Horror on TV: The Night Stalker (dir by John Llewelyn Moxey)

Posted on October 23, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Long before he achieved holiday immortality by playing the father in A Christmas Story, Darren McGavin played journalist Carl Kolchak in the 1972 made-for-TV movie, The Night Stalker. Kolchak is investigating a series of murders in Las Vegas, all of which involve victims being drained of their blood. Kolchak thinks that the murderer might be a vampire. Everyone else thinks that he’s crazy.

When this movie first aired, it was the highest rated made-for-TV movie of all time. Eventually, it led to a weekly TV series in which Kolchak investigated various paranormal happenings. Though the TV series did not last long, it’s still regularly cited as one of the most influential shows ever made.

The Night Stalker is an effective little vampire movie and Darren McGavin gives an entertaining performance as the rather nervous Carl Kolchak.

Enjoy!

Horror On The Lens: Where Have All The People Gone? (dir by John Llewellyn Moxey)

Posted on October 13, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

In the creepy 1974 film, Peter Graves plays a father who goes on a camping trip with his two teenage children (one of whom is played by Kathleen Quinlan). A sudden earthquake and a solar flare causes the trio to try to return to civilization, where they discover that almost everyone has been reduced to a powdery substance and there are only a few crazed survivors. They try to make their way back to their home in Malibu, facing danger at every leg of their journey.

(It’s almost a low-budget and far more dramatic version of Night of the Comet.)

Effective despite its made-for-TV origins, Where Have All The People Gone? was obviously mean to serve as a pilot for a television series. The series didn’t happen but, even with a somewhat open-ended conclusion, the movie still works.

Horror on the Lens: The Night Stalker (dir by John Llewelyn Moxey)

Posted on October 22, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

For today’s horror on the lens, we have a real treat! (We’ll get to the tricks later…)

The Night Stalker is an effective little vampire movie and Darren McGavin gives a great performance as Carl Kolchak.

Enjoy!

Retro Television Review: The Death Of Me Yet (dir by John Llewellyn Moxey)

Posted on March 17, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Sundays, I will be reviewing the made-for-television movies that used to be a primetime mainstay. Today’s film is 1971’s The Death Of Me Yet! It can be viewed on YouTube.

Welcome to Middletown!

Middletown is a nice, comfy, and friendly little town. As you might guess from the name, it seems just like the type of town that you would expect to find in the middle of the country. Edward Young (Doug McClure) is a friendly and popular citizen of the town. Everyone loves to see Edward walking around Middletown with his girlfriend, Alice (Meg Foster, of the otherworldly eyes). But one day, Edward comes home to find a message waiting for him. He has been “activated” and it’s time for him to leave Middletown and head to …. THE UNITED STATES!

You see, Middletown is in the middle of a country. It’s in the middle of Russia, to be exact. It’s a KGB training center, where sleeper agents learn how to pass for Americans.

Edward heads to America, where he takes on the name of Paul Towers. Over the years, Paul settles in a town that looks a lot like Middletown. Paul becomes a newspaper publisher and he comes to love America. He also marries Sibby (Rosemary Forsyth), the sister of defense contract Hank Keller (Dana Elcar). When one of Hank’s executives dies under mysterious circumstances, Hank offers to bring Paul into the business.

Paul is reluctant, both because he doesn’t know if he could pass the background check that the FBI is going to run on him and also because he suspects that someone is trying to kill him! When he sees Alice and his former KGB handler (Richard Basehart) in town, Paul realizes that he’s going to have to pick a side and face the consequences of all of his actions.

The Death of Me Yet is an enjoyably twisty thriller, one that embraces the melodrama while having some fun with the idea of a bunch of sleeper agents doing business in a generic American town. Doug McClure’s natural earnestness makes him an odd choice for the role of a lifelong spy but the casting works in that it explains why no one has ever suspected Paul in the past. As always, Darren McGavin is a welcome presence as the FBI agent who assures Paul that he will be doing a thorough background check. Richard Basehart makes for a good villain and Meg Foster’s enigmatic screen presence keeps the viewer guessing as to what her ultimate goal may be.

The film ends with the hint of continued adventures for Paul. It wouldn’t surprise me if this movie was made with an eye on turning it into a weekly series. As far as I know, that series never happened, though The Americans would later feature many of the same themes and ideas found in The Death of Me Yet. The Death of Me Yet holds up as an entertaining espionage thriller.

Retro Television Reviews: Miami Vice 1.3 “Heart of Darkness”

Posted on September 25, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to 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 Miami Vice, which ran on NBC from 1984 to 1989. The entire show is currently streaming on Tubi!

This week, Crockett and Tubbs drive into the abyss and discover what happens when you lose yourself in vice.

Episode 1.3 “Heart of Darkness”

(Dir by John Llewellyn Moxey, originally aired on September 28th, 1984)

The third episode of Miami Vice appears to be take place at least a month or two after the end of the pilot. Tubbs is not only now a member of the Miami Vice Squad but he and Crockett are now best friends. Gone is all the animosity and mistrust that characterized their initial relationship. Now, Crockett is willing to open up to Tubbs and Tubbs is willing to defend Crockett’s pet alligator, Elvis, when Sonny briefly flies into rage mode and threatens to throw away its favorite blanket.

(Sonny is upset because Elvis, who doesn’t like being left on the boat alone, ate one of Sonny’s records.)

Though Tubbs has been accepted by the Vice Squad, he’s still struggling to adjust to Miami, which is a bit more laid back than New York. Early on, he complains to Lt. Rodriguez about his apartment. Rodriguez just rolls his eyes. Sorry, Tubbs. Only one Miami cop gets to live with an alligator on a houseboat. Everyone else is stuck with a one-bedroom.

Crockett and Tubbs’s current assignment is to penetrate the world of Southern Florida porn kingpin, Walter Kovics (Paul Hecht). Kovics is involved with the Mafia and is suspected of having ordered several murders. When one of his actresses (played by Suzy Amis, making her television debut) is not only murdered but also turns out to be an underage runaway from Kansas, the case becomes personal. Crockett and Tubbs want to take down Kovics but the only way to get to Kovics is through his second-in-command, Artie Rollins. At first glance, Artie seems to be a typical coked up criminal but, upon further investigation, Crockett and Tubbs learn that Artie Rollins is actually Arthur Lawson, an FBI agent who has spent the last few years of his life working undercover. Now, no one is sure if Artie is still working undercover or if he’s truly gone over to the other side. Artie claims that he’s still working to bring down Kovics but when Kovics discovers that Crockett and Tubbs are undercover cops, Artie is the one who is ordered to shoot them. Which side is Artie on? Not even he seems to know for sure.

Artie is played by Ed O’Neill. The future star of Married With Children and Modern Family star was in his mid-thirties when he appeared in Miami Vice and this was one of his earliest television roles. O’Neill gives an unpredictable performance, one that is often frightening and sometimes even a bit poignant. As played by O’Neill, Arthur is a man who has truly lost himself and the character is compelling because Arthur himself doesn’t seem to know what he’s going to do from minute-to-minute. He may want to take down Kovics but he’s also spent so many years in Kovics’s world that he knows he won’t ever be able to adjust to anything else. In the end, Arthur does the right thing but he sacrifices his soul as he does it and his joy at gunning down Kovics is almost as disturbing as the look he had in his eyes when he was previously considering whether to execute Crockett and Tubbs. The show’s final moments find Crockett and Tubbs sitting in a cop bar. Crockett confesses that he saw a lot of himself in Arthur Lawson. Rodriguez approaches them and informs them that, while being debriefed at FBI headquarters, Arthur committed suicide.

This was an interesting episode. The plot was a bit conventional but it was elevated by Ed O’Neill’s performance as the unstable Arthur. (O’Neill kept the viewer guessing, along with Crockett and Tubbs, as to who Arthur really was.) And, of course, just when it seems like everyone’s gotten their happy ending, Rodriguez reminded us that happy endings are never guaranteed. Everything comes with a price. Indeed, that’s one of the major themes of Miami Vice. Arthur sacrificed his identity, his soul, and ultimately his life to see that justice was done but, in the end, someone will quickly replace Kovics and the business of vice will continue with little interruption. Arthur will be largely forgotten and only mentioned as a cautionary tale. Can anyone blame Sonny for wanting to spend all of his time on a boat with an alligator?

Retro Television Reviews: The Last Child (dir by John Llewellyn Moxey)

Posted on January 15, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to the “near future.”

Panicked by hysterical claims about overpopulation and environmental catastrophe, Americans have sacrificed the majority of their civil liberties. Smiling policeman stand on every corner and in every public hallway. Of course, once their authority is challenged, those smiles quickly disappear. Crude posters have been put up everywhere, demanding that everyone watch their consumption of natural resources. The social engineers and the eugenicists are in charge. Anyone over the age of 65 is ineligible for medical care and encouraged to consider euthanasia. Couples are allowed to have only one child and the government requires that anyone who gets pregnant a second time have an abortion. Anyone who questions the policy is told that they have no choice but to follow the law. It’s their civic duty. The media, meanwhile, runs headlines declaring that the one child policy has led to world peace.
Alan and Karen Miller (played by Michael Cole and Janet Margolin) have already had their one child. That their child died shortly after birth doesn’t matter in the eyes of Barstow (Ed Asner), the Himmleresque head of the Population Control Police. Every couple is allowed one child and that’s it. When Karen gets pregnant a second time, she is determined to have the baby. She and Alan know that their only hope is to cross the border into Canada. Helping them is a retired U.S. Senator (Van Heflin, in his final performance) who is opposed to the government’s policies. Caught in the middle of Karen’s brother, Howard (Harry Guardino). Howard works for the Population Control Police and he knows just how far Barstow is willing to go to keep Karen from having her baby.

The Last Child opens with a title card informing us that the film takes place in the “not-too-distant future.” Along with all of the propaganda posters, that’s the only real sign that this film is meant to be taking place in the future. There’s no “futuristic” technology. Everyone dresses in the latest 1971 fashions. Everyone drives the latest 1971 automobiles. Though the decision may have been motivated by the film’s low-budget, the lack of the typical sci-fi trappings serves the film well. The Last Child does not take place in a sleekly designed future and it doesn’t takes place in an apocalyptic wasteland. Instead, it takes place in a world that is just as shabby as you would expect a world controlled and decorated by a government bureaucracy to be. It’s a gray dystopia, populated by people who have given up their individuality. It’s a world that’s visually boring by design and that makes it all the more disturbing.

The Last Child is an effective and well-acted film. It probably feels more plausible today than it did when it aired back in 1971. In many ways, with its portrait of unfeeling government officials and bland authoritarianism, it’s the perfect film for the age of COVID. Indeed, the government’s policy of refusing to provide life-saving care for people over the age of 65 is reminiscent of what many pundits advocated for at the height of the COVID pandemic. As for the film’s one child policy, that too is a concept that has become recently popular with many American academics. Among many members of the so-called “elites,” there’s a definite need to try to control people and that very real need is what makes The Last Child so disturbingly plausible. In The Last Child, sanctuary is found in Canada. Today, of course, Canada is at the forefront of the euthanasia trend. Of course, in 1971, the Prime Minister of Canada was Pierre Trudeau and not Justin.

Pierre Trudeau’s personal motto was “Reason before passion” and that’s certainly the philosophy that fuels the dystopian society at the center of The Last Child. It’s a film that holds up today as both a thriller and a prophecy,

International Horror Review: The City of the Dead (dir by John Llewellyn Moxey)

Posted on October 9, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The City of the Dead, a 1960 British horror film that is also known as Horror Hotel, takes place in the town of Whitewood, Massachusetts. (Though it takes place in America, this is a very British film, from the cast to the sensibility.)

Like most small New England towns (or, at the very least, the type of small New England towns that show up in movies like this), Whitewood has been around forever. And it apparently has quite a history, especially where witches and devil worshipers are concerned! In the 17th century, a witch was burned at the stake. Rumor has it that, before she died, she sold her soul to the devil. As long as she arranges for two virgin sacrifices a year, the spirit of the witch can torment Whitewood for as long as she likes.

Fortunately, a virgin has just arrived in town! Nan Barlow (Venetia Stevenson) is doing a term paper on the history of witchcraft and her very helpful professor, Alan Driscoll (played by the man himself, Christopher Lee), suggested that maybe Nan should visit town and stay at the Raven’s Inn.

As soon as Nan arrives, it becomes obvious to her that there’s something strange about Whitewood. All of the people are so strange and secretive and the streets always seem to be covered in fog. As Nan starts to do her research, she discovers that it will soon be time for the first annual sacrifice. The sacrifice is meant to happen at “The Hour of 13.” What does that mean? Why not go into the basement of the inn and search for some clues….

When Nan never returns from Whitewood, her brother, Dick (Denis Lotis), teams up with her fiance, Bill (Tom Naylor), and they head up to town to investigate. Once Dick arrives in town, he meets Whitewood’s only seemingly normal inhabitant, Pat (Bella St. John). Pat, who had previously befriended Nan and is the daughter of the local (and apparently quite ineffectual) reverend, agrees to help them in their search. Of course, Pat is also apparently the only virgin left in Massachusetts and the time for the second sacrifice is approaching….

Though set in America, The City of the Dead was produced in the UK and features British actors, all of whom do a fairly good job of sounding like natives of New England. (Much like would happen later with the Italian zombie and cannibal films, this very British film was still made with the a focus on appealing to an American audience.) This deliberately paced film is a masterpiece of mood and menace. Director John Llewellyn Moxey emphasizes atmosphere over jump-scares and the black-and-white cinematography gives the entire film a gothic, dream-like feel. Though he’s not in the film as much as you might expect, Christopher Lee still makes the most of his scenes as Prof. Driscoll and the film’s fiery finale definitely makes an impression.

The City of the Dead is one of those films that, because it has fallen into the public domain, is very easy to find. (It seems to get included in every “50-DVD” box set released by Mill Creek.) It also plays frequently on TCM so keep an eye out for it!

Horror on the Lens: The Night Stalker (dir by John Llewelyn Moxey)

Posted on October 7, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

For today’s horror on the lens, we have a real treat! (We’ll get to the tricks later…)

Anyway, The Night Stalker is an effective little vampire movie and Darren McGavin gives a great performance as Carl Kolchak.

Enjoy!

Horror on The Lens: Where Have All The People Gone? (dir by John Llewellyn Moxey)

Posted on October 3, 2020 by Lisa Marie Bowman

For today’s horror on the lens, we have a 1974 made-for-TV movie about what happens when a family comes down from the mountains and discovers that everyone’s disappeared.

“Where have all the people gone!?” is the obvious question and it’s also the title of this film. Our own Jedadiah Leland reviewed this movie back in March and he described it as being “effectively creepy.” I watched it with my friends in the Late Night Movie Gang a few months later and we described as being perhaps the best Peter Graves film we had seen since we watched that one where everyone was a clone.

So, after those recommendations, how can you not watch Where Have All The People Gone?

Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39GjSbiMzXY&t=1s

The Bounty Man (1972, directed by John Llewellyn Moxey)

Posted on July 27, 2020 by Jedadiah Leland

Kinkaid (Clint Walker) is a bounty hunter in the old west who doesn’t have time for sentiment or friendship. All he cares about is the money that his next bounty is going to bring in. When he captures outlaw Billy Riddle (John Ericson), it should be a cool $5,000 payday. The only problem is that Billy’s girlfriend, a prostitute named Mae (Margot Kidder), insists on accompanying Kinkaid while he takes Billy to jail. Though she initially conspires to help Billy escape, Mae soon starts to fall for the outwardly unemotional Kinkaid, especially when she discovers the details of his tragic backstory. (Every bounty hunter has one!)

However, the three of them soon run into another problem. Angus Keogh (Richard Basehart) and his gang have decided that they want to collect the bounty for themselves. Kinkaid, Billy, and Mae find themselves trapped in a canyon, under siege and with no food or water. The three of them will have to work together to survive but can they trust one another?

The Bounty Man was a made-for-TV western and it feels like it was originally mean to be a pilot. There’s not really much to the story, beyond establishing Kinkaid and Mae as characters who could potentially have a new adventure every week. I did like the performance of Richard Basehart, especially in the scene where he taunts the trapped Kinkaid by demonstrating that he has so much water that he can pour it out of his canteen without having to worry about running out. Basehart was a good villain and Walker was a believable hero, even if the character wasn’t very interesting. Margot Kidder, not surprisingly, is the best thing about the film. Mae is stock role, the prostitute with a heart of gold, but Kidder brings a lot of life to the part.

The Bounty Man was one of many TV movies directed by John Llewelleyn Moxey. He does a good job moving the action along. The Bounty Man is a quick, 70-minute diversion for undemanding western fans.