Grainger Hines – Through the Shattered Lens

In my latest quest for a scary movie that looks interesting and that I haven’t seen, I came across the title SOMEONE’S WATCHING ME! from 1978. I did what I always do and did a quick search on IMDb to find out a little more about the film. I was definitely surprised when I saw that it was directed by John Carpenter, and that it premiered on television in November of 1978 a couple of weeks after his classic HALLOWEEN hit theaters. The film had been referred to as the “lost Carpenter film,” because for several decades it was not available on home video. For many years in the 80s and early 90s, I’d scour the shelves at my local video stores looking for that special find that I’d call a diamond in the rough. As I got older and married, whenever we’d go to Dallas, I’d head to the Movie Trading Company and scour their shelves searching for the same. Being a big fan of Carpenter, especially ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13, ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, and VAMPIRES, it was like I had found that lost jewel, and I couldn’t wait to fire it up.

Lauren Hutton stars as Leigh Michaels, a television director who moves into a high-rise apartment building in Los Angeles. She’s starting a new job and a new life, but things take on a creepy and scary turn when she begins receiving mysterious phone calls and unwanted gifts and letters. Before long, Leigh realizes that someone is watching her every move. Even worse, the police don’t seem very interested in helping her, leaving her to figure out who’s stalking her and what she can do to stop him.

First off, I really enjoyed Lauren Hutton as the lead in the film, which was a bit of a revelation for me. I remember her as the Countess in the 80s vampire comedy ONCE BITTEN, but I mainly remember that one because it was an early leading role for Jim Carrey. I’ve seen her in a lot of movies, but her characters had not stood out much to me. Here, as the focus of the movie, she’s likable, sexy and has this cute running dialogue with herself as she goes about her days. When bad things start happening, she’s not some helpless victim waiting for somebody else to rescue her, either. She’s smart, independent, and even tough enough to take matters into her own hands when she has to.

I also appreciate what John Carpenter is doing here as the writer and the director. A couple of years earlier, he had effectively played off of Howard Hawks with ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13. This time he’s riffing on Alfred Hitchcock, especially movies like REAR WINDOW and VERTIGO. He accomplishes this through his settings, some of his shots, character traits, and especially, the building of tension. His premise is simple, but the idea that someone could be invading our privacy with bad intentions is a scary thought to all of us, and this movie takes it to the extreme. The screenplay builds on this natural fear with enough info that we realize our likable star is in true danger, and that was enough to draw me in. It also helps that I’m a sucker for these types of stories and characters. The made-for-TV limitations on the project are here, but Carpenter’s talent is also very evident. From the first moment I saw a shadowy character dash behind our heroine while she’s on the phone in her apartment, I knew he was going to have some fun with me. He would make me jump and my heart skip a beat several times over the course of the film’s 97 minutes.

It was also fun seeing some of the important actors and actresses that Carpenter has worked with over the years pop up in the movie. Adrienne Barbeau is especially likable and beautiful as Leigh’s friend and coworker, Sophie. She has this big smile and way about her that I found very appealing. She’s also a lesbian, which was probably a fairly unusual TV movie character trait at the time. Barbeau and Carpenter met on the set of this film and would get married less than a year later, on January 1st, 1979. Charles Cyphers, who’s so good as Sheriff Leigh Brackett in the HALLOWEEN series, shows up in the last half hour as the somewhat sympathetic Detective Gary Hunt. Cyphers also had a small, but pivotal role with Charles Bronson in DEATH WISH II, so I always enjoy seeing him on screen.

I’m not going to sit here and say that SOMEONE’S WATCHING ME! is as good as Carpenter’s classic theatrical features, but for me it was a fun discovery, and I really had a good time with it. The Hitchcock flourishes and Hutton’s excellent performance as our heroine, combined with Carpenter’s obvious talents as a writer and director, provided me with the kind of rare cinematic jewel that I had not found in a long time.

Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Mondays, I will be reviewing CHiPs, which ran on NBC from 1977 to 1983. The entire show is currently streaming on Prime!

This week, it’s a special two-hour episode of CHiPs!

Episodes 3.9 and 3.10 “Drive, Lady, Drive”

(Dir by Don Weis, originally aired on November 10, 1979)

The police at nearby Palma Vista are on strike and the state of California has agreed to allow some members of the Highway Patrol to patrol the town until the strike is over. Getraer assigns Baker, Ponch, Bear, and some new guy named Lenny (Leon Isaac Kennedy) to head over to the town, Baker is named the OIC, which I eventually figured out stood for “Officer in Charge.” Getraer knows better than to give the job to Ponch.

Ponch, by the way, is back! After being absent for two episodes due to Erik Estrada actually injuring himself in a motorcycle crash, Ponch returns in this episode and he goes through the entire episode with this huge grin on his face as if he’s saying, “You know you missed me.” Ponch’s return means that Baker is once again relegated to being the strong, silent partner who doesn’t really get to do anything. In fact, Baker crashes his motorcycle early on in this episode, as if the show was trying to tell us, “See? It could happen to anyone!”

The striking cops accuse Baker, Ponch, Bear, and Lenny of being scabs and strike breakers. I’m not really a fan of public sector unions. (When it comes to the police striking, my hero is Calvin Coolidge, who came to fame when he broke up a policeman’s strike in Massachusetts.) Still, it felt strange to watch the show’s heroes cross that picket line. That would definitely not happen on television today.

There’s a lot going on in Palma Vista. There’s some rich kids who keep joyriding in a dune buggy and who think they can escape prosecution by crossing the city limits. (Joke’s on them! The Highway Patrol has jurisdiction everywhere!) There’s some truck hijackers who are setting up a headquarters in town. There’s an angry city councilman (Michael Conrad) who doesn’t feel his children should be held accountable for their actions.

That said, the majority of this two-hour episode centered on a stock car race and one of the racers, Candi Wright (Kelly Harmon). Will Candi win the big race or will she lose to her friendly rival (and possible future romantic partner) Don Croyden (Jordan Clarke)? Will Ponch be able to both date her and do his job? And most importantly, will she be able to adopt a traumatized little girl (played by Tracey Gold) who Candi discovered outside of a burning house? That’s a lot of storylines for someone who wasn’t even a regular cast member and a part of me wonders if maybe this episode was meant to be a secret pilot for a Candi Wright television series. It would explain a lot.

This really was a basic episode of CHiPs, with the only real difference being that it was two-hours long for some reason. A lot of what happened in the episode, especially the racing footage, felt like filler. There was really no need for this to be a double-sized episode. It also doesn’t help that, as opposed to the lovely Los Angeles scenery that we usually see, this episode took place in a rather ugly town. There was some appropriately spectacular crashes but, in the end, this episode ran too long and felt a bit pointless. Get the Highway Patrol back on the highways!