Category Archives: Made for TV Movie

Junesploitation: L’uomo che non voleva morire (1989)

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June 26: Junesploitation’s topic of the day — as suggested by F This Movie— is Free Space! We’re excited to tackle a different genre every day, so check back and see what’s next.

This is the only episode of Alta tensione that I haven’t seen — until now. The other episodes are Il gioko, a story of a teacher thinking her students murdered the instructor she has replaced, the giallo Testimone oculare and Il maestro del terrore, in which a horror director is attacked by a writer and an actor. All were directed by Lamberto Bava.

Translated as The Man Who Wouldn’t Die, this originally going to air in 1989. Due to concerns about the violence of these films, it didn’t play on Italian TV again until 2007. The other three aired in 1999. None of them have been released on home media legally.

Written by Gianfranco Clerici (Strange Shadows in an Empty Room) based on a short story by Giorgio Scerbanenco, this is about a gang of five burglars that art dealer Madame Janaud (Martine Brochard, Murder Obsession) hires to steal art from a rich man’s villa. Led by Fabrizio (Keith Van Hoven, Demons 3), the thieves (including Lino Salemme, who did coke out of a Coke can in Demons and Stefano Molinari, the demon in the movie on the TV in Demons 2) tie up the man of the house and his wife, then take everything they can get their hands on so that Janaud can sell them to art collector Mr. Miraz (Jacques Sernas).

The problem is that one of the gang, Giannetto (Gino Concari) screws over the gang and cuts up the most expensive thing they take, Renoir’s “After the Bath.” He hides in the villa’s garage and decides to go back for it later.

That would be bad enough, but Giannetto attacks the husband and then assaults his tied-up wife while the man watches. He gets enraged and kicks the offensive moron in the head and kills him. Fabrizio kills both the husband and wife, then wraps the body of Giannetto in a carpet. The gang argues what to do, so instead of killing him, they strip him and dump him in the woods. Somehow, he survives and comes back to life in the hospital. He wants revenge, but he’ll be lucky to stay alive, as a giallo killer starts to murder all of the gang, with one’s face getting smashed, another being done in by toilet — head smashing and drowning — and a smooshed head for the last crook.

This was originally to be made by Lamberto’s father Mario, who had been working on a script with Rafael Azcona and Alessandro Parenzo. It’s not Lamberto’s best work but the kills are very well filmed and the Simon Boswell score is good.

You can watch this on Daily Motion.

Tales from the Crypt S3 E14: Yellow (1991)

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Originally airing as another attempt to make an E.C. Comics anthology, Two-Fisted Tales, “Yellow” was taken from the first issue of Shock SuspenStories and was written by Al Feldstein and illustrated by Jack Davis. After the movie that had three of those stories aired once, all of the stories made their way into Tales from the Crypt.

“Yellow,” directed by Robert Zemeckis and written by Jim and John Thomas (Predator), A. L. Katz and Gilbert Adler, is about a soldier who keeps letting down his military man father. It’s super tense and filled with gore, plus great acting by Kirk and Eric Douglas, Lance Henriksen and Dan Aykroyd.

“Hello, creeps. I was just about to fire off tonight’s dead-time story. It’s about a young soldier who doesn’t want to be in the army anymore. I can’t imagine why not. I mean, war’s a great equal opportunity destroyer. Now, where was I? Oh yes.Ready! Maim! And here’s my favorite part. Fire! I call tonight’s tale: Yellow.”

In France during World War I, American soldiers are in the trenches and trying to take a hill for 49 days in a row. Sgt. Ripper (Lance Henriksen) leads his men with courage in the middle of the fight while his superior Lt. Martin Calthrop (Eric Douglas) hides and gets drunk. Instead of allowing Ripper to push on, Calthrop asks him to retreat.

The hill is crucial to the plans of both General Calthrop (Kirk Douglas) — Martin’s father — and German commander General von Furstenburg. As Captain Milligan (Dan Aykroyd) listens, the elder soldier orders his son to take Ripper and two men to repair communications. If he does this mission, he will be transferred away from combat, as he’s a coward. Martin screws it up, dropping the whistle he’s been given to warn his men, which causes all of them to be killed. Ripper barely hangs on — guts all over the place — to call Cathrop yellow before he dies. This causes an instant court martial and death by firing squad once the evidence is examined.

As he waits to die, Cathrop tells his father that all he cared about was the military and not his son. The general tells his son that he’d never let him die and has loaded the guns with blanks. That allows his son to stand up in the face of death and make a speech, saying , “I tried. But I’m not the man my father is. I’m sorry, and I apologize. My fear of dying got in the way of my responsibility to my men, and the obligations of my commanding officers. I know now what Shakespeare meant: “Cowards die many times before their deaths. The valiant never taste of death but once.”” The men are moved by his bravery and then he realizes that his father lied. This allows him to have a son who wasn’t yellow and his military record can continue without any stain on it.

No one realizes that the Germans have taken the hill.

This is the last episode of season 3. There are four seasons left. Are you enjoying these articles so far?

Tales from the Crypt S3 E13: Spoiled (1991)

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In the world of E.C. Comics, there is no shortage of cheating spouses or the price they pay for giving into sin.

“Hello, golfing fiends, and welcome to the Crypt. Oh, don’t mind him. That’s just my caddie, Juan. He got me teed off while I was playing a round…so I shot a hole in Juan! Which brings to mind the young woman in tonight’s tale. She’s also playing around, except that her game isn’t golf. It’s love. I call this disgusting drama “Spoiled.””

This episode is so meta that there’s an argument for buying cable in it.  “The picture is so much better. Plus, you get HBO and everything. It would really improve the quality of your life,” says Louise (Annabelle Gurwitch) to her put-upon friend, soap opera obsessive Janet (Faye Grant). And once our heroine actually does get the cable, her husband Leon (Alan Rachins) demands that she turn off the Crypt Keeper!

Janet loves Fuchsia (Anita Morris), the star of her favorite daytime show There’s Always Tomorrow. When Fuschia’s husband ignores her, she gets the passion she needs from younger and way more desirable men. So you can understand when cable guy Abel (Anthony LaPaglia) comes into her home that she wants nothing more to pound his brains out while all her mad scientist hubby cares about is taking brains and moving them from body to body.

Well, not exactly. He actually switches the heads on the bodies and by the end of this story, he’s done that to Janet and Abel with some of the worst effects that 1991 can deliver.

Directed by Andy Wolk, who has mostly been in episodic television, and written by Connie Johnson (who assisted producers on this show for 17 episodes) and Doug Ronning (who also wrote another episode, “The Secret”), this is what happens when this show tries to be too cute. Sure, humor is part of E.C. but it’s not all of it. It’s why I prefer the Amicus version to so many of the HBO episodes.

Grant and Rachins would play another married couple — and the parents to Brian Austin Green — in the TV movie Unwed Father.

This is based on “Spoiled” from The Haunt of Fear #26. It was written by Otto Binder (who wrote more than half of the Captain Marvel family stories and created Supergirl) and drawn by Jack Kamen.

Junesploitation: Linda (1973)

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June 14: Junesploitation’s topic of the day — as suggested by F This Movie— is Beach! We’re excited to tackle a different genre every day, so check back and see what’s next.

John D. MacDonald had several of his books turned into movies. The Executioners was filmed twice as Cape Fear, Soft Touch inspired Man-Trap, plus the novels Darker Than Amber, The Girl, the Gold Watch & Everything, Condominium and A Flash of Green were all made into movies. Even this story was turned into two TV movies with the second starring Virginia Madsen as Linda.

Linda Reston (Stella Stevens) has a bad marriage with Paul (Ed Nelson, The Devil’s Partner), who is daydreaming of leaving her when she suddenly shoots their friend Anne Braden (Mary-Robin Redd) and turns the gun on Anne’s husband Jeff (John Saxon!) while at the beach. Paul calls the cops and when they arrive, Jeff is alive and the twosome accuses Paul of killing Anne.

As you can tell right away, Linda and Jeff are working together to get rid of their spouses and make a new life for themselves. Luckily, Marshall Journeyman (John McIntire, who replaced both Ward Bond on Wagon Train and Charles Bickford on The Virginian when both of those actors died), an elder lawyer, takes on his case and starts to investigate Linda and Jeff.

Paul sneaks out of his cell and soon learns that his wife has been conspiring with Jeff, which leads Journeyman to get the cops in on a scam to call her and try and get a confession. She’s too tough but man, Jeff folds right away. She tells him he’s spineless and also informs her now ex-husband that she won’t be in jail long.

Originally broadcast as the ABC Saturday Suspense Movie on November 3, 1973, this was directed by Jack Smight, who made one of my wife’s favorite movies, No Way to Treat a Lady, as well as Airport 1975, The Illustrated Man, The Traveling Executioner, Number One with a Bullet and Damnation Alley.

Stella Stevens is quite wonderful in this. She’s so cold and has everything figured out but yet as she laments, she’s never been able to find a man who isn’t spineless. Her husband can’t even bury a dead animal without having a nervous breakdown and her lover gets her arrested for murder. I’d love a sequel where we learn how she takes over prison.

You can watch this on YouTube.

Junesploitation: Gil Incubi de Dario Argento (1987)

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June 11: Junesploitation’s topic of the day — as suggested by F This Movie— is Italian Horror! We’re excited to tackle a different genre every day, so check back and see what’s next.

Gli incubi di Dario Argento (Dario Argento’s Nightmares) was a TV series created and directed by Dario Argento that was part of the RAI TV show Giallo by Enzo Tortora. He’s probably most famous for the show Portabello that had viewers call in to buy or sell things, present ideas or try and look for love. And if they could get the parrot who was the show’s namesake to say his name, they would win a prize. He was also arrested in 1983 and jailed for 7 months as it was thought he was a member of an organized crime family, the Nuova Camorra Organizzata. It was a case of mistaken identity and he got out of ten years in jail thanks to the Radical Party. They offered him a candidacy to the European Parliament, which he won in a landslide. He was cleared of all charges the year this show ran and brought this show — on which he discussed unsolved murder cases — and Portabella to RAI.

The main draw of these episodes are nine new mini-movies made by Argento. They’re three-minute shorts shot on 35mm that show off some wild effects but one of them, Nostalgia Punk, so upset viewers that it has rarely been shown since. The stories are:

La finestra sul cortile (The Window on the Court): This is Argento’s tribute to Alfred Hitchcock and Rear Window. After watching the film, a man named Massimo watches his neighbors fight. He runs down with a knife to stop them, but falls on his own weapon and is blamed by the police for killing the woman. If you recognize the music, it’s part of the Simon Boswell score from Phenomena.

Riti notturni (Night Rituals): This is also missing from some online versions of the film, but has a maid conspire with a voodoo coven to murder and devour the couple that she works for.

Il Verme (The Worm): A woman who goes by the name of Bettina is reading Dylan Dog (the comic book that Cemetery Man comes from) when she overhears a story about parasites that go from cats to humans. As she explores her nearly nude body in a mirror, she notices a worm has grown out of her eye, which she stabs out.

Amare e morire (Loving and Dying): Set to Michael Jackson’s “Bad,” this story has Gloria assaulted and left for dead. As she recovers, she believes that the man who raped her is one of three neighbors. She sleeps with each in an attempt to learn who it is and get her bloody revenge.

Nostalgia punk: The most controversial segment, this has a woman’s water become poisoned. She begins to vomit multicolored liquids and then parts of her body before she finally tears her own body to pieces and her organs rain out of her destroyed carcass. It got so many complaints that Argento was told to settle down in future segments.

La Strega (The witch): Using Morricone’s score from The Bird With the Crystal Plumage, this has Cinzia’s party guests playing a game called “The Witch” that ends with children screaming and holding a bloody head.

Addormentarsi (Falling asleep): A man is possessed by a demon just before he falls asleep and then devours his dog. This uses “Anarchy in the UK” by the Sex Pistols.

Sammy: Sammy is a young girl who is frightened when Santa enters her room. Then Santa removes his face and reveals a monster. It’s simple but it really works.

L’incubo di chi voleva interpretare l’incubo di Dario Argento (The Nightmare of the One Who Wished to Explain Dario Argento’s Nightmare): A young man comes to REI to be part of this series and when he stays at a hotel, he soon learns he’s in a room with foreigners who steal everything he has and then threaten to kill him. It turns out that it’s all a set-up by Argento.

At the beginning of every episode, Argento appears, often with Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni (Demons 2, Il Bosco 1, Opera) all gothed out and acting as his starry-eyed assistant.

Argento also created another segment for Giallo, Turno di notte (Night Shift), which was about what happens to cab drivers at night. Episodes were also directed by Lamberto Bava and Luigi Cozzi. He also shared how he filmed several big moments in his most famous movies, such as the Loma camera sequence in Tenebrae; the bird attack in Opera, the transformation scenes in Demons 2 and how he directed Goblin to create the score for Suspiria. These scenes are worth watching and also appear in the Luigi Cozzi-directed Dario Argento: Master of Horror.

While this is by no means necessary watching for those with a passing interest in Italian horror, for devotees of the form and Argento, it is required viewing. It’s the chance to basically get nine new stories even if they are very short.

You can watch this on YouTube.

References:

Hypnotic Crescendos. Gil Incubi del Dario Argento.

Dr. Cook’s Garden (1971)

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Originally a play by Ira Levin — A Kiss Before Dying, Rosemary’s Baby, Deathtrap, The Stepford Wives,  The Boys from Brazil and Sliver to name a few — this is only the second dramatic role for star Bing Crosby, who took over the part that Burl Ives played on Broadway, Dr. Leonard Cook.

He’s the center of Greenfield, Vermont, responsible for the fact that there is hardly any crime and so much happiness. The man who is like a father to, Jimmy Tennyson( Jimmy Converse), comes back home and wants to be a doctor as well, but Cook is against it. This is his town.

Cook’s assistant Dora Ludlow (Abby Lewis) tells Tennyson to keep working on the older man, who has heart problems, as he needs an assistant. The young doctor also glows close to a former love, Janey Rausch (Blythe Danner). He soon figures out that all of the deaths in town are Dr. Cook pruning his garden of those who aren’t morally right for his small bit of heaven.

Originally airing on January 19, 1971 on ABC, this was directed by Ted Post, who we all know made The Baby and Beneath the Planet of the Apes. Writer Art Wallace worked on the Planet of the Apes TV series, as well as She Waits and being one of the creators of Dark Shadows. This is a really effective — and quick — movie. You’ll see the twist coming, but the end is so moving and Crosby is so good in this role, you’ll be along for every step of the ride.

You can watch this on YouTube.

Tales from the Crypt S3 E12: Deadline (1991)

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Charlie McKenzie (Richard Jordan) was a reporter once. But now, he’s a drunk that can barely survive. Then he meets Vicki (Marg Helgenberger) and one night of love with her has him fixing his life and trying to get his job back, even if his boss Phil Stone (Richard Herd) and sister Mildred (Rutanya Alda) don’t believe that he can ever get back off the booze. Even his bartender wants him to stop drinking.

“So, what’ll it be, stranger? Can I interest you in a mai die? Or would you prefer a rum and choke? Or maybe you’d like something a little stronger. I’ve got just the thing. It’s a nasty little snootfull about a newshound named Charlie who needs a murder story and a drink. But not necessarily in that order. Ah, what some people won’t do for a good stiff one. I call this little eye-opener “Deadline.””

Charlie has to bring in a murder story. He finds it in a diner, as Nikos Stavo (Jon Polito) argues with his unseen wife in the kitchen. Charlie runs in for his story, only to learn that the woman who is getting him back on his feet was just sleeping with drunks to upset her husband. So our protagonist kills her and calls in his story, ending this episode in a sanitarium.

This episode is directed and co-written by one of Tales from the Crypt‘s producers, Walter Hill. It’s as good as you hoped it would be. He wrote it with his assistant, Mae Woods, who would go on to be a producer of movies such as Streets of Fire, Red Heat and Crossroads.

This episode is based on “Deadline” from Shock SuspenStories #12. It was written by Al Feldstein and William Gaines and drawn by Jack Kamen. This episode feels like it could run along with “Mournin’ Mess” as they are so close to each other.

Tales from the Crypt S3 E11: Split Second (1991)

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“Sometimes, life can be such a grind. Know what I mean? That’s why I like to get out every now and then and swing a little. So much for his family tree! Tonight’s tale concerns a young woman who’s about to do a little swinging of her own. She wants to prove that a good man is hard to find, but easy to get rid of. I think you’ll like this little chopping spree I call: “Split Second.””

Liz Kelly (Michelle Wilson) is stranded in a logging town, working in a bar to earn enough money to get a bus ticket. The camp manager Steve Dixon (Brion James) saves her from Banjo (Tony Pierce), a loud and rude drunk, and she ends up married the much older man that very night. They seem to have a good marriage until his men see her all dressed up and he reveals just how jealous he is. That only increases when a new lumberjack named Ted Morgan (Billy Wirth) appears and takes over his wife’s imagination.

Liz is a horrible person, to be honest, and she just doesn’t want to be bored. That ends up costing her life, her husband’s and Ted’s vision. Steve was such a nice guy before all this or so his men say. But now they’re killing him, so there’s that. You have to love an episode that doesn’t just have a blind man saw two people to death but has the Crypt Keeper chainsaw Joel Silver.

Directed by Russell Mulcahy (Highlander, The Shadow), written by Richard Christian Matheson and filmed on the sets of Twin Peaks by cinematographer Rick Bota (who would go on to direct Hellraiser: Hellseeker, Hellraiser: Deader and Hellraiser: Hellworld), this is a pretty good episode.

It’s based on “Split Second!” from Shock SuspenStories #4, which was written by Al Feldstein and William Gaines and drawn by Jack Kamen.

SUPPORTER WEEK: I Saw What You Did (1988)

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EDITOR’S NOTE: Today’s movie is brought to you by Jason, who made a one-time donation and told me to pick any 70’s TV I wanted. So how about an entire week?

Would you like to have me write about the movies of your choice? It’s simple!

  1. Go to our Ko-Fi site and donate. There’s no set amount and I won’t tell you what to do. In fact, if you just keep reading for free, we can still be friends.
  2. Join as a monthly member for just $1. That makes you a Little B&S’er.
  3. As a Medium B&S’er at just $3 a month, if you pick a movie or a director, I’ll write about them for you. In fact, I’ll do one for each month you subscribe and even dedicate the post to you.
  4. For $5 a month, you basically get some major power. As a Big B&S’er, I’ll write an entire week on any subject you’d like. How awesome would that be? In fact, I’ll do it for every month you’re a member. Do you think any of your other movie sites will do that for you?

This made for TV movie is based on Out of the Dark by Ursula Curtiss but its title comes from the first movie made from it, the 1965 William Castle directed, Joan Crawford starring I Saw What You Did. Director Fred Walton is going back to familiar territory, as he made When a Stranger Calls, one of the movies that took Black Christmas‘ idea that the calls are coming from inside the house. He also directed April Fool’s Day, The Rosary Murders, When a Stranger Calls Back and The Stepford Husbands. This was written by Cynthia Cidre, who was a showrunner for the 2010s Dallas.

Lisa Harris (Tammy Lauren, Wishmaster) might be popular, but she could care less about school. Kim Fielding (Shawnee Smith, The Blob) is a smart kid who never gets to have fun and is always babysitting her sister Julia (Candace Cameron from Full House). When her father goes out for the night, Kim tries to invite over the more popular Lisa, who just wants a place to meet her boyfriend Louis (Patrick O’Bryan, 976-EVIL). While she’s waiting for him, she decides to show Kim and Julia how to be bad and starts prank calling people and talking sexy or saying, “I saw what you did and I know who you are.”

One of the people they call is Adrian Lancer (Robert Carradine), who has already killed his girlfriend Robyn (Jo Anderson) and is about to try and set his brother Stephen (David Carradine) on fire. Kim thinks they’re flirting but he’s trying to find out who she is because he’s sure she knows he’s a killer.  She ends up at his house and things get pretty tense to say the least. And the whole thing ends with Stephen calling Kim and saying,  “Kim, I know who you are. You killed my brother.” And he seemed so normal.

Originally airing on May 20, 1988 on CBS, this isn’t as good as the original — you figured that, right? — and the role that Crawford played is barely in it. But hey, it’s pretty decent for a late 80s TV movie.

SUPPORTER WEEK: Black Market Baby (1977)

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EDITOR’S NOTE: Today’s movie is brought to you by Jason, who made a one-time donation and told me to pick any 70’s TV I wanted. So how about an entire week?

Would you like to have me write about the movies of your choice? It’s simple!

  1. Go to our Ko-Fi site and donate. There’s no set amount and I won’t tell you what to do. In fact, if you just keep reading for free, we can still be friends.
  2. Join as a monthly member for just $1. That makes you a Little B&S’er.
  3. As a Medium B&S’er at just $3 a month, if you pick a movie or a director, I’ll write about them for you. In fact, I’ll do one for each month you subscribe and even dedicate the post to you.
  4. For $5 a month, you basically get some major power. As a Big B&S’er, I’ll write an entire week on any subject you’d like. How awesome would that be? In fact, I’ll do it for every month you’re a member. Do you think any of your other movie sites will do that for you?

Brut Productions was a film production company that — if the name doesn’t clue you in — was part of Fabergé cosmetics. Run by George Barrie — who in addition to creating the Brut fragrance also was nominated for the 1973 Academy Award for Best Original Song with Sammy Cahn for “All That Love Went To Waste” and in 1975 for “Now That We’re In Love” — it had Cary Grant on the board of directors and Roger Moore was an ambassador at large.

Their films include Cry for Me, Billy; Night Watch; A Touch of Class; Book of Numbers; Welcome to Arrow Beach; Miracles Still Happen; Hangup; Mean Johnny Barrows; Whiffs; Sweet Hostage; Hedda, Hugo the Hippo; I Will, I Will… for Now; Nasty Habits; Thieves; Fingers; The Class of Miss MacMichael and The Dream Merchants along with this film. Fabergé sold their interest in 17 films in 1982 for an undisclosed amount to Ted Turner.

Directed by Robert Day (She, The Man With Bogart’s Face, The Initiation of Sarah) and written by Andrew Peter Marin from the book by Elizabeth Christman, this stars Linda Purl (Visiting Hours) as Anne Macarino, a young woman who falls for Steve Aletti (Desi Arnaz Jr.) and doesn’t realize that he’s part of a scheme by medical student Herbert Freemont (Bill Bixby) to get an Italian Catholic baby that has some intelligence to replace the child that was lost by Jessica Walter as Joseph and Louise Carmino (David Doyle and Jessica Walter). Everyone is in on this, even the kindly obstetrician Dr. Andrew Brantford (Tom Bosley) who is seemingly helping her. Now, knocked up, she can’t tell her good Catholic family that she’s with child (Allen Joseph, Mr. X from Eraserhead is her father), Steve is ignoring her and she’s trapped in a home for expectant single mothers.

Even a really young Annie Potts shows up, so it has that going for it. It’s her first movie. She plays one of the other mothers who reveals that she’s selling her child and that’s when Anne loses it. Then she stays with the Carminos without knowing that they want her child.

This movie is essential if you think that David Doyle and Tom Bosley are the same person.

Back to that house for mothers. It’s owned by Mrs. Krieg, who is played by Lucille Benson, who will forever be Mrs. Elrod from Halloween II.

You can watch this on YouTube.