EDITOR’S NOTE: The Hostage was first on Chiller Theater on Saturday, February 5, 1977 at 11:30 p.m. It also aired on the show on August 18, 1979, January 31, 1981 and February 27, 1982.

Lots of Henry Farrell’s stories got turned into movies. Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte, Such A Gorgeous Kid Like Me, How Awful About Allan, The House That Would Not Die, What’s the Matter with Helen?, The Eyes of Charles Sand and, most famously, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

His first book, The Hostage, was turned into this low budget Crown International film, which was directed by Russell S. Doughten Jr., who would go on to executive produce the entire A Thief In the Night series of Christian pre-millennial madness. God bless you, Mr. Doughten, for all you have given to me.

A kid named Davey Cleaves sneaks onto a moving truck driven by the bonkers man named  Bull (Don Kelly, a TV star who died young as this is his final movie) and his partner Eddie (a very young Harry Dean Stanton).

John Carradine shows up, as he does at least seventeen times a week in movies that I watch, as does Ann Doran, whose career started in the silent era.

This was the first movie ever shot in Iowa. What a joy for the state when a drunken John Carradine was arrested in Des Moines, as he was disturbing the peace by loudly acting out various Shakespeare plays.

You can watch this on Tubi. Or You Tube.