GONE WITH THE WIND 75TH ANNIVERSARY ULTIMATE COLLECTOR'S EDITION -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

(Stills used in this review are not taken from the Blu-ray disc. This review was originally posted on 10/16/14.)

The year 1939, many believe, was the pinnacle of creativity in Hollywood, and MGM's super-production GONE WITH THE WIND is widely regarded as the finest film to come out of it. Unfortunately, I haven't had much luck over the years with trying to like it as much as I'm supposed to.

Watching the cut up, squeezed onto a small screen, interrupted by frequent commercials, and spread out over two nights version on network TV was underwhelming. Years later, my neighbor loaned me the 2-volume VHS version but I can't even remember if I watched it or not.

So I was determined that now, with the GONE WITH THE WIND 75TH ANNIVERSARY ULTIMATE COLLECTOR'S EDITION from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment in my hot little hands, I was going to sit down and, for the first time, really, really watch this undying classic. Like, definitively watch it, paying undivided attention to it and everything.

This time I think I finally got the most out of it that I'm ever going to get. The bottom line is that I find GONE WITH THE WIND not all that moving as drama, but as impressive as a movie can be when it comes to mind-boggling spectacle and sheer Hollywood movie-making magic--the quintessential "movie-movie."

Visually, it's simply one of the most gorgeous works of art ever concocted for the screen. Bold, impressionistic use of Technicolor coupled with exquisite special effects, set design, camerawork, and lighting combine to create an endless succession of stunning images.

Much of what we see in this recreation of the Old South before, during, and after the Civil War is purely the work of MGM's technical department, and watching these images unfold for close to four hours, especially in the first half before the intermission, almost felt like stuffing myself with some rich dessert.

The story, taken from Margaret Mitchell's wildly popular novel, takes place in an antebellum fairytale land ("Here in this pretty world, Gallantry took its last bow" the film's scrolling introduction tells us) of genteel, benevolent plantation masters, contented slaves, and a generation of young ladies and gentlemen whose leisure hours are filled with elegant parties and breathless romantic infatuations.

Probably the most breathless of them all is the Tara plantation's teenaged princess Scarlett O'Hara (Vivien Leigh), a spoiled, silly young girl who expects to get her own way even if that includes stealing handsome Ashley Wilkes (Leslie Howard) away from his intended bride and 2nd cousin Melanie Hamilton (Olivia de Havilland).

But a chance meeting with dashing rogue Rhett Butler (Clark Gable) during a party at the Wilkes' family mansion Twelve Oaks will usher in a new era of turbulent romantic entanglements in Scarlett's young life, one which will be intertwined with the encroachment of the Civil War and its devastating effect on an entire civilization soon to be "gone with the wind."

When war comes, it's here that Scarlett's character finally gains some dimension after being thrust into a chaotic world of violence and terror. Caught in an Atlanta that's under attack, she helps tend wounded soldiers until the enormity of war's horror (a famous wide shot of hundreds of injured men is still staggering) drives her away. But then she must deal with a weakened Melanie's painful delivery of her child while Northern forces close in.

Her frantic flight from the burning city in Rhett's carriage along with Melanie, her baby, and young slave girl Prissy (an endearingly funny Butterfly McQueen) is a thrilling high point of the film as they're menaced by crazed scavengers as well as exploding munitions and collapsing ruins.

Fans of KING KONG can even watch the Great Wall from that film go up in a final blaze of glory in one specatacular sequence. Like much of GONE WITH THE WIND's visual splendor, it's the kind of dazzling imagery that you just can't get with CGI. The later scenes at the ruins of Twelve Oaks and Tara, where Scarlett discovers just how lost her former life is, have a bleak, haunting quality that's nightmarish.

It's shocking to see such an idyllic, "pretty" existence so ruthlessly destroyed. When GONE WITH THE WIND is dealing with things like war's destructive and pointless waste in such effectively graphic terms, its easier to accept the film's initial idealization of the Old South way of life. The fact that this involves something of an idealization of slavery itself remains problematic. And yet, I once knew a black woman who counted this as her all-time favorite movie.

It helps that the black characters are all sympathetic even though largely stereotypical, and that the funny but wise Mammy (Hattie McDaniel, who won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress) is more of a caring maternal figure to Scarlett than the rather aloof Mrs. Ellen O'Hara (Barbara O'Neill).

At any rate, all of this changes after the war ravages Scarlett's world and forces her to scrounge in the dirt, figuratively and literally, for her very existence while carpetbaggers try to wrest Tara from her grasp. In desperation she begins using men such as family friend Mr. Kennedy (Carroll Nye), whom she seduces away from her own sister, and finally the wealthy Rhett Butler, who offers financial support in return for the pretense of a tempestuous romance.

The rest of the story is a maelstrom of torrid emotional conflicts, deceptions, and assorted tragedies, most of them resulting from Scarlett's undying selfishness. Even as she enters middle age she's still the coquettish belle of the ball in her own mind. She uses people like pawns to further her own ends and is hardly an admirable heroine save for her tenacity and, in some cases, a reckless kind of courage.

I've never been able to make myself care much about Scarlett and I still find her generally insufferable, although Vivien Leigh's performance is so utterly perfect that it's a wonder to behold. The same holds true for the stalwart Clark Gable, whose manly and mostly honorable Rhett Butler is the main reason for me to stick with the sometimes turgid second half of the story. I can't imagine any other actor being able to pull off the role as well--his delivery of Rhett's celebrated final line is an unparalleled moment in film.

GONE WITH THE WIND is dense, intoxicating, a one-time-only convergence of creative forces that's almost otherworldly. It's like a cinematic fever dream. Maybe that's why I've always had trouble remembering previous viewings--as do other dreams, it drifts back into the ether when I awaken from it.

Warner Bros. four-disc, limited and numbered GONE WITH THE WIND 75TH ANNIVERSARY ULTIMATE COLLECTOR'S EDITION set adds to the excitement of the movie itself with some fun extras. Upon opening the box you get a handsome, richly-illustrated book about the film's opulent costuming entitled "Forever Scarlett: The Immortal Style of Gone With the Wind." In addition to this there's a music box with a picture of Rhett and Scarlett, and one of Rhett's monogrammed handkerchiefs.

Disc one is the Blu-ray restoration of the movie itself, which also contains a commentary track by film historian Rudy Behlmer and the original mono soundtrack.

Disc two features the TV-movie "Moviola: The Scarlett O'Hara War" which we reviewed HERE. There are also numerous other extras including:

"The Making of a Legend: Gone With the Wind"
"1939: Hollywood's Greatest Year"
"Gone With the Wind: The Legend Lives On"
"Gable: The King Remembered"
"Vivien Leigh: Scarlett and Beyond"
"Melanie Remembers: Reflections by Olivia De Havilland"
Cast and production bios, trailers, newsreels, and more

Disc three contains a documentary entitled "Old South, New South" which addresses, in depth, the issue of race in the film and in reality. There's also more newsreel footage of the film's Atlanta premiere.

Disc four is a flipper featuring the lengthy and exhaustive documentary "MGM: When the Lion Roars", hosted by Patrick Stewart.

Finally, the keepcase contains instructions on how to obtain your own digital HD copy of the film.

GONE WITH THE WIND is presented in its original non-widescreen format with Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtracks in English, French, and Spanish, and subtitles in several languages.

Full coverage of the "Gone with the Wind 75th Anniversary Ultimate Collector’s Edition" can be found HERE.

 
Stream rare and hard-to-find movies and TV shows at Warner Archive Instant; purchase discs at Warner Archive Collection. Even more at www.wbshop.com or www.wbultra.com

GONE WITH THE WIND 75TH ANNIVERSARY ULTIMATE COLLECTOR'S EDITION -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

THE CHRISTINE CONRADT INTERVIEW

 

(This interview originally appeared online in 2005 at Bumscorner.com.)

 

When she's not playing a flesh-eating ghoul as in the upcoming zombiefest LAST RITES, she turns out screenplays for wicked flicks such as GHETTO DAWG 2:OUT OF THE PITS and A KILLER UPSTAIRS. She's the talented and prolific CHRISTINE CONRADT, and she just gave us the lowdown on all sorts of cool movie-type stuff!

Christine Conradt has won the Marguerite Roberts Screenwriting Award and placed seventh in the internationally recognized Writer's Digest Writing Competition. In addition to working as a reader and consultant, covering more than 200 screenplays and novels for small production and distribution companies, she also finds time to write numerous screenplays of her own, many of which have been turned into feature films. Two of these, GHETTO DAWG 2:OUT OF THE PITS (one of my favorite films of the year) and A KILLER UPSTAIRS, have just been released on DVD.

Christine recently made some time in her busy schedule to sit down and talk to us Bums about ghetto dawgs, serial killers, zombies...all sorts of neat stuff!


porfle: What led you to explore the subject matter of GHETTO DAWG 2?

Christine: I was actually approached by a friend of mine who was attached to direct GD2. Integration Entertainment wanted him to write the script and direct the film, but he was in the middle of another project and didn't have time to write the script, so he called me and asked me to meet with the producers.
I hit it off with them and wrote a draft. As it turned out, some things changed, and my friend didn't end up directing it... but I was impressed with what the Crook Brothers did. When I saw the rough cut, I emailed the producers at Integration and told them that I thought the directors -- and the cast-- did a really good job.


porfle: How did you achieve such realism in the dialogue and overall atmosphere?

Christine: I wasn't on the set when it shot in New York, but I can tell you that the most of the dialogue was changed by the actors and/or directors. They took what was on the page and really made it their own. I don't know how much was ad-libbed and how much direction the actors were given, but that gritty, realistic feel comes from them taking lines on a page and saying them the way they would say them -- or the way they feel their characters would say them.



porfle: So the filmmakers didn't always stick that closely to the script?

Christine: There was a lot of improvisation. The amount of improvisation is really up to a director and the producers... I've worked with other directors and producers that go over dialogue so closely before shooting that if the actor changes a line, they do another take and ask the actor to say the line as written. Some don't operate that way... On a low budget like this too, a lot of times the dialogue needs to change based on locations that you don't anticipate having during the writing phase, or the lack of locations you thought you'd get.



porfle: Were you directly involved in the making of the film?

Christine: No.



porfle: The original title was CHERRY. What does this refer to?

Christine: For a brief amount of time, it looked like funding for GD2 wasn't going to happen. At that point, the producers and I worked out a deal where I could shop the script myself to other production companies as a spec. So I retitled it 'Cherry' since
GD2 was a title Integration had. Before it could sell, funding came through and Integration ended up making it as GD2. It's not in the movie, but the dog's name was 'Cherry.' It was also a double entendre... Donte was cherry (a virgin) until he finally brought himself to pull the trigger.



porfle: Was this a spec script that was seen as a potential sequel to GHETTO DAWG? Or did you write it specifically as a sequel to that film?

Christine: When the producers at Integration and I sat down to talk about the project... they told me they wanted a sequel to Ghetto Dawg but they wanted entirely new actors, a new story, and no relation to the original-- except the title of course, and the same "feel." So I watched Ghetto Dawg to get a sense of what kind of film it was, and then wrote from scratch.


porfle: Certain scenes have a Martin Scorcese vibe to them.  Were you influenced by his films while writing GD2?

Christine: I wasn't specifically influenced by Scorsese during the writing... I think much of the scenes you refer to are a product of what the directors did with the script. That comes much more from the Crook brothers than it does from me.



porfle: (SPOILER) I love the last shot before the fade-out -- Big Daddy shoots an index finger at the unfortunate Donte with a self-satisfied smirk as Tyrone's dog sits beside him, and life in the pits goes on. Did you ever have an alternate, less downbeat ending in mind?

Christine: Actually, the end of the movie is different from what I put in the script. In the script, Cherry actually dies, Donte is arrested (like he is now), and Brynn doesn't get away. Angel's thug finds her and kills her. So the ending you see in the movie -- while still a downer -- is much more uplifting than the one I came up with.



porfle: Do you see yourself exploring this territory again in the future? Or is GD2 your final word on the subject?

Christine: Actually, I'm in negotiations right now to do a theatrical feature that is also a gang drama. I can't talk about it yet, but it's being directed and produced by an extremely talented music video director named Geo Santini. I would love to talk to you more about it once all the deals are in place and I am allowed to speak about it publicly. It has a very gritty, dirty RESERVOIR DOGS feel to it and I think it will be a terrific film.



porfle: When not writing urban dramas, you specialize in thrillers. What got you interested in the genre?

Christine: I actually love thrillers and horrors most... I am a big fan of the Law & Order series and Ann Rule books. I'm fascinated by the psychology of serial killers, so I think it was natural I would gravitate toward that genre.



porfle: Do you miss the days of the thriller anthology series on television ("Alfred Hitchcock Presents", "The Twilight Zone", etc.), as an outlet for talented writers?

Christine: I grew up on those shows and can attribute many sleepless nights as a child to Alfred Hitchock!
I do miss them... but I think there's much more opportunity now for talented writers to showcase themselves. With 200 television channels and the ability to make movies for so much cheaper on digital, if you have a great thriller with an original twist, there is definitely a way to get it in front of an audience.


porfle: You wrote A KILLER UPSTAIRS, which was just released on DVD, for the Lifetime Channel. Did the finished product turn out as you envisioned it?

Christine: Yes... actually AKU was my first project for Lifetime although I worked with the same producers on A Perfect Nanny for USA a few years back. The producers are very involved in the development process and we spend hours hashing out every detail from dialogue changes to blocking as the script is being written, so there are no surprises on those films.

It's always a thrill for me to see the finished product though... because even when you see photos of the location and meet the actors and all of that, it's still never quite the same as you envision it in your head.


porfle: How did you end up playing a zombie in the upcoming horror film LAST RITES, in which two rival street gangs must join forces against an army of flesh-eating ghouls?

Christine: Well... a fellow USC Film School grad and very good friend of mine (Todd Ocvirk-- who co-directed a film titled KOLOBOS which is somewhat of a cult classic now) is co-producing LAST RITES. In film school, there were only 5 girls in my class, so when it came time for everyone to find actors for their student films, there weren't many female leads to choose from so I got asked a lot. During our sophomore year, Todd made a kick-ass zombie movie and I was one of the zombies. When he was getting ready to shoot LAST RITES, he called me and asked me if I wanted to play a zombie 'for real' this time. I told him I'd love to and I showed up on the set and let the make up artists do their thing. I was in the middle of my own projects, so I was only on set for one day, but it was so much fun to stumble around in torn up clothes and spit up black gunk... I hope there's a sequel to LAST RITES so I can do it again!



porfle: Was this your first time in front of the camera?

Christine: No... I'd done several student films and I was actually an extra on The Bold & the Beautiful for a little while during the time I was in college. I enjoy acting. I'm a completely different person as soon as a camera is on me!



porfle: What was the makeup process like?

Christine: Wow. Crazy. The make up artists were so good, you'd think you were on the set of a studio film. It took about 2 hours to do hair and make up.
One make up artist spray painted my neck and hands and arms green while another one worked on applying make up on my face. Some of the other zombies are much more mutiliated than I was... I think they kind of wanted to keep the female zombies with a little bit of sex appeal (in a twisted way), so the guys ended up with the crazy teeth and holes in their faces. My hair is pretty long and when I sat down, the girl doing hair said, "I'm going to ruin your hair today."
And I told her to go for it. I ended up with the biggest, teased out hair style I've ever seen. It took me forever to get all the spray and stuff washed out.



porfle: One of the stars of LAST RITES is fan-favorite Reggie Bannister of the PHANTASM series. What was it like working with him?

Christine: Unfortunately because of my limited time on the set, I didn't have the chance to really get a sense of the leads and how they worked. Most of the time while they were blocking, the zombies were all refilling their mouths with what we called "zombie juice."



porfle: Can you give us a preview of some of your upcoming projects?

Christine: I have several coming on Lifetime. A LOVER'S REVENGE just aired and may still be airing off and on. The one after that is called MURDER IN MY HOUSE starring Barbara Niven and Gary Hudson. I was actually invited to set in Canada as that one was filming, so I got to spend quite a bit of time getting to know the cast and crew. I think it will be really good, so I'm looking forward to that one coming out in early 2006. The one after that (A PERFECT MARRIAGE) is shooting right now and then I have two more in the works. I'm really excited about the upcoming gang drama which will hopefully go into production in Feb.
2006. I'm also working on a couple of spec scripts that I would like to co-produce myself.



porfle: What advice would you give to someone who aspires to writing screenplays for a living?

Christine: Well, my best advice would be to stick with it. I actually wrote an entire article for Tailslate.com about this very subject. Writing for film and T.V. is an extremely competitive industry, and it's easy to get discouraged. You have to really love what you're doing, and not care about the money, and I think that is key. People who get into it for the money, get out as soon as they realize that you can spend years starving while you're trying to sell that first script. I've been there... I actually took out a loan to live on for six months so that I could have time to write every day. That's a huge gamble, but in my case, it paid off. The script I wrote during that time never sold, but it got me A KILLER UPSTAIRS. Every writer has a different story of what worked for them, so you just have to find what works for you.



porfle: Thank you very much for speaking with us. We'll definitely be on the lookout for future films that feature your name in the credits!

Christine: You're very welcome.


Some of Christine Conradt's films that we've reviewed:

GHETTO DAWG 2: OUT OF THE PITS
A LOVER'S REVENGE
CHRISTIE'S REVENGE
HOTEL CALIFORNIA

THE CHRISTINE CONRADT INTERVIEW

THEN CAME BRONSON -- Movie/TV/DVD Review by Porfle

 Originally posted on 8/9/20

 

Currently rewatching THEN CAME BRONSON (1969), the pilot movie for the TV series starring Michael Parks, via the Warner Archive Collection DVD.

The premise of the movie and subsequent series is that disillusioned newspaper reporter Jim Bronson (Parks) reacts to the suicide of his friend (Martin Sheen) by chucking it all--his job, his conformity, his adherence to other people's rules--and setting off on his Harley to discover America while rediscovering himself.

Every week he went to a different place and interacted with different characters, the first being a runaway bride played by a very endearing young Bonnie Bedelia (DIE HARD, DIE HARD 2, HEART LIKE A WHEEL) who latches onto him out of loneliness and desperation.

This classic scene from the movie became part of the weekly series' opening. Click to enlarge.

During their time together the pensive, introspective Bronson teaches her empathy and self-reliance while she helps mend the heartache he suffered after his friend's death. The episodic nature of the story serves as a sampling of what Bronson will encounter in the weeks ahead as the series continues.

Though the show was wildly popular with young viewers, Parks only stayed with it for one season. There was talk of replacing him with Lee Majors, but thankfully this never happened.

The pilot movie contains one of two very cringey scenes for "Bronson" fans.  The first comes when he enters a hill climb competition and his Harley-Davidson Sportster street bike suddenly turns into a much smaller dirt bike.

The other memorably cringey scene for fans comes in a later episode where his bike is damaged considerably after rolling down a rocky cliff and he manages to fix it with a rock (known as the legendary "Bronson Rock").

The film is also noteworthy for its co-star Bonnie Bedelia, who would win plaudits for her starring role in the film biography "Heart Like A Wheel" and later gain fans as Bruce Willis' wife "Holly" in the "Die Hard" films.

Parks had such a strangely-affected acting style--one which was extremely mumbly and eccentric even among the most devoted "method" actors--that it's interesting seeing him in a scene with a more traditional actor like Gary Merrill, Bert Freed, or Akim Tamiroff and watching how awkwardly their acting styles clash. They may as well be from different planets as the other actors try to make their performances relate somehow to his.

From the MAD Magazine satire of the show. Click to enlarge.

The series itself harkened back to earlier days in television when writers used anthology shows (which this resembles) to wax eloquent about various issues and explore human relations in terms more intimate, poetic, and occasionally pretentious than other shows usually allowed. 

Much later in his career, Parks would achieve renewed fame and popularity as Texas lawman Earl McGraw in a series of Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino films.

But to most of his fans he'll always be Jim Bronson, cranking up his Harley and heading off to somewhere he's never been before to meet new people and change their lives.

THEN CAME BRONSON -- Movie/TV/DVD Review by Porfle

DYING ROOM ONLY -- DVD Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 2/7/10

 

 

Here's a fun little flick for fans of made-for-TV movies from the 70s and especially the "ABC Movie of the Week." DYING ROOM ONLY (1973) is one of those low-budget thrillers that used to have the family glued to the TV and provided fodder for playground talk the next day.

Cloris Leachman and Dabney Coleman play Jean and Bob, a vacationing couple on their way home to L.A. who stop off at a secluded diner with an adjoining motel in the middle of the desert. Ross Martin is Jim, the surly fry cook who seems to begrudge them the slightest attention, and Ned Beatty is Tom, a fat redneck in a cowboy hat who simply exudes ill intent as he guzzles beer at the counter. When Jean goes to the ladies' room to wash her face, she returns to find that Bob has vanished without a trace.

Jim and Tom claim to have no idea where he went, growing more hostile and dismissive as the increasingly frantic Jean continues to press them. A visit from the local sheriff (Dana Elcar) is no help since he believes Bob simply took off and left her there. Finally, Jean gets a room at the motel and starts snooping around on her own, which leads to a night of terror and death.

"Simple but effective" would be a good way to describe this movie, which takes place entirely in and around the diner and motel (except for one brief scene near the end) and depends on the skills of the filmmakers and the cast to pull it off. Prolific television director Philip Leacock keeps Richard Matheson's lean, mean story on track from beginning to end, creating a growing sense of tension and dread that keeps us on edge. While 1997's BREAKDOWN would tell a very similar story on a much grander, action-oriented scale, this one unwinds like a page-turning short story. We're caught up in Jean's predicament from the start and are carried along with her frantic efforts to find her husband as the situation gets scarier and more desperate every minute.

As Jean, Cloris Leachman demonstrates what a great actress she is with a convincing performance that carries the film. No matter what she's required to do in each scene, she always plays it just right and never goes over the top. Ross Martin (best known as Artemis Gordon of TV's "The Wild, Wild West") is wonderfully hostile as Jim, the mysteriously uncooperative fry cook, while Ned Beatty makes the most of his chance to be the threatening hillbilly for a change. Louise Latham is effective as a creepy motel clerk, as is Dana Elcar in the role of the sheriff. Naturally, we don't see much of Dabney Coleman since his character disappears about ten minutes into the movie, but he's his usual rascally self.

The DVD is in full-screen and Dolby English mono, with no subtitles or extras. As a no-frills burn-on-demand entry in the Warner Brothers Archive Collection, the print hasn't been restored or remastered in any way. But despite some speckles and a rough patch here and there, it looks fine to me. More discerning videophiles may disagree.

Once again, the WB Archive has dusted off a nostalgic relic from those great TV-movie days of the 70s, and I especially enjoyed watching this one since I somehow missed it the first time around. DYING ROOM ONLY may not be a classic, and it certainly isn't an epic, but as a low-key suspense thriller it's definitely a keeper.

DYING ROOM ONLY -- DVD Review by Porfle

BAD RONALD -- DVD Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 9/12/09

 

 

 

Back in the 70s, when it was still a novelty to see movies that were made exclusively for TV instead of theaters, there was a series called "ABC Movie of the Week." Imagine--brand new movies made just for TV, every week! We couldn't wait to see what this series would offer next, and for awhile they came up with a string of films--such as DUEL, TRILOGY OF TERROR, DAUGHTER OF THE MIND, and THE LOVE WAR--that would have the whole school buzzing the next day.

One of these made-for-TV gems that, to this day, still lingers in the minds of those who saw it back then is BAD RONALD (1974), now being released on DVD as part of the Warner Archive Collection. Aging child actor Scott Jacoby plays Ronald Wilby, a shy teenager who lives with his overprotective mother (Kim Hunter, A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, PLANET OF THE APES) and often retreats into a fantasy world he calls Atranta. Distraught after being ridiculed by a girl who refused to go out with him, Ronald runs into a young neighbor girl and, in a fit of anger, accidentally kills her.

Panic-stricken Ronald buries the girl and rushes home to tell his mother. Imagining the worst, she instructs Ronald to convert their downstairs bathroom into a hidden room where he can hide until things have settled down enough for them to move somewhere else. The plan works perfectly--until Ronald's mother dies during an operation and he's left to fend for himself. Things get even more complicated when another family, the Woods--consisting of a mother, a father, and three daughters--moves into the house.

Technically, BAD RONALD is typical of these movie-of-the-week entries, with modest production values that give the film the look of an extended TV show episode. Veteran television director Buzz Kulik (BRIAN'S SONG, the similar CRAWLSPACE) is up to the task of telling this offbeat story in an interesting way and giving it a few creepy suburban-gothic touches.

Kim Hunter, of course, is great in her brief scenes as Ronald's mother, the last sympathetic figure in his life. Jacoby really underplays his role although this tends to emphasize Ronald's growing detachment from reality. The idea of him living alone in that hidden room--isolated, disheveled, and growing ever more mentally unbalanced--is intriguing, especially when he starts creeping around scrounging for food and spying on the family who moves into the house. A nosy old biddy next door, Mrs. Schumacher (Linda Watkins), adds tension by constantly peering through the windows.

Pippa Scott and a young Dabney Coleman are Mr. and Mrs. Wood, while sisters Lisa and Cindy Eilbacher play the two older daughters, Ellen and Althea, and Cindy Fisher is the youngest, Babs. The film grows steadily more creepy as they begin to notice various things amiss inside the house and eventually get the sick feeling that there's an unknown presence watching their every move. Voyeuristic Ronald's numerous peepholes enable him to keep tabs on the family and develop a dangerous obsession with the youngest daughter, Babs, whom he envisions as the fair princess to his valiant prince of Atranta. When he can no longer remain in hiding and finally makes his presence known to her, all hell breaks loose.

Someone recently described the Warner Archive Collection as "down and dirty, no frills" DVDs, intended to offer a selection of obscure and/or previously unavailable films that certain fans have wished for over the years. That's what the BAD RONALD DVD is--simply a passable copy (in 1.37:1 full-screen) of a film that didn't look that great originally, on a barebones burn-on-demand disc with no bonus features or chapter titles and a generic menu. Since I value the movie more than the extras, and am happy that films like this are available at all, this is fine with me. A much more in-depth discussion of the Warner Archive Collection can be found here.

A real gem among made-for-TV movies of the 70s, BAD RONALD is one of those low-key and subtly effective psychological horror-thrillers that just stays with you. Mention it to anyone who saw it back then and chances are they'll nod and smile as the memory of Ronald lurking in his hidden lair, peering furtively out at the world, comes creeping back to them.

BAD RONALD -- DVD Review by Porfle