EDITOR’S NOTE: The Devil and Miss Sarahwas on the CBS Late Movie on February 24 and April 4, 1974.
Directed by Michael Caffey (who did a lot of TV, including the “Horror In the Heights” episode of Kolchak the Night Stalker) and written by Calvin Clements Jr. (whose career was also mostly in TV), The Devil and Miss Sarah has Gil Turner (James Drury), a farmer, escorting a criminal named Rankin (Gene Barry) to prison. Turner is bringing his wife Sarah (Janice Rule) along with him, which is a bad idea, because Rankin has occult powers and wants her.
Shot in the Utah desert, this has some great natural scenery and keeps the idea if the supernatural is real a mystery until the end. Sarah may or may not also have psychic powers, which means that she may see Rankin as a better partner than her husband. Or perhaps Gene Barry is so incredible in this it seems like he can dominate anyone.
A Manson-influenced Western about a Western outlaw who might be Satan. TV movies were bringing it in 1971.
EDITOR’S NOTE: The Brotherhood of the Bell was on the CBS Late Movie on August 11 and December 5, 1972 and November 27, 1973.
Director Paul Wendkos (The Mephisto Waltz) was nominated by the Directors Guild of America for “outstanding directorial achievement in television” because of this film. It was written by David Karp, who also wrote the original novel. It had been made once before as an episode of Studio One in 1958.
A world premiere CBS Thursday Night Movie on September 17, 1970, this arrived just as the seventies began, a decade packed with conspiracy. Professor Andrew Patterson (Glenn Ford) is back at the College of St. George in San Francisco to watch a young man be initiated into the secret society that he joined there, the Brotherhood of the Bell.
After the ritual, one of the leaders — Chad Harmon (Dean Jagger) — gives Patterson an assignment. Stop Dr. Konstantin Horvathy (Eduard Franz) from accepting a deanship at a college of linguistics so that a brother can take that position. Harmon is to blackmail Horvathy with the names of the people who helped him defect. Patterson wonders if this is legal. He’s told that he should be happy this is all they’re asking of him.
The professor does what he is supposed to do and it causes Horvathy to kill himself. Patterson then does exactly what no brother should do and reveals the truth to his wife Vivian (Rosemary Forsyth) and his father-in-law Harry Masters (Maurice Evans). This causes the Federal Security Services (as conspiracy-filled as this movie is, it doesn’t name the FBI; the agent is played by Dabney Coleman) to get involved and his father-in-law to turn him into the Brotherhood and Patterson’s father Mike (Will Geer) gets ruined in the process, then has a stroke and dies. Patterson also loses his job, gets humiliated on a talk show by Bart Harris (William Conrad) and is at rock bottom when his former boss Dr. Jerry Fielder (William Smithers) and the man he saw initiated Philip Dunning (Robert Pine) both stand up for him.
Obviously, the makers of The Skulls watched this movie.
EDITOR’S NOTE: The Killer Beeswas on the CBS Late Movie on February 13, 1976.
When I was a kid in the 70s, killer bees were all we heard of. They were obviously going to get us and a story on the news every night for years and then, well…nothing ever happened.
The ABC Movie of the Week on February 26, 1974, The Killer Bees, directed by Curtis Harrington and written by former lawyer John William Corrington and his wife Joyce Hooper, who teamed to write the scripts for Von Richthofen andBrown, The Omega Man, Boxcar Bertha, The Arena and Battle for the Planet of the Apes, as well as several soap operas and the syndicated show Superior Court.
Edward Van Bohlen (Edward Albert) has stayed away from his wine making family until his girlfriend Victoria Wells (Kate Jackson) asks him to go back home and try to reconnect. We all know that you can’t go home again and when your family uses African bees to make your wine better, well, you really should in no way go back home again.
Madame Van Bohlen (Gloria Swanson) not only runs the family and the winery, but the bees as well. She’s able to command them to kill everyone that she sees as a threat, but when she dies, who will the bees follow?
Bette Davis was originally going to be the star of the movie, but her doctor worried that she’d go into anaphylactic shock if she was stung by a bee. As for Gloria Swanson, she was so game for this movie that she agreed to have bees put all over her body. To create this moment, the bees were placed in a dry ice room to make them tired, then gradually warmed once they were put on Ms. Swanson’s costume.
The wine that got made by the Van Bohlen’s must have been good, because their home is now the place where noted winemaker — and yes, director — Francis Ford Coppola lives.
Directed by Stephen Hopkins (Predator 2) and written by Terry Black (Dead Heat), this episode is the story of Helen (Mimi Rogers), who is getting older and still trying to be a model. That means that she might have to murder the younger women, like Joyce (Kathy Ireland) and Druscilla (Jennifer Rubin).
“Hello, kiddies. What’s sinew? I was just in the middle of my deadly dozen. First, I do a few pull ups, then a few jumping hacks, and then I like to finish with a little die impact aerobics. I’m getting in shape for tonight’s tale. It’s about an ambitious young actress who’s looking for her big break. Will she make it? Only her scare-dresser knows for sure. Ohhhhh. I call this dismal drama: “Beauty Rest.”
Despite being roommates, Joyce will also do anything to get ahead, including sleeping with George (Buck Henry), the MC of a show that she and Helen are both in. Helen puts all her sleeping pills in some tea and plans to kill herself, but figures if she gives it to Joyce, she’ll sleep long enough for Helen to win. The problem is that Helen is a model and not a pharmacist and her roommate soon dies.
Druscilla has also slept with George and also plans on suing if she doesn’t win. So Helen strangles her and demands to win, which she does. She’s soon injected with blue liquid and wins the prize of Miss Autopsy 1992. Herschell Gordon Lewis would be pleased as her organs are soon opened up.
Wow! Anders Hove — Radu! — is in this!
This episode is based on “Beauty Rest” from The Vault of Horror #35. It was written by Al Feldstein and William Gaines and drawn by Jack Kamen.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Seizure: The Story of Kathy Morris was on the CBS Late Movie on October 7, 1986.
Kathy Morris died at the age of 29 three years after this TV movie was made. She suffered from seizures for seven years of her life, starting when she was a student at the Manhattan School of Music. According to the New York Times, during an operation in 1976 “her brain unexpectedly swelled, and the surgeon, convinced that Miss Morris would not survive the day, did not complete the operation. After six weeks in a coma, she suddenly responded to a doctor’s instruction to squeeze his hand. She later underwent five brain operations and countless hours of therapy to restore her ability to read and write.”
Two years later, she performed her operatic recital in five languages.
Penelope Milford plays Kathy in this movie, in which she learns how to put her life back together while her neurologist, Dr. Richard Connought (Leonard Nimoy), learns about relationships from her.
Brought to you by products of the Procter & Gamble Co., this was one of those uplifting TV movies that we don’t have any more. Nimoy is really great in it and seems to be enjoying the chance to play a human being.
Director Gerald I. Isenberg usually worked as a producer. This is his only directing credit. Based on the book Seizure by Charles L. Mee Jr., this was written by Robert Lewin and the husband and wife duo of Jack and Mary Pleshette Willis.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Beverly Hills Cowgirl Blues was on the CBS Late Movie on April 28, 1988.
Amanda Ryder (Lisa Hartman) is in Los Angeles to bring learn who killed one of her friends. She teams with fashionable LAPD detective Harry Wilde (James Brolin) and if you don’t think these two are going to have sex, you’ve never seen a movie before.
What surprised me is that David Hemmings shows up as Ian Blaize, the villain of this, and a man who employs a man dressed as a woman who is good at kickboxing as his henchperson. That’s big thinking today, much less 1985.
Imagine if Lisa Hartman was Eddie Murphy, because that’s what this movie is. It’s kind of, sort of Beverly Hills Cop and if you don’t believe me, the synth heavy soundtrack by Mark Snow — not yet the man who would make the theme for The X-Files — will remind you over and over again.
Director Corey Allen also made Cry Rape, while writer Rick Husky created S.W.A.T.
I thought that the villain was going to end up being Brolin, so I was happy that at the end, it seemed like these two cop lovers are going to try and make a go of it in Los Angeles. That said, their series never happened, so who knows what happened next.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Deadly Encounter was on the CBS Late Movie on November 26, 1986 and January 4, 1988.
William A. Graham (The Hunt for the Unicorn Killer) directed this Larry Hagman-starring movie, which was written by David J. Kinghorn (The Golden Gate Murders) and Robert Boris (Dr. Detroit). Hagman is Sam, a helicopter pilot pulled into a scheme by Chris Butler (Susan Anspach), an ex-girlfriend whose husband has just been killed by some criminals. He has a black book that can put all of them away, as long as she can get it before they do.
Graham and Boris also made another helicopter TV movie, Birds of Prey, which starred David Janssen. Unfortunately, three people died making this film. The Hughes Model 500 (369HS) that Hagman flies in the movie crashed when it collided with a cable. Owner Glen Miller (who plays Pocotello Pete in this movie), Diane Doherty and costumer Frank Novak all were lost in the tragedy.
This is the end of when real planes and helicopters were used for stunts. As a result, aviation lovers are super into this movie, as the IMDB review section will prove. It also has a great synth soundtrack, written by Michael Hoenig (Galaxy of Terror, Koyaanisqatsi) and Fred Carlin (Bad Ronald) and played by J. Peter Robinson, who scored The Wraith. Robinson also appears in the video for Phil Collins’ “Don’t Lose My Number,” playing the gyro pilot as Phil becomes Mad Max.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Deadly Deception was on the CBS Late Movie on December 22, 1989.
The VHS art for this movie makes it feel like you’re about to watch a Mexican straight to video horror movie. Instead, you get a well-made TV movie that was directed by the king of the form, John Llewellyn Moxey, and written by Gordon Cotler (The Facts of Life Down Under).
Laurie Shoat (Meg Gibson) is struggling with post-partum depression when she ends up dead and her child missing. The police just think it was a murder suicide while her husband Jack (Matt Salinger, Cannon’s Captain America) thinks that his son is still alive and that his wife was murdered. With the help of a reporter named Anne (Lisa Elibacher, 10 to Midnight), he learns that a woman named Sarah (Mildred Natwick) may be the secret to why his wife was found hung in a motel.
The New York Times said that it was, “melodrama, occasionally unpleasant, vaguely depressing, only fitfully interesting.” They’re wrong, but how often did reviewers like TV movies?
EDITOR’S NOTE: Alexander: The Other Side of Dawn was on the CBS Late Movie on December 11, 1970 and June 30, 1980.
I said in the article on Dawn: Portrait of a Teenage Runaway that Alexander was a loser. Well, I should have seen his movie first, because it’s way better than the more famous first movie and he comes off way better.
This pulls a Halloween 2 and starts right where the first movie ended, as Alexander Duncan (Leigh McCloskey) is being operated on. He then has flashbacks of how he came from Oklahoma to Hollywood with dreams of being an actor. What else was he supposed to do? His father Eddie (Lonny Chapman) threw him out because he had so many kids to feed and Alexander was drawing more than doing chores. His mother (Diana Douglas, Michaels mom!) begs dad to reconsider, but his mind is made up.
He’s too young to get a real gig, so a hustler named Buddy (Asher Brauner) introduces him to sex work. He makes $50 off his first john. He then wakes up and we see the ending of the first movie, as Alexander convinces Dawn (Eve Plum) to go back home. While her story may be happy now, his isn’t. He loses his job and goes back to walking the streets, getting arrested on his first night.
Ray Church (Earl Holliman) overhears Alexander asking for his old probation officer, Donald Umber. But for some reason, he’s left town. And I totally lied about Dawn being happy, because she misses Alexander and stuff isn’t going well for her either. I bet she’d be unhappy to know that Buddy is taking his former friend on double dates where older women pay for their company. She also probably wouldn’t like that he becomes the plaything of football player Charles Selby (Alan Feinstein), using him for his cash.
Dawn gets recognized at home by someone who knows she was a sex worker. She runs away and goes back to Hollywood, where she luckily meets Alex just in time. He’s fresh off a drug bust and just wants to leave town. Together, they head out into a future that we hope is happy.
Director John Erman also made the Scarlett TV miniseries, as well as Roots: The Next Generations, Stella and When the Time Comes. This was written by Walter Dallenbach (Las Vegas Lady) and Dalene Young, who is credited with the characters and story.
Alexander is obviously gay and his father’s hatred of his art hints at this. One wonders how solid his relationship with Dawn really will be. However, I was moved by how this movie, despite being made in 1977, didn’t have the normal homosexual stereotypes. It doesn’t place any judgement on Alexander for potentially liking men, even if we’re told her loves Dawn. My opinion? They’re both in horrible lives and only have one another, at least for now.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Getting Physical was on the CBS Late Movie on October 22, 1986.
Kendall Gibley (Alexandra Paul) is trying to be an actress, but has a day job she dates, worries that she’s chubby and has self-esteem problems. And then one day, she finds herself at a gym and bonds with Nadine and Craig Cawley (Sandahl Bergman and John Aprea), the owners. While she’s starting a relationship with a cop named Mickey (David Naughton), Kendall gets super into being fit and even starts training for a contest. Her new size upsets Mickey, who ends up punching another cop, and they break up, just in time for Nadine to worry that her husband is paying too much attention to Kendall.
Also: Kendall’s dad Hugh (Robert Webber) thinks she’s fat and her mother Myra (Janet Carroll) thinks she needs to have casual sex. And her boss Byron Waldo (Earl Boen) gets mad when she eats celery at work.
By the end, everything works out well and despite being new to working out, Kendall is a finalist in a contest hosting by Arnold’s best friend Franco Columbu. You’ll also get to see Candy Csencsits (who sadly died at 33 from breast cancer), Vicki Kibler-Silengo, Lisa Lyon (who is also in The Hustler of Muscle Beach), Rachel McLish (Aces: Iron Eagle III), Yana Nirvana (who was Drusilla in the 1977 adult version of Cinderella) and Spice Williams-Crosby (Vixis the Klingon from Star Trek V), Connie Downing (Moving Violations) and Denise Gordy (Reform School Girls). Anne Ramsey (Mama Fratelli!) also shows up.
Directed by Steven Hilliard Stern (Rolling Vengeance, The Park Is Mine, Murder In Space, Mazes and Monsters) and written by Marcy Gross, Laurian Leggett and Ann Weston, this movie is filled with slow jams and 80s soft love ballads, including several songs by Billy Davis Jr. and Marilyn McCoo, as well as songs by Thelma Houston. There’s a new song in almost scene at one point with lots of sweet sounding choruses.
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