Donald Pleasence was born in the UK on October 5th, 1919, the son of a railway station manager. Pleasence briefly tried to follow in his father’s footsteps before, at the age of 20, realizing that he would much rather be a professional actor. With his intense demeanor, Pleasence soon became an in-demand character actor and remained one for the rest of his life, only taking a break from acting when he served in World War II. (A devout Methodist, Pleasence originally registered as a conscientious objector but changed his stance once the Blitz began.) When he was taken prisoners by the Germans and sent to a POW camp, he organized plays among his fellow prisoners as a way to keep everyone’s spirits up as they waited for the war to end.
Pleasence’s experience as a POW led to him being cast in The Great Escape. His ability to play villains led to him being cast as the original Blofeld in You Only Live Twice. He appeared in classic horror films like Death Line and Wake In Fright. In 1978, he was offered the role of Dr. Loomis inHalloween, after it had been turned down by both Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. Pleasence played Loomis with a righteous intensity that seemed to grow a bit more unhinged with each subsequent sequel. Though he was, by his own admission, not a huge fan of the genre, Pleasence became a horror icon to a whole new generation of film goers.
1998’s Halloween 4 does not have a great reputation but it does have one of my favorite Loomis scenes. In this scene, a hitchhiking Dr. Loomis is picked up by an old man (Carmen Filipi) who is on a mission of his own. It’s hard not to regret that these two didn’t get their own spin-off.
The 1994 made-for-TV movie Deadly Vows opens with a football game.
It’s just a friendly football game in the park. The majority of the players appear to be frat boys. They’re muscular and athletic and they play hard but they’re not professional athletes. However, there is one player that sticks out. Tom Weston (Gerald McRaney) is taking the game very seriously and he is determined to win. He continually begs his team’s quarterback to throw him the ball. When he’s tackled, he staggers back up and run back to the huddle, even though he’s limping and out-of-breath. Again, Tom is taking the game very seriously. Tom is also nearly twenty years older than the other players.
Tom is desperate to prove that he can still keep up with the young guys around him, even though it’s obvious that he can’t. Tom also drives a truck for a living and spends his time on his CB radio, bragging about how good he is at his job and trying to pick fights with anyone who he feels doesn’t treat him with enough respect. Incidentally, Tom is not driving a big truck. He’s driving a small truck. It’s actually more of a van than a truck…..
In other words, Tom is having a midlife crisis.
I think everyone either knows or has, at least, come across someone like Tom Weston. He’s the balding, forty-something guy who brags about how he’s in the best shape of his life and who shamelessly flirts with every young woman that he sees, despite the fact that he’s married to a woman his own age, Nancy (Peggy Lipton). Nancy, for her part, tries to be understanding. Like a lot of insecure men, Tom is a very active gaslighter. Indeed, when Nancy first meets Bobbi (Josie Bisset), she believes Tom when he says that Bobbi is just a friend. Of course, the truth of the matter is that Tom is having an affair and he even married Bobbi a few weeks earlier. Tom’s not just a guy having a mid-life crisis. He’s also a bigamist. And eventually, he’s a murderer.
DeadlyVows is based on the true story of Robert Harnois, a man who is currently in prison for murdering one wife and trying to kill the other. When this film was made, Harnois had not yet been convicted of the murder which is why the character’s name was changed to Tom Weston. The film itself is slightly ambiguous as to the circumstances that led to the murder. While we see Tom reading about it in prison and smirking, we don’t actually see him taking the contract out on the victim’s life. But, in a safely made-for-TV style, it’s pretty clearly implied that Tom hired someone to carry out the murder. (And, in real life, that’s exactly what happened.)
DeadlyVows is, in many ways, a typical made-for-TV true crime film. What sets it apart from other entries in the genre is Gerald McRaney’s chilling performance as Tom Weston. McRaney plays Weston as the type of sociopath who thinks that he can charm his way out of any situation. Instead, most people can see right through him and his manipulative bluster. Indeed, the film portrays Tom as being a very stupid and pathetic man. Unfortunately, one doesn’t have to be smart to hurt other people. Peggy Lipton and especially Josie Bisset both give good performance as well but this film is ultimately dominated by McRaney’s performance as a murderous loser who simply cannot accept that he’s not 22 anymore.
Technically, I didn’t watch this last night. I watched it earlier this morning on Prime. But seriously, morning? Night? When you sleep as little as I do, it really doesn’t make a difference.
Why Was I Watching It?
As most of our longtime readers know, I love Lifetime movies. I used to review hundreds of Lifetime movies a year. Unfortunately, over the past few years have been busy one and I haven’t been able to keep up with the latest Lifetime films like I used to. That’s something that I want to change so I’ve decided to start getting caught up with this year’s films. It’s time to once again embrace the melodrama!
After getting two hours of sleep, I woke up this morning feeling under the weather. I told my sister to go to mass and say a prayer for my continued life. And then, once I had the house to myself, I watched Killing The Competition. Why did I pick that particular Lifetime film? Three words: Melissa. Joan. Hart. SABRINA! Hart has appeared in her share of Lifetime films over the past few years and she always throws herself into each one. When I read that this film featured Hart as an obsessive cheer mom, I knew there was no way I couldn’t watch.
What Was It About?
In high school, Elizabeth (Melissa Joan Hart) was a cheerleader and a member of the chess team. (“See, I was smart!” she says while looking through an old yearbook.) She claims that she was head dancer, even though the cheerleading team has never had a head dancer. Now that she’s married and bored with her suburban existence, Elizabeth pushes her teenage daughter, Grace (Lily Brooks O’Bryant), to try out for the squad. When Grace isn’t selected, Elizabeth lodges a formal complaint and the mayor of the town announces that not only will Grace be a cheerleader but so will every other girl who was rejected that year. Grace is excited but Elizabeth is worried that this will now cause people to view Grace as being a loser who was forced onto the team.
At first, I assumed that Elizabeth would be one of those cheer moms who hired a hitman to take out one of her daughter’s cheer rivals. Instead, Elizabeth turns out to be so pathologically jealous that she gets upset when her daughter makes the team. Elizabeth convinces herself that Grace’s boyfriend is cheating with another cheerleader (Valerie Loo) and that Grace is about get dumped. When Grace doesn’t get dumped or humiliated, Elizabeth goes off the deep end.
What Worked?
Again, three words: Melissa. Joan. Hart. Whether she’s sneaking into cheerleader try-outs or spying on her daughter while wearing sunglasses and a wig, Hart is a total joy to watch as Elizabeth goes mad with envy. Elizabeth tries to run her daughter’s boyfriend over with her car. Elizabeth steals her daughter’s phone and sends texts. (She takes a picture of a wedding dress and sends Grace’s boyfriend a text that reads: “Thinking of the future.”) Elizabeth insists that everyone try on her former cheerleading uniform. Elizabeth talks about how no one will ever forget who you were when you were in high school. Elizabeth points a gun at people and then tries to convince them that it’s no big deal. Elizabeth does a lot of things and Melissa Joan Hart does a great job portraying each and every one of them.
What Did Not Work?
At times, this film was almost too self-aware. That may seem like a strange thing to say about a Lifetime film but I always like the Lifetime films that are subtly self-aware as opposed to the ones that attempt to scream from the rooftops, “We’re laughing with you!” The best Lifetime films often feel like a private joke between the network and its fans, one that only devoted watchers will be able to fully understand and appreciate.
“Oh my God! Just like me!” Moments
Watching this film, I realized how lucky my sister Erin and I were. Our mom was supportive but she wasn’t crazy. She went to every game when Erin was a cheerleader. No matter where we were living, she always found me a dance teacher and she always told me how proud she was of me and she always made me feel like I was the greatest dancer in the world. She was supportive and, though we didn’t appreciate it at the time, she sacrificed a lot to make sure we could do what we wanted to do. But, at the same time, she never tried to kill anyone. We never had to deal with the awkward moment of the police showing up at the house with an arrest warrant. That was a good thing.
This October, I’m going to be doing something a little bit different with my contribution to 4 Shots From 4 Films. I’m going to be taking a little chronological tour of the history of horror cinema, moving from decade to decade.
Today, we take a look at the latter half of the 1920s.
4 Shots From 4 Horror Films
The Phantom of the Opera (1925, dir by Rupert Julian)
Faust (1926, dir by F.W. Murnau)
London After Midnight (1927, dir by Tod Browning)
The Fall of the House of Usher (1928, dir by Jean Epstein)
I’ll admit it right now. I’ve never really been a dog person.
That’s the way it’s been my entire life. According to my sisters, I was bitten by a dog when I was two years old. Needless to say, I don’t remember that happening but that still might explain why, when I was growing up, I was scared to death of dogs. Seriously, if I was outside and I heard a dog barking or if I saw a dog running around loose (or even on a leash), I would immediately start shaking. It didn’t help that, for some reason, I always seemed to run into the big dogs that wanted to jump and slobber all over me. (“Don’t be scared,” one dog owner shouted at me, “that’ll just make him more wild,” as if it was somehow my responsibility to keep his dog under control.)
Then there was that time when was I was ten and I was visiting Lake Texoma with my family. There was another family there and they had a big black dog with them. When I first saw him, the dog was very friendly. He ran up to me and, tentatively and with my sisters standing beside me for moral support, I even patted his head,. He seemed so nice! Finally, I had met a dog that didn’t scare me. My family was really happy. We went down to the lake and everyone told me how proud they were that I had managed to face a dog without running away. As we came back from the lake, I saw the dog laying down next to his family’s van. I smiled at the sight of him. He raised his head, looked at me, and started to growl. He wasn’t growling at my sisters or my parents. He was growling at me. Terrified, I went over to my family’s car and I ducked down behind it. I could hear my Dad telling the dog to stop and then I heard the loudest barking and saw the dog running towards me. I jumped in the car and locked the doors. The dog’s owners eventually grabbed their dog and took him back to their van. They said that I probably looked like someone who had been mean to it a few weeks earlier. One thing that they did not really do was apologize. Instead, they just made me feel like it was somehow my fault. They didn’t seem sympathetic when my Mom explained that I was terrified of dogs. When they realized my Dad was on the verge of punching someone, they retreated to their van and quickly left. At that time, I decided that 1) I would never trust another dog and that 2) dog owners are the most selfish people on the planet. I know that sounds harsh but seriously, I was traumatized!
As I grew up, I mellowed a bit. I met nice dog owners who actually made the effort to control their pets. I even met some friendly dogs and slowly realized that not all of them were going to try to kill me. I became less scared of dogs but they still definitely make me nervous. I still cringe when listening to the barking and I still reflexively step back whenever I see a big dog anywhere near me. Now that I know more about dogs, I have to admit that I feel a little bit guilty about not liking them more. Knowing that dogs actually blame themselves for me not liking them is kind of heart-breaking and I have been making more of an effort to be, if nothing else, at least polite to the canines who lives in the neighborhood. That said, I’m a cat person and I’ll always be cat person. Cats don’t care if you like them or not nor do they blame themselves if you’re in a bad mood, which is lot less of an emotional responsibility to deal with.
1977’s Dogs is a film that seems like it was especially made to give people like me nightmares. It’s a pretty simple movie. At a college in Southern California, the students and the faculty find themselves under siege from a bunch of dogs that have been driven mad by pheromones being sprayed into the atmosphere by a nearby, top secret government experiment. Two professors (David McCallum and George Wyner) attempt to convince everyone to evacuate the college and the town but, in typical Jaws fashion, no one wants to admit the truth about what’s happening. By the end, nearly everyone is dead (and the final scene of all the dead bodies spread across campus is genuinely haunting) and the cats are starting to hiss at humans.
Dogs is a low-budget drive-in flick but it’s still a frightening film, largely because the dogs are relentless and the victims may be largely stupid but they’re all stupid in realistic ways. A group of college students is told to wait inside until George Wyner comes back for them but Wyner takes so long in returning that the terrified students decide to make a run for it themselves. It doesn’t end well but it’s the sort of thing that I can actually imagine happening. No one likes being told to wait and, with no idea of what’s actually going on, making a run for it might actually seem like as good an idea as any. Even when the movie recreates the Psycho shower scene (with dogs instead of Norman Bates), it’s far more effective than it perhaps has any right to be.
Would this film be as effective from the point of view of someone who doesn’t have a history of being scared of dogs? It’s a legitimate question. Dogs aren’t like sharks. Most people like dogs. But when they’re barking and growling and determined to bite your throat, they can be pretty scary! I’ll just say that Dogs is a film that seemed to be uniquely designed to give me nightmares.
Those words are spoken in the 1958 film, The Hideous Sun Demon. Sultry pianist Trudy (Nan Peterson) may just be talking about her own nocturnal lifestyle and her job as the entertainment at a bar but those words also have a double meaning to scientist Gil McKenna (Robert Clarke). Whenever the sun comes up, Gil is transformed into the Hideous Sun Demon!
In theory, of course, this is an interesting take on the werewolf legend or even a traditional vampire tale. Typically, monsters aren’t supposed to come out until the sun goes down and they can move under the cover of darkness. The werewolf is transformed by the moonlight. The vampire is destroyed by the sun. (Or, at least, he used to be. Largely due to authorial laziness, many modern vampire tales have abandoned the whole idea of not being able to go out during the day.) Gil, however, reverses the trend. By night, he’s a handsome and brooding scientist. By day, he’s not just the sun demon. He’s the …. HIDEOUS SUN DEMON!
(Seriously, that can’t be good for his self-esteem.)
Like all great monsters, Gil doesn’t want to be the sun demon. He tries to stay in his house until night falls so that he won’t be transformed into a monster. But it’s difficult when he finds himself talking to Trudy and getting lost in their conversation. The beach looks so nice at night but it looks even better at dawn!
As for Gil, he’s got a lot of scientists working on a cure for his condition but he knows it’s hopeless and he’s pretty bitter about it. Poor guy. I may not turn into a demon but I do have red hair so I could slightly relate to his feelings. Redheads don’t tan as much as we just burn. I guess that’s one reason why I love this time of year. The skies are full of clouds and one can safely walk around during the daylight hours.
As for The Hideous Sun Demon, it is a ludicrous and fun B-movie, a quick 74-minute beach romp with a convincing performance from Robert Clarke and an effective monster costume. The scientists investigating Gil’s case are all extremely sober while Gil is extremely mopey and Trudy is extremely sultry and George (Peter Similuk), a bar patron who also likes Trudy, is a true middle-aged 50s tough guy. It’s very much a film for the 50s drive-in crowd and all the more entertaining because of it.
Esperanto was an international language that was briefly promoted by one-world government weirdos but which never really caught on. Four movie have been made in Esperanto but only one is still remembered. 1966’s Incubus features William Shatner, giving a very Shatnerish performance, as a solider who is tempted by a mysterious woman. The cinematography of the legendary Conrad Hall gives this one a very dream-like feel, even before everyone starts to talk.
Yes, this movie has subtitles. But, so what? Who hasn’t wanted to see William Shatner speak Esperanto?
In 2022’s OneCop’sJourney, Keith Knotek (Tim Perez-Ross) is involved in a traffic accident. Because Keith is clearly intoxicated, he’s taken to jail. Because it’s the start of the weekend, Keith is going to have to spend three days in jail before the Magistrate will see him and determine the amount of money that it will take to get him out.
Keith sits in a jail cell for three days. Because he’s a cop, the other police officers treat him with perhaps a bit more sympathy than they would give the usual inmate. You need a private cell? Here you go. You want us to call your wife? No problem! You want to get changed for court in the officer’s locker room? Sure, why not? Here’s a phone, go ahead and call your minister.
That minister is played by Dean Cain. The cop calls the minister and admits to getting a DUI and maybe hurting some people in the car accident.
“We all make mistakes,” Dean Cain replies.
And isn’t that the truth! OneCop’sJourney attempts to show the stress that would lead a cop to start drinking. His partner and best friend is gunned down while pursuing a suspect. Keith, himself, is nearly killed while conducting a routine traffic stop. No one wants to hear the details of what a cop has to deal with on daily basis. His wife has grown tired of him being depressed and emotionally withdrawn all the time and, when she discovers that he never told her about one traumatic incident that happened shortly before they were married, she considers it to be the same as telling her a lie. Worst of all, his teenage daughter decides to attend an anti-police rally, holding a sign that reads “No Justice No Peace,” while her friends all hold signs that read, “Defund the Police.”
Since this is a faith-based film, Keith eventually finds redemption and hope through prayer and he goes on to write a book about the pressures of being a cop. That’s to be expected and, to its credit, the film doesn’t get particularly preachy when it comes to the religious angle. I imagine that most people who would regularly get offended by the religious subtext will be too busy getting upset over the film’s political subtext to really notice.
OneCop’sJourney is thoroughly and unapologetically pro-cop and that’s never more obvious than in the protest scene when the blue collar, salt-of-the-earth policemen find themselves being yelled at by a bunch of bitter geriatrics and a few smirking college students. There’s nothing subtle about it but, then again, there’s nothing subtle about most left-wing movies either. As is so often the case when it comes to political movies, how you react will depend on how you felt about the issue before the movie started. (My own personal opinion is that police reform is something that needs to be considered, especially when it comes to the militarization of the police. At the same time, the “abolish the police” folks were and are living in a fantasy world.)
OneCop’sJourney is only 63 minutes long and there is an effective dream sequence in which Keith finds himself looking at the headshots of everyone who he feels he has left down. That said, the film still had far too many slow spots for so short of a production. Putting Keith in the jail cell really did make the whole thing feel pretty stagey. Still, the film did find the time to share some information about Post Traumatic Stress amongst first responders. It’s heart was in the right place.
Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Saturdays, I will be reviewing Good Morning, Miss Bliss, which ran on the Disney Channel from 1988 to 1989 before then moving to NBC and being renamed Saved By The Bell. The entire show is currently streaming on Prime!
This week, Miss Bliss takes over the school.
Episode 1.12 “Clubs and Cliques”
(Dir by Burt Brinckerhoff, originally aired on March 11th, 1989)
Mr. Belding is teaching Miss Bliss’s class!
Why?
Well, the answer doesn’t make much sense but here it is. The School Board has ordered Belding to name one of the teachers as an “assistant principal” who can be in charge whenever he’s out of the building. Most schools just hire an assistant principal but whatever. Maybe this is an Indiana thing. Since there are only three teachers to choose from and one of them is the mad scientist who wanted to force Nikki to dissect a frog, Mr. Belding goes with Miss Bliss. But, before Miss Bliss can officially have the job, she has to serve as a principal for a week. Belding covers her class.
At first, Mr. Belding is nervous. But, by the end of the class period, he’s thrilled. He tells Miss Bliss that he thinks he did a wonderful job and that the kids really got something out of it.
“Mr. Belding,” Miss Bliss replies, “it’s only homeroom.”
Okay, I’m just going to say it …. WHAT A BITCH! Seriously, how condescending can one person be? This is who you want to make principal? Is this how you motivate people? Again, this is why I cannot stand Miss Bliss. Seriously, if anyone ever said that to her — “It’s only homeroom,” — she would have rightly been offended.
(Then again, I have to wonder whether or not Mr. Belding’s ever taught a class before. This episode seems to imply that he hasn’t. Was that a common thing with principals back in the 80s?)
Miss Bliss has a lot to deal with because it’s pledge week. Apparently, the coolest club at JFK Middle School is the Rigma club and Zach has been told by Rick (J. Trevor Edmond) and Trevor (Christopher Carter) that he can wear a Rigma jacket if he’s mean to all of his friends. Zach calls Lisa’s parents and let them know that she wears makeup in school. He throws ice cream at Nikki’s sweater. He reveals that Mikey has a crush. He calls Screech a “nothing.” He loses all of his friends and then he finds out that he wasn’t even being considered for Rigma membership. Instead, it was all a big joke on the part of Rick and Trevor.
Now, to give credit where credit is due, Mark-Paul Gosselaar did a pretty good job playing up Zach’s regret after he realized he had lost all of his friends for nothing. The episode is interesting because it shows a side of Zach that would totally disappear over the course of Saved By The Bell. In this episode, Zach is insecure and desperate to belong. By the time Saved By The Bell really got going, it had been established that Zach had no insecurities and was automatically loved by everyone he met. Insecure Zach is infinitely more compelling but a bit less fun than confident Zach. Watching this episode, it’s hard to believe we’re watching the same Zach Morris who will eventually lie about a being a descendant of Chief Joseph.
Things work out in the end. His friends forgive Zach. Even more importantly, Miss Bliss gets in trouble for not calling and asking for permission from the Board of Education before giving everyone everything they wanted. “She’s not perfect,” Belding chuckles. You got that right, Mr. Belding!
For the most part, I’ve spent this week watching horror movies and reviewing them. That said, I did get caught up with a handful of shows. Here are a few thoughts:
Abbott Elementary (Wednesday Night, ABC)
I got pretty bored with Abbott last season but I still caught the season five premiere this week. I laughed quite a bit so I guess I’m going to give the latest season a chance. The show got a bit heavy-handed last season and I got bored with all of the golf course nonsense. Hopefully, this season will put the focus back on teaching.
Big Brother 27 (Sunday Night, CBS)
BigBrother ended on Sunday and I’ve already forgotten all about it. That’s the way things should be.
Hell’s Kitchen (Thursday Night, Fox)
I got caught up with the latest two episodes of Hell’s Kitchen. The men seem to be especially incompetent this season. I know that every season seems to start out with the men weak and the women strong before reversing things later on but seriously, this season, I wouldn’t want any of these people cooking for me.
Law & Order (Thursday Night, NBC)
I decided to give Law & Order another try this season. (Last season, I stopped watching about halfway through.) Of course, when I watched the first two episodes of the current season, the first thing I saw was Price on the verge of tears. Is there ever a time when Nolan Price isn’t on the verge of tears? Just as with the previous season, I preferred the Law to the Order part of the show. If Maroun and Price are always miserable about having to do this jobs, why are they even working for the District Attorney’s office to begin with? Ever since this show was revived, we’ve had a steady stream of new detectives and yet Price and Maroun are still the same colorless characters that they were when they first appeared.
The Prisoner (Night Flight Plus)
I watched two episodes of this cult classic on Friday. My favorite character is Rover.
Seinfeld (Netflix)
Kramer starts a talk show in his living room. It made me laugh!
Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test (Thursday Night, Fox)
Yet another group of celebrities have gathered to see if they can pass Special Forces training. I watched the first two episodes this week. I laughed when one of the instructors yelled, “How badly do you want this!?” They probably just want their paycheck. I also laughed at Jussie Smollett, trying to make a comeback as one of the celebs. What if Smollett wins this season and is sent to Afghanistan with orders to take down the Taliban? That would be a hell of a redemption arc!
The Young and the Restless (Weekday Morning, CBS)
I watched an episode on Monday, largely to see if Victor was still around. He was.
Through the Shattered Lens 