Norliss!

 

 (imdb)

THE NORLISS TAPES-1973-Author David Norliss (Roy Thinnes) is hired by his publisher Sanford Evans (Don Porter) to write a book debunking the supernatural. However, 6 months later Norliss calls Evans to tell him he can't write the book, then disappears. Evans goes to Norliss’ home and finds some cassette tapes (remember them?) which he listens to. 

Norliss gets involved with widow Ellen Court (Angie Dickinson) who encountered some kind of ghoul one night that she claims was her dead husband, Paul. She tells Norliss the story of her husband's debilitating disease and this lead him to the occult, a mysterious ring and some Egyptian gods. After talking to Ellen's sister, Marsha (Michele Carey), he relates the story of a young woman in a car crash who was strangled and had all the blood drained from her body. The local hick sheriff (Claude Akins) wants to cover it up. Norliss tells gallery owner Mr. Langton (Hurd Hatfield) about the ring and that it was placed in the coffin with Mr. Court. When Langton tries to get the ring, he's killed. Then Norliss and Ellen are attacked by her dead husband but the redneck sheriff doesn't believe their story. Next victim is Marsha who's killed in a motel. Madame Jeckiel (Vonetta McGee) appears and tells Ellen how she turned Paul on to the ring that could cure his disease and bring him back to life. He's making a statue of the evil Sargoth, using clay mixed with blood. When the statue is completed Sargoth will be free and Paul gets immortality. She and Ellen go looking for Paul to try and remove the ring. But of course they go like 2 minutes before sundown. Paul kills Jackiel and chases Ellen. After Norliss rescues her they find the completed statue. Paul seems to bring it to life but Norliss uses a fire ring of blood to destroy it. He seems ok at the end of his story (despite Sargoth grabbing his arm for a moment) and Evans puts in another cassette tape. Stanley Adams is a truck driver. 

This pilot for an unsold series was written by William F. Nolan and directed by Dan Curtis, obviously in an attempt to create a new “Kolchak” like series (although it is based on a story by Fred Mustard Smith). Curtis directed “The Night Stalker” sequel, THE NIGHT STRANGLER the same year.

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TV Snow Monster

 

 (themoviedb.org)

SNOW BEAST-1977-At the Rill ski lodge winter carnival owned by Emma (Sylvia Sidney), a snow monster kills a skier. Her grandson, Tony (Robert Logan) wants to report it but Emma is afraid it will hurt business. Then a ski patrol member is killed. Meanwhile, former Olympic gold medal winning skier, now disillusioned, Gar Seberg (Bo Svenson) and his unhappy reporter wife Ellen (Yvette Mimieux), Tony's former lover, come for a visit (Gar is looking for a job). Tony believes in the monster and wants to hire Gar to kill it but Gar is more sympathetic. They try to convince the sheriff (Clint Walker) that a Bigfoot is running around. The white hairy creature attacks the lodge and Ellen gets lost in the woods. Gar and Ellen get trapped in a cabin with the monster outside. The sheriff kills a bear and that seems to close the case even though everyone at the lodge saw the attack! Gar, Helen and Tony convince the sheriff to go hunting just in case. After the sheriff is killed, Gar has a snowdown, I mean showdown with the monster. 

The dumbest part of this made for TV movie is the monster POV shots including one with a ski pole. Written by Joseph Stefano (PSYCHO (1960) and directed by Herb Wallerstein who directed many TV show episodes but Snow Beast is his only full-length movie.

 Unfortunately, he was killed in 1985 by his live-in maid who claimed self-defense.

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Death Car On Tv

 

 (imdb)

DEATH CAR ON THE FREEWAY-1979-An actress named Becky (Morgan Brittany) is driven off the freeway by a mysterious black van. Later another woman is put in the hospital by a crash caused by the van. A reporter (Shelly Hack) investigates and butts heads with a police Lt. (Peter Graves) while being pursued by her estranged husband (George Hamilton) to get back together. Frank Gorshin is her boss and Barbara Rush is a co-anchor. Typical all star TV cast DUEL inspired melodrama directed by Hal Needham who has a small role. Also with Harriet Nelson as a blind landlady, Dinah Shore as a victim on TV, Abe Vigoda and Sid Haig.

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Kolchak Returns

 

 (imdb)

THE NIGHT STRANGLER-1973-Once again the brash eclectic reporter Kolchak (Darren McGavin) takes tape recorder in hand to investigate the murders of a belly dancer, this time in Seattle, Washington. He meets his former boss Vincenzo (Simon Oakland) in bar and is hired on but is first read the riot act by the publisher Crossbinder (John Carradine). Police Capt. Shubert (Scott Brady) and coroner Webb (Ivor Francis) hold a press conference after a second killing. Another coroner tells Kolchak there was rotted flesh on the victims' necks. Some blood is also missing. They seem to have been killed by a dead man. When Kolchak learns about the abandoned underground city of Seattle, he goes to Titus Berry (Wally Cox), in charge of the city's archives. It seems the same type of murders have happened every 21 years since 1889. 

He befriends another belly dancer (Jo Ann Pflug) and they take a tour of the underground city. But they take a detour and meet a derelict (Al Lewis). He also consults Prof. Crabwell (Margaret Hamilton), an anthropologist who clues him in on a secret "elixir of life" to stay young. After another dancer (Nina Wayne) is strangled, Kolchak tries to convince Shubert what's happening but the captain puts a few holes in Kolchak's theory. Later when a 6th woman is murdered (there was always 6 victims), Kolchak identifies the killer as a 144-year-old Civil War doctor (Richard Anderson). Kolchak destroys the decrepit doctor but loses his job, so does Vincenzo. This ends on a lighter note than its predecessor. 

Producer Dan Curtis also was the director of this great follow up, written once again by Richard Matheson. The short-lived TV series “Kolchak:The Night Stalker” ran in 1974. Curtis produced and directed another “Kolchak” like TV film the same year for another network called THE NORLISS TAPES.

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Movie of the Week

 

 (imdb)

WHERE HAVE ALL THE PEOPLE GONE? -1974-This is an ABC movie of the week presentation. Steven Anders (Peter Graves; a year after MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE ended) and his kids Debbie (Kathleen Quinlan) & Alex (George O'Hanlon Jr.) are on vacation, exploring some caves. After his wife leaves to attend to her job, they go to explore a cave. There's an intense flash of light and an earthquake. Everything seems OK but the friend who was with them dies of what seems to be radiation poisoning. They high tail it back to town but the place is devoid of people. In another town, they find the shell-shocked Jenny (Verna Bloom; in HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER the year before) and an angry dog. Later they are held up and stranded when a gun toting motorist steals their car. They come upon a farm and meet Michael (Michael James-Wixted), a young boy whose parents were killed. They travel by a horse drawn buckboard and run into some more canine trouble. When it's discovered wife/mom is dead everything almost falls apart. When Jenny is saved from suicide Ander's survival speech gives them all hew hope. 

What exactly happened isn't explained precisely. Maybe a solar flare caused some kind of epidemic. 

Director John Llewelyn Moxey (from Argentina) began his film career as an editor and second unit director. In 1960, he directed Christopher Lee in THE CITY OF THE DEAD (aka HORROR HOTEL). He did lots of BBC TV productions and in 1966 again directed Lee in CIRCUS OF FEAR. Later he relocated to the US where he worked largely in TV and directed the standout TV horror movie THE NIGHT STALKER (1972).

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Made For TV

 

FRANKENSTEIN-2004-Meandering bs about a 2000-year-old mad surgeon (Thomas Kretschmann) who creates a bunch of monsters that terrorize New Orleans. 

His "monster" (Vincent Perez) searches for him while a policewoman (Parker Posey) and her partner (Adam Goldberg) try to figure it out. Everyone whispers in the dark gloomy setting and Michael Madsen is another cop. From the ending, the producers (including Martin Scorsese) thought this junk was going to have a sequel.

 Originally called “Dean R. Koontz's Frankenstein” because USA network hired him to write the thing but they had a falling out and Koontz left and wrote a series of “Frankenstein” books. Director Marcus Nispel had made a remake of THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE the year before. He went on to remake FRIDAY THE 13^th (2009) and CONAN THE BARBARIAN (2011).

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TV Vampire

 

 

 (imdb)

VAMPIRE-1979-Architects John (Jason Miller) & Leslie (Kathryn Harrold) Rawlins design and build a huge cross to help revitalize a section of San Francisco. Unfortunately, it seems they have disturbed the tomb of a vampire. Enter Count Anton Voyteck (Richard Lynch), a mysterious guy who's romancing Leslie's lawyer friend (Jessica Walter). Voyteck leads them to some underground ruins that house lost art. Voyteck is arrested but later released and he visits Leslie who he seduces, but it's obvious he's a vampire. Later John finds Leslie dead, her body mutilated. It's blamed on a serial killer but John suspects Voyteck. He also comes to believe Voyteck is a vampire but he cracks up and is put in a mental ward. 

When Voyteck visits John he plans to kill him but he's interrupted by Mr. Kilcoyne (E.G.Marshall), a pipe smoking retired detective who'd been hanging around unnoticed. It turns out Kilcoyne, like John, believes Voyteck was also responsible for some grisly murders that he and his partner investigated in the '30's. He believes his partner who became a priest trapped Voyteck underground (at the cost of his own life) and the construction let him escape. The duo hunt for him.

 It's mostly a lot of talk but seems to set up for a sequel or TV series (?). Joe Spinell is in one scene. Directed by E.W. Swackhamer, at the time a busy TV director.

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Not Bad For A TV Movie

GARGOYLES-1972-Dr. Boley (Cornell Wilde) and his daughter Diana (Jenifer Salt) visit an old desert rat named Uncle Willie (Woody Chambliss) who has an unusual skeleton of what he says is a demon from a local Indian tribe. While interviewing Willie, they are attacked by something with claws that kills Willie and sets the place on fire. The father and daughter escape (with the skull) but one of the creatures attacks their car. They stay at a hotel owned by the boozy Mrs. Parks (Grayson Hall). The local sheriff blames some bikers but Boley tries to convince him otherwise. Later some gargoyles invade the hotel and one is hit and killed by a truck. Boley wants to take the dead creature back to LA but the gargoyle leader (Bernie Casey) wants it back. They re-invade to get the body and kidnap Diana too. With the help of the police (including Scott Glen), the bikers and some dogs, Boley infiltrates the lair, saves Diana and ruins the gargoyles' plan for world dominance. 

Director Bill Norton directed this above average TV horror movie after making his debut earlier with CISCO PIKE. He made some other mainstream films like MORE AMERICAN GRAFFITI and BABY: SECRET OF THE LOST LEGEND but later went back to making TV movies.

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Out Of Their League

 

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA-1997-This CBS TV movie was an unsold pilot based on the DC comic book team. I see why it was never released (but is readily available as a bootleg).  It takes place in New Metro where a tornado is created by bad guy The Weatherman threatens the city. The Flash, The Green Lantern and The Atom destroy the tornado and save endangered residents (and a cat). Guy Gardner (Matthew Settle) and Ray Palmer (John Kassir) are roommates with Fire (Michelle Hurd) but Barry Allen (Kenny Johnson) is a dysfunctional jerk who gets thrown out of his apartment so he later joins them. Tori (Kim Oja)), a meteorologist who works at a weather institute run by Dr, Eno (Miguel Ferrer) later becomes Ice and joins the league which is run by Martian Manhunter (David Ogden Stiers). The SFX aren't very good and the story is just like some disaster movie. It's further bogged down by wraparound scenes of the main characters talking about themselves and each other.

Director Felix Enriquez Alcala is still a busy in TV (BLUE BLOODS, THE GOOD WIFE, CRIMINAL MINDS). I read Lewis Teague (ALLIGATOR) may have directed some scenes. 

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All For A Dollar!

INCIDENT ON A DARK STREET-1973-Here's a DVD I got at a Dollar Tree Store in NJ for, what else but a dollar! 

It's a typical routine story (maybe a pilot) about lawyers battling organized crime and corruption. The best part about it is the cast. Once popular TV actor (and star of Robert Wise's THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN) James (don't call me Jimmy) Olsen is Joe Dubbs, the hard ass district attorney. David Canary is his assistant. Robert Pine is the newest member of the staff. They investigate mobster Dominic Leopold (Gilbert Roland) who has some dirty dealings with a greedy contractor Deaver Wallace (William Shatner). Rotund Richard Castellano (THE GODFATHER) is a mob connected government witness who the mean producers make run around and climb a fence. There's another story involving a dying woman and her husband who's being prosecuted for selling drugs. It's boring and ends rather abruptly without the main story coming to a conclusion. 

Others in the cast include David Doyle, Murray Hamilton, John Kerr, Gordon Pinsett (he was in BLACULA the year before) and Marlene Clark (some year as GANJA AND HESS) as Dubbs' secretary. Don “Red” Barry and Eddie Quillan also have small roles. Shatner was in two more memorable TV movies the same year as this: GO ASK ALICE and THE HORROR AT 37,000 FEET. 

Director Buzz Kulik began his career in TV in the very early '50's staying there almost his entire life doing TV series and movies (his most famous was BRIAN'S SONG) and only occasionally directing a big screen film (VILLA RIDES AGAIN, SHAMUS and Steve McQueens's last film THE HUNTER).

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Quick Hound

HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES-1972-Many people seem to have forgotten this TV movie version of the famous A. Conan Doyle story was ever made. 

It features Stewart Granger as Sherlock Holmes and Bernard Fox as Dr. Watson. They are not the best actors to play the team but for a TV movie they aren’t bad. Capt. Kirk himself William “Canadian Ham” Shatner is the suspicious and smirk George Stapleton and also plays the doomed Richard Baskerville in a pre-credit flashback. Also with Anthony Zerbe, Sally Ann Howes and Allan Caillou as Inspector Lestrade. Director Barry Crane was a busy TV director at the the time.

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TV Cap and A Bank Robbery In Korea

CAPTAIN AMERICA-(1979)-Ok, yeah, there were two TV movies made based on the Marvel Comic Book character Captain America. All around movie dud Reb Brown played the super soldier in both. I couldn't care less about either of them really. In the '80's Albert Pyun made a very bad big screen version for Cannon. In fact, I don't think it ever even played in the theaters. As I remember it I think Cannon went bankrupt and eventually it went straight to video. The weirdest part for me about that version is that Cap is played by Matt Salinger, the son of "Catcher In The Rye" author J.D. Salinger!

But anyway, what was I saying?

Oh yeah, CAPTAIN AMERICA 2 made for TV in 1979 is pretty forgettable except for the fact the bad guy is played by none other than Christopher Lee himself! Lee is an international terrorist named Miguel holding a scientist (Christopher Cary from TV's GARRISON'S GUERILLAS) hostage in a US penitentary. He wants the formula for an aging compund so he can blackmail America! Brown is pretty boring as the cowled patriotic super dude but he does have a boomerang shield, rocket powered cycle and wings on his head. Actually the whole freakin' story is boring! Much of it concerns Cap's relationship with a widow and her son in a small town Miguel is going to use as a test run......

TV stalwarts like Connie Sellecca, Len Birman and Ken Swofford help out. Well, they try to help out Cap, not the movie itself....I think Natalie Wood's sister Lana is also in this. I can't remember...(can you blame me?)

The first adaptation of Cap on film however occured in 1944 when Dick Purcell played the shield swinging super dude in a serial produced by Republic. Oh and CAPTAIN AMERICA 2 was directed by Ivan Nagy who made lots of other TV movies and the horror flick SKINNER.

Marvel Comics film studio has promised a new version in 2010!

Read an old Captain America comic by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby instead unless you are a Chris Lee completist.

And '79 was a busy year for him! He was in the Spielberg bomb 1941, CIRCLE OF IRON with David Carradine, THE PASSAGE with Anthony Quinn & Malcolm McDowell and ARABIAN ADVENTURE. He's slowed down a little in recent years.....



JAKARTA-2000-Clever bank heist movie from Korea that starts off with a rather unlikely plot that three groups of thieves rob the same bank on the same day. Strange things happen, people are killed and everything’s a bit confusing. But that’s only the first half. The second half is a flashback that explains what led up to the triple robbery and all is not as it seems. Very well done with some dark humor and good performances.

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Not Bad For TV!

DAUGHTER OF THE MIND-20th Century Fox TV-(1969)-This TV movie (based on a Paul Gallico novel) concerns a professor (Ray Milland) who sees and talks to the ghostly apparition of his dead daughter (familiar child TV actress Pamelyn Ferdin). All signs seem to agree that the ghost child is real but government agent Edward Asner thinks it might be “Cold War Enemies” trying to get the professor to defect! Don Murray is a psychic researcher who investigates.

Not a bad little movie as pseudo-supernatural TV movies go despite a couple of outrageous plot tie-ups. Gene Tierney is Milland’s wheelchair bound wife, George Macready is his colleague and John Carradine has an enjoyable cameo. Also with Barbara Dana and Virginia Christine.

Director Walter Grauman directed episodes of many TV series including The Twilight Zone episode “Miniature”, The Fugitive, The Untouchables and V. He made other good but seldom seen TV movies including CROWHAVEN FARM (also featuring Carradine), DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES and THE STREETS OF SAN FRANCISCO TV pilot. He made a few feature films including THE DISEMBODIED (with Alison Hayes) and  LADY IN A CAGE. Screenwriter Luther Davis wrote the Broadway play Kismet!

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