3 By Curtis

 

 (imdb)

TRILOGY OF TERROR-1975-Very good TV horror anthology directed by Dan Curtis. In the first story “Julie” (written by William F. Nolan & Richard Matheson), Chad (Robert Burton), a college jerk becomes obsessed with nerdy teacher Julie (Karen Black). He drugs her, takes her to a hotel, takes pictures of her and rapes her. Then he blackmails her and he and his friends use her (not shown, only implied). But in the twist ending he finds out she's not what he thinks she is....

In the second “Millicent & Therese” (written by Nolan), Millicent (Black) complains about her sister Therese (also Black), being evil, practicing witchcraft and seducing men. She warns Therese's boyfriend (John Karlen) about her but he ignores it. Then Therese tries to seduce their doctor (George Gaynes). Millicent decides to do away with her sister using her own witchcraft. This story is ok but the ending is fairly guessable.

In the third and most famous episode “Amelia” (written by Matheson), Amelia, a woman with mother problems buys a weird Zuni fetish doll for her anthropologist boyfriend. After a fight with her mother, she breaks her date and is then terrorized by the evil looking doll that has big teeth and makes strange noises. 

Once again director Curtis shows that just because it's made for TV, horror stories can still be good.

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Poe and Price on TV

AN EVENING OF EDGAR ALLAN POE-1970-These four Poe tales were shot on video tape and presented like a play with Vincent Price starring in each and reciting most of the dialogue from the original stories. Act one is The Tell Tale Heart where a man becomes obsessed with an old man's glass eye, kills him and meticulously hides the body under the floorboards only to be undone when he thinks he hears the dead heart beating. Act two features the not as well known The Sphinx about a man concerned about a cholera epidemic around him who believes he sees a huge monster moving through the forest near his home. In act three The Cask of Amontillado, a nobleman seeks revenge on a rival who insulted him by walling him up in a vault (this one was my favorite). Act four is The Pit and The Pendulum about a prisoner of the inquisition who's condemned to die and finds himself waiting for the pendulum to cut him in half. 

Price is great in this one man show and director Kenneth Johnson uses some good effects to get all the stories across. Arkoff and Nicolson were 2 of the executive producers and Les Baxter did the music. It was made for TV by AIP.

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Hammer TV

MARK OF THE DEVIL-1984-This is an episode from the made for TV anthology HAMMER HOUSE OF MYSTERY AND SUSPENSE. An in debt gambler (Dirk Bennedict in between BATTLESTAR GALACTICA and THE A TEAM) kills tattoo artist Mr. Lee (Bert Kwouk from THE PINK PANTHER series) in a robbery attempt. Lee, who also dabbled in black magic marks him with a knife in their struggle and a little pinprick grows into a tattoo depicting the murder. No one can help him so he resorts to using a hot iron on his chest! The tattoo gets bigger and he goes crazy. Jenny Seagrove plays his rich fiancee. It's fairly predictable but alright for TV. The screenplay was written by Brian Clemens (THE AVENGERS) and is one of the last efforts by director Val Guest (THE DAY THE EARTH CAUGHT FIRE, WHEN DINOSAURS RULED THE WORLD).

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Scream of The Wolf; Yawn of The Viewer...

SCREAM OF THE WOLF-1974-There were a lot of TV movies in the '70's. ABC even had it's own "MOVIE OF THE WEEK". and produced a lot of movies in all different genres. Several of them were of the horror variety. SCREAM OF THE WOLF is one of them. It was written by sci-fi/horror veteran scribe Richard Matheson (who's story DUEL was directed by the then unknown Steven Speilberg three years earlier and would become one of the most famous made for TV movies of all time....) and produced and directed by Dan Curtis, who's most famous creation, TV's first horror soap opera DARK SHADOWS had expired in 1971 after a 5 year run. Curtis and Matheson had worked together before on TV horror, most notably on THE NIGHT STALKER and it's sequel THE NIGHT STRANGLER and a version of DRACULA with Jack Palance in the lead.



Sounds like SCREAM should be a winner, right?



Well...actually...ummm...NO!



SCREAM is a typically disapointing TV movie that presents itself as a horror film then blows it by trying to offer a "normal explanation" for all the violent goings on....



Peter Graves (who's long running gig on MISSION:IMPOSSIBLE had ended one year earlier) plays an ex-hunter (now a writer) investigating the murders of some local residents by something that seems to be a werewolf. Clint Walker (who had his own long running TV show CHEYENNE in the '50's) plays Graves' ex-partner who seems determined not to hunt down the mysterious "monster". He also seems like a nut but the local sheriff (Phillip Carey) doesn't suspect him.



It's all kind of boring and the climax kind of rips off THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME! Jo Ann Pflug (who was also in Curtis' THE NIGHT STRANGLER) plays Graves' love interest. Walker's limping manservant (lover?) is played by Don Megowan, the husky western actor who starred in the 1956 horror film THE WEREWOLF!


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