This was a TV movie, first aired, back in November of 1972. I was still in high school, then, so was probably too busy to stay at home, and watch a TV movie. Which is how I missed this.
Imagine, Svengoolie, showing a made-for TV-movie. This is a first!!!!!!!!!!!!
Aside from the cast listed, it also features Academy Award Nominee (Best Supporting Actress, 1964) Grayson Hall, best known for "Dark Shadows," but who played the role I have always wanted to play--repressed lesbian schoolmistrress Judith Fellows in "The Night Of The Iguana." ("Chaarlotte! You defied me! You DELIBERATELY defied me!") But how does one go about playing a repressed lesbian? That is an actor's challenge!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I think this will be a blast! And Kerwin will be there, too!
So don't miss this Saturday delight!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It is sure to be a laugh riot!
Still the highlight of our week, girls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This one is actually very well crafted: one of the subset of top-drawer ABC Movies Of The Week. The cast is uniformly excellent, even the usually blah Jennifer Salt (who fares much better all these years later as writer/producer for several seasons of AHS). Grayson Hall is a hoot in this one, playing a role that inspired Amanda Plummer's in Ratched: her most amusing stint after Dark Shadows ended. The Gargoyle makeup and voice effects are surprisingly great for a low budget TV movie (Burman Studios), holding up effectively fifty years on.
ReplyDeleteThe desert setting is still appropriately eerie and otherworldly, the attack on the cabin at night can still trigger goosebumps. Best of all, the allegorical references to racism against Jews and Blacks are very subtle and sly, making the point without beating you over the head with a blatant woke stick and sucking all the fun out of a goofy horror story. A lost writing skill we could desperately use more of today.
ReplyDeleteDarling,
Your endorsement certainly has me
looking even more forwar to this.
As for writing skill, where is it?
Well, it is on this blog, but I don't
hear the networks calling me! Too
bad, because I could write an AHS season
based on my adolescence. It could be
called "AHS: High School." Mrs. Santamarina,
the only French teacher on the premises, so if
on took French, as I did, you were stuck with
her, was a worthy rival to Gladys Cooper in
"The Song Of Bernadette!"