did manage to find this article. It's the only thing I could find. It's from the Toledo Blade, dated September 3, 1972, and talks about filming with the tiger:
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=bw5PAAAAIBAJ&sjid=NQIEAAAAIBA J&pg=5440%2C6318711

The article mentions Jan-Michael Vincent's age as 26 which does not jibe with his birth year being 1944. 1944 would make him 28 years old in September 1972. But age and height are things actors have been known to fudge.

http://maggieameanderings.com/Archive.htm

[–] MNRebecca (671) 2 years ago

I wonder if it’s the same tiger from The wonderful world of Disney episode, “The Hunter and the Rock Star,” sometimes known as Sultan and the rockstar. Sultan was the name of the tiger. Timothy Hutton was the rockstar.