Cheesy SF/Supernatural Made For TV Movies of the 1970s You Love

Cafe Society
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Just spent a few bucks buying some copies of some of the wonderful (in a good way and in a “so bad it’s good” way) SF/Supernatural/Horror made for television films of the 70s – the Golden Age of the Movie Of the Week, I believe.

Now some from those days are legendary – The Night Stalker and sequel; anything written by Richard Matheson, but most were just made to give ex-stars of 1960s series a job, or to give Gene Roddenberry another chance to get a series on the air. As a kid and a young teen I loved them all, and a couple even scared the bejeezus out of me.

Most of these quickies were sure to star those stalwarts of the format – William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Richard Basehart, Peter Graves, Barbara Eden, Lindsay Wagner, and any cast member of “The Big Valley” who was not Lee Majors.

Remember Nimoy as a cool guy race car driver who is Baffled! by his visions of future happening in an old English manor?

Rember the ghosts of a doomed WWII B-17 who came back to haunt the Sole Survivor whom they believe was a traitor?

George Hamilton’s tan says it all – The Dead Don’t Die.

Two aliens battle in disguise as humans (well, Lloyd Bridges and Angie Dickinson) in The Love War. You’ll just never guess what these two enemies do when they inhabit the lusty healthy bodies of two actors desperate for work.

And what was that one where Lindsay Wagner finds an old picture of someone who looks just like her, then time travels or some nonsense?

Big cars, big bell-bottoms, turtlenecks and plaid jackets, sideburns, hair parted deep to the side, or straight down the middle, usually written by someone named Guerdon Trueblood, and directed by one the thousand McEveety brothers, Bernard Kowalski or or someone named Cy, Sy, or Alf.

Remember those?

Sir Rhosis

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I would love to watch again “The Girl, The Gold Watch, and Everything.” It’s a story of a guy who inherits a watch that can stop time. Perhaps it’s better if I don’t watch it - I saw it as a kid and was amazed. If I saw it again I’d probably laugh in all the wrong places.

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Oh! And then there’s the one where this guy had some kind of psychokinesis. Whenever he used it they’d do a close up on his eye and the pupil would contract. In one scene he caused a vat of molten gold to tip, the gold pour out onto the floor, which then solidified quickly trapping the bad guys feet. The fact that no one suffered from 3[sup]rd[/sup] degree burns didn’t factor into my young fascination of a guy moving things with his mind.

Does anyone remember the name of this?

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Don’t let’s forget 1972’s TV movie Gargoyles

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It’s from '81 but This House Posessed freaked me out with the exploding mirror bit.

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The part of that movie that seriously stuck with me was the poor nurse being boiled in the pool. Squicked me out about swimming pools for years…

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The Initiation of Sarah:

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How about The Spell? This one was a classic Carrie ripoff. The part I remember most was the neighbor she burned up…or something. All I remember is the woman coming down the stairs and suddenly her skin turns orange, her tongue turns purple and smoke comes out of her mouth! Scared poor little 6-year-old me, let me tell you…

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My favorite was A Fire in the Sky, about a comet that hits Phoenix, AZ. IIRC, Richard Crenna was in it? Loved that movie as a kid.

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Karen Black on an all-scenery diet in Trilogy of Terror. Accept no substitute.

It’s all good, but the Zuni fetish doll bit is the most awesome horror television ever made. That sound! pees self

And Spielberg’s Duel will always have a place in my heart – although I’m not entirely sure how it would stand up to a screening today.

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Another Richard Crenna outing: Devil Dog: Hound of Hell. The family German Shepherd is a tool of Satan who possesses his family.

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Larry Mudd, a couple years back I bought the special edition DVD of Matheson’s/Spielberg’s Duel. It gripped me as much then as the first several times I saw it. Weaver’s performance, the cinematography, everything is as awesome now as it was in 71.

A classic of the form.

Sir Rhosis

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Two words- Crowhaven Farm
This REALLY NEEDS to be put on DVD.

Another one never given the attention it deserves- the Dan Curtis 1973 production of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, with Bo Svenson portraying the Monster authentically. Low budget but more accurate than any other version up to that time (the main twist is that a very pretty girl was the blind person), tho aforementioned budget forbid ending it in the Arctic.