Movie(s) of the week Part 29

Savages- 9-11-74

To be honest, I've never been a fan of Andy Griffith's and after his show was cancelled, he went from playing nice characters to psychopaths. And this movie shows just how creepy he can be.

Lawyer Horton Madec (Griffith) hires local boy Ben Campbell (Sam Bottoms) as a guide so that he can do some hunting in the desert, when he can't find the guide, he originally hired.

Deputy Les Hanford (Jim Antonio) recommends Ben since he knows the country that Horton wants to hunt in, but Ben really doesn't want to guide him since he's been doing research on vultures. And since money talks, Horton's going to pay him sixty dollars a day with a bonus if he can help him get what he wants.

They set up a camp overnight and Ben apologizes to Horton about a remark he made earlier about him being handicapped (he has a limp) and Horton tells him that it hasn't held him back since he trained his mind to become like an Olympian. Based on his training, he can do anything he sets his mind to.

The next day, they find a herd of rams and sheep and Ben cautions him about just shooting at them, but Horton shoots anyway and says that he shot one of them and heads up the side of the mountain.

After a short while, Ben climbs up and Horton tells him that he shot a baby ewe as Horton buries it under some rocks. However, Ben sees a hand sticking out of some straw and upon further investigation, it the prospector that Horton originally hired.

Horton bribes Ben to leave the body, but when he refuses, he takes Ben's rifle and shoots the prospector in the head, telling him that he'll accuse Ben of the murder.

He forces to strip and makes him find his way to the road (which is about fifty miles away) and along the way, Horton hunts him. His goal is for Ben to die in the desert of dehydration and exposure.

As the prospector was a friend of Ben's, he taught him some survival skills and at this point, his goal is to find his camp, since he's sure there's water and food.

Horton of course, finds him and shoots up the camp.

While growing increasingly weak, Ben notices the vultures and figures out that there's water somewhere in the mountains. He's right and finds a very small pond.

After hiding in a crevice, he waits until dark and climbs down the mountain and waits for Horton in the morning by burying himself in the sand and eventually, he takes control of the situation and returns back to his uncle George's (Noah Beery) gas station where he collapses.

Both men have a different version of the story as Sheriff Hamilton (James Best) sends Deputy Dickie (Randy Boone) to retrieve the evidence that Ben's hid in the Jeep, but he doesn't find anything, and the odds are stacked against him.

The next day, Horton believes that he's going to make a clear getaway, that is until Ben is still being badgered by him as he fills up the sheriff's car, when gas was sixty-three cents a gallon.

Death Sentence- 10-2-74

You won't be too surprised with this courtroom drama since it's no secret who the murderer is, but it's what juror Susan Davies (Cloris Leachman) faces as she slowly puts two and two together and realizes that the real murderer is her husband Don (Laurence Luckinbill).

Don is trying to end his relationship with Marilyn Healy (C.J. Hincks), and she won't let him. She threatens to tell his wife and as he embraces her, he strangles her with his scarf.

Susan is seated on the jury along with her friend Elaine (Yvonne Wilder) and they hope to get caught up on their lives, but Susan has to tell Don that they have to cancel their trip to the Caribbean. Which he's not happy about.

With the likely suspect of Marilyn's murder being her husband John (Nick Nolte) Susan starts to have her suspicions about him when a scarf is brought out and later when Don decides to take Susan out to dinner, she comments about the scarf she bought him for Christmas two years ago.

Witnesses are grilled on the stand and when Martin Gorman (Murray MacLeod) is on the stand, he tells the court about having a date and parking outside the Healy house. He tells them that he saw her come out of the house and then he and his date had left, but a station wagon almost sideswiped him. This draws Susan in even more.

Every now and then she brings up a fact about the trial to Don and he always has a pat answer in which she starts to doubt herself. He's really great at gaslighting her.

When the jurors are sequestered in a local hotel, three of the jurors think John in innocent and they have to spend the night, but Susan manages to sneak out of the second floor window (thanks to a fire escape) and heads back home.

Don has managed an alibi in the murder of her and luckily, she was able to get in touch with 911 before he cuts the phone line.

This is a pretty good television thriller, but really, Nolte isn't the star of it since he has two scenes with dialogue and for most of the movie he just sits in the courtroom.

Zuma Beach- 9-27-78

This has to be one of the worst television movies that I've ever watched, although I had heard about it throughout the years.

Bonnie Katt (Suzanne Somers) is a singer/songwriter whose career isn't taking off like she's hoped and goes to the studio to try and get her producer Rick (Steve Franken) to extend her contract for six months. He tells her that she doesn't seem to want to put in the work and tells her that she needs to take some time and think about her career.

She must have been driving all night thinking and in her daze, Steve and Billy (Ben Marley and Perry Lang) are behind her and as she motions for them to pass, Steve invites her to the beach. They speed off as she continues to drive.

The first person to get to the beach is Jerry (Steven Keats) who "reserves" parking spots and then charges for them. Slowly the characters begin to arrive and it's Labor Day, so the beach is sure to be crowded.

With so many characters to name, David (Mark Wheeler) pulls up on his motorcycle and tells Jerry that he's broken up with Nancy (P.J. Soles) so that he can leave with him the next day. He's forgoing all of his scholarships and his father's money to spend some time enjoying life before he begins his career as an automotive designer.

David notices his frenemy J.D.'s (Michael Biehn) bike outside the lifeguard shack but doesn't know that Nancy is inside with him. They didn't do anything, but after the crowd chants J.D.'s name, he sees Nancy follow him and J.D. is upset that David has buried his bike.

Bonnie finally arrives at the beach, and all of the guys want her and fall over themselves as she lays out. David being one of them and he's immediately attracted to her.

Then there's lifeguard Stan (Les Lannom) training Burt (Tim Hutton) as he'll be taking over for Stan.

By this time all of the characters have interacted with one another and if they haven't, they bond when Bonnie and Norman (Biff Warren) start to build a sandcastle. Norman is trying to impress Cathy (Kimberly Beck) but she just flirts with him until they win the piggyback race.

The movie just keeps going nowhere and before I had watched this, I had kind of hoped that this would have been the type of movie where maybe it was a summer on the beach and Bonnie was hanging out with the teens hoping to learn what they were listening to when it came to music.

But since it just takes place on Labor Day, Bonnie's presence manages to fix all of the problems that the teens are facing in their personal lives along with her own problem of stepping up her career.

Ironically, the movie was written in part by John Carpenter and a month later, Halloween would hit the theatres elevating him and Soles into their iconic horror history roles.