It had been a long time since I watched Duel (1971) and I forgot what an incredible movie it is, made for television or not. During this viewing, I paid more attention than I have in the past to how the direction, cinematography, and music contribute to the suspense. Make no mistake; every bit of…

Although parts of Paper Man (1971) are dated, the overall premise is as relevant as ever. Simply substitute artificial intelligence for old-fashioned computer coding, and the resulting creation of a virtual human that doesn’t physically exist, is a compelling, sometimes frightening, concept for a movie. What a 1971 TV-movie like this one mixes into the…

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a new leader of the pack for my favorite 1970s TV horror film: Revenge! We’re only up to the end of 1971, and there are eight more years to go, but it’s going to take a lot to top this one. From cast to script to direction to music, Revenge!…

Fans of the vintage television sitcom, I Dream of Jeannie (1965-70), would have been thrilled a year later when its stars, Barbara Eden and Larry Hagman, reunited in the TV movie, A Howling in the Woods (1971.) Hagman brings his comedic charms with him, but there’s really not much chemistry between him and Eden. That…

Murder Once Removed (1971) demonstrates why you should never be friends with your doctor. Frank Manning (Richard Kiley) and Dr. Ron Wellesley (John Forsythe) frequent the same parties and are golf buddies, although Manning is blackmailing Wellesley, and Wellesley is plotting to kill Manning. These aren’t spoilers; the movie is not a whodunit, or even…

If A Taste of Evil (1971) feels familiar, and the fact that it was written by Jimmy Sangster excites you, then you may or may not quickly put two and two together. For all intents and purposes, it’s a remake of Hammer’s 1961 thriller, Scream of Fear (aka Taste of Fear.) Sangster has admitted as…

Sweet, Sweet Rachel (1971) earns points for its atmosphere and style; but, it unfortunately loses a larger number of points for its convoluted and nonsensical plot. I wanted so much to love it and had been looking forward to its arrival in the chronological order in which this series has been traveling. After watching it,…

Out of five desperate women, I’d rate this one… three desperate women. Technically, they don’t become desperate until one of them is dead, leaving only four desperate women. Then, the volume of desperation in their situation is so low that I’d subtract one desperate woman. But, hey, it’s a great title for the next movie…

Had I known the pedigree of Terror in the Sky (1971), I probably wouldn’t have watched it at this point in time. Its genesis was a 1956 Canadian TV movie called, Flight Into Danger, written by Arthur Hailey (Airport.) A year later, Hollywood remade it as Zero Hour! A year later, Hailey turned it into…

Although I cannot verify it in my research, I’d bet good money that Escape (1971) was the pilot for a television series. The concept is both a good and a bad one. The good is that a weekly series about the James Bond of escape artists could be fun. The bad is that for Cameron…