I just remembered another significant TV-movie I saw 55 years ago when I was 16, A Trip To Bountiful, about an old woman who tries to return to the small town where she was born and grew up, only to discover that it isn’t there any more. I was a low key, heartwarming, nostalgic story. At 16 I hated low key, heart-warming, nostalgic stories. But I loved it and after it was finished I said to myself "If I can enjoy a story like this with no explosions or fighting or murders, I must be growing up. I date the beginning of my maturity to seeing that movie. (A few years ago there was a TV remake which I did not see; it got poor reviews.)
Okay, here’s one that was really stupid, but it was so stupid, I’ve remembered it all these years. (I had to go look up the name though.)
This House Possessed.
It starred some girl and Parker Stevenson (of Hardy Boys fame). It was typical haunted house schlock, except for one thing: It had a killer garden hose.
There’s two scenes with this hose. One, when it attack a couple making out on the house’s lawn, and another when it wraps around Parker Stevenson and starts slamming him against a chain link fence. Even now I’m thinking “Yeahhh!!! Go Hose go!!”
The garden hose definitely should’ve starred in its own series, I say.
Dungeons and Dragons 2: Wrath of the Dragon God. This one might be a B-movie, but it’s a well done B-movie, without the suck of the other… thing.
Ronald C. Semone writes:
> I just remembered another significant TV-movie I saw 55 years ago when I was
> 16, A Trip To Bountiful, about an old woman who tries to return to the small
> town where she was born and grew up, only to discover that it isn’t there any
> more. I was a low key, heartwarming, nostalgic story. At 16 I hated low key,
> heart-warming, nostalgic stories. But I loved it and after it was finished I said to
> myself "If I can enjoy a story like this with no explosions or fighting or murders,
> I must be growing up. I date the beginning of my maturity to seeing that movie.
> (A few years ago there was a TV remake which I did not see; it got poor
> reviews.)
Yes, there was a TV movie of The Trip to Bountiful in 1953. (Note: The, not A.) Interestingly, it was then turned into a play which was done (On Broadway? Off Broadway? I’m not sure) later that year with some of the same actors which ran for a quite a while. I suspect that it didn’t take much to turn it into a play. TV movies back in those days were very stage-bound. Your last sentence is confused though. It was redone in 1985 as a normal theatrical film, not as a TV film, and it won an Oscar for Geraldine Page. It was very well reviewed. It’s 100% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Ye gods, like it translated well into print?
From 1986 there was “Who is Julia?” with Mare Winningham.
A beautiful woman, a model, is in a terrible car accident. The damage to her body is so bad she’ll die. But her skull and brain are intact. Another woman, played by Winningham, is also mortally injured in an accident, and is brain dead. They have the same blood type, naturally, and doctors wanting to try a brain transplant persuade the family of the dead woman to donate her body to Julia. Fast forward, the transfer works, and when Julia recovers she sees a stranger in the mirror.
The movie is really pretty good, and focuses less on the technology than the psychology of how Julia, and the people around her, adjust to the situation. It’s worth a watch if you see it around.
Another Elizabeth Montgomery vehicle: The Awakening Land.
It actually occurred quite a bit during the 1970s. I remember a number of series pilots that got theatrical releases.
T he single greatest work of art ever mounted specifically for television is the 1986 masterpiece The Singing Detective. But many of the titles listed in this thread are also awesome. Is it just me or was the Made for TV Movie a very 70s thing?
I actually have the DVD , the “pilot” episode of **The Waltons **.
Duel was shown theatrically in Europe, as was a slightly altered version of the Twin Peaks pilot. I saw Duel on TV when it originally aired, but I also saw it in the theater (in Kansas City) several years later, but I don’t know if that was a nationwide thing for an anniversary or if this one theater just decided to show it.
No, I think that’s a pretty accurate assessment. The 70’s (especially the early part of the decade) were the time when TV movies were at their peak artistically. A lot of it had to do with the fact that the concept of the TV movie was still fairly new and undefined at the time so people were more likely to try new things and try to aim at a higher level. Also, this was the same time theatrical motion pictures were taking artistic risks and a lot of that attitude of chanciness rubbed off on TV movies as well. Of course as time went on, TV movie formats became more rigid and scripts less intelligent and, as a result, fewer and fewer memorable TV movies were produced until the genre itself was all but exhausted by the end of the 90’s. Right now, HBO and Disney are about the only networks left that make TV movies on even a semi-regular basis.
There was a movie with Ted Danson and Glenn Close…I don’t remember the name, but Ted Danson’s character was sexually molesting his daughter. It was considered quite a removal from his Sam Malone character on Cheers, and the first time such a subject had ever been broached on network TV. IIRC, it got some critical acclaim. Does anyone remember the name of the movie?
That’s Something about Amelia:
You know, all you had to do was put either Danson’s or Close’s name into the IMDb search form.
You’re right, but I’m feeling a bit woozy headed from my glass of wine…thanks!!
Dark Night of the Scarecrow.
Foyle’s War
For those of you who liked “The Day After”, you may want to check out “Threads” (a BBC movie on the same topic). It makes “The Day After” look like an after school special.
Fail Safe was excellent (filmed live in 1960s B&W style, and starring George Clooney, Harvey Keitel, Hank Azaria, and Richard Dreyfuss, amongst others).
The 1998 straight-to-DVD film Legionnaire starring Jean-Claude Van Damme is one of the best Colonial Adventure films made anytime recently, IMHO (It’s a hell of a lot better than the Heath Ledger version of The Four Feathers, for a start!). Well made, well acted, fairly standard plot, but has some good underlying themes and spectacular battle sequences. And Jean-Claude is surprisingly good in the main role, too.
The BBC’s 2001 made-for-TV film Gentlemen’s Relish- which stars Billy Connolly as a Victorian photographer whose assistant unwittingly ropes him into becoming a pornographer, whilst convincing him what they’re doing is actually High Art- is also brilliant, well made, and features a really good story, exploration of Victorian social mores and double standards, and some great ribald humour. Well worth seeing if you’re after a Period Film that has nothing to do with Jane Austen, or just like seeing Billy Connolly, for that matter. 
One I loved on HBO was Countdown to Looking Glass, from 1984. We were all pretty paraonoid about swapping nukes with the Soviets at that time, and this thing was so damned realistic!
I agree, but you might want to check a bit earlier and have a look at The War Game, which makes even Threads look a bit weak:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059894/
The BBC contracted it, but never broadcast it. They played it in theaters, and it won an Academy Award. Scariest nuclear war film I’ve ever seen, mainly for what it says about what the people on your own side will do in that event.