DVD Wish List: Neglected TV "Movies of the Week"

Spielberg flirts with the devil.

As I recall it, the Golden Age of the television movie really started with the Movie of the Week feature from ABC in the late 60s. The first one I remember watching was Daughter of the Mind (1969), a Cold War spy thriller masquerading as a ghost story, which starred Ray Milland and Gene Tierney. It featured a number of genuinely creepy "hauntings," and at age nine, I was hooked. I had to watch the Movie of the Week whenever I could.

The other networks quickly followed ABC's lead with their own original movie programming, and a remarkable era in television began.

Quite frankly, if you were a kid with a horror or thriller jam, growing up in the late 60s to late 70s, the Movies of the Week were hog heaven. That was especially true if your parents (like mine) wouldn't let you watch big-screen horror at the theater. (For some reason, my parents thought small screen horror was less "scary" than the big screen stuff--how wrong they were!)

Some of these Golden Age telefilms were so memorable they've become legendary, like Duel (1971), directed by a film school drop-out in his early 20s named Steven Spielberg. Or Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (1973), remade as a big-budget, big-screen film by Guillermo del Toro in 2011 (it sucked, but the thought was appreciated.)

Others, just as good as those films, have been largely forgotten, except by those of us who grew up loving them. Some are available on DVD on demand, such as those from The Warner Archive, but these are often not made from digitally remastered originals. Some, like 1970's The House That Would Not Die, starring the great Barbara Stanwyck, can be found on cheap DVDs that cram a lot of different horror offerings together on one or two discs and sell them for cut-rate prices. Many aren't available at all except on DVD bootleg sites or in grainy VHS transfers posted on YouTube or Daily Motion.

The casts for these television films were remarkable: they usually featured a mix of past-their-prime big-screen stars, redoubtable television stars like Frank Converse, John Saxon, or Lois Nettleton, Broadway stars like Julie Harris or Robert Preston, and young up-and-comers like Sally Field. For kids my age, these films were often the first real exposure we had to the great screen icons from the 30s-50s, such as Edward G. Robinson, Susan Hayward, Kim Novak, Ray Milland, Olivia de Havilland, Bing Crosby, Bette Davis, and Barbara Stanwyck. These former big-screen greats all did TV movies in the late 60s-early 70s, many of them excellent; for instance, de Havilland in The Screaming Woman (1972).

That said, here's my list of those forgotten Movies of the Week that I'd most like to see receive an official DVD release and/or be the subject of a big-screen remake:

Something Evil (1972), directed by Steven Spielberg. AFAIK, this is the only movie ever directed by Spielberg that’s not available on an official DVD. Some commenters on movie fan sites claim it’s because he hates this film and is blocking its release.

That sounds suspicious to me, because Something Evil is nothing to be ashamed of. Now, 1941, on the other hand...but getting back to this film, it stars Broadway great Sandy Dennis and television actor Darren McGavin (whom all good little horror fans know as Kolchak from The Night Stalker) as a Manhattan couple who buy a farm in Mennonite country in rural Pennsylvania. McGavin’s character, Paul, is an advertising executive in mid-town Manhattan with a long brutal commute. This leaves Dennis's character, the neurotic Marjorie, alone a lot on an isolated farm where creepy shit is going on, along with a rambunctious boy of about 12 and a perpetually crying tot of about two.

Spielberg wrings a fantastic performance out of Dennis, who plays an increasingly paranoid mother who suspects that her son (Johnnie Whitaker from Family Affair) is being possessed by a demon. The script's an obvious knock-off of The Exorcist (the book version, as this film predates the Friedkin movie), but it’s still chilling and creepy. A nice ironic bonus is the presence of Ralph Bellamy, who was so good as the devil-worshipping Dr. Sapirstein in Rosemary’s Baby (1968), playing a local amateur historian who tries to help Marjorie fight the demon (basically the same role Maurice Evans plays in Rosemary.) You can watch this film on YouTube or buy a cheesy VHS-to-DVD transfer from a bootleg site, but an official release from a remastered original print would be very nice.

Satan’s Triangle (1975), directed by Sutton Roley. Another Satanic-themed horror (there were a lot of them in the 70s), this one focuses on the lost ships phenomenon of the Bermuda Triangle. Doug McClure from the long running 60s Western series The Virginian plays Lt. Haig, a Coast Guard officer monitoring the Triangle via helicopter with his partner (Michael Conrad from Hill Street Blues). They see a disabled sailboat listing in the open sea and decide to investigate.

Haig is lowered to the sailboat while his partner returns to base for reinforcements. He finds that the boat is riddled with corpses—a priest hanging by one foot from a mast, a man on deck impaled by a shard of glass, another corpse floating in mid-air in the hold. The only living occupant is Eva, a blonde played by the still-gorgeous Kim Novak in her early 40s (and yes, she still projects that eerie, trance-like stare she used so effectively in Hitchcock's Vertigo.)

Eva and Haig settle in to wait for the Coast Guard reinforcements, and through flashbacks she tells the evil tale of how everybody died. When the copter eventually returns to rescue them, a truly epic "twist" is awaiting the viewer. AFAIK, the only official DVD ever made of this film is dubbed in French. You can view a fuzzy VHS transfer on YouTube, or check bootleg sites, but this film really needs an official release. It’s good enough for a remake as well and better than nearly all horrors produced today.

Black Noon (1971), directed by Bernard L. Kowalski. Yet another Satanic tale has Roy Thinnes of the 60s sci-fi series The Invaders playing a preacher named Reverend Keyes, who is traveling across a barren desert with his wife in the Old West. They faint from the heat and almost die, but are rescued by townspeople from the only nearby town, San Melas.

In the town, led by informal mayor Kalem (Ray Milland), they find a community that’s wracked with misfortune, including many severe injuries and a church that mysteriously burned down. They invite Keyes to stay and be their new preacher, and at first everything seems to go well. But then the townspeople start to...change. This film has another jolting “twist” ending which I won’t get into, but I will say that if you’ve seen The Wicker Man (original version, of course), you might have an inkling about what happens to Reverend Keyes. Black Noon is another 70s TV movie that’s different and good enough for a big screen remake. Unfortunately, the only way most people can see it is through a blurry VHS transfer on YouTube or from a bootleg DVD site.

Dr. Cook’s Garden (1971), this film was the last movie made by Der Bingle. Sadly, it’s been totally forgotten, except by people like me. As a kindly, beloved country doctor, Bing pretty much plays the same character he played in Going My Way as the saintly, beloved Father O’Malley. Except that he’s a serial killer. Yes, you heard me, in his last film role, the clean-cut, All-American, good guy Der Bingle plays a freakin’ serial killer. And he was good at it, too. You see, the good doctor thinks his peaceful town is one big flower garden that sometimes needs...weeding. Dependable 70s TV leading man Frank Converse plays the younger colleague who figures it all out, aided by his girlfriend, Blythe Danner (aka Gwyneth Paltrow’s mother.) This movie was directed by Ted Post, from a script written by Ira Levin, the author of Rosemary's Baby; the script was nominated for an Edgar Award by the Mystery Writers of America. Look for a grainy VHS transfer on YouTube or a disc from a bootleg DVD site if you want to see it.

Reflections of Murder (1974), directed by John Badham. This thriller is a remake of the legendary French mystery pot-boiler Diabolique (1955), directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot. (Don't even think of darkening my door with mentions of the absurd 1996 remake, starring Sharon Stone.)

As in the Clouzot film, the wife and mistress (Joan Hackett and Tuesday Weld) of a boarding school headmaster (Sam Waterston) team up to murder the abusive buzzard by drowning him in the bathtub. They hide the body in a pond, but then it disappears. Then they get regular visitations from something--or someone--they think is the headmaster, come back to life. This version of the story takes place in eternally raining Seattle and has a ton of watery motifs that reinforce the excellently creepy, moldy atmosphere. Again, this film is only available on YouTube or on bootleg sites. With a director of the stature of Badham, you'd think it would get a release but no...

The Old Man Who Cried Wolf (1969), directed by Walter Grauman, who also directed two of my other big TV movie favorites, Crowhaven Farm (1970), and Daughter of the Mind. This neo-noir crime story stars two of the greatest actors from the 40s zenith of the film noir genre, Edward G. Robinson and Ruth Roman. Robinson plays Emile Pulska, an elderly man who witnesses a brutal murder in an inner-city pawn shop. Unfortunately, the evidence of the crime disappears and no one believes anything he says because they think he has paranoid dementia, including his own son (Martin Balsam, from Hitchcock's Psycho.)

Police and family patronize him while the killer threatens and stalks him (excellently portrayed by Percy Rodriguez as a corrupt gangland potentate.) He goes on the run to avoid being committed to an institution by his family, while Rodriguez seems to have henchmen looking for him everywhere he goes. The ending, as befits a true noir, is bleak and depressing.

This film can only be seen on YouTube or bootleg video, but deserves an official release. One would think that the current popularity of noir would spur someone to give The Old Man Who Cried Wolf another lease on life. The great cast includes Ed Asner and Diane Baker (from Hitchcock's Marnie) in addition to the others noted.