Benton

Benton was a secondary villain in the 1975 film Mitchell. By 1975 he was working for James Arthur Cummings as a bodyguard, driver, cook, and butler.

In 1975 the police officer Mitchell was ordered to stake out Cummings in order to pressure Cummings into giving up information on a shipment of heroin hijacked in Mexio and enroute to Los Angeles, California. Feeling it was his boss trying to push him out of the way Mitchell ran up to talk to Cummings at the first opportunity. When he tried to follow Cummings Benton told him, "No salesmen at this entrance." When Cummings asked later Mitchell revealed that he needed some questions answered about some hijacked heroin, which Cummings knew nothing about.

Cummings soon learned that the hijacked drug shipment was going to be coming through his port, and the local mafia soldier Mistretta - the cousin of the local Mafia head Gallano - was quite insistent on that happening. Contacting his allies in the underworld he found them unwilling to help, leaving only Benton loyal to Cummings.

At Cummings request Benton reached out to his friends for help in eluding Mitchell. When Mitchell tried to follow Cummings after a meeting between Cummings and Gallano Benton's friends ran Mitchell off the road, allowing Cummings to elude Mitchell's surveillance for a time.

Later Cummings invited Mitchell to his house in the hopes that he would be able to convince Mitchell to quit bothering him. Benton made it quite clear that he did not like Mitchell all that much. Benton also had to inform his boss that they were out of soup and then had to put up with his boss calling him a lousy butler due to the coffee being cold.

Eventually Cummings decided that he would tell the Mistretta that he would take delivery of the drug shipment. He appeared to double cross Mistretta by letting Mitchell in on the plan, but then double crossed Mitchell by informing Mistretta that the man bringing the shipment was the cop Mitchell. Then Cummings pulled another double cross on Mistretta by calling the police and asking them to tell Chief Pallin that Mitchell was driving into trouble.

Meanwhile Benton went ahead to intercept the drug shipment and replace it with chalk, which Mitchell then picked up. He joined Cummings as the two took his boss's boat and headed for Mexican waters. Mitchell however was able to shoot his way out of the ambush and was on their tail in a helicopter.

Benton and the helicopter exchanged gunfire. One of Benton's shots hit one of the helicopter officers, killing him. Mitchell had the pilot hit the boat with a tank tied to the skids, which knocked Benton out long enough for Mitchell to land on the boat. Benton came too and began fighting with Mitchell.

Mitchell was able to grab a grappling hook and impale Benton with the hook. Benton got up and proceeded to choke Mitchell, however the wound soon proved fatal and Benton fell overboard into the water. Disabling the boat Mitchell shot Cummings when the later tried to kill Mitchell one final time.

Trivia

 * Benton was played by the former NFL player turned actor Merlin Olsen. Prior to his acting career Olsen played for the then Los Angeles Rams.  Olsen would become well known for FTD commercials featuring him, a fact that the crew of MST3K commented on several times in the MST3K episode.