Dear Fans,
Last Friday evening I watched The Norliss Tapes (1973), a Dan Curtis produced and directed TV film that was a pilot for a series that was never optioned. Apparently, the series, had it been produced, would have been a lot like Darren McGavin's Kolchak: the Night Stalker series, but with a much more hip, together protagonist than the klutzy, frumpy Kolchak.
I had seen Norliss way back when in '73 when it aired as a movie-of-the-week type feature, and have very vague memories of it. Seeing it now, I found myself wondering whether it rates as Dan Curtis' schlockiest, most over-the-top production. Some would say that the Zuni fetish doll segment of Trilogy of Terror was more schlocky, but that did have the sublime Karen Black and actually was scary, whereas to me, the monster in Norliss was a mixture of pathetic and ridiculous.
Screenwriter William F. Nolan did duty on several other DC projects. The part that had me giggling the most, strangely, was the endless rain in the picture; it was very obvious to me that the local Fire Dept. made a good penny on this particular project. I found myself recalling the patient men of the Tarrytown Fire Dept. and their use in other DC projects of the early Seventies.
Even though I found it so poorly directed, I still enjoyed the movie. There were fun moments such as seeing Stanley Adams in a cameo as a truck driver, too. The fact that Angie Dickinson kept getting out of bed with flawlessly sprayed and styled hair and makeup was a reminder of the ladies of Collinwood long, long ago.
Watching this made me even more decided in my opinion that DS, the series, was fabulous DESPITE DC's involvement. The man seems to have had all the subtlety of a sledgehammer on acid.
G.
