DEAD OF NIGHT (1977)

 

(TV/NBC movie, original air date: 3/29/77. Director/producer: Dan Curtis. Screenwriter: Richard Matheson. One of the segments, “Second Chance,” is based on Jack Finney’s story.)

Review

DEAD, a macabre, tripartite American television anthology, is a PG rated work, with a minimal amount of plot-necessary blood. It aired on the NBC network on March 29, 1977.

In its opening, an unseen narrator (John Dehner) speaks while an up shot shows a dark-night storm lashing a spooky-looking house. With Tales from the Crypt gravitas, he compares the “dead of night” to a “state of mind”─one that the events of DEAD largely bring to the screen.

 

“Second Chance” is narrated by a young man, Frank (Ed Begley Jr., ADDAMS FAMILY REUNION, 1988), as he recounts how he bought and restored a vintage 1926 roadster (a Jordan Playboy), took it for a drive, and discovers that’s he’d traveled fifty years into the past.

Based on Jack Finney’s published-in-1956 story of the same name, this is an idyllic, brightly shot, dreamlike segment, with little visual or thematic darkness (relative to the DEAD’s other microfilms), a whimsical fantasy, not a scary story.

Orin Cannon (TRILOGY OF TERROR, 1975, and BURNT OFFERINGS, 1976) played the “Old Man” who sells Frank the car. Ann Doran (IT! THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE, 1958) played Mrs. McCauley. Dick McGarvin (SCROOGED, 1988) played Mr. Dorset.  

 

“No Such Things as Vampires” tells of a woman (Alexis Gheria) being stalked by a mysterious vampire that no one can find despite her husband’s best efforts. This clever, mostly well-lit, and hard-reality entry is an onscreen lesson in how lean dialogue need not limit multilayered characters and story crafting.

Patrick Macnee (WAXWORK II: LOST IN TIME, 1992) played Dr. Gheria, Alexis’s husband. Elisha Cook Jr. (HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL, 1959) played Karel, the Gherias’ superstitious and frightened manservant. Horst Bucholz (THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, 1960) played Michael, the Gherias’ friend.

 

“Bobby,” a variation of W.W. Jacobs’s 1902 terror tale, “The Monkey’s Paw,” is about a grieving mother who uses black magick to resurrect her recently drowned son (Bobby). Of course, things don’t go as she plans, in this dark, stormy, and terrifying night-slice of reanimated life, clever like the previous segment.

Joan Hackett (THE POSSESSED, 1977) played the titular boy’s unstable, near-hysterical “Mother.” Lee Montgomery (BURNT OFFERINGS, 1976) played the temperamental Bobby.

“Bobby” would later be reused in another Dan Curtis compendium film, TRILOGY OF TERROR II (1996).

Among the behind-the-scenes talent for this modest, multitoned, excellent telepic: composer Robert Cobert (HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS, 1970), whose often-striking score matches the variable moods of DEAD, its darker elements and notes familiar to many Dan Curtis fans; Ric Waite, the cinematographer, whose work─like Cobert’s─matches the shifting tone of its stories, whether its gauzy romanticism or flee-through-a-night-dark-house panic; Dennis Virkler, whose tight editing keeps DEAD sharp and flowing at an entertaining pace; and Dennis W. Peeples (DARK NIGHT OF THE SCARECROW, 1981), set designer, his setwork making the most of what was likely a small budget (given its television; and, of course, Dan Curtis, who maintained a mood-effective, consistent oeuvre feel and look.

DEAD is a fun, mood-variable and tightly shot hour-and-sixteen-minute film with a trickle of blood here and there, for those who care about that sort of thing. It’s worth seeking out, especially if you’re a fan of Dan Curtis or fantastic/spooky mid-1970s television fare.

THE RAVEN (1963)

 

(Director: Roger Corman. Screenwriter: Richard Matheson.)

Storyline

A malevolent sorcerer targets two fellow magicians, one of whom he has turned into a raven.

 

Review

This Richard Matheson-scripted (and family friendly) comedy horror film, set in 1506 and not-really-based on an Edgar Allan Poe poem, is one of my favorite entries in Corman’s Poe-cinematic hexad. Everything about RAVEN, shot in fifteen days, works: the physical comedy and adroit wordplay; the top-notch acting of its masters-of-horror co-leads (Vincent Price, Peter Lorre and Boris Karloff) and other actors (e.g., Hazel Court, who acted opposite Price in 1964’s THE MASQUE OF RED DEATH, and Jack Nicholson, who worked with Boris Karloff in the 1963 movie THE TERROR, shot immediately after RAVEN on the same set); its good-for-its-time FX (Price’s spellcasting is shown as bright green laser beam-like rays); its era-evocative, color-rich sets; and its often playful, mood-varied soundtrack. . .  like I said, everything.

TRILOGY OF TERROR (1975)

 

(TV/ABC movie, aired on March 4, 1975. Director/producer: Dan Curtis. Teleplay writers: William F. Nolan and Richard Matheson, based on Matheson’s stories.)

Storylines

Karen Black plays four different women in this three-unrelated-stories anthology movie.

 

Review

TRILOGY is a standout made-for-television flick.

In “Julie,” a college professor (Julie Eldridge, played by Karen Black) is roofied and blackmailed by a crass college student, Chad (Robert Burton) who has a twisted crush on her. Things change for him when she warms to his attention. Fans of Dan Curtis and Richard Matheson’s work might recognize the drive-in film Julie and Chad go to see: THE NIGHT STALKER, a 1972 television film written by Matheson, produced by Curtis, and scored by the prolific Bob Cobert, who also composed TRILOGY’s soundtrack as well as Curtis’s DARK SHADOWS (1967-71).

 

“Millicent and Therese” are twin sisters, both played by Black. A vicious sibling rivalry plays out between Millicent (prudish, Coke-bottle glasses, unattractive) and Therese (no glasses, pretty, long blond hair). Scenes cut back and forth between Millicent and Therese─who are never seen in the same room. At different points, two men, concerned about her, visit. Thomas Amman (John Karlen, billed as John Karlin) is one of these men. Dr. Chester Ramsey (George Gaynes), Millicent and Therese’s family physician is the other. Voodoo and dark family non-secrets are mentioned in the course of the tale. Genre-familiar viewers may spot the end-twist, but the performances and voodoo element add freshness to the story.

 

“Amelia,” based on Matheson’s 1969 story “Prey,” is about a woman who brings home a fierce-looking and terrifying Zuni fetish doll and regrets making the purchase. This is perhaps one of the most iconic, suspenseful anthological horror stories to air on American television.

TRILOGY is one of my all-time favorite television films of any genre, running a brisk, short seventy-two minutes. Nolan adapted “Julie” and “Millicent” from Matheson’s stories; Matheson wrote the teleplay for “Amelia.”

Many of TRILOGY’s actors shine (especially Black, who imbues her characters with their own distinctive quirks and neuroses). John Karlen, famous for playing Willie Loomis in DARK SHADOWS (1967-71), played Thomas Amman in “Millicent.” George Gaynes (POLICE ACADEMY franchise, 1984-94) played Dr. Chester Ramsey in the same segment.

Given the massive talent involved in this tight, sometimes suspenseful television film, this is worth your time. A sequel, TRILOGY OF TERROR II, aired on ABC on October 30, 1996.