Dipping a Toe into the TV-Movie Time Tunnel!

Thanks to the prompting from a recent comment by a visitor to The Underworld, I did something that I haven't done in a little while. I ventured close to the vortex of 1970s made-for-TV-movies and fell in again briefly! You might recall previous trips that I took here, here and here. This time, it began with my wanting to take a look at the recently departed Patty Duke in one of her many teleflicks, She Waits (1972.)

Like many others of its time, the story is compact and told in 74 minutes (which equated to a 90-minute time slot with commer- cials.) The story begins with Dorothy McGuire being awakened in her large house by what seems to be the ghost of someone called Elaine. McGuire is halted in her late-night quest by her longtime housekeeper and companion Beulah Bondi. Classic movie fans will recall that these two appeared together earlier in the scenic melodrama A Summer Place (1959.)

Next we meet newlyweds David McCallum and Patty Duke, who have just arrived at McGuire's house. He is her son (though why he has a British accent and she doesn't is never elaborated upon!) Even though he made hotel reservations, he's opted instead to come to his old house, though his mother preferred that he didn't for some reason. Before long, we find that Elaine was his first wife, now deceased. The movie has faint echoes of Rebecca (1939), though this time the housekeeper (Bondi) is generally good-natured and friendly while McGuire is the one who is less-welcoming.

Duke tries to remain upbeat about the situation while also being more than a bit confused by all the mystery. Tight-lipped (and tight-faced) McCallum doesn't offer much beyond telling Duke that after this first day they will be able to spend more time together and also that, aside from a brief introduction between the two, he'd like her to avoid being around his mother. When McGuire and Duke do meet, it's amiably, though McGuire still wishes that the couple hadn't stayed in the house against her better judgment.

Duke experiences a variety of strange happenings. She hears voices, such as a woman on the telephone, yet when she enters the room there is no woman there and the phone isn't even connected! There are also regular opportunities for the wind to suddenly blow into a room, making the sheers billow. (ALL of the houses in these old movies have sheers hanging in the windows! How can we even tell nowadays, that those are sort of "out," that we may have a ghost wafting around?!) Duke also keeps hearing a haunting melody from a music box that was Elaine's.

Amazingly, while she is out wandering around the neighbor- hood, she spies the very same music box in a store window and steps in to examine it further. It plays a different melody, which the shop owner explains is due to the two having once been a set, with one happy tune and one melancholy. He also claims that he hadn't had the box for sale until just a few minutes before she walked by and saw it! (The tune she keeps hearing "Elaine's Theme" was composed by Morton Stevens and it must be said that his surprisingly rich score to this movie is one of its chief assets!)

Duke continues to be disturbed by voices and happenings within the house until finally she has something of a breakdown and is looked over by McGuire's doctor, played by movie veteran Lew Ayres. Why is Duke, who ultimately becomes practically possessed by the spirit of Elaine, being targeted this way and what is the goal of the ghost, if there is one? Well, you'll just have see for yourself if you're interested!

Also popping up a couple of times in She Waits is James T. Callahan, a frequent television series guest from the 1960s on and a regular member of the cast of Charles in Charge (1987-1990), albeit with white hair. The Golden Girls fans will also recall him as the former teacher of Dorothy's, Mr. Gordon, who she harbored a longstanding crush on and who exploited her services as a result. Ayres, a movie star of the 1930s & early-'40s whose career lapsed when he took a conscientious observer stance during WWII, was finding himself in demand as a character actor in both TV programs and the occasional feature. It should be noted that Mr. Ayres did serve in WWII as a medic in the line of fire. He simply didn't have the capacity to kill after having starred in All Quiet on the Western Front in 1930.

These TV-movies were a great haven (and source of income) for stars like McGuire and Bondi and gave viewers an opportunity to see them once their time in the spotlight had shifted. McGuire had not acted on television for fourteen years (having, in fact, done anything on-screen but one movie since playing the world's oldest Mary in The Greatest Story Ever Told in 1965! In that one, she was a nearly "Fifty Year-Old Virgin!!") Soon, she would be taking part in Rich Man, Poor Man (1976) and a 1978 rendition of Little Women. Bondi, a highly-dependable character actress, was twice nominated for an Oscar. There was The Gorgeous Hussey (1936) which went to Gale Sondergaard in Anthony Adverse and Of Human Hearts (1938) which went to Fay Bainter in Jezebel. This was close to her last acting role, but she did make two appearances on The Waltons between 1974 and 1976 and took home an Emmy for her trouble.

Following the cancellation of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964- 1968), with which he will forever be identified, McCallum enjoyed a brief spate of feature film movie roles, but by 1971 he was almost exclusively back to television be it in TV movies, guest roles or series (like the acclaimed Colditz, 1972-1974, or the not-so-acclaimed The Invisible Man, 1975-1976.) As of late, McCallum has found a recurring home on NCIS and NCIS: New Orleans. In this (and in several other things in which he's appeared) he so often seems to be either looking down or facing away from the camera, almost to a distracting degree.

Ms. Duke was capable of a wide array of emotions and in She Waits, we see her play everything from happy to romantic to terrified to assertive and even dangerous. For someone that petite (5' even), she could pack some very commandeering punch into her small frame. This minor thriller is but a blip on her resume, but allowed viewers to see a name cast go through the machinations of a mystery thriller.

Watching the first movie inevitably led me to click on another one. You'll Never See Me Again (1973) centered on a missing person case with confounding mystery elements. The thread of someone vanishing into virtual thin air without explanation has been the subject of many a TV show and movie over the years.

We are introduced to a loving pair of newlyweds, David Hartman and Jess Walton, enjoying one of those idyllic, grassy knoll picnics that seemed to pop up consistently during the 1960s and '70s. They are happy as clams until they arrive home later that evening.

Once back to their house, Walton finds a letter in the mailbox from her mother and step-father about how they will be heading out of town soon. As Walton has been estranged from them for a little while, she tries to call them, to no avail. She then gets it in her head to drive to their home in another town right there and then in order to see them before they depart on their trip. Hartman, an architect who has to work the next day, is adamantly against this.

He finally relents to accompany her, but by now she's all fired up and doesn't want him to go. They argue heatedly until she bites his hand and he reflexively slaps her face, which sends her to the floor. She angrily leaves the house, proclaiming, "You'll never see me again!" In her haste, she's left her luggage and even her wallet behind. Seeing this, Hartman expects that she'll be returning before long.

The next day he reports to a job site and relays to his coworker Colby Chester that Walton never came home. Chester jokingly tells him that she spent the night at his place, but the joke fizzles for the dejected Hartman. (Macho man clone Chester, by the way, is a member of the Disaster Movie Club for his appearance in 1975's The Hindenburg.)

When Walton is STILL missing that evening, Hartman begins to become unglued with concern. He heads to the bus terminal where the clerk reports having seen her, but because she had no money, watched her attempt to hitchhike to her destination. He later heads to the police station to file a missing persons report, but they are little to no help.

Next Hartman begins to wonder just how much kidding was going on with ladies' man Chester. He calls him and can hear a female voice in the background, though Chester claims to be alone! Hartman goes there to confront Chester, who acts extremely evasive and doesn't want to let him in the door.

Finally, Hartman opts to drive to Walton's parents' house and see if they know anything (though he'd called there earlier and been told that his wife had never arrived. On the way, he stops for gasoline and gets a weird vibe from the filling station attendant (Bo Svenson.) Svenson denies having seen her, as does the mechanic on site, but still something seems off.

Now at Walton's mother's home, Hartman meets her step-father Ralph Meeker and her mother Jane Wyatt. Meeker suggests that Walton will turn up and is just blowing off some steam after their disagreement while Wyatt is understandably fretful about her whereabouts.

Still getting nowhere, Hartman returns home, dejected and depressed about the entire situation only to find out that the police (led by detective Joseph Campanella) are now considering him a suspect in Walton's disappearance and possible murder! The beige turtleneck dress that she was last wearing has been found with blood stains on it in his car! Hartman has to fight off Campanella and the police in order to remain free enough to track Walton down and find out for certain what has happened to her. You can find out, too, right here.

It's interesting to witness Hartman (who was later paid to be amiably low-key as the host of Good Morning America from 1975-1987) go through the gamut of emotions from anger to despair, becoming more and more desperate and disheveled with each new development. Never the most expressive or engrossing (or I dare say handsome) of actors, this does serve as a showcase for his range (but few actors ever ran in such a funny, off-kilter, side-to-side way!)

Walton was a burgeoning starlet at the time of this telefilm, having had a couple of bits in feature films and some TV guest work from 1969 on, but in 1988 took on the role of Jill Foster Abbott on The Young and the Restless, eventually becoming one of the last-standing daytime divas in a genre that is in constant threat of extinction.

As mentioned earlier, one of the great joys of these TV-movies is getting to see former stars trucked out for another go 'round. Meeker turned Broadway success into an active film career, but, though busy for many years and effective in quite a few projects, never really got the attention he deserved. Wyatt, who was ten years Meeker's senior, had begun film work in the mid-1930s and starred in the classic Lost Horizon (1937) before later making a name for herself on Father Knows Best (1954-1960.)

Campanella was an astonishingly busy character actor from the 1950s on. Though he and Hartman were in separate segments, they costarred in the series The Bold Ones (1969-1972) and Campanella was a memorable guest on The Golden Girls (alongside George Clooney) as a policeman who falls for Dorothy. He earned his Disaster Movie Club stripes with 1979's Meteor.

Svenson had been working steadily in TV projects since the mid-'60s and even had a recurring role on Here Come the Brides (1968-1969), but couldn't even rate billing for his vaguely sinister turn here. Later he rose to a certain level of fame as inheritor of the Walking Tall sequels (1975 & 1977) and brief television series based upon it (1981.) He still works steadily today and even had a small part in 2009's Inglourious Basterds, having first done the original The Inglorious Bastards in 1978.

The third and last of our telefilms is called The Strange Possession of Mrs. Oliver (1977.) It kicks off with images of a rip-snorting house fire followed by dreamy, gauzy images of a couple on their way to a bizarre funeral. The couple, Karen Black and George Hamilton, approach the casket only to find out that the body in it is Black's!

Turns out the whole thing was just a nightmare, but mousy Ms. Black's real-life existence isn't a great deal more happy. The twenty-six year-old (ahem... Black was thirty-eight in real life!) wife of wealthy Hamilton feels suffocated, bored and oppressed by her mundane daily routine. Hamilton, a real gem, wants her to stay home practically all the time and is highly insistent upon them having a baby as soon as possible.

One day while shopping at the mall, Black is drawn to the store window of a Frederick's of Hollywood (at one time THE place to locate tawdry, figure-hugging, figure-enhancing duds and accessories.) The dowdy woman stares at one of the scantily-clad, party-loving mannequins and is compelled to step inside.

Once there, she selects a low-cut red top and tries it on, at once stunned by her curvaceous appearance, yet repulsed by the notion of it.

Next, she heads over to the wig counter (!) and selects a voluminous, long blonde one. Trying it on, she is fixated by her own image. (Black does a lot of staring into the mirror in this movie and is granted countless close-ups, always with a fascinating expression to go with.)

The clerk tells her that she looks incredible - a new woman - and encourages her to purchase the wig and the top. A close look at the saleslady (portrayed by Gloria LeRoy, a burlesque performer turned busy character actress) reveals why she thinks the look is just right for her. (And though I usually do not prefer Black as a blonde, I have to say she does look great in this guise, but maybe it's because the brunette frump look is so awful!)

Black purchases only the blouse and leaves in a bit of a tizzy. However, after another evening of dealing with the downbeat, inattentive Hamilton, she heads back to the store and this time buys not only the wig, but some red lipstick and set of sexy hoop earrings!

She decides to surprise Hamilton with this new image and comes slinking down the steps of their mansion. His reaction, however, is far from thrilled and sends her careening into the bathroom to take everything off. It is then revealed that Black has been taking birth control pills all along while Hamilton has been urging her to get pregnant! He urges her to see a doctor about her recent series of mental issues, but she cannot proceed with the appointment.

Instead, while hubby is out of town for the night, she decks herself out in her new trappings and heads to the beach where she's rented a little cottage along the shore (for $290/ month!) She meets a dog who is only too happy to tag along with her on her new adventures.

Now feeling free and thrilled with herself, she heads to a local dive bar and, taking a cue from the place's name, calls herself Sandy. Things get weird, though, when the bartender addresses her as Sandy even though she never told him that was her name! Then she proceeds to order a drink that he says Sandy always ordered!

She is confronted by a man who claims to know her, though she protests that she is not the lady he believes her to be. She is next asked to dance by a hunky young stud in a tank top (played by Asher Brauner.) Brauner would soon be part of the hysteria of General Hospital when he played mobster Roy DiLucca, one of Bobbie Spencer's lovers, from 1978-1979.)

After catching the other man (Robert F. Lyons) rooting through her purse, she leaves in a flurry, but later, back at the cottage, she and her new canine companion feel threatened. She crouches in fear as someone seems to be trying the door on her new place. I wouldn't dare reveal the secret of this story or tell how it ends. You can find out here. Lyons may be a familiar face thanks to countless TV and film appearances, though he really was never associated with one particular show or role.

Two other folks making an appearance are Jean Allison and Lucille Benson, as residents of a house near Black's beachfront cottage. Allison was a busy, all-purpose TV actress from the mid-'50s to the mid-'80s. Benson's career covered the same time frame, though she is more well-known thanks to her wondrously distinctive way of looking and, especially, speaking.

Hamilton isn't given a great deal to do in this one beyond disapproving of most anything Black wants to do or say. One of the film's mysteries is why his rich, handsome character was drawn to a wife who (heretofore) insists on making herself look as dreary as she possibly can! He's obviously into her, though, since he dislikes the remade version and is forever trying to get Black impregnated.

Anyone who is even a moderate fan of Karen Black needs to sit down and watch this not-very-long movie. She IS the movie and offers up the many and varied lunatic expressions which have endeared her to so many fans. Shot after shot closes in on her face as she works through the details of this personality overhaul/ possession. Needless to say, Black is a Hall of Famer in the Disaster Movie Club thanks to her role as stewardess in distress Nancy Pryor in Airport 1975 (1974.) During this time period, she was working in many high-profile films while also enjoying TV-movie showcases like this and the more celebrated Trilogy of Terror (1975.) We'll likely be returning to the tunnel for more TV-movie fun thanks to the generous souls of youtube.com who allow us to see them (albeit often in a less than pristine state.)

Oh (Anti)Christ...

The Underworld has been a busy place, once again, with excessive work commitments, another theatre adjudication to write and some unfortunate health issues (which, hopefully, will be on the road to resolution in the next 48 hours!) I tried to frontload the month with three posts in swift succession, hoping I could knock out another one soon after, but it just didn’t happen. So anyway, enough about me!
It’s October and time to scare up a post or two about something creepy and unsettling. (Don’t worry. This is not a post about Tom Cruise.) One of my favorite guilty pleasure horror movies is 1978’s Damien: Omen II. A sequel to the blockbuster hit The Omen (which starred Gregory Peck and Lee Remick as parents to a toddler who is The Antichrist), this movie takes place about seven years later and stars William Holden and an Underworld fave, Miss Lee Grant. The cuddly little monster from the first film has grown up a bit into early teenage Jonathan Scott-Taylor and resides with the late Peck’s brother Holden, Holden’s wife Grant and his son Lucas Donat.
A prologue shows one of the first film’s stars (Leo McKern) frantically racing to see something called Yigael’s Wall at an archeological dig, the wall supposedly depicting the face of The Antichrist at various developmental stages. When he and his associate witness the toddler Damien’s visage on the artifact, they are involved in a sand-riddled cave in before they can share what they know. The story then picks up at Holden’s estate, a beautifully appointed mansion that, in this film, is also a winter wonderland.
There for a visit is Holden’s Aunt Marion, the crotchety Sylvia Sidney, whose every raspy breath and craggy line reading is a treasure to behold. She (wisely) doesn’t trust Scott-Taylor at all and dislikes the effect he has on her beloved nephew Donat. In a hilarious dinner table scene, she and Grant have an enmity that is palpable and she swiftly tosses Grant back into her place. Sadly, this gorgeous bit of rivalry is cut short when Sidney receives a visit in the night from an ominous black crow! Why, why, WHY did the writer have to remove the crusty and fretful Sidney from the storyline so soon?! I want more animosity and bickering from Grant and her… Note the way a shiny metal bird in the middle of the table forshadows the coming of the crow!

People can go on all they want to about the luxury and glamour of tumbled marble and slate flooring. In The Underworld, the lanai is paved with tiles bearing a pattern of the deceased, rigid corpse of Aunt Marion (Sidney), enjoying her eternal rest. This way, her scarlet lipstick etched face is never too far out of reach.

Scott-Taylor, though he has no clue at this stage that he is evil, has minions all over the place who are aiding him slyly in assuring that he will have the money and means to rule America and then the world. At the military school that he and Donat attend, the commanding sergeant Lance Henrikson takes special interest in him and attempts to prep him for his sordid future. (This entire story thread has an unintentional -??- homoerotic bent to it. Because of the secrecy and menace of the situation, it always looks like Henrikson is one step away from trying to coerce Scott-Taylor into spending seven minutes in heaven with him!)
At Holden’s multimillion-dollar chemical company, a lot of drama is taking place as well, with old guard senior manager Lew Ayres battling the ambitious Robert Foxworth over the direction of things. In a memorable scene, Ayres pays the price for not going along with Foxworth’s plans when he falls beneath the ice of a partially frozen lake. His panic-stricken body is shown floating under the ice as skaters playing hockey frantically try to break it open and let him out. This is a gripping scene, made more meaningful by Holden’s panic and remorse. There is foreshadowing here, too, as Foxworth talks about putting his project "on ice" and Donat's birthday cake is in the form of a lake that must be cut into.
Then there’s Elizabeth Shephard, a crisp, British journalist (in the reddest coat ever to be placed on film!) who’s hot on the trail of Damien and who wants to warn Holden about the type of boy he has in his household. She heads to the military school and, once she has seen Scott-Taylor’s face, freaks out, hurriedly driving back to town. Her car stops on a seemingly deserted road, but once she gets out, there’s our old friend the crow again! He does a Tippi Hedren on her, clawing at her hair, face and eyes as she flails about helplessly. After she’s been roundly assaulted by the evil beast (as harrowing Jerry Goldsmith music throbs away), she struggles to her feet only to find a massive truck hurtling towards her at full throttle!
Deaths continue to pile up. During a school tour of Holden’s company, two of the chemists are fatally injured in a fume-spewing explosion. All of the boys are hospitalized with minor injuries to their lungs, but Scott-Taylor is completely unaffected. When his blood work is scrutinized by a doctor (future Designing Women costar Meshach Taylor in his movie debut), evil forces dictate that the doctor not be allowed to disclose what he’s found, resulting in a particularly nasty and unforgettable demise for him as well.

Holden’s once-close friend, Nicholas Pryor, also finds out Damien’s secret and, in light of what has happened to so many others, begins to freak out, resorting to keeping religious iconography all over his room and person. Like others, he tries to warn Holden of the danger, but Holden is stubbornly reluctant to believe any of it (at least for the longest time.) It takes yet one more incident before he will agree to examine the evidence against his nephew.

In case you haven’t guessed it, very few of the primary actors in the movie wind up making it to the end credits! The film takes pleasure in dreaming up inventive ways to bump people off. Where The Omen was starkly serious and more threatening in tone, this sequel takes things a little further in the gore department and occasionally winds up being unintentionally funny thanks to its own squalor. It is undeniably entertaining, however.

One thing that helps add some dimension to the proceedings is the fact that Scott-Taylor has no idea at first that he is a child of Satan. He wants to be a normal boy. Eventually, he has no choice but to face what he is (a fact he discovers in a memorable bathroom mirror scene, followed by a desperate race through the woods in a fruitless effort to escape his fate.) The producers, smelling money in the prospect of yet another installment, adjusted the ending to make sure Damien could return and, in fact, he did in the form of Sam Neill three years later in The Final Conflict. (Oddly enough, even though only three years had passed in between films, Damien was now a grown man!) This film provides a hint to the sexual power Damien will eventually possess when he is swarmed by a bunch of teen girls in their best 70s 'dos at a graduation cotillion.

Scott-Taylor (a blond whose hair was dyed for this role) worked as an actor for about another decade until retiring from acting to become a lawyer. Can you imagine being in court with DAMIEN as your attorney?! He does an excellent job here, able to express the many facets of his conflicted character.

A more interesting backstory is Lucas Donat. He never made another film or even appeared on TV despite being the son of busy character actor Peter Donat and The Waltons’ Michael Learned! He went on to help found an advertising agency that is responsible for all those eharmony.com commercials. Even more fascinating is that through his wife, who he married in 1984, he has as his mother-in-law Helen Reddy!!!!!

Holden had been offered the leading role in The Omen, but turned it down. After that film’s stunning success, he didn’t hesitate when asked to be in the sequel. (The Omen cost $2.8 million to make and grossed over $60 million… This sequel cost $4 million and made over $26 million, not as successful, but certainly not a failure.) He was only about 60, but looked every inch of that and more thanks to some hard drinking and smoking. He had also picked up a liver ailment in New Guinea shortly before filming began. Sadly, he would die in an alcohol related fall in 1981.

Grant had been a big fan of the first film and was also eager to get in on the action. She was riding the wave of success that had come from her 1975 Supporting Actress Oscar for Shampoo and nomination the next year for Voyage of the Damned, winning top-billed roles in several projects. It was a small wave, however, and before long she was back to supporting parts. (To help indicate Holden’s physical decline, she was only nine years younger than him in real life, despite looking far younger.) As I’ve indicated in my previous tribute to her, she is marvelous in this movie and has a scream at the end that is wondrous. She essays her role here perfectly.

Foxworth (who was Elizabeth Montgomery’s live-in lover from 1973 until their marriage in 1993, two years before her premature death from cancer) was in Airport ’77 with Grant the prior year. He wasn’t able to become a leading man in the cinema, but made a strong impression on Falcon Crest for the first several years as Jane Wyman’s chief antagonist. Always an outspoken persona, he eventually quit the series when he disagreed with the direction of it. He has become chiefly involved in voice work for animation lately.

Lew Ayres, of course, is notable for having starred in the classic 1930 film All Quiet on the Western Front and the later Johnny Belinda, for which he earned a Best Actor Oscar nomination. His pacifist beliefs raised some eyebrows during WWII, but he did serve in the Medical Corps (following a sticky situation in which he first was denied that right and briefly did Civilian Public Service work.) From 1934 to 1940, he was Mr. Ginger Rogers! This was his final feature film.

Miss Sydney had been a leading lady of the silver screen from the late 20s through the mid-40s, but, except for a few appearances in the 50s, was absent from the cinema until 1973 when she made a comeback in Joanne Woodward’s Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams, scoring an Oscar nomination as her overbearing mother. This kicked off a wealth of amusing, usually cranky, parts for her right up until the end when she passed away at age 88 from throat cancer (twenty one years after this film!)

Elizabeth Shephard (billed elsewhere generally as Shepherd) had been working on British TV since the late 50s and went on to a long, prolific career in that same vein as well as in the movies. Horror fans know her as the leading lady in Vincent Price’s Hammer Film, Tomb of Ligeia, directed by Roger Corman. She also made a memorably mysterious appearance as Kevin Bacon’s mother in Criminal Law (the movie, not the TV show.)

This was an early role for lean, stern-looking Henrickson (who, as a runaway at age 12, didn’t learn to read until he was 30.) He’d had small roles in three major films before this (Dog Day Afternoon, Network and Close Encounters of the Third Kind) and would go on to a very busy career as a character actor in such films as The Right Stuff, The Terminator, Aliens, Alien 3 and the Underworld classic Color of Night!

Note how foreign posters for the film (as always) demonstrate a far more vivid and garish approach than the more austere one that U.S. moviegoers saw. Spanish posters included shots of Holden and Grant within the wing of the crow while the American poster was far more plain. This one is completely different in concept and, with the scantily clad victim on the ground, almost suggests a whole other film altogether!

The plotline of the movie doesn’t really hold up to very close scrutiny, but it’s a pretty entertaining way to kill (and kill!) almost two hours. Cinema of the 70s was rife with paranoia about satanic possession, devil worship, cults and so on. I always say I’m not afraid of Satan, but I am afraid of the fanatics who are devoted to him. (The same way any sort of freaked out cult or gang scares me.) People can get really warped sometimes if they become involved in something diabolical and have immersed themselves into all the related gobbledygook. The damage they do when under that influence is real, regardless of whether what they believe in is true or not!
As Halloween prepares to descend on us, be sure to have plenty of fun, but also take pains to make it safe! (i.e.- no ice skating on a partially frozen pond, no tours of a chemical plant, no nosiness about patients’ blood work and by all means, stay in the car if it breaks down and there’s a black crow nearby!)