In Hitchhike! (1974), Cloris Leachman, who’s been so good in several TV movies we’ve discussed in this series, plays Claire Stevens, a woman on the run from someone or something, who picks up Keith Miles (Michael Brandon) beside the road on a rainy drive from Los Angeles to San Francisco. Made in the 1970s, you…

Mousey (1974) doesn’t feel like a made-for-television movie. In fact, it was released theatrically in the UK, Australia, Italy, and Denmark, where it was known as Cat & Mouse. I couldn’t find much about its origins, but there’s got to be a story to explain the melting pot of production contributors. It’s a joint US/UK…

As often as we see movies about disasters in big cities like Los Angeles and New York City, The Day the Earth Moved (1974) reminds us that earthquakes can also strike in small towns like Bates, Nevada. Sure, the stakes aren’t as high… there just aren’t as many people in danger. Plus, there aren’t many…

There’s a reason Locusts (1974) is not included as one of the “Television Fright Films of the 1970” in my bible for this series, the book by David Deal. Don’t let the IMDb category fool you; it’s not a horror film. Instead, it’s strictly a drama where turmoil in the family causes a bigger threat…

The tagline for Panic on the 5:22 reads, “They can’t let anyone off this train alive!” That’s how I felt watching the movie. It’s dumb, noisy, and annoying. And it arrivesd on the small screen about a month after The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3 hit the big screen. Similar story… dissimilar results. I will geek-out…

If you grew up in the 1970s, you knew ABC news anchor Howard K. Smith. If you watch Trapped Beneath the Sea (1974) today and hear his familiar voice narrating the movie, a wave of nostalgia will wash over you. It reinforces the fact that it’s based on a true story as well as lends…

When we discussed Scream & Scream Again (1970) on The Classic Horrors Club Podcast, We mentioned that director Gordon Hessler always seemed to get the short end of the stick, either filling in at the last minute, or being restricted by contract. After making The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973), he directed several TV movies…

Lane Slate wrote some of the TV movies in this series that I’ve rated highly, such as Isn’t It Shocking? (1973) and The Strange & Deadly Occurrence (1974.) Plus, he wrote a theatrical favorite, The Car (1977.) Richard A. Colla directed one of the best TV movies in this series, The UFO Incident (1975), as…

The most frightening moment in The Missing Are Deadly (1975) comes when Dr.. Margolin (Ed Nelson) tells a member of the press that a pandemic is “a very real possibility that no one thinks about.” Been there; done that. It’s intriguing, but is unfortunately only a footnote to the story. Here, the authorities seem prepared…

Imagine it’s late one Friday night in 1975. You’re leaning back in your recliner, the living room lit only by the glow of your television. On comes ABC’s The Wide World of Mystery, which resides under the umbrella of ABC’s Wide World of Entertainment, the network’s effort to compete with The Tonight Show on NBC.…