I watched this again today. What a terrible mistake. I recorded it from TV because I vaguely recalled seeing it back in the '70s, maybe at a drive-in, or perhaps on late-night TV. I also had a vague recollection of it being OK.
In hindsight, I think I must have been absolutely off my face at the time, because, oh, how my memory had deceived me ... I could not have been more wrong. It is not OK. It is mind-bogglingly terrible - without doubt, one of the cheapest, shoddiest pieces of pseudo-hip, plastic, cliché-ridden, overacted rip-off Seventies Z-grade Hollywood garbage ever foisted on an unsuspecting public. The only amusing aspect was that I had watched the superb "Shaun of the Dead" the night before, and this provided me with a gold-plated example of that old adage about 'chalk and cheese'.
And what a horrible, rancid, stinky, mouldy old piece of cheese it is. This frightening mutation of a movie has just everything wrong with it. You'd think you couldn't go far wrong with Matheson's fine original story, but oh no, they had to make it "hip" in that dreadful, stodgy, cringe-inducing Mod Squad way that only Hollywood in that era could. Everything about it screams 'cheap Seventies 'telemovie', from the script to the sets to the horrible, stagey performances. It looks like it was shot in three days, the 'sets' are SO obviously the Warner backlot, the script is appalling, and it features some of the most spectacularly bad acting in movie history. Chuck's trademark "Oh ... my ... god" line - uttered when he finds he body of the black kid he'd saved from the plague - is the absolute nadir in a zombie-like performance that rates as one of the very worst in an otherwise fairly distinguished career. The Big Cornpone never had a great range, but to call this a one-note performance is to insult notes.
The person I actually feel most sorry for is Rosalind Cash, who was obliged to strip off for no good reason, kiss Charlton Heston (erk!) and utter some of the most tooth-grindingly self-conscious blaxploitation lines ever committed to paper. But hey - no surprises there: a quick Google search for writers John and Joyce Corrington reveals a couple so blindingly white- bread that they make Anna Gasteyer and Will Ferrell's SNL school music teacher characters (Bobbi and Marty Culp) look like prime candidates for a Sly & the Family Stone reunion. Even less surprising is the fact that the Corrington's mostly earned their living penning daytime soaps and Z-grade movie schlock-fests like "Killer Bees". I should have guessed.
A special brickbat goes to TV veteran Anthony Zerbe, an actor every bit as corny as Chuck, and likewise one never known for avoiding a chance to chew the scenery, no matter how flimsy. Granted, he doesn't have much to work with but is just AWFUL - his wig is ridiculous and his acting is worse ... although I have to admit that, in a sterling display of racial equality, Lincoln Kilpatrick's portrayal of his sidekick Zachary is every bit as bad.
Also - if the mutants are so anti-technology, where did they get those neatly-tailored lurex cloaks and designer shades? (I know, I know ...)
But wait - there's one more dump I have to take on this film ... it's hard to single out the worst thing in a movie so spectacularly rich in bad points, but it leaps out at you from the opening shots - it is the awful, braying, corny score by Ron Grainer. Just ... TERRIBLE. This movie ought to be required viewing in every media course as a textbook example of how NOT to write music for films. It is loud, stupid, intrusive, almost entirely inappropriate/irrelevant to the action, and just plain BAD music in its own right. It beggars belief that such an experienced and otherwise accomplished screen composer could have turned in such a load of old crap ... but, on the other hand, it suits the movie perfectly, so maybe he got it right after all?
In my mind the ONLY reason to watch this film - other than to get wrecked and have a good laugh at its expense - is for the views of downtown Los Angeles ca. 1970, before they totally ruined the place. Apart from that, I can only quote Men on Film:
"HATED IT!"
In hindsight, I think I must have been absolutely off my face at the time, because, oh, how my memory had deceived me ... I could not have been more wrong. It is not OK. It is mind-bogglingly terrible - without doubt, one of the cheapest, shoddiest pieces of pseudo-hip, plastic, cliché-ridden, overacted rip-off Seventies Z-grade Hollywood garbage ever foisted on an unsuspecting public. The only amusing aspect was that I had watched the superb "Shaun of the Dead" the night before, and this provided me with a gold-plated example of that old adage about 'chalk and cheese'.
And what a horrible, rancid, stinky, mouldy old piece of cheese it is. This frightening mutation of a movie has just everything wrong with it. You'd think you couldn't go far wrong with Matheson's fine original story, but oh no, they had to make it "hip" in that dreadful, stodgy, cringe-inducing Mod Squad way that only Hollywood in that era could. Everything about it screams 'cheap Seventies 'telemovie', from the script to the sets to the horrible, stagey performances. It looks like it was shot in three days, the 'sets' are SO obviously the Warner backlot, the script is appalling, and it features some of the most spectacularly bad acting in movie history. Chuck's trademark "Oh ... my ... god" line - uttered when he finds he body of the black kid he'd saved from the plague - is the absolute nadir in a zombie-like performance that rates as one of the very worst in an otherwise fairly distinguished career. The Big Cornpone never had a great range, but to call this a one-note performance is to insult notes.
The person I actually feel most sorry for is Rosalind Cash, who was obliged to strip off for no good reason, kiss Charlton Heston (erk!) and utter some of the most tooth-grindingly self-conscious blaxploitation lines ever committed to paper. But hey - no surprises there: a quick Google search for writers John and Joyce Corrington reveals a couple so blindingly white- bread that they make Anna Gasteyer and Will Ferrell's SNL school music teacher characters (Bobbi and Marty Culp) look like prime candidates for a Sly & the Family Stone reunion. Even less surprising is the fact that the Corrington's mostly earned their living penning daytime soaps and Z-grade movie schlock-fests like "Killer Bees". I should have guessed.
A special brickbat goes to TV veteran Anthony Zerbe, an actor every bit as corny as Chuck, and likewise one never known for avoiding a chance to chew the scenery, no matter how flimsy. Granted, he doesn't have much to work with but is just AWFUL - his wig is ridiculous and his acting is worse ... although I have to admit that, in a sterling display of racial equality, Lincoln Kilpatrick's portrayal of his sidekick Zachary is every bit as bad.
Also - if the mutants are so anti-technology, where did they get those neatly-tailored lurex cloaks and designer shades? (I know, I know ...)
But wait - there's one more dump I have to take on this film ... it's hard to single out the worst thing in a movie so spectacularly rich in bad points, but it leaps out at you from the opening shots - it is the awful, braying, corny score by Ron Grainer. Just ... TERRIBLE. This movie ought to be required viewing in every media course as a textbook example of how NOT to write music for films. It is loud, stupid, intrusive, almost entirely inappropriate/irrelevant to the action, and just plain BAD music in its own right. It beggars belief that such an experienced and otherwise accomplished screen composer could have turned in such a load of old crap ... but, on the other hand, it suits the movie perfectly, so maybe he got it right after all?
In my mind the ONLY reason to watch this film - other than to get wrecked and have a good laugh at its expense - is for the views of downtown Los Angeles ca. 1970, before they totally ruined the place. Apart from that, I can only quote Men on Film:
"HATED IT!"