Semi Off Topic: The Haunting of Rosalind and more

[Uncle Roger]

Remember back in the 1970's when ABC tried all sorts of things to program against Johnny Carson? They tried Dick Cavett, Jack Paar and rock concerts but Carson was unstoppable. One of the things that they tried was The Wide World of Mystery, which was kind of a catch all for murder mysteries and horror tales. Our beloved DC did quite a few. So did Brian Clemens of The Avengers. Some of them were considered lost, unseen since the 1970's. Until now. UCLA has restored the ancient videotapes and they are about to be released on DVD.
While none of these are Dan Curtis Productions, they are Dan Curtis adjacent.
The Haunting of Rosalind was directed by Lela Swift. It stars young Susan Sarandon and features Addison Powell.
The Screaming Skull is not the 1950's movie. This one stars David McCallum and Carrie Nye.
The Deadly Visitor was directed by Lela Swift and features Gwen Verdon and Perry King.
The House and The Brain features Keith Charles and Gretchen Corbett.
Last but not least is And The Bones Came Together. It was directed by Henry Kaplan and stars Robin Strasser (!) and her then husband Laurence Luckinbill 
There's lots of extras as well. Hopefully, it will do enough business to warrant the release of some other vintage stuff.

[Gerard]

I had no idea this even existed and. even though I enjoyed Johnnie, I would do channel surfing (all three) on common occasion and never ran across it.  I did eventually find Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman which came on at 10:30 (same time as Johnnie in our time zone) that way, but I never once saw this program.  Guess I didn't time it right.

Gerard

[Josette]

I used to watch all of those - there were a lot I really loved.  I don't recall specifically what those were, but some of the titles sound familiar. 

[Bob_the_Bartender]

Uncle Roger,

Yes, I remember those original TV movies on late-night ABC. I recall there was one featuring KLS, George Maharis and Eileen Brennan in a love triangle drama.

And, I think there was one tv film featuring Grayson Hall in some eerie story.

Compared to the junk that’s on network television today, these nearly 50-year-old TV movies would be an extremely welcome change.

[Uncle Roger]

Bob, the one with TLATKLS is called Come Die With Me. She plays a bitchy, would be actress who gets what's coming to her in the end. Also in the cast is Alan Napier, best known as Alfred, Bruce Wayne's butler.
The Grayson Hall one is called The Two Deaths of Sean Doolittle. It stars George Grizzard and features DS alumni Diana Davila and Barnard Hughes. UCLA has a copy of it but it is not part of the upcoming release.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I had no idea this even existed

It's really too bad that you never knew The Wide World of Mystery was on because it was something that was well worth watching. Like Josette, I was a regular viewer and really enjoyed many of them. It was also great that a lot of the eps had DS connections, whether it be a DS actor, writer or director.

The Grayson Hall one is called The Two Deaths of Sean Doolittle. It stars George Grizzard and features DS alumni Diana Davila and Barnard Hughes. UCLA has a copy of it but it is not part of the upcoming release.

How wild that UCLA has a copy of that because for so many years it was thought that it was lost forever. I hadn't heard that it had been found. Thanks so much for that info as well as the info about the upcoming DVD release.   I would love to see all of those eps again.

[Bob_the_Bartender]

Bob, the one with TLATKLS is called Come Die With Me. She plays a bitchy, would be actress who gets what's coming to her in the end. Also in the cast is Alan Napier, best known as Alfred, Bruce Wayne's butler.
The Grayson Hall one is called The Two Deaths of Sean Doolittle. It stars George Grizzard and features DS alumni Diana Davila and Barnard Hughes. UCLA has a copy of it but it is not part of the upcoming release.

Wow! I did not remember that Diana Davila and Barnard Hughes were in that same tv film with Grayson Hall. Wouldn’t it have been great if such other DS actors as Michael “Buzz Hackett” Hadge, Jane “Suki Forbes” Draper and one of my DS favorites, “Zombie pirate” Al Lust had also appeared in those late night ABC TV movies? 

[Uncle Roger]

Well, it would certainly be interesting. The British episodes feature a lot of well-known character actors and usually at least one American actor to make it more appealing to American audiences. It's an interesting mix of actors, from Diana Dors to a young Helen Mirren. One of my favorites, Lady Killer, stars Barbara Feldon, Linda Thorson and Robert Powell. Agent 99, Tara King and Tommy's father. Or Jesus of Nazareth, if you prefer.

[Josette]

I definitely remember the title "The Two Deaths of Sean Doolittle," but don't recall what it was.  I just looked it up to see if it would give me a clue, but there's not much information.  I wish I could find a list of them, as there were several that were my absolute favorites and I always hoped to see them again, but at the moment I can't recall anything specific to mention.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I was quite surprised to discover last night when I opened one of my Christmas presents that a friend had given me this Blu-ray. I just finished watching The Haunting of Rosalind. Interestingly, I didn't remember anything that was happening, which was a good thing because I didn't know how things were going to turn out. It stars Pamela Payton-Wright, who worked quite steadily in the '70s, Susan Sarandon, who had been on the ABC soap A World Apart a couple years before, Beatrice Straight, a very popular NY actress at the time and who actually won the 1977 Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance in Network, and Frank Converse, who was already a successful guest starring actor on TV and would continue to be one for years to come. But what might be of interest to DS fans is that DS' very own Dr. Eric Lang makes a brief appearance as Dr. Soames:

(I always thought that was the patented Dr. Lang smirk - but apparently it was the patented Addison Powell smirk.

And actually, the ep has many DS connections because beside Addison Powell's appearance and Lela Swift directing, Art Wallace wrote the ep, DS personnel J.J. Lupatkin was the Technical Advisor, as he was on DS, Mel Handelsman handled Lighting as he did on DS, Rudy Piccirillo handles Video, as he did on DS, and Sybil Weinberger was the Music Supervisor, as she was on DS. Not to mention some of the drapes used to dress the sets were also used on DS at Collinwood and the Old House.

I'm quite looking forward to watching the other four eps, particularly the others directed by Lela Swift and the one by Henry Kaplan, and who knows if they also have additional DS connections? I'm deliberately not checking IMDb to see if any do...

[Uncle Roger]

MPI has already released Nightmare at 43 Hillcrest, which is another Dan Curtis production. It features John Karlen who appears in a lot of DC projects. I did not until today that it also features Dan's daughter Linda.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Before I get into how I watched the second one today, yesterday I neglected to notice that Mary McKinley, who did the costumes for DS' 1841PT. And what's weird about me having missed that credit is that while I was watching yesterday I kept saying to myself that the costumes look like they could have been her work, but when the credits rolled around I forgot all about checking the costume credit.

But anyway, the second ep, The Screaming Skull, has fewer DS connections. It stars David McCallum, who we all knew then from The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Vincent Gardenia, who may have been lesser known but who was a very popular TV actor, and Carrie Nye, who may have been more well-known as the wife of Dick Cavett than she was for her acting credits. It's only one of two eps without a former DS director handling things because it's directed by Gloria Monty, who would go on to great renown as the producer of General Hospital during its heyday in the later-'70s and early-'80s. No DS people in smaller roles . But the same DS personnel perform all the same duties that they did in the first ep, including Mary McKinley as Costume Designer, even though it was a contemporary story, as opposed to the first which was set in Victorian times. And one of the same pairs of drapes reappears as set dressing. However, in this ep the railing from Collinwood's terrace, the stained glass window from Collinwood's foyer, the chandelier from the foyer, the windows used in Angelique's room in 1970PT, and various doorways/doors appear.  It good to know that when DS ended all that sort of stuff wasn't dumped.

The story for this one started off a little slow but it definitely made up for that as things progressed further...

[Mysterious Benefactor]

The third ep, The Deadly Visitor has, so far, the fewest DS connections. It stars Gwen Verdon, a huge Broadway star who won 4 Tony Awards over the course of her career, Perry King, who was basically just starting out his career, though he had already appeared with Shirley MacLaine in The Possession of Joel Delaney, which is a great ghost story, James Keach, Stacey Keach's younger brother and who was also just starting out his career, and Stephen Macht, another really just starting out his career because this is his first credit on IMDb, but he became extremely successful. But when it comes to DS connections, the same DS personnel handle the same behind the scenes capacities, Lela Swift directs, though there are no DS actors in smaller roles, and the only piece of the old DS sets that I noticed showing up is the stained glass window from Collinwood's foyer. But there could also be one other DS connection - and it's one that we may be amiss for calling Roger Davis out over it - and that's that when things start to go really off the deep end in the situation his character finds himself in, Perry King frequently runs his hand through his hair. What a hoot would it be if we've faulted RD for that all these years but it was really Lela Swift who had encouraged him to do it and she also encouraged Perry King to do the same here?! 

The story for this one is engaging throughout...

[Mysterious Benefactor]

The fourth ep, The House and the Brain (and I have no idea what the "Brain" part of the title refers to? ) has about as few DS connections as the third. It stars Keith Charles, a veteran of several soaps who also had some guest roles on nighttime TV, Carol Willard, who I'd never heard of but seems to have had a moderately successful career on TV and some films, Hurd Hatfield, who had a long and successful career in TV, and Gretchen Corbett, another who was very successful in TV. No DS actors in small roles. And this one is also directed by Gloria Monty. So, when it comes to DS, the only connections are the same DS personnel handling the same behind the scenes capacities, and the use of the outside furniture from Collinwood's terrace.

As for the story, it keeps your attention, but it's quite likely you'll be able to see several of the twists coming before they actually do, including the ending...

[Uncle Roger]

Too bad it wasn't Pinky and The Brain!