Weekend Of Terror (1970)

Director: Jud Taylor

Writer: Lionel E. Siegel

Producer: Joel Freeman

Music: Richard Markowitz

Cinematographer: Les Shorr

Original Air Date: December 8, 1970 on ABC (Douglas S. Cramer - Executive in Charge); 74 min

Cast:

Robert Conrad (Eddie), Carol Lynley (Sister Meredith), Lee Majors (Larry), Lois Nettleton (Sister Ellen), Jane Wyatt (Sister Frances), Kevin Hagen (Lieutenant Papich), Tod Andrews (Wedemeyer), Gregory Sierra (Police Sergeant), Ann Doran (Sister Nadine)

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A kidnapped woman accidentally dies while in custody of her captors. The crooks Eddie and Larry decide to kidnap another woman, and make her up to appear as the first girl just long enough for them to grab the loot and take off. Complications occur when they abduct a carload of nuns to carry out this plot.

That synopsis could very easily be played as a comedy. There is an amusing moment, for instance, when the nuns' car breaks down in the desert. Sister Ellen (the only one dressed incognito) is under the hood, assessing the damage, when Eddie spots her, pulls over and offers to take the woman to his place nearby to call for help. This generous notion is of course a ruse to lure her into being the intended replacement girl for the ransom money. However, once the hood of the car comes down, only then does Eddie notice that Ellen has company. The two nuns wave at him, and he politely waves back!

Even though the crooks are bungling idiots, there is little levity here. We still fear for the women's safety, because we know from the start how dangerous these men are- especially Eddie, whose coiled body language suggests that he could erupt into violence at any provocation, and whose eyes suggest a psychosexual yearning behind it.

The two kidnappers are the classical pair of crooks: Eddie the leader, is the strategist and the more physical; and Larry, the underling, is passive and slightly more empathic. The three nuns are also well-drawn characters: Sister Frances is the matronly head of the group; Sister Meredith is the youngest and most vulnerable; Sister Ellen perhaps the most street smart. The latter becomes the central character. Sister Ellen had previously left the sisterhood over matters of faith. In the beginning of the movie, she re-unites with the other two sisters at the bus stop, to be brought back to the church. (This is why we see her dressed like she came from a Tammy Wynette concert, instead of in a black robe.) Lois Nettleton does very good work in the role, as Ellen is taken to question matters of faith and forgiveness once again when she is selected to pose as the previously kidnapped girl.

Refreshingly, the nuns are revealed as far from the helpless victims usually prescribed in these "women in peril" scenarios. This feisty group constantly dreams up means of escape, or ways to make their captors turn against either. This movie belongs in select group of TV-movies produced for ABC at the time (including Five Desperate Women and Wild Women) in which a group of females overcome male adversity.

If Steve Austin didn't become The Six Million Dollar Man, he could've still done adult films.

Sister Ellen once again is taken to question her faith.

There are no extraneous, needless scenes of melodrama in this lean suspenser. The characterizations are instead economically revealed through the plot. The exciting sequence where Eddie's elaborate ransom plot is set into motion, at once reveals his character's matter-of-fact businesslike acumen to his scheme, and the sadistic pleasure he garners from the cat and mouse game he plays with the late kidnapped girl's father.

The film works best when focusing on the dynamic between the nuns and their abductors. Some of that intensity is lost when the police later get involved. It's still very entertaining to watch- just that by then, the interesting characters are secondary to the exposition, as the story builds to a big chase climax. But get a load of who's playing the police officers: Gregory Sierra (Julio from "Sanford and Son") and Kevin Hagen, who played the doctor in "Little House on the Prairie"!

Weekend of Terror is a solid thriller: a good example of how those no-frills seventy-odd-minute made-for-TV movies moved. This one is proof positive that less is more: you can still tell a story, deliver the thrills and have three-dimensional characters in a shorter format, and in some cases better than a longer-running theatrical feature.

Murder on Flight 502 (1975)

Director: George McCowan

Writer: David P. Harmon

Producer: David Chasman

Music: Laurence Rosenthal

Cinematographer: Arch Dalzell

Original Air Date: Nov. 21, 1975 on ABC (Aaron Spelling & Leonard Goldberg - executive producers); 97 min

Cast:

Ralph Bellamy (Dr. Kenyon Walker), Polly Bergen (Mona Briarly), Theodore Bikel (Otto Gruenwaldt), Sonny Bono (Jack Marshall), Dane Clark (Ray Garwood), Laraine Day (Claire Garwood), Fernando Lamas (Paul Barons), George Maharis (Robert Davenport) Farrah Fawcett-Majors (Karen White), Hugh O'Brian (Detective Daniel Myerson),  Molly Picon (Ida Goldman), Walter Pidgeon (Charlie Parkins), Robert Stack (Captain Larkin), Brooke Adams (Vera Franklin),  Danny Bonaduce (Millard Kensington)

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The chief of airport security receives a letter in the first class lounge that someone on Flight 502 is going to be murdered, yet the plane is already in the air on its Transatlantic trip to England. The gruff airplane captain teams up with a dorky police officer (en route to extradite a criminal from Scotland Yard) to figure out who the culprit and intended victim is among the passengers in the first class section. While Murder on Flight 502 is more of a mystery-thriller, it resembles the structure of the disaster movie cycle, which was so popular at the time this was produced. We view an eclectic bunch of characters all coming together in one fixed location, and learn about all of their problems before the central crisis makes itself known. The one comforting aspect about watching these people is that, yes, rich folks are just as miserable as we are!

Yes, there's a doctor on the plane.

Because these ensemble disaster-themed pictures adhere to a strict formula, their success more depends upon the details. In this mini-epic for the small screen, there is indeed a colourful bunch to spend ninety minutes with: a boozy mystery writer; a Latin lover who may also be a master criminal; a married couple grieving over the death of her daughter; a stereotypical old Jewish lady; a terminally ill old man; a vengeful widower whose wife died in the emergency ward.... and yes, there is a doctor on board too! There is even Danny Bonaduce as a little prankster, plus Farrah Fawcett and Brooke Adams as dizzy stewardesses (and check out the groovy striped uniforms they wear-- things sure have changed). Best of all, though, is Sonny Bono, more or less playing himself, as an over-the-hill rock star attempting to make a comeback. All that's missing is a guitar-playing nun. 

Even the flight personnel are allowed their quirks. Robert Stack's flight captain is so dedicated to his job, that the role borders upon parody (this film may have prompted the makers of Airplane! to cast the actor in a similar character). And in addition to sweating out on the ground, the chief of security is also griping about his ulcer that won't go away.

I kept waiting for Robert Stack to ask Danny Bonaduce:
"Do you like movies about gladiators"?

In addition to the character's quirks, veteran TV writer David Harmon's script gives these people enough backstory to make most of them culpable, so that one is kept guessing throughout who the villain is. Director George McCowan is no auteur, but a capable filmmaker who knows who to make this thing move. The camera constantly prowls through the jet's interior, so much that the impressive set design (displaying two floors of the plane) calls attention to itself. The "exterior" shots of the jet are obvious miniatures, but since things are kept moving, one can willfully give in to the illusion of moviemaking. As a result this programmer is tremendous fun.

Hugh O'Brian and Farrah wonder who the killer is.

For a 90-minute timeslot, a lot of care went in to making this product shine. The unusually large cast of veterans acquit themselves well with refreshingly three-dimensional roles, and the entire tone of the picture is just tongue-and-cheek enough- not to drown the suspense, but to inform us that the people involved are having as much fun as we are. 

Yes, they really made him say: "The beat goes on."

Because Murder in Flight 502 has fallen into the public domain, it is widely available on numerous cheapo DVDs- even old VHS copies are still likely to turn up. As a purchase from the ninety-nine-cent bin, you can't go far wrong with this little gem.

Below is a gallery of video box art, which samples the numerous different releases of this film on budget labels.

Congratulations, It's A Boy (1971)

Director: Wiliam A. Graham

Screenplay: Stanley Z. Cherry

Producer: Aaron Spelling

Music: Richard Baskin, Basil Poledouris

Cinematography: Arch Dalzell

Original Air Date: Sept. 21, 1971 on ABC (73 min.)

Cast:
Bill Bixby (Johnny Gaines), Diane Baker (Eydie), Karen Jensen (Rhonda Lewis), Jack Albertson (Al Gaines), Ann Sothern (Ethel Gaines), Darrell Larson (B.J.), Jeff Donnell (Rose), Robert H. Harris (Tom), Tom Bosley (Herb)

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TV fans who remember Bill Bixby as the mild-mannered David Banner in the series The Incredible Hulk would be amused to see his work here as Johnny Gaines, a narcissistic 37 year-old swinging bachelor (dig those red shades!), whose womanizing ways are taken to task when a young man claiming to be his 18-year-old son comes knocking on his door.

In this amusing low-key comedy, the arrival of his long-lost son B.J. (brightly played by Darrell Larson in his debut) indirectly forces Johnny to confront a lot of ugly truths about his own life, not least the revolving doors of strange women parading through his groovy pad. In fact, B.J. is more responsible, and yes, adult than his estranged father.  At heart, Johnny is still a boy: this spoiled manchild largely gets whatever he wants, thanks to the money train from his parents' garment business. However, as the film progresses, he realizes far too late that the things he most needs have eluded him.

Diane Baker is excellent as Eydie, his co-worker, and girlfriend (well, his most stable female relationship, anyway), who somehow tolerates his lifestyle, yet only to a point, and decides she isn't going to wait forever for her man to grow up. Acting honours also go to Jack Albertson and Ann Sothern, who steal the film as Johnny's smothering parents. The comedy highpoint arrives when their suspicions that their son might be "like that interior decorator" because he is still unmarried in his thirties, are confirmed when Johnny shows up at their door with a man (unbeknownst to them he is their grandson). In this politically correct age, this subplot may seem insensitive, but the humour works because we're laughing at the old generation's clichéd perceptions of homosexuality.

During the climax, when Johnny loses all the people who represent some kind of stability in his life, and goes berserk, I kept waiting for his eyes to turn white, and his pinstriped suits to burst open, with big green muscles bursting through the seams... (sorry).  However, this fun film is above the usual sitcom level because this features three-dimensional characters, many of whom are seen at their best and their worst. Congratulations, It's A Boy could be seen as the antithesis to Bill Bixby's series, The Courtship of Eddie's Father, which was airing at the time this film debuted. But despite that Johnny Gaines' character is more abrasive, the movie shares a common theme with that show: a child has to lead a man through the world.