Thursday, October 22, 2015

Move Over Kolchak for "The Norliss Tapes"

A more serious version of The Night Stalker (1972), The Norliss Tapes (1973) featured Roy Thinnes as an author who becomes an investigator of supernatural phenomena. In the film's opening scenes, David Norliss (Thinnes) confides to his publisher that his book debunking fake spiritualists has taken a different turn. When Norliss suddenly disappears, his publisher discovers a set of tapes in the writer's home. The plot unfolds as Norliss' publisher listens to his tapes.

On advice from her sister, Ellen Cort (Angie Dickinson) seeks out Norliss when her recently-deceased husband shows up in his art studio, takes a blast from a shotgun, and vanishes. Ellen reveals that her husband, sculptor James Raymond Cort, died from Pick's Disease (a brain disorder). Shortly before his death, he became obsessed with the occult and befriended an antiques shop owner who gave him a scarab ring symbolizing the Egyptian god Osiris. With ashen skin and glowing eyes, Cort is definitely dead--but that hasn't stopped him from working on an unusual statue molded from red clay.

The creepy dead husband.
Producer-director Dan Curtis follows the same general premise as his earlier made-for-TV films The Night Stalker (1972) and its sequel The Night Strangler (1973). The difference is that Darren McGavin played Kolchak, the investigate journalist in those films, with a dash of humor--thus balancing the chills with levity. With The Norliss Tapes, Curtis clearly intended to make a straightforward fright film--and he largely succeeds. His film evokes an eerie atmosphere, enhanced by the scenic Carmel coastline with its winding roads. There are some genuine shocks, too, such as when Cort's creepy face pops up at a window when the curtain is brushed aside.

Roy Thinnes, less frantic here than in The Invaders, makes a believable hero. Angie Dickinson lends some class to the proceedings and Vonetta McGee proves once again that she deserved a better career.

The Norliss Tapes also served as a pilot for a TV series, though NBC passed on it. Interestingly, Dan Curtis filmed an earlier pilot, back in 1969, about another investigator who specialized in cases involving the supernatural. Kerwin Matthews starred in In the Dead of the Night, which ABC broadcast as a 60-minute TV movie called Dead of Night: A Darkness in Blaisedon.

Contrary to popular opinion, Dan Curtis was not involved in the original Kolchak TV series. He did serve as an executive producer for the 2005 revival, Night Stalker, starring Stuart Townsend as Kolchak.

8 comments:

  1. I became a fan of Roy Thinnes when I saw "The Invaders" but this is a work I don't know anything about. Thanks for your post, Rick. It is always fun to learn about new films, even when 43 years have passed since they came out!

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    1. Roy Thinnes was very good in THE INVADERS. I think NORLISS TAPES would have been a fun series, but likely one with a short lifespan.

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  2. I don't recall this, but will try catch up with it before Hallowe'en as I did with the two Kolchak movies recently.

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  3. The producer partially blamed Thiness for Invaders' failure. Thought he came across as arrogant in a role that obviously needed him to enlist as many sympathies as possible. Hitchcock fired him from Family Plot.

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    1. Interesting, because I never thought of the David Vincent character as arrogant. I liked THE INVADERS a lot but think the concept was limited from the beginning. It petered out when David became part of a large organization. It'd make a fine miniseries.

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    2. What they really wanted was another David Janssen . The Invaders had the Fugitive's producer, network, time slot. The Invaders did wring a lot of variations out of the format, tho.

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  4. Were The Norliss Tapes the forerunner of "found footage" films? The premise was interesting though I agree it probably wouldn't have been a long runner. In some ways similar to Roddenberry's Spectre. Thinnes would also star in The Horror at 37,000 Feet -- certainly giving the Devil more than his due.

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    1. The "found footage" angle is an interesting one and I suppose one could say it was. I reviewed SPECTRE for this blog; I think it's even better and would have been a pretty good series.

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