What Hedren has concluded about those photographs, and about the years they represent, is that the people in them were taking risks they did not fully understand, with an animal whose nature they had not fully reckoned with. The conclusion is consistent with what came after: the years of filming, the injuries, the debt, the ended marriage, the animals who needed a sanctuary because they had nowhere else to go. It is also consistent with what came before the photographs — the idea, formed in an abandoned game warden’s house on another continent, that the thing to do with wild animals was to live with them.
The lion in the photographs was named Neil. He weighed four hundred pounds. He was a wild animal in a house, and the house was in Sherman Oaks, and the year was 1971, and the teenager in the bed was fourteen years old. The photographs are still there, still showing what they showed, still containing the same contradiction they contained when Michael Rougier first tripped the shutter.
Sources and reporting notes:
LIFE / Ben Cosgrove, “At Home With Tippi Hedren, Melanie Griffith and a 400-Pound Lion” (first published October 17, 2014, modified January 4, 2021) — source for Michael Rougier as photographer; 16 photos described; Neil’s weight (400 pounds); family identification (Hedren, Griffith, Marshall, Neil); captions for specific photos; Hedren’s “stupid beyond belief” quote attributed to the editorial context; LIFE’s description of Hedren’s later conservation work.
RareHistoricalPhotos.com, “Incredible photos of Neil, the pet lion of Tippi Hedren and Melanie Griffith, 1971” — source for Neil’s weight (400 pounds, 180 kg); Africa trip 1969; Ron Oxley advice about living with lions; Neil sleeping in bed with Griffith; housekeeper stepping over Neil; neighbor complaints; family moved to Acton for filming; photographer confirmation as Rougier; original Life publication.