What are the chances that either screenwriter Bill Lancaster or director John Carpenter were inspired by a 1973 TV movie called, A Cold Night’s Death, when they made The Thing nine years later? Similarities between the two films are numerous, yet the small screen version lacks something very important that the big screen version has:…

Pursuit (1972) starts with a superimposed digital clock counting down from “zero minus 15 hours.” It doesn’t remain visible for the movie’s entire running time, but appears at key moments, especially before and after the black spaces originally filled by commercials. It’s like the gimmick of the TV series, 24 (2001-2010), minus the loud and…

Until I watched The Devil’s Daughter (1973) and did my subsequent research for it, I didn’t remember that Shelley Winters had appeared in so many 1970s TV movies. I count at least ten. Her B-movie appearances at the time in theatrical films like What’s the Matter with Helen? (1971) and Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? (1972)…

Home for the Holidays (1972) was released on VHS with one of those giant rectangular boxes. I’ll never forget its awful cover art. A mysterious figure in a yellow raincoat held a pitchfork. That was fine (and the killer’s “costume” in the actual movie is fine, as well); however, Sally Field’s head was placed right…

Beloved as it may be, part of me wishes I had left Gargoyles (1972) to live in my memory. Yes, the leader of the beasts, with Emmy award-winning makeup by Stan Winston, still looks amazing. However, I had forgotten (or didn’t notice when I last watched this as a “kid”) that he’s outnumbered three-to-one by…

Poor Artie Sawyer. Played by Andy Griffith, you know he’s a decent man. However, after losing his job and being forced to make ends meet by working as an apartment building superintendent, then having his spirit constantly crushed by his henpecking wife, Iris (Ida Lupino), he makes a big mistake when she goes out of…

The Victim (1972) is a slow burn that never even sparks. There’s absolutely no suspense in what should be an easy thriller. Kate Wainwright (Elizabeth Montgomery, in her first role following her eight-year run on Bewitched) finds her sister missing when she goes to visit her on a stormy night. There are two prime suspects…

For a small-screen survival drama, Family Flight (1972) really surprised me. I think that’s because it holds back on the melodrama and presents its content in as realistic a way as possible. Its familiar formula of introducing its dysfunctional characters, placing them together under strained circumstances, revealing secrets along the way, then providing a well-earned…

Perhaps testing an idea for its future big screen spectacle, Earthquake (1974), Universal made a small screen precursor called, Short Walk to Daylight (1972.) It’s built on a compelling concept: late-night passengers on a subway train are trapped underground when an earthquake hits New York City. Not only must they survive continuing aftershocks, but there’s…