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70's TV Movies
Metal Mickey
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The thread on SOUL SURVIVOR/SOLE SURVIVOR (or is it?!) made me think of the TV movies which were on all the time in the mid-late 70's. A lot of them were dross, but some really stick in my mind...
SATAN'S TRIANGLE (1975) - a thriller set in the (then-trendy) Bermuda Triangle, with Doug McClure and Kim Novak - the ending absolutely terrified me back then...
SHIRTS & SKINS (1973) - comedy about a group of friends who hold a hide & seek contest for basketballs around the city. I remember thinking this was hysterical at the time.
WELCOME HOME JOHNNY BRISTOL (1972) - Martin Landau as a POW rescued from Vietnam who only wants to go back to his hometown of Charles, Vermont, the place he's been dreaming about seeing again through all his years of captivity and torture... except when he gets back the US, the town doesn't exist! There's a great twist ending where...
Of course, Steven Spielberg's DUEL started life as a TVM too... it's a shame that virtually none have been released on video or DVD. Are there any others we remember?
SATAN'S TRIANGLE (1975) - a thriller set in the (then-trendy) Bermuda Triangle, with Doug McClure and Kim Novak - the ending absolutely terrified me back then...
SHIRTS & SKINS (1973) - comedy about a group of friends who hold a hide & seek contest for basketballs around the city. I remember thinking this was hysterical at the time.
WELCOME HOME JOHNNY BRISTOL (1972) - Martin Landau as a POW rescued from Vietnam who only wants to go back to his hometown of Charles, Vermont, the place he's been dreaming about seeing again through all his years of captivity and torture... except when he gets back the US, the town doesn't exist! There's a great twist ending where...
... the army eventually discovers he's actually from New York, and drop him off at his family's house. As he enters, the camera pans up to show that the house is on the corner of Charles Street and Vermont Avenue!
Of course, Steven Spielberg's DUEL started life as a TVM too... it's a shame that virtually none have been released on video or DVD. Are there any others we remember?
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Something Evil - Steven Spielbergs 2nd TV movie, somewhat forgotten but a good film.
Killdozer - possessed plant machinery!
The Last Ride of the Dalton Gang/Dalton Gang Rides Again - as the names suggest wild west adventure.
Dan Curtis was a name to look out for in TV movies
The Norliss Tapes
Don't Be Afraid of the Dark
The Love War
Night Slaves
The Ghost of Flight 401
The Borgia Stick
The People
Where Have All the People Gone?
A Howling in the Woods
Curse of the Black Widow
Black Noon
Gargoyles
The Night Stalker
The California Kid
A Cold Night's Death
The Immortal
The Only Way Out is Dead
Haunts of the Very Rich
TV movies are the unwanted and neglected stepchild of the TV industry. They were meant to be more like movies than normal bland series tv but had to endure the same constraints: no blood, not much violence and no profanity. Directors had to be cleverer than usual to make their work have any impact at all.
Decent quality copies are very hard to find and many can only be found in PostageStampVision on YouTube or Google video.
I agree about the Dan Curtis ones, and particularly the Night Stalker, Night Strangler etc. Very scary stuff for it's time, considering it was made for TV.
One I had particular fondness for was California Kid, with Martin Sheen. It was one of those classic anti-authoritarian, Brando-esque, 50's style movies, the lone teenager against the big, bad sherrif in a small town.
Sheen visits the town to find out what happened to his brother, apparently killed in a road accident, and butts heads with the teen-hating sherrif played by Vic Morrow.
It's a terrific little movie, and I was lucky enough to pick up a copy of it on region 1 dvd.
The Night Stalker / Night Strangler
Gargoyles (Japan)
The Norliss Tapes (disappointing ending)
Bad Ronald is another well remembered one.
Dan Curtis , who did The Night Strangler did many great tv movies , none out in the UK but on R1 you can also get :
Trilogy of Terror and Dead of Night .
Some are out in Australia too , my Dead of Night is R4 .
Some great British tv movies too , usually made by ITC.
Mr Jerico (Patrick Macnee fresh off The Avengers with Connie Stevens)
The Firechasers (almost like an episode of Thriller)
Sewers of Gold (aka Dirty Money , with Ian McShane)
All 3 available from Network , although I think The Firechasers is now deleted
I think The Norliss Tapes was a pilot for a series that was never made so its ending is left hanging a bit.
With Chad Everett playing a character called Quentin Barnarby The Firechasers cannot fail
Another failed ITC pilot , but I still like the film
Evil Roy Slade
Killdozer
The Phantom Of Hollywood
Sky Heist
Birds Of Prey
Hijack !
Satan's School For Girls
Goodnight My Love
Pursuit
Death Race ( we have a plane that won't fly and a tank.... lets make a movie ! )
Terror In The Sky ( " We have to find somebody on board who can fly a plane and didn't have the chicken " ):p
Oh me too-first saw it as support to Carry on Henry in the early 70 s, and was lucky enough to get a copy from Network DVD before it was deleted.
Terror in the Sky, like Zero Hour and Airplane, was based on Castle and Hailey's novel "Flight into Danger", which, Airplane notwithstanding, is a great thriller.
As with all films yes there was some right TVM crap about (they really went downhill from the mid 80s), but there are also many of them that are more cinematic than many a big-budget, big-screen outing - even more so today IMHO.
Dick Van Dyke gave a marvellous perfomance as a chronic alcoholic in The Morning After.
See also Bing Crosby in "Dr. Cook's Garden".:eek:
Never knew it appeared in the cinema .
It was a TV Movie and although ITC did make tv movies with the intention of releasing to cinemas in other countries I never heard of them in cinemas in the UK before.
It did actually get released on video in the early 80's by Precision Video but for some reason it never got a sell through retail video release.
Having viewed Mr Jerico on dvd I have to say the dvd of The Firechasers is rather disappointing picture quality in comparison although its miles better than the VHS to dvd copy I made from the tape a few years back
Yes it was definitely a supporting feature to Carry on Henry at the Southport Odeon in 1971.
Return to Earth - the story of Buzz Aldrin as a somewhat bitter maladjusted ex astronaut.
Smash-Up on Interstate 5 - legendary car crash movie for small screen starring Robert Conrad who was always good value. The weird thing about Smash Up...is that the piece de resistance is where the film starts and its a bit downhill after that until the slow motion reprise ending.
Victory at Entebbe - actually released to cinemas in Europe.
http://www.modcinema.com/
Modcinema. It sells DVDs of 60s and 70s TV movies.
And I seem to remember it was about a rich couple being terrorised in their home. A scene that's stuck in my mind is of the couple being threatened at gun point in their large garden beside a water fountain. I think maybe the woman in it had jet black hair. It was shown on (i think) ITV in the late 80s ealry 90s.
Anyone know what this was?
Unlike 1973's 'The Horror at 37,000 Feet' which is unintentionally hilarious.
William Shatner as a priest
And it wasn't a made for television film. It had a full release in the late seventies.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Medusa_Touch_%28film%29
Note the poster: Burton after a night on the ale.