Brian Clemens' Thriller (1973 - 1976)

[J. R.'s Piece]

Episode 17.

View attachment 20483

A cheesy but sparkly story about a murderous psycho-bitch, played by the lovely Francesca Annis, in the style of Play Misty For Me.

The loony villain is inspired by sappy love stories about women who marry their bosses.

As always, the victims just play "being attacked" in front of the camera, it looks very cheap and hilarious.

In the opening scene, there are 3 actors doing this. No-one tries to run away or fight back, they just wait to get stabbed with a pair of scissors when she appears from behind the curtains (although her shoes were already visible!)
Laugh-out-loud funny.

8/10

Why, of course. Everything stops for meal times. Even if there is a pair of feet and a hand wielding a pair of scissors and they are sticking out from your curtains. The shock comes from the murderer not observing the social niceties. But at least she partly atones for this social mistake by doing the vacuuming after her murders. I found this trait rather attractive. One of the murder victims was an Ice Lord in three Doctor Who stories, where you couldn’t see his face.

John Arnatt played Mister Robinson. He was the Deputy Sheriff of Nottingham in ITC’s The Adventures of Robin Hood. Seen him in lots of film and tv shows. Patrick Allen used to star in Crane, which led to a spin-off called Orlando, starring prolific actor Sam Kydd, who ended up as Mike Baldwin’s father in Coronation Street. Patrick Allen pops up as villains in The Avengers/ITC’s The Sentimental Agent/ITC’s The Saint/ITC’s Man in a Suitcase/ITC’s The Champions and ITC’s UFO. He was so evil that he kidnapped Ann Lynn and held her hostage on ITC’s The Baron, just months after he had shot her dead on ITC’s Gideon’s Way. He was in the inaugural white Jaguar plunging off a cliff sequence, which was reused in a bunch of shows. And he did lots of voice work and Barratt Homes adverts. Sylvia Anderson commented on a UFO commentary that his tight trousers meant you could see his...sorry! Sheila Fearn was in that Thriller as the secretary who got murdered. She was in George and Mildred, which was remade in the USA as The Ropers. Norman Eshley played her husband and he was the killer in Thriller: The Colour of Blood, which was the first Thriller to be recorded. Shaun O’Riordan directed and you might have noticed his name in Sapphire & Steel, and Gerald James was in this too. I’ve seen Edward Judd and Leon Eagles in several productions too.

I must admit, I was rather drawn to Tracy’s romantic side, except for the scissors obviously.

Beware! The next episode isn’t an episode of Thriller at all.

 

[Willie Oleson]

Beware! The next episode isn’t an episode of Thriller at all.

And that's why I won't "review" this generic Inspector Morse-type episode.
Was it some kind of pilot for a (possible) new series?

 

[J. R.'s Piece]

And that's why I won't "review" this generic Inspector Morse-type episode.
Was it some kind of pilot for a (possible) new series?

As far as I understand, it was aired in the Thriller time slot and mistaken to be an episode of Thriller. Which it isn’t.

 

[J. R.'s Piece]

Was it some kind of pilot for a (possible) new series?

Denis Lill was in it. He was one of the stars of the BBC drama, Survivors. In which 95% of the worlds population is wiped out and the remaining people have to erm...survive. I’m thinking of rewatching to take my mind off current events.

 

[Willie Oleson]

Episode 18.



The evil butler from episode 15 returns in a similar role, this time he marries the wealthy women and then he kills them.
When he's staying in a luxurious resort he meets two women: the cool and sexy Stella, and the tacky, brassy and very wealthy Angela.

Actor Michael Jayston has a great villainous appearance, thanks to his "cold" eyes, but I think he was an odd choice for the Don Juan type.

I had expected some kind of comeuppance, but the twist is that Helen Mirren played the role of both Stella and Angela.

I had no idea! Also, it makes me want to relive the "Angela" scenes knowing that she's Stella in disguise. And because that creepiness lingers, I'll give it a...


9/10

 

[Willie Oleson]

Episode 19.



Episodes often open with an aerial shot of the setting, in this case grey and brick and grey England.

This story is a slasher, but without any background. The killer is shown in the introduction scene so it's not a semi-whodunnit.
We don't know who he is and we never will, in fact he never even mutters one single word.
It's almost a non-story but its execution is absolutely fantastic, it has everything I want from a naff TV Thriller movie.

The story suggests that his next victim is going to be some woman working for a big company, but this is intentionally misleading because she's going to be this Thriller's protagonist.
She comes face-to-face with the killer after he has killed her flatmate/neighbour, however, it takes a while before she realizes what has happened.

And it looks downright eerie.

Later, during shopping, she recognizes the man who's working in a jeweller's repair shop as the man who left her apartment building after killing the neighbour-friend-flatmate.

Consequently, he recognizes her as the woman who entered the apartment building....etc, etc.
It's a great moment of awareness, and the frightening score adds a lot to the effect of it.
She runs away and he chases after her as fast as he can without looking like someone who's chasing after someone in broad daylight.
This results in some awesome location shots, not because the locations are awesome but because I love everything authentic seventies (and 60s and 80s and 90s, just everything).
It's hard to tell if the other people in the streets are extras or unsuspecting passerby.

Nevertheless, he finds out where she works (late at night, alone) and that's when the story gets really good.
Incidentally, the police think they already got the real killer (he's not!) and that's how they accidentally lull the victim into a false sense of security.

The chase continues inside the building, there's some intriguing trickery going on with elevators going up and down but most importantly: the tension never stops.
At some point, she thinks she's calling the police (oh, thank God!) but it turns out she's talking to her predator - which tackles the "what's your favourite scary movie?"-gag before it was a gag.

Eventually, the police boyfriend comes to her rescue (well...sort of!) and it ends with a twist and then another one. But that wasn't the strongest point of this episode.

10/10

 

[Willie Oleson]

in fact he never even mutters one single word

but it turns out she's talking to her predator

OK, so he did talk, but he pretended to be someone else and I think he altered his voice (eventhough she has no idea what his real voice sounds like).

 

[J. R.'s Piece]

Brian Clemens mentioned that A Coffin for the Bride was his favourite, because of Helen Mirren’s performance(s).

OK, so he did talk, but he pretended to be someone else and I think he altered his voice (eventhough she has no idea what his real voice sounds like).

Robert Lang had a very recognisable voice. He later did an episode of The New Avengers where he spends all but the earliest scenes behind a mask.

 

[Willie Oleson]

Brian Clemens mentioned that A Coffin for the Bride was his favourite, because of Helen Mirren’s performance(s).

Yes I noticed that the DVD has an interview with the master of Thriller himself!
Angela in ACFTB is a cross between Dame Edna and Shelley Winters, and I wondered why they didn't get an American actress for this role because this time it would make sense to do so, story-wise (her accent was obviously not American).
But they couldn't because it was Helen Mirren! I agree, she did a great job with this.
Btw, did I also spot Hyacinth Bucket's neighbour Elizabeth?

Robert Lang had a very recognisable voice

But the fictional character in this episode doesn't know that?

 

[Willie Oleson]

Episode 20.



A mentally disturbed fan of a supporting character in a convent soap opera (!) approaches the actress regarding the Sister Mary Fanclub.
Of course there is no fan club but the actress doesn't know that. Furthermore, despite the fact that he refuses to call her by her real name - she really is Sister Mary to him - she's flattered by the attention, especially since she isn't one of the lead characters.
The characters have to be as gullible as possible in order to let the story unfold.

Every time he doesn't agree with the tv show - i.e. how the other characters treat "his" precious Sister Mary - he attacks or kills them.
As I mentioned in the Episode 17 review:

and there are a few scenes in which she's being interrupted by some character just when she's about to reveal her lunacy.

There are quite a few moments when the fan behaves in an obviously irrational way, but thanks to the vanity and gullibility of the actress he keeps getting away with it.
Or they're being interrupted before things get really weird (although personally I don't think it could have gotten any weirder).

Eventually he manages to lure her to the "opening of the Sister Mary Fanclub", which turns out to be a cold storage, with the plan to immortalize her by putting her in a glass coffin.

In the meantime, one of the other soap actors has started to put the pieces of the (ahem) puzzle together, he and a police officer save the actress and the crazy fan crashes through the glass coffin - dead.

There are no surprises, no effort is made to make it look slightly less predictable, so the only Thriller aspect is the crazy fan who - frankly speaking - is downright boring.
Not good.

2/10

 

[Willie Oleson]

Episode 21.



The story begins and ends with this idyllic view, but the circumstances are very different.

A man and his wife learn about the death of their only son Tommie in a most extraordinary way. It's almost funny, to be honest.
Four months after the funeral they have a visit from a young man who claims to be their son's army buddy.
The parents are very eager to get to know him since he's the last link with their son - and he was with him when he died.

He also meets Tommie's former fiancée who is very charmed by this dashing young man who says all the right things at the right moment.
Her visiting friend (from America, of course) is a little bit more reserved, and when she accidentally finds Tommie's diary it turns out that Marty wasn't Tommie's friend at all.

The parents are getting more and more attached to Marty and the visit becomes an indefinite stay, and then a permanent one.

It's obvious that they see him as a substitute for Tommie, and the drama felt so genuine that I didn't care anymore what would happen in the story. It's all about them.

Sheila, the former fiancée, eventually confronts him with the diary. Initially, he even manages to spin the truth into a "woe is me" scenario but then he says something that makes her realize that he's actually responsible for Tommie's death. So he has to kill her too.
In the meantime, Marty is wanted for desertion and stealing dangerous drugs from the army hospital.
The performance by the actor playing the colonel or sergeant or whatever is particularly hammy, but it's just a small role.

Tommie's father is very shocked when the colonel/sergeant informs him of the circumstances regarding Marty's disappearance, but here comes the big twist: he's afraid they're going to take his new son away from him. And that's why he says he's never seen him.
He's also built some kind of hidden panic room, just in case they'd come back to search for Marty.
On the same day they acknowledge him as their son, and the beneficiary of their will, he poisons them.

Oh the villainy!
However, this coincides with the father's enthusiastic demonstration of the panic room - Marty's locked up and the father collapses due to the food poisoning.

The friend from America returns and finds the almost dead couple, and also the hidden room with an hysterical Marty on the other side of the fake wall.
Then the badly acted sergeant shows up, he babbles something about drugs stolen from the army hospital and that's how the American friend puts two and two together.
The couple are in a coma and it may take weeks, months even, before they recover.
She decides to let the evil Marty literally rot in his prison (built with love, to protect him!) and asks the badly acted sergeant to drop her off at the train station.

The story ends with Marty's screams of horror, and then back to the idyllic view.
It's kinda similar to one of my favourite Hammer House Of Horror episodes "The Silent Scream" - and I guess also the final scene from Pit And The Pendulum.


10/10

 

[Willie Oleson]

Episode 22.



This time it's all about vagueness and confusion and suspicion, but the viewer has no idea who's-done-what.

A hotel guest is alarmed when her friend is missing, but the hotel owner claims that he's never seen this other woman, and the guest book shows only one registration, not two.
But they had also shown a gloved mystery hand carefully removing a page from the guest book - and this may or may not be connected to the disagreement between the young woman and the hotel owner (played by the actor who was possessed by the evil spirit of his murderous alter ego in episode 2, but he's much better in this episode).


The story offers 3 possible scenarios:
1. The hotel guest is emotionally disturbed (and according to the introduction scene it's possible that she actually knows what happened to her friend)
2. The owner/manager of the hotel is lying, which indicates that some kind of crime has been committed.
3. Another character (possibly the person who removed the page from the guest book) knows if/when/how the second hotel guest has disappeared.

I had also considered a fourth option: a conspiracy scheme between the missing friend and the other characters, although I couldn't think of a reason why.
Either way, all the performances are vibrant and entertaining - and I'm sure my ratings have something to do with that - and the mystery and tension remain throughout the entire episode.

The story offers 3 possible scenarios

I had also considered a fourth option

Wrong, wrong, wrong and wrong again. It's a little bit of everything! And it also perfectly explains the hazy and confusing introduction scene, although I'm not a big fan of elaborate flashbacks.
There's an additional manipulative twist, and the final scene is just fabulous and so different from all the other episodes.
And that's also the wonderful thing about THRILLER, you never know how good or bad it's going to be. I'm always excited when I pop in a DVD with new episodes.

9/10

 

[Willie Oleson]

Episode 23.


Maybe that scream features in episode 24, because it's definitely not in this one. Cheeky!

Looking at these new fictional characters in their fictional Thriller world I was suddenly overwhelmed by a sense of bizarreness.
With our current situation, images of empty cities, overcrowded hospitals...it almost felt like watching Thriller-reality from the other side of the celluloid, like a movie character gazing at its audience in the cinema.

There's a 70s office party going on which means there are a lot of details to absorb, and I stumbled upon this background character doing something uncharacteristically physical with his arms and hands.
Oh, and the wife of one of the attendees is being murdered in her home. She was staying with her mother but decided to return home after an anonymous caller informed her that her husband was having an affair.

The husband is arrested and then a private investigator offers his expertise - for a substantial fee, of course. After all, he's not one of the best, he is the best.
This results in a point-of-view storytelling that is rather unusual for THRILLER, although it also could have worked for episode 16. Maybe.
Matthew Earp, the private investigator, is an upper-class dandy type and he's like one of those supporting characters in Murder She Wrote who occasionally got their "own" episode.

It's a very clever whodunnit/whydunnit, I'll try to keep it as short as possible.
A man frames himself for the murder of his wife, but with just enough unconvincing details in order to intrigue the posh and presumptuous investigator.
With the help of the blonde boutique owner (she killed the wife) the husband manipulates the P.I. from one discovery to the next - which leads to the arrest of someone else.
The plan isn't necessarily to frame the other person (any person) but to make all the suspicion regarding their own involvement to disappear completely.
They only have to believe that he didn't do it.
Naturally, these details are revealed in the final twist because Matthew Earp is indeed as eagle-eyed as he claims to be.

Like I said, it's a good plot, but not very Thriller-esque.

After the arrest of the other person, Matthew Earp approaches him and offers his expertise for a substantial fee.
And I thought, that's the bit twist! He's created the murder mystery himself, and because he can always prove that someone hasn't done it (to quote Edie MacDonald from Number 96) he can make a fortune from an endless parade of new and rich suspects.
I wish Brian Clemens was still alive so he could compliment me on my fabulous alternative twist.

8/10

 

[Willie Oleson]

Maybe that scream features in Episode 24, because it's definitely not in this one

Ha! Ha!

The victim of an imagined rape sees the face of her "attacker" in every man, and then she kills them. And she screams, all.the.time.

I just wanted to bitch-slap the hysteria out of her.

Some scenes are satisfactory spooky thanks to the use of shadows and silence (when she wasn't screaming), and the old man who works at the train station looks very creepy - but somehow he didn't frighten her.

5/10

 

[Willie Oleson]

Episode 25.



A potpourri of characters live together in a mansion, mostly Americans but I think one of them had an Irish accent.
It's not really clear how they are connected and related, that information is given bit by bit, but for no particular reason.
Sometimes it looked as if the security man was a son-in-law.

One of the daughters has an accident and that's when nurse Diana Dors arrives. She cures her with non-specific hocus pocus but then the daughter becomes a nasty person with a taste for physical violence.

This is one of the better scenes, kind of like HH's The Two Faces Of Evil.

Nurse Bessy is the devil who offers a miraculous cure in exchange for the soul of the patient, and then she puts that soul in her special box.
It's a twist on the temptation and resurrection themes.
None of the other characters have a personality or anything interesting which makes this episode a one-woman show, but Diana Dors gives a very entertaining performance.

The special effects are hysterical and funny, especially in the last part that is supposed to look like big mayhem combined with the Final Battle between good and evil. It ended up looking like a scene from the Aussie soap spoof Let The Blood Run Free (and how I'd love to have those DVDs!)

These kind of scenarios require a more sophisticated production and editing e.g. The Omen, The Exorcist and Poltergeist.
I can appreciate the attempt, but it looks a little too ambitious for the THRILLER series.


6/10

 

[Willie Oleson]

Episode 26.



I'm afraid I can't tell you anything about it because I dozed off several times.


?/10

 

[Willie Oleson]

Episode 27.



A clinically insane criminal escapes from the institution and starts killing women. It has something to do with them being inherently imperfect or relationships that are doomed to become imperfect.
This has something to do with his upbringing by his domineering father, who also favoured his twin brother - or at least that's how he experienced it.


What's this? Richard Avery and Abby Cunningham on the train to Thriller Land?
No, it turns out he's Ian Hendry from the BBC drama/cult hit THE LOTUS EATERS, the first of Michael J. Bird's Mediterranean drama series.

The twin brother doesn't show up until Part Three of this episode and hadn't even been mentioned before that.
In the moment suprême, the imperilled Donna Mills has to figure out who's Killer Bob and who's Twin Terry.
What gave this revelation a bit of an edge was not the impossible decision itself, but the fact that Terry proved to be the architect she met on the train to Thriller Land.
So, ironically, that eerie part had nothing to do with danger at all.
Unless I hadn't paid close attention and the viewer was supposed to know this all along - but I'm sure that all the THRILLER fans on soapchat will give me the benefit of the doubt.

A bonus point for this fabulous set

The staircase almost looks like a painted optical illusion, but eventhough Abby Cunningham is a very resourceful woman, even she couldn't have climbed a stairs that wasn't really there. (I re-watched that scene to make sure my eyes weren't deceiving me).


7/10

 

[Willie Oleson]

I'm glad that soapchat is back online because the reviews are piling up and there's still so much that needs to be discussed.

Episode 28.




Three students are invited by a highly regarded criminologist who's currently working on his conditioned human behaviour project.

They don't know that they're going to be part of the experiment which, in true Thriller style, looks absolutely ridiculous. But that's not bad, that's good!
The brilliant science involves injections (some kind of tranquilizer, I suppose) a record with relaxing music and a kitchen bell that Big Mansion people used to summon a cook, butler, maid etc.
The sound of this bell is so extremely loud it would turn the sanest person into a maniac.

The butler and the professor's secretary are convicted murderers, and if they're able to restrain themselves (keep themselves from killing the guests) then his project will be a scientific breakthrough of the highest level.
So there are definitely things at stake here.

Corridors are great sets for suspense and action, and there's always a staircase close by. This one has two, and the second staircase leads to the laboratory which is supposed to be a maze of rooms and passages, but that was a little exaggerated imho.

The laboratory looks like the cheapest thing you've ever seen, but it really works because there's a sense of isolation, despair and well, the last place you want to die.

The male student is the first one who gets killed, the butler did it (he "went to the hospital to have his appendix removed") and after that it's the murderous secretary who's going to be tested.
Unfortunately, the German student ends up dead too and the professor is furious because his project has failed.
Nevertheless, the secretary insists that he hasn't killed the German student.

When the American student discovers her body, she and the writer (who's also residing in the mansion because he's writing the professor's biography) try to escape, but everything is locked and the phone is dead.
The reason for that, however, is not to trap Joanna Pettet, but the writer who is in fact the third convicted murderer. And when the professor discovers that he has tampered with the injections he realizes that it was the murderous biographer who has killed the German student. I'm sure she wasn't really German but that's not the point, and certainly not a reason to get killed.

Joanna Pettet manages to escape and the professor gets his comeuppance.

This episode is quintessential THRILLER: the mad professor, murders, the mansion, the bollocks storyline and the surprise twist.
Bravo, Mr. Clemens!

10/10

 

[Willie Oleson]

Episode 29.



This is a fun episode about cheaters and bluffers and a game of life and death.
Professional gambler/detective "Eddie" is played by the handsome Edd Byrnes.

Do I know him? He looks very familiar.

James Berwick plays Daddy Burns, a filthy rich villain who lives for gambling.

Also starring Ingrid Pitt as the femme fatale/bad Bond girl.

It looks as if the actors are enjoying themselves (well, it is a game theme) and it adds a certain spark to the story that makes up for the lack of urgency and terror.
p.s. there was something about Ingrid Pitt that reminded me of Christine "The Good Fight" Baranski.

8/10

 

[Willie Oleson]

Episode 30.



A popular fashion model is being watched and terrorized by a phone stalker.
When her brother stays the night in her apartment the stalker misinterprets him as her lover and kills him.

The rest of the episode shows the other 5 or 6 male characters behaving in the most suspicious and creepy way possible, so it's not a matter of whodunnit but whodidnnit.
I felt my intelligence was being insulted big time, and believe me, I can take a lot.
The female character is beyond stupid, well she has to be in order to let this (ahem) story unfold in the most torturous way possible.

Towards the climax (!) of this episode, one of the male characters thinks it's a great idea to prank the victim, eventhough his best friend is sitting bound and dead in the other room.
It was just so baffling and inappropriate but at the same time there was something surprising about it.

When the real phone stalker gets stabbed by one of the men whodidnnit, a big splash of jelly ends up on the other side of the room.


Lord have mercy.

2/10 (edited)

The last disc has the extended version of this episode and initially I was going to watch that one, but it refused to play on my computer. I guess I have to count my blessings.