By the time Death Stalk (1975) got around to any details that interested me, I was already washed down the white-water rapids without it. Normally, a movie starts out strong, then poops out. Here, though, the beginning is so grating that any subsequent redeeming qualities are too little, too late. Overall, it’s not bad. However,…

With each name in the credits, my anticipation grew… Written by Robert Bloch, directed by Curtis Harrington, starring Ray Milland… I was about to watch another terrific TV movie like The Cat Creature (1973), an homage to classic horror of days gone by. Sadly, that didn’t happen, and it’s not just because it wasn’t what…

Within the last thirty years just off the east coast of the United States, more than a thousand men, women and children have vanished from the face of the earth. No one knows how. Or why. This is one explanation… Now comes the time for another 1970s occult subject: the Bermuda Triangle. We’ve seen TV…

It hasn’t been a very good week for my memory. Not only did I forget about the career of singer Jack Jones (click here to read my review of The Comeback), but I also didn’t realize that Reflections of Murder (1974) is a remake of Les Diabolique (1955.) That’s even after acknowledging the opening credit,…

All the Kind Strangers (1974) starts incredibly strong and, sustained by a terrific performance from Stacy Keach, feels at times more like a theatrical film than it does a television movie. However, by the time John Savage is taking a contemplative stroll in the woods with a painful song by Robby Benson playing in the…

Imagine an episode of The Love Boat where the three couples of that week’s story are murdered one by one. It won’t make Death Cruise (1974) any better or worse, but it makes it a little more fun than it already is. It’s an easy-breezy mystery with familiar faces (and voices, if you’re watching the…

There’s nothing particularly unique about Bad Ronald (1974), except for one thing: it works. I’m not sure I can pinpoint why, but it simply has all the right stuff. It’s a case of the sum being more than the individual parts. When I learned that the director, Buzz Kulik, also made Brian’s Song (1971), I…

Who says you don’t learn anything from movies, especially 1970’s TV movies? Did you know it’s apparently “against regulations” to bring a basket full of snakes onto a U.S Navy submarine? Yes, before there were mother f-ing snakes on a mother f-ing plane, there were gosh-darned snakes on a gosh-darned submarine. The movie is named…

On a Sunday in August, the Anders family is in the hills outside Rainbow, California when there’s a flash of bright light followed by an earthquake. Mrs. Anders (Jay W. MacIntosh) has just departed for the airport due to a pressing work commitment. Father Steven (Peter Graves), son David (George O’Hanlon Jr.), and daughter Deborah…

Talk about a coincidence! Susan Davis (Cloris Leachman) is chosen for the jury in a murder trial in which her husband is the real killer. This isn’t a spoiler, the revelation comes early… for us, that is. The fun of the Death Sentence (1974) is in Leachman’s performance as Susan gradually becomes suspicious of her…