Schmollywood Babylon

Home for the Holidays (John Llewellyn Moxey, 1972)

It's TV-time again here at Ex-Ninja, and it involves several veterans in the genre. Director John Llewellyn Moxey, writer Joseph Stefano and the still very young Sally Field! I would say, so far, that Home for the Holidays is one of the slickest and best produced TV-thrillers I've seen so far. It's not the most spectacular, but Stefan's script is excellent - from the mystery viewpoint to the edgy dialogue and very human and interestning characters.

Four sisters is called home to their dying father (played by a very elderly Walter Brennan, who died in 1974). In the letter he claims to be slowly poisoned to death by his new, younger, wife Elizabeth (Julie Harris, no less!). He's still a bastard and its easy to see why all his daughters left home early, but still - he's their blood and soon there's very different opinion if he's lying to get them home or if something really sinister is happening... everything is just a typical family melodrama until a killer - dressed in a yellow raincoat and armed with a hayfork - starts killing them off one by one!

Home for the Holidays almost works as a precursor to the slasher cinema with it's stylized killer and desolate location. Just like Stefano did with Robert Bloch's Psycho 12 years earlier. But it's foremost a typical and cozy TV-movie, one of ABC's productions - produced by Aaron Spelling. It has its share of kills, but here we have better character than usual. All sisters are very well-defined personalities. We have the drunken Frederica (Jessica Walter), the cold and shallow Joanna (Jill Haworth), the mature and overprotective Alex (Eleanor Parker) and the young and naive Christine (Sally Field). It's a brilliant cast and the almost non-existent men in the story feels fresh and logical. It takes a brilliant writer like Stefan to produce a story about interesting women. Something he's done before and after, but this is still his best when it comes this.

Another detail I like is how this is a Christmas movie (it was first aired November 28, 1972 on ABC) and it has no snow! It was meant to have a lot of snow, but the tight schooting schedule and the low budget forced the filmmakers to make it rain instead of snowing - which gives it a feeling of dread and adds a failure to this family reunion. Something that wasn't meant to work as good suddenly made it even better. 

What triggers my imagination even more, and it's something that makes Home for the Holidays even better, is the ambiguous ending. Not that the main mystery is hard to explain, it's there and it's clear. But like Jud Taylor's dark and original TV-movie Revenge (1971, starring Shelley Winters, Stuart Whitman and Bradford Dillman) there's something more that never is explained. It suddenly leaves everything open to something more, something evil - or is it evil? Maybe it's a good thing in the end? We will never now and that's what I love about movies like this. 

I don't want stuff written on my nose, so to speak. 

Not so much else to write without spoiling the whole show. I hope you all get a chance to be entertained by this thriller one day... or dark, stormy, rainy night...

She became Satan's plaything! Good Against Evil (Paul Wendkos, 1977)

Here at Ex-Ninja we're (which means me, only one poor fucker) all friends of Jimmy Sangster, the brilliant British writer who wrote some of Hammer's best stuff and then had a long career in nifty, interesting TV-movies for the American market. There's a couple of his earlier works here at the blog, just search this names, but today I'm gonna write a little bit abotu Good Against Evil, a 1977 TV-pilot that was meant to be a series starring Dack Rambo (is that a name of a gay porn star or not?) as the skeptic young man and the asshole-ish priest played by the wonderful character actor Dan O'Herlihy solving satanic mysteries or something like that. You know the deal. People was crazy during that time and far into the eighties, believing there was devil worshipper around every corner. 

Good Against Evil is bascially a mix between Rosemary's Baby and The Exorcist, but without the intelligence. Nothing bad with that, it's entertainment,  but Sangster probably slept over his typewriter and accidentally wrote this - that's how good he was. It starts in 1955, our beloved devil worshippers - among them the leader, played by the always brilliant Richard Lynch - just gotten themselve a baby! So cute! Anyway, somehow this baby girl is antichrist - or something - and they're gonna spend their life making hers the best one ever. In 1977 she's a successful designer, but after literary bumping into a writer, the Rambo guy, she falls in loves and soon they plans to marry - in a church! But Richard Lynch wants something else, kidnaps here and the mystery is on!

By 1977 the TV-movies had become far more mainstream and simple and Good Against Evil is a good example of that. It's not especially original or have any fantastic twists, it's a human drama set against a backdrop of evil devil worshippers. Because it's cool they have an exorcism sequence at the end and lots of beautiful satanic props being used by the antagonists! I bet there's a warehouse in LA pack with all the stuffed used in Satan-themed horro movies from the 70's! Give me the key please. I will live there from now on. The best thing with the whole movie is Richard Lynch who gives everything he gots even if he's quite underwritten. I love when they worship the devil in the desert (just look at The Devil's Rain) and of course he's out there, praying and looking sinister. Brilliant. 

And yes, the hero-priest is an asshole. I always had problems with assholes in movies, especially if they're priests. They should be kill early on, but this guy - he's the hero and he's a fucking bully. I would have kicked him out of my fancy San Francisco house directly if I was Dack Rambo! With that name I would shoot him directly to hell with a bazooka! Naked, because Dack Rambo is a gay porn name. IMHO.

Don't expect gore, violence or sex. This is a very kind-hearted TV-movie, but still... it's cozy the way American TV-movies from the 70's could be. Very cozy, perfect for a Sunday morning or a lazy afternoon. The UK DVD has decent picture quality also, which helps a lot. Many of these films are released in terrible editions - if we're not talking about Warner Archive who's blessed us with a lot of fine releases since they started. I would upgrade Good Against Evil if someone released a better version, without a doubt. 

I've written many words about a so-so TV-movie. But that's me, can't friggin' stop myself! 

Movie of the Week: Trapped (Frank De Felitta, 1973)

I have a hard time writing this review, because I'm listening to David Bowie's new song The Stars (Are Out Tonight), which like the first song from the new album, Where Are We Now?, just is plain brilliant. In my humble opinion of course, but I'm a Bowie fan since my father brainwashed me with his music during the eighties (which might explain my spoft spot for later music, not so much a fan of his 70's work). At the same time I see Josh Brolin in front of me, from Planet Terror, a grumpy old bastard - and how much he looks like his father James in Trapped.

Ah, just writing about Bowie made it easier to continue. So read on baby, read on. 

The story is simple, but it's packed with nice ideas that makes everything much more tense. James Brolin, looking better than ever, is robbed visiting the toilet at a big department store - where he is to buy a doll for his daughter - and left there after closing time. The store as six dangerous dogs - five of them Dobermans - guarding the place and they are both angry and (it seems) quite hungry! Now he has to get down to the ground floor and get help! 

Yeah, the story is so damn simple, but writer (also director) Frank De Felitta has fun with the concept and gives Brolin (or Chuck Brenner, as his name is in the movie) more problems than he asked for. First of all, he has a concusion, which means he has a terrible headache and feels violently dizzy - and that in combination with angry dogs makes it even harder to survive. During the first dog attack he also gets bitten in the leg and he can't top the blood! It's a pale an dizzy Brolin we see getting from floor to floor with a new killer dog on each one of them.

 But he's not alone. De Felitta introduces Brenner's ex-wife early on, and her new husband, and this is where it gets really interesting: the new husband is the one who gets worried about Chuck, while the ex-wife is dismissive about the whole thing. Between these two characters (played by Susan Clark and Earl Holliman, both fantastic in their parts!) there's also an ongoing quarrel, and they're analyzing their relationship at the same time without even hinting that they will breake up and Susan and James will fall in love again.

I'm not sure you understand what I mean, but there's a realistic, non-clichéd sub-story here, which I've rarely seen in any TV-movie before. A nice surprise.

This isn't the only dog-movie made during the 70's. The best one is Robert Clouse's The Pack, Day of the Animals has a good part with killer dogs, Devil Dog is fantastic cheese, Dogs is a movie I haven't seen yet - but I will, I promise. I still claim that The Pack was remade as the surprisingly decent DTV movie The Breed in 2006. Dogs is a good animal for this kind of movies. The dogs in Trapped behaves like dangerous guard dogs and the attacks is very effective and well-done. Sometimes you see their waving and happy tails, obviously enjoying chasing James Brolin around (who doesn't?). 

Trapped is a damn good Movie of the Week, combining tension with believable melodrama. And dogs. And James Brolin with an unbuttoned shirt. Nice.

Movie of the Week: Scream, Pretty Peggy (Gordon Hessler, 1973)

Gordon Hessler was (or is, he's still alive) one of my favorite directors. Sure he's a hired gun, a working man, doing what he's suppose to do, but his elegant form of storytelling and eye for macabre details made him one of the best. He had a pretty interesting career, working for TV - especially Alfred Hitchcock, then made a bunch of black, nasty genre films in England, often with Vincent Price, then turned to TV-movies and finally, at the end of his active career, became some kind of ninja/martial arts director! How's that for a filmography? But he always did it as a professional and Scream, Pretty Peggy might hardly be original, but it's still a fine little TV-shocker...

The story is written by a favorite of this blog, Jimmy Sangster - and would be dishonest to not mention that it reminds me of a lot of other script he's written, and it's something about it that makes me thing it's a remake. It has an obvious inspiration (which I won't mention, it will spoil the film), but it still has a few other details that I've seen before. Some of them could have been used in Freddie Francis Paranoiac, starring Oliver Reed. I'm not sure really. Anyway, this is about Peggy (a very likable Sian Barbara Allen) who finds the perfect job, in-betweeen her studies, at a big spooky mansion outside town. It's just and old lady, played by Bette Davis, and her son (fine performance by Ted Bessell). Soon Peggy understands they're not alone, an insane daughter is also living in the apartment above the garage... and she might be involved in the disapperance of the girl that worked for them before Peggy! Soon Peggy will scream, a lot...

Scream, Pretty Peggy, is a basic made for TV movie, but that doesn't mean it's bad in anyway. The script focuses mostly on scenes in and around the house, with more dialogue than scares. This is good, its not a bad thing - because it elevates above a lot of other more sensational scripts and gets spooky without showing much at all. Now, I like graphic violence and spectular scares, but these hardly belong in a ABC's Movie of the Week. It's all about the story and Sangster has done a terrific job. The creepy moments are plenty and this film also includes some of the most grotesque statues I've seen. I can't even imagine why anyone would like to have them in their house! 

The actors are all superb, but I think Ted Bessell makes the best performance of the show. Very naturalistic and sympathetic, which a daring thing to do in such a short movie. Characters in these productions often is a bit edgy, to catch the attention fast from the stressed audience in from of the TVs. There's often no room for boring people, but Bessell surely breaths a lot of life into his part. Bette Davis, one of the major legends of the silver screen, is good - but she seems a bit far away from somewhere. Which is a bit unusal, she's often very good even in small parts or in low budget productions. Maybe she took the job just for the money and wasn't fond of the script? Could be, because her character is a bit underwritten and less interesting than usual. 

If you wanna see an original and fresh TV-movie that delivers something you never seen before, this is not the movie for you - but it's still highly competent, intelligently written and with a couple of very creepy scenes and an OK twist at the end. I've seen better, but remember that these productions has a very high lowest point. 

Movie of the Week: A Cold Night's Death (Jerrold Freedman, 1973)

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.

Movie of the Week: Mongo's Back in Town (Marvin J. Chomsky, 1971)

While the ABC Movie of the Week most time, for us geeks, means strange and twisty horrors and murder mystery thriller starring old movie stars, there was from time to time also hard-hitting crime dramas - like Mongo's Back in Town. And I mean, wow. Look at the cast: Joe Don Baker, Telly Savalas, Sally Field and Martin Sheen - the last two so young they look like their mother gave birth to them just days before shooting this movie! Also starring, which is very cool, the short actor Angelo Rossitto - who starred in Tod Browning's Freaks and later in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. Most of his work is pretty interesting and he was a wonderful character actor in his own right.

Joe Don Baker have always been a favorite of mine, even if he entered the cheese factory with 1985's Final Justice, playing Deputy Sheriff Thomas Jefferson Geronimo III, looking like this: 

To be fair, that's one of the few parts where he entered silliness. He's excellent in Walking Tall (I never been a fan of Bo Svenson's version), Framed is a fantastic revenge film and when he later become a supporting actor in the late eighties and nineties I loved his parts in the James Bond films. He's done a lot of good shit except these titles of course, just choose and pick!

Mongo's Back in Town is bascially a christmas mvoie (and it was released december 10th, 1971). Mongo (Joe Don Baker) is a brutal hitman called home by his brother who wants to hire him to kill another gangster who threatens his business. Sally Field is Vikki who also comes home for christmas and falls in love with the quiet Mongo and against her will gets drawn in to his family business when his brother is killed by gun... and acid! In the middle of this are two cops, Tolstad (Savalas) and Gordon (Sheen), who are trying to figure who's gonna kill whom and when. 

This is a production that oozes quality. The cast is superb, the story might not be original - but written with intelligence and wittiness by Herman Miller. There's scene after scene of brilliance. My favorite is when Mongo tries to get his brother to pay him more to make the kill, but just sitting there and thrown burning match sticks on him. Like a child, but still with a strangely comforting cruelty. Mongo is also a rather complex character, which becomes more visible in the end when it's quite clear he's not really comfortable with doing what he does - he's just doing it to get money and this time, to get some kind of revenge. It's a daring move for this kind of production, but that also - think - kinda characterizes the Movie of the Week concept: the stories could be a bit downbeat, the twists often have a slightly cynical feeling to them.

It's interesting, because you would expect it to be the opposite during the 70's, the cinema would deliver the darkness and television the relief. 

 Regarding the other actors... Savalas is bascially doing his Kojak stuff, but it's very interesting to see Field and Sheen, young and hungry, doing very fine jobs with quite under-written characters. Field comes of as the naive young girl, falling in love with a dangerous man and Sheen like the sidekick to the main star - we've seen it before, but both of them clearly tried to do something special with their parts. Field was actually on Jimmy Kimmel and she mentions Mongo's Back in Town, saying twice she think it was a great movie - but mr Kimmel starts joking about the title and she never gets a chance to elaborate on the subject.

Like all interesting TV-movies this is hard to get, at least officially. You can download it or get a bootleg. That's it. I wish it will find it's way someday to us in a restored edition...