Snack-sized Film Reviews: "Horror at 37,000 Feet" and "Ellery Queen: Don't Look Behind You"

Hey, something's wrong with this plane!

The Horror at 37,000 Feet. What can you say about a movie in which William Shatner gives the most credible performance? That’s the challenge with The Horror at 37,000 Feet, a 1973 made-for-TV film with a better reputation than it deserves. It makes one wonder if the film’s admirers have actually sat through all 73 minutes. The premise shows promise: An airplane departs London with a handful of passengers and cargo consisting of remnants from an abbey used by Druids for sacrificial rituals. It’s not long before the plane comes to a standstill mid-flight, the cabin temperature drops to icy depths, and possessed passengers start spewing Latin. The cast consists of TV veterans Chuck Connors, Buddy Ebsen, Roy Thinnes, Paul Winfield, Will Hutchins, and Shatner. They struggle with poorly-developed characters, bad dialogue, and inane plotting. At one point, Connors’ pilot copes with the situation by telling the stewardesses to offer free alcoholic beverages! Only Shatner rises above these ruins as a defrocked priest who ultimately takes matters into his own hands. My advice is to steer clear of The Horror at 37,000 Feet and seek out three other nifty made-for-TV terror tales:  Gargoyles (1972), Trilogy of Terror (1975), and Spectre (1977).

I don't think a single strand of
Lawford's hair moves during the film.

Ellery Queen: Don’t Look Behind You. Before NBC launched the popular Ellery Queen series with Jim Hutton in 1975, it made an earlier TV movie with Peter Lawford as the literary detective. Ellery Queen: Don’t Look Behind You (1971) was intended as a pilot for a prospective series that never materialized. It’s easy to see why, although it’s not a total disaster. Based on the 1949 Ellery Queen novel Cat of Many Tails, the plot revolves around a series of apparently unrelated NYC murders committed by a killer dubbed “The Hydra” by the press. The connection between the crimes is a clever one, but it’s revealed with almost half the running time remaining. Even worse, it doesn't take much deduction to figure out the killer’s identity (there are only two viable suspects and one is much too obvious). Unlike Hutton’s 1940s-set series, Don’t Look Behind You is a contemporary mystery and Ellery has been transformed into a ladies man. In lieu of his father, Inspector Queen (wonderfully played by David Wayne in Hutton’s show), Harry Morgan plays an uncle that works for the police department. Lawford and Morgan don’t really click and Stefanie Powers is wasted as a suspect that gets involved with Ellery. Although the teleplay is credited to Ted Leighton, Columbo creators William Link and Richard Levinson may have penned an earlier draft. In an interview on the Ellery Queen TV series DVD boxed set, William Link mentions working on an Ellery Queen movie. However, the script was rewritten while he and Levinson were vacationing in Europe. They had their names removed from it. Given the timing, I suspect he was referring to Ellery Queen: Don’t Look Behind You.

The 5 Best TV Series Star Replacements

When a regular leaves a TV series, the producers are left with three options: (1) write the character out of the show; (2) recast the same character with a new performer; or (3) cast a new performer as a new character. All three options have been tried—some with great success and other with disastrous results. When Dick York left Bewitched, the role of Darren was recast with Dick Sargent and the show hardly skipped a beat. In contrast, Dallas viewers never accepted Donna Reed when she replaced Barbara Bel Geddes as Miss Ellie. After a year away from Dallas, Reed was out and Bel Geddes rejoined the show. Below are the five most successful replacements of a TV series star:

1. Diana Rigg, The Avengers. British audiences loved Honor Blackman as Dr. Cathy Gale, the high-kicking partner to Patrick Macnee’s dapper gentleman investigator. When she left in 1964 after two seasons, Rigg joined the show as Mrs. Emma Peel and her chemistry with Macnee was even better. The Rigg episodes were the first ones shown in the U.S., so for many years, most American viewers didn’t even know Steed had an earlier partner (actually several…he worked with others before Cathy).

2. Peter Graves, Mission: Impossible. During the series’ first season, Steven Hill played the Impossible Mission Force’s (IMF) intense leader Dan Briggs. Hill, who was an Orthodox Jew, experienced challenges with the show’s demanding shooting schedule. He left the series and was replaced by Peter Graves, whose Jim Phelps was a more laidback IMF leader. Although the transition from Briggs to Phelps was never explained, audiences accepted Phelps immediately and Mission: Impossible continued to be a ratings hit. During its initial seven-year run, Mission: Impossible replaced numerous stars, proving that the format was what appealed most to viewers—a lesson learned later by Law and Order.

3. Harry Morgan, M*A*S*H. The role of Henry Blake, the easygoing commander of the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, propelled MacLean Stevenson to TV stardom. However, during the third season of M*A*S*H, he became dissatisfied with his amount of screen time and asked to leave the series. As a result, Henry Blake was shot down in a helicopter and eventually replaced by the much more rigid, but fatherly, Colonel Sherman T. Potter. Viewers embraced Morgan’s character quickly and M*A*S*H continued for eight more seasons. Stevenson starred in four sitcoms between 1976 and 1983, with none of them lasting longer than a season.

4. Ken Curtis, Gunsmoke. For nine years, Dennis Weaver played Marshal Matt Dillon’s trusty sidekick, Chester, who walked with a stiff right leg (the reason was never given). Though still very popular, Weaver left his most famous role after the 1964 season to star in his own series, Kentucky Jones. It only lasted one season, but Weaver had a moderate hit in the 1970s with McCloud. Ken Curtis first appeared as Festus Haggen in a 1962 episode of Gunsmoke. He joined the cast as a full-time regular in 1964 and subsequently became Matt’s only official deputy (Chester was never deputized!). He appeared on Gunsmoke for 11 years.

5. Dick Sargent, Bewitched. After five years of playing Darrin Stephens, husband to the charming witch Samantha, Dick York had to leave to the show due to a severe back condition. Dick Sargent, who actually bore a slight resemblance to York, stepped in quickly and went on to play Darrin for the final three seasons of Bewitched.