Retro Television Reviews: The Failing of Raymond (dir by Boris Sagal)

Posted on October 15, 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 Sundays, I will be reviewing the made-for-television movies that used to be a primetime mainstay. Today’s film is 1971’s The Failing of Raymond! It can be viewed on YouTube!

Poor Raymond!

Played by a young Dean Stockwell, Raymond is patient at a mental hospital who blames everything that has gone wrong on his life on one failed test. During his senior year of high school, he got a 61 on an English test and, as a result, he not only only failed the class but he also wasn’t allowed to graduate. The test was administered by a substitute teacher named Mary Bloomquist (Jane Wyman), one who did not know that Raymond had a reputation for being a bit eccentric. When Raymond tried to ask her whether or not the final two questions were for extra credit, Mary refused to call on him because she was more preoccupied with her failed affair with another teacher (Dana Andrews). Raymond didn’t answer the final two questions, even though he believed that he had the correct answers. Now, locked away in a hospital, Raymond comes across an article announcing that beloved teacher Mary Bloomquist will soon be retiring and moving to England.

Seeking revenge, Raymond escapes from the hospital. While police Sgt. Manzek (Murray Hamilton) search for Raymond, Raymond returns to his old school. When he finds Mary in her classroom, Mary mistakes Raymond for a mover responding to a classified ad asking for help in getting all of her things packed up. Raymond may be a homicidal but he also craves direction and praise so he helps Mary with her packing. As he packs, Mary talks about her decision to retire and it turns out that she’s not quite the monster that Raymond imagined her to be. Mary is retiring because she feels that she has never made a difference as a teacher.

That said, Raymond is still determined to get his revenge. He wants Mary to give him the test a second time and to give him a passing grade. And if she doesn’t, he’s prepared to kill her. Unfortunately, despite claiming to have spent years studying the material, Raymond still thinks that Robert Browning wrote the Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner.…

As the old saying goes, you never know how much your actions might effect someone else’s life. Mary is a dedicated and well-meaning teacher who cares about her students but her decision to fail Raymond, made on a day when she was distracted by her own personal problems, is something that Raymond has never forgotten or forgiven. Mary can barely remember it happening but Raymond has based his entire life around that moment and, as the film progresses, it becomes clear that he’s incapable of understanding that the entire world doesn’t revolve around what happened to him during his senior year. On the one hand, Mary definitely should have answered Raymond’s question about whether or not the final two questions were multiple choice. On the other hand, Raymond has clearly been using the incident as an excuse to justify every mistake that he’s made sense. Ironically, Raymond’s quest for revenge gives Mary the chance to finally be the teacher that she truly wants to be.

It’s an intriguing premise. Unfortunately, like so many made-for-TV movies from the early 70s, The Failing of Raymond is occasionally a bit too stagey for its own good. Despite only being 73 minutes long, it never really develops any sort of narrative momentum. That said, Dean Stockwell gives a performance that makes clear why Alfred Hitchcock was planning on casting him as Norman Bates if Anthony Perkins somehow fell through. As played by Stockwell, Raymond is unfailingly polite and so obviously wounded that it’s impossible not to feel sympathy for him, even when he’s threatening to kill his former teacher. Jane Wyman, as well, gives a sympathetic performance as Mary, who, despite that one bad day with Raymond, really is the type of teacher we all wish we could have had.

This film was directed by Boris Sagal, who did several made-for-TV movies and also directed Charlton Heston in The Omega Man. His daughter, Katey Sagal, makes her film debut in a small role as one of Raymond’s fellow patients.

Horror Scenes That I Love: Piper Laurie in Carrie

Posted on October 15, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

So far, this month, I’ve been doing these horror scenes that I love in alphabetical order based on who was featured in the scene. Originally, today was going to be devoted to Boris Karloff but, last night, I read the news that the great Piper Laurie had passed away at the age of 91.

Have no doubt that Boris Karloff will be honored tomorrow but, for today, I would be remiss if I didn’t pay tribute to Piper Laurie. Piper Laurie often said that, when she read the script for 1976’s Carrie, she at first didn’t understand the story’s tone until she realized that Margaret White was meant to be as comedic as she was frightening. Piper Laure’s performance as Carrie’s mother resulted in an Oscar nomination and it also revived Laurie’s career. (Laurie had semi-retired from Hollywood following her previously Oscar-nominated work in The Hustler.)

In the scene below, Margaret makes one last attempt to keep Carrie from going to the prom. Her line, “They’re all going to laugh at you” comes back to haunt Carrie in a very big way.

One final bit of Piper Laurie horror trivia: In 1959, when Alfred Hitchcock was casting Psycho, Piper Laurie was his second choice, behind Janet Leigh, for the role of Marion Crane.

October True Crime: Winter of Frozen Dreams (dir by Eric Mandlebaum)

Posted on October 15, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The 2009 film, Winter of Frozen Dreams, opens with a young woman named Barbara Hoffman (Thora Birch) in a Wisconsin courtroom in 1980. She is on trial, having been accused of committing two murders. The jury reads their verdict and the film flashes back three years to show us how how Barbara ended up in that courtroom.

It’s a bit of an odd way to open the film, one that robs the story of any suspense. The story of Barbara Hoffman is a true one but, unlike other true crime stories, it’s not a commonly known one. I had not heard of Barbara Hoffman until I watched this film and, after the film ended, I immediately went to Google to make sure that the film was actually telling the truth when it claimed to be based on a true story. Barbara Hoffman and her trial apparently were a big deal in 1980. (Her trial was the the first murder trial to ever be televised.) But it is now so obscure that it doesn’t even have a Wikipedia entry.

As seen in the film, Barbara Hoffman was a genius. She had a 145 IQ and was the valedictorian of her high school class. She went to college to study chemistry and was doing quite well academically. However, when she got a job answering the phones in a massage parlor, she realized that she could make a lot more money as a sex worker than as a chemist. She dropped out of college before starting her final semester and went to work for a pimp named Ken Curtis (Dean Winters).

Barbara was engaged to two different men. One was Harry Berge (Dan Moran), who has a taste for bondage and being ritually humiliated. At first, his co-workers thought he was kidding when he started introducing the much younger Barbara as being his fiancée but Harry actually signed over all of his property to her and allowed Barbara to take out a life insurance policy on him.

It was Barbara’s other fiancé, a mild-mannered video clerk named Jerry Davies (Brendan Sexton III), who Barbara called on Christmas to tell him that she had discovered Harry’s dead and battered body in her bathroom. Convinced that Harry had been murdered by Ken, Jerry helped Barbara to hide the body in the Wisconsin snow. Of course, even while Jerry was helping Barbara cover up Harry’s death, Barbara was taking out a considerable life insurance policy on him.

After Jerry has an attack of conscience and leads the police to the body, it falls to the pipe-smoking Detective Lulling (Keith Carradine) and his partner (Leo Fitzpatrick) to figure out who was responsible for Harry’s murder. Lulling’s instinct is to suspect Barbara but everyone else seems to think that either Ken or Jerry is the more obvious suspect. After all, Barbara’s a genius. Why would she kill someone?

It’s an interesting story, though Winter of Frozen Dreams is never quite as compelling as one might wish. Some of that is because, despite her genius IQ, Barbara herself never becomes that interesting of a character and Thora Birch never seems to be that invested in her performance. She delivers her lines in a rather flat manner, never really showing the charisma necessary to be convincing as a real-life femme fatale. That said, you do feel sorry for the two men, especially Brendon Sexton III. And Keith Carradine and Leo Fitzpatrick make for an amusing detective team. I almost wish the two of them had starred in their own series, where they traveled the Pacific Northwest and solved small town murders.

Of course, the biggest problem with this movie is that it opens with the verdict so we already know what’s going to happen. We know who is going to die and we know what’s going to happen to Barbara as a result. There’s zero suspense as to how things are going to work out. It’s an error on the part of the filmmakers and an unfortunate one.

4 Shots From 4 Horror Films: Special Joe Dante Edition

Posted on October 15, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

4 Shots From 4 Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films lets the visuals do the talking.

This month, we’re using 4 Shots from 4 Films to honor some of our favorite horror filmmakers! Today, we honor the one and only Joe Dante!

4 Shots From 4 Joe Dante Films

Piranha (1978, dir by Joe Dante, DP: Jamie Anderson)

The Howling (1981, dir by Joe Dante, DP: John Hora)

Gremlins (1984, dir by Joe Dante, DP: John Hora)

Burying The Ex (2014, dir by Joe Dante, DP: Jonathan Hall)

Horror Film Review: The Alligator People (dir by Roy Del Ruth)

Posted on October 15, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

You know what the worst bayou is?

Bayouself.

Thank you! I’ll be here all night and don’t forget to tip your server!

Anyway, the 1959 film, The Alligator People, largely takes place in the bayous of Louisiana. Nurse Jane Marvin (Beverly Garland) is suffering from amnesia so she allows two psychiatrist to give her a dose of truth serum and then, when she’s in a hypnotized state, she proceeds to remember her former life as Joyce Webster.

Joyce married a handsome and seemingly perfect man named Paul Webster (Richard Crane) but, right when they were about to go on their honeymoon, he received a telegram that disturbed him. After he made a phone call, he vanished from Joyce’s life. Joyce did some research of her own and discovered that Paul’s former home was the Cypresses Plantation in the small town of Bayou Landing, Louisiana.

When Joyce travels down to Bayou Landing, she discovers that there’s really not much there, other than a bunch of hungry alligators. She meets the owner of the plantation, Lavinia Hawthorne (Frieda Inescort). She also meets the handyman, Manon (Lon Chaney, Jr.), a one-handed brute who spends most of his day shooting at alligators. And, eventually, Joyce comes across her husband but Paul is no longer the man that she remembers.

Paul’s skin is scaly and he only comes out at night. It turns out that Paul was, long ago, injected with a serum that would allow him to grow back a missing limb. The serum worked as far as the limb was concerned but an unfortunate side effect is that Paul is now turning into an alligator! Dr. Mark Sinclair (George Macready), the man who came up with the serum in the first place, is hopeful that he can reverse the process but, to do so, he’s going to need a lot of radioactive material.

Complicating things is that Manon has decided that he wants Joyce for himself and he’s certainly not going to compete with some alligator man for her attention. Of course, Joyce despises Manon from the first moment she sees him but Manon’s not that smart. Can Paul be cured before Manon destroys everything?

The Alligator People is one of those 1950s B-movies that is probably better-known for its name than anything else. That said, when taken on its own terms, it’s an entertaining watch. It was one of the final films to be directed by Roy Del Ruth, who had previously been one of Hollywood’s top directors of musicals and comedies. There’s not much music or deliberate comedy to be found in The Alligator People but Del Ruth does manage to capture the humid stillness of the bayous. As always, Beverly Garland gives a strong performance as a determined woman who isn’t going to be told what to do and Richard Crane is about as convincing as one can be while turning into an alligator.

As for Lon Chaney, Jr, he plays Manon as being a total monster and he gives a convincing performance, even if it is hard not to mourn the loss of the shadings that he brought to his monster roles while he was with Universal. Manon is a rough and determinedly unintelligent character, one who exists only to destroy. Significantly, he’s not one of the Alligator People. Instead, he’s just a man who doesn’t care about anyone but himself.

The Alligator People is an effective B-movie, full of a bayou atmosphere.

Horror on the Lens: The Bat (dir by Crane Wilbur)

Posted on October 15, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today’s Horror on the Lens is 1959’s The Bat. A simple case of bank embezzlement leads to a murder that may or may not be connected to a series of other murders that are apparently being committed by a mysterious killer known as “The Bat.” The Bat is said to have no face and steel claws and, needless to say, everyone in town is worried about becoming the next victim.

Who is the Bat? Is Dr. Malcolm Wells (Vincent Price), the shady scientist whose work has led to him doing experiments on bats? Is it Victor Bailey (Mike Steele), the bank clerk who is a prime suspect in the embezzlement case? Is it the butler (John Sutton) with a secret past? Could it even be one of the cops (Gavin Gordon and Robert B. Williams) who has been tasked with capturing The Bat? Can mystery novelist Cornelia van Gorder (Agnes Moorehead) solve the mystery before becoming The Bat’s next victim!?

The Bat is based on a play and it’s definitely a bit stagey but when you’ve got performers like Agnes Moorehead and Vincent Price onscreen, it really doesn’t matter. The Bat is an entertaining and atmospheric mystery, featuring a Vincent Price playing another one of his charmingly sinister cads.

Enjoy!

October Positivity: Cutback (dir by Lance Bachelder and Johnny Remo)

Posted on October 14, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

You have to feel bad for Luke (Justin Schwan).

I mean, here he is. He’s a senior in high school. He’s about to graduate. He’s also one of the best surfers on the beach. Just about everyone who sees him surf says that he should go pro. More than one person says that God has blessed Luke with amazing surfing ability and obviously, that wouldn’t happen unless Luke was actually meant to do something with that talent.

But his parents …. agck! His mother (Raquel Gardner) keeps pressuring him to go to church and to say grace before dinner and to attend youth group. She even invites the new youth pastor (Danny Smith) over to the house so that he can meet Luke. The youth pastor is so cool that his name is Pastor Shane but Luke’s really not interested in any of that.

Meanwhile, Luke’s father (Greg Carlson) is a hardass cop who is hardly ever home because, according to him, he’s got to go on a stakeout. Luke’s father has decided that Luke is going to go to college and that he’s not going to waste his time as a pro surfer. When Luke tries to argue with his dad, Luke is sent to his room and told that he is “under restriction.” Luke’s a senior in high school but his father treats him like a kid who can be ordered around. When Luke comes home from a party drunk, his father totally freaks out. His father freaks out a lot.

Luke’s closest friend is Casey Sanchez (Angel Cruz), who is a natural-born joker who keeps talking about how he’s going to learn how to surf someday. He encourages Luke to pursue his dreams. He also encourages Luke to talk to the new girl at school, Jessica (Jessie Nickson). When you’ve got a friend like Casey, what could go wrong, right? Unfortunately, Casey is killed in a tragic car accident shortly after attending Shane’s youth group and announcing that he has decided to become a Christian.

Casey’s dead and Luke no longer knows what he wants to do with his life. Jessica’s attempts to comfort him by telling him that it’s all part of a bigger plan do not provide him with much comfort. (And, to be honest, saying that God planned for Casey to die so that it can somehow benefit Luke does seem to be a bit callous.) With the try-outs coming for the national surf team, will Luke be able to get it together or will he lose the spot to his rival and frenemy, Matt McCoy (Andy Shephard)?

Though there’s nothing particularly surprising about the plot, Cutback is a likably earnest film. Justin Schwan, in particular, gives a sympathetic performance and the film captures the beauty of the beach and the ocean. If anything, it probably works better as a commercial for surfing than one for religion. In the end, Luke finds some success and he finds some peace and you’re happy for him, even if it is difficult to accept the idea that Casey had to die for him to do it.

The TSL Horror Grindhouse: Abby (dir by William Girdler)

Posted on October 14, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Some films are a hundred times more entertaining than they have any right to be and that’s certainly the case with 1974’s Abby.

A blaxploitation take on The Exorcist and Rosemary’s Baby, Abby opens with Bishop Garrett Williams (William Marshall, star of Blacula) taking a peaceful stroll with his students at seminary. Garrett talks about how he will miss them all when he is off on archeological dig in Nigeria. One of his students asks him some questions about Eshu, one of the spirits of the Yoruba religion. Bishop Williams explains that Eshu is a trickster and a force of chaos and carnal excess. Yes, the Bishop explains, he does believe that demons are real.

And indeed, no sooner has the Bishop gone to Nigeria and opened up a small puzzle box adorned with the symbols of Eshu than a demon claiming to be Eshu travels from Africa to Louisville, Kentucky. Louisville is the new home of the Bishop’s son, Reverend Emmett Williams (Terry Carter). Reverend Williams is a good and god-fearing man and his new wife, Abby (Carol Speed), is a devout Christian who sings in the choir, speaks out against drugs, and never curses. That changes, however, once the demon claiming to be Eshu gets inside of her. Soon, Abby is speaking in a very deep voice, laughing at inappropriate moments, demanding constant sex, and plunging a knife into her arm. When the now possessed Abby disappears into the sordid nightlife of Louisville, Reverend Williams and his brother-in-law, Det. Cass Potter (Austin Stoker), try to find her. Eventually, Bishop Williams joins them in their search, knowing that even if they find Abby, it will fall to him to perform the exorcism to save her life and soul.

Abby has so much in common with The Exorcist that Warner Bros. actually ended up suing the film’s producers and distributor for plagiarism. That lawsuit is one reason why it’s not particularly easy to see Abby today. Indeed, I had to resort to watching a washed-out upload on YouTube. Of course, Abby was hardly the first or the last film to rip off The Exorcist. Almost every horror released in the wake of William Friedkin’s classic shocker owes something to The Exorcist. Abby, however, was one of the more finanically successful rip-offs of the film, or at least it was until the lawsuit led to it being removed from theaters. It’s unfortunate that Abby is so difficult to see because it’s actually one of the more entertaining Exorcist rip-offs out there.

A lot of that is due to the confrontation between the dignified and stately William Marshall and the far more hyperactive Carol Speed. Carol Speed gives a performance of amazing energy, whether she’s happily cackling after a woman drops dead of a heart attack or if she’s kicking her husband in the groin. Carol Speed holds nothing back and basically tears through every scene like a force of uncontrollable nature. She provides the perfect counterbalance to Marshall’s more measured performance as the Bishop. Marshall delivers his lines with such authority and conviction that the viewer has no doubt he could probably scare the devil out of everyone. Carol Speed, meanwhile, is so good at playing wild that the viewer wonders how, even if they can get Eshu out of here, Abby will ever be able to go back to being a demure preacher’s wife. Setting Marshall and Speed loose in the seedy nightclubs of Loiusville leads to an occasionally horrific, occasionally silly, but always entertaining between good and evil.

Abby is an entertaining horror film. It’s just unfortunate that we will probably never get to see a good print of it. But then again, maybe that’s for the best. The graininess of the version that I saw actually added to the experience of watching the film. It made me feel like I was in some small theater in the middle of nowhere, watching a print of the film that had taken a long and difficult journey just so it could be seen and appreciated.

Horror Scenes That I Love: Duane Jones in Night of The Living Dead

Posted on October 14, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

I always feel a bit sorry for Duane Jones, a talented actor who did much of note but still found himself defined by one iconic role.

He studied at the Sorbonne and had degrees from both the University of Philadelphia and New York University. He volunteered with the Peace Corps. and was working as an English teacher when he auditioned for a film called Night of the Living Dead. At a time when it was rare for any black actor (outside of Sidney Poitier, who certainly wasn’t going to appear in a low-budget film about the dead returning to life) to get a lead role, Duane Jones was given the starring role as Ben. Jones gave a performance of such authenticity and authority that it would be years before many people were willing to admit that Ben had actually been incorrect about not going in the cellar. Jones final scenes, in which Ben is gunned down by a posse of rednecks, gave Night of the Living Dead a political jolt that it would not have had without him and his powerful performance.

Jones acted in other films, including starring in another acclaimed horror film, Ganja and Hess. But he reportedly always worried that people would only know him as Ben from Night of the Living Dead. Even while acting, Jones continued to work as an academic, heading up the literature department at Antioch College and working as the executive director of the Black Theater Alliance. He was also an in-demand acting teacher. He passed away at the far-too early age of 51 in 1988.

In this scene, from Night of the Living Dead, Ben talks to the catatonic Barbara about what is happening in the outside world. Jones’s intensity brings the scene to life and gives Night of the Living Dead the momentum to continue to enthrall audiences to this day.