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Ellery Queen: Don't Look Behind You
USA 1971
produced by Leonard J. Ackerman, Edward Montagne for Universal TV/NBC
directed by Barry Shear
starring Peter Lawford, Harry Morgan, E.G.Marshall, Skye Aubrey, Stefanie Powers, Coleen Gray, Morgan Sterne, Bill Zuckert, Bob Hastings, Than Wyenn, Buddy Lester, William Lucking, Pat Delaney
based on the novel Cat of Many Tales by Ellery Queen (= Frederic Dannay, Manfred Lee), music by Jerry Fielding
Ellery Queen
review by Dale Pierce
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Based on the story Cat Of Many Tales (spelling is correct, Tales and not
Tails as you may think), this movie has famed detective Ellery Queen, played
by Peter Lawford tracking The Hydra, an evasive killer the police have not
been able to pinpoint or trap.
There is an interesting graphic shown each time the murderous Hydra strikes,
showing a dragon-like illustration (a Hydra for those not familiar with
mythology) which groiws a new head with each victim. The heads are numerous by
the time the show concludes.
Queen is able to deduct the murder strangles with different colors of cord,
blue for boys and pink for girls. From here he eventually tracks the killer to
a doctor's wife, who has lost her own children due to umbilical strangulation
when her husband botched deliveries for her. Her logic is simple: her husband
allows others to have babies delivered safely, but screws up when it comes to
her, so if she cannot have her kids, neither should anyone else. Thus she goes
through the record books, tracks the children who were delivered without
complication by her husband, now all adults, and chokes the life out of them.
Not too many films have a woman as a serial killer. Throughout history I can
think of a handful, such as The Bird With The Crystal
Plumage, Monster, Folds
In the Flesh and some others, but for the most part, such roles are reserved
for men. Thus, the ending suprised many at the time it was first seen, when
women villains, let alone killers, were not all that commonplace, even more
rare than today on either the big or small screen.
The Hydra of course gets identified and demolished in the end, good triumphs
over evil and the detective makes his police counterparts look like fools.
There are some interesting murder scenes, such as early on, when a
projectionist is strangled in a movie theatre, right in the midst of running a
film, as well as the discovery of other bodies, the victims of the Hydra and
her handiwork, but this is a bloodless production. Gore hounds will not like
it at all.
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review © by Dale Pierce
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Robots and rats,
demons and potholes, cuddly toys and shopping mall Santas,
love and death and everything in between,
Tales to Chill Your Bones to is all of that.
Tales to Chill Your Bones to -
a collection of short stories and mini-plays ranging from the horrific to the darkly humourous,
from the post-apocalyptic to the weirdly romantic,
tales that will give you a chill and maybe a chuckle,
all thought up by the twisted mind of screenwriter and film reviewer Michael Haberfelner.
Tales to Chill Your Bones to
the new anthology by Michael Haberfelner
Out now from Amazon!!! |
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