The 70's was the golden age of TV-movies, but I was born in 1977 and therefore wasn't affected by this culture. Add to this that I'm from Sweden and it feels like very few of the older TV-films was on our public service television during the 80's. I do, however, have a few vague memories of something that probably was a American TV-movie - and it scared the shit out of me as a kid. But I will discuss that memory later on, in another article.
Jerrold Freedman (who also directed two episodes of The X-Files later in his career, Born Again and Ghost in the Machine) brings one of the finer, darker and downbeat productions in this genre. It's important to understand for those who never seen a movie like that this that the budget wasn't high and the shooting schedules wasn't long, so instead the energy went into smart and original teleplays that could be produced during circumstances like this. A Cold Night's Death is a excellent example of budget filmmaking for TV.
The film is more or less only Robert Culp and Eli Wallach getting on each others nerves in a polar station. They go there to see what happen to a collegue. When they arrive they find him frozen to death and the whole place is a mess. Slowly Robert and Eli cleans up the place and continues the experiements, but someone... or something... is disturbing the peace there. Especially at night. The paranoia between our two heroes grows bigger and outside it's just getting colder.
Oh, I love shit like this. Just two awesome actors talking with each other. It could have been a stage play, if it wasn't for the use of the whole base. This is quality, there's not one single scene that's not meant to be there and the dialogue and twists all serves a purpose. I have nothing against padding out movies with stuff that doesn't belong there, just to keep up the interest or make 'em longer, but when the opposite is done right the result is A Cold Night's Death. Like many of the these films it's a final twist in the end - and it's not like today when everyone is dead, or it's a dream, hallucination or what ever crap the writers come up with, here it's a real twist - even if it's absurd and bizarre and unlikely. But I mean, what the hell! It's a movie, it's imagination - a twist can be totally bizarre and not be a dream or completely made up in the end.
The one in this film is a good one. It has it's degree of silliness and it can be interpreted as just madness in work, but we all know - I know - that it's the real deal here. Or else the movie would never work. And the talent involved knows better. I'm hyping it now, but it's not that special - but it gets better the longer you think about it. And I still think about it, so it must have been a good one.
A Cold Night's Death is not, what I know, out on an official DVD. I just wish that someone (the heroes at Warner Archive is not forgotten, I LOVE their releases) would make it available in a restored version so more folks could see it.
WHAT THE HELL....?
I posted last night....well...seems I made a mistake somewhere.
"The 70's was the golden age of TV-movies, but I was born in 1977 and therefore wasn't affected by this culture. Add to this that I'm from Sweden and it feels like very few of the older TV-films was on our public service television during the 80's."
Yeah, just look at Duel (TV 1971), written by Richard Matheson, directed by Spielberg.
But SVT made a lot of great TV dramas so buying TV films from USA and other place may not have been on the agenda.
Also Sweden was very left wing radical, so buying US produced TV dramas could have been a sensitive subject.
I wonder how much stuff SVT is sitting on.....?
Must be a goldmine for people like us.
"Oh, I love shit like this. Just two awesome actors talking with each other. It could have been a stage play, if it wasn't for the use of the whole base. This is quality, there's not one single scene that's not meant to be there and the dialogue and twists all serves a purpose. I have nothing against padding out movies with stuff that doesn't belong there, just to keep up the interest or make 'em longer, but when the opposite is done right the result is A Cold Night's Death."
I like this as well, if they are done right.
I´m hoping you will look at Friedkins early films like The Birthday Party(1968), The Boys in the Band (1970).
"A Cold Night's Death is not, what I know, out on an official DVD. I just wish that someone (the heroes at Warner Archive is not forgotten, I LOVE their releases) would make it available in a restored version so more folks could see it."
It could happen, good review and thanks.
Posted by: Megatron | February 26, 2013 at 17:32