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“A Dream Reflection Of Reflected Reality: FEAR NO EVIL – An Observance”

EXT. GRAVEYARD-NIGHT-MOVING SHOT

Our FIRST PERSON CAMERA PROBES SLOWLY through the mist-shrouded reaches of a rank and ancient graveyard idealized to our grotesque purposes. Visions of headstones crumbling and statues dissolving into faceless chimeras. Vines and creepers imprison all. Here are burning torches, set as if to light our way. The CHORAL SCORE gives a sense of tormented SIGHING, of ANGUISHED VOICES locked within the dank earth.

Strange relics APPEAR to the searching CAMERA: the spare wreckage of a pendulum clock, its pulse still beating – a night creature taking sudden flight from beneath its base; a skull sealed within a tortured bird cage on a tapestry of rotted velvet, a light gleaming through its eye sockets; an iron gate appearing to bar our way and then swinging soundlessly inward.

“There was a time, we were told, when shapeless evils stalked the earth in search of human souls. In our own time, if such nightmare spirits exist, it is by disguising themselves in familiar forms – to dwell upon us – friend and neighbor – and thereby seek their victims. I submit to you now that there is indeed a case for the bedeviled. My name is Dr. David Sorell. And I have seen such things.”

These are the opening images, and narration by Louis Jourdan, for the original TV pilot, THE BEDEVILED, not used in FEAR NO EVIL.

FEAR NO EVIL was one of those films I had taken for granted, along with its talented director, Paul Wendkos, for many years, until I was reintroduced to the title at a private screening (along with another Wendkos feature, THE BROTHERHOOD OF THE BELL) giving me a chance to view this gem with a fresh, mature eye. Critically acclaimed when broadcast as a television movie on March 3, 1969, for NBC Television’s first “Movie Of The Week”, this intelligent and well-written motion picture is nearly forgotten, and in many ways can almost be viewed as a ‘lost film’. As of this writing I had contacted Universal Pictures, who replied that no copy is in their collection. And the UCLA Television Archives doesn’t list it in their collection either. But after getting e-mails from Mr. Gary Gerani (PUMPKINHEAD co-creator/writer), who then sent me a copy of the shooting script, and finally talking with him personally, I was assured that Universal does indeed have the original negative, which is believed to be in good condition. Additional information was also given to me by Jonathan Etter; the author of an excellent book on Quinn Martin ( “Quinn Martin, Producer: A Behind-The-Scenes History Of QM Productions and It’s Founder”. McFarland & Company. 2003, and again in 2008). And the Library Of Congress informed me that it has a 16mm copyright print on file. My real concern is the condition/existence of the original printing materials, said to be in the vaults at Universal. Are they in pristine/acceptable condition, and outside of faded TV print sources, will the film ever be restored and released to lovers of the fantastic?

The 1960’s were a time of experimentation by the motion picture industry that extended to the small screen. Made-For-Television features were just starting to get attention. The first TV movie was Universal’s See How They Run (aired in October, 1964). It starred John Forsythe, Senta Berger, and Pamela Franklin. In many cases, when it came to experimentation in television, Universal was ahead of the other studios.

Universal filmed a well-received motion picture for this new genre, broadcast on NBC on January 21, 1967 entitled THE LONGEST HUNDRED MILES. A well acted World War Two drama that was directed by Don Weiss and starring Doug McClure, Ricardo Montalban, Katherine Ross and Ronald Remy, it was a fast-paced tale of an American soldier (McClure) who aids in evacuating a group of refugees from the advancing Japanese after the fall of Bataan. Having seen this when first broadcasted, I never forgot the catchy theme music which I later discovered was composed by Hollywood legend Franz Waxman.

Gary Gerani wrote me: “For the record: NBC’s made for TV movies were called “WORLD PREMIERES.” These two-hour productions were broadcast on “Tuesday Night at the Movies” and “Saturday Night at the Movies” during this period, interspersed with theatrical films being presented on TV for the first time (many of them Universal releases from the 60’s, including films like the remake of MIRAGE with Bradford Dillman called JIGSAW, which began life as a made-for-TV movie. ABC’s “Movie of the Week” offered cheaper, shorter (90 minutes with commercials) TV movies every week in the same time slot. Although these became cult classics in their own right (THE NIGHT STALKER being the highest-rated TV movie of its day), they were generally inferior to Universal’s more expensive product (Universal would jump on ABC’s 90 minute bandwagon a few years later with “Movie of the Weekend”, which yielded DUEL, among others).”

Speculating on the seed of the story that would be released as FEAR NO EVIL, in view of the flood of medical dramas then on television, was it originally meant to be a story of a hip professional shrink dealing with mental illness, or was a supernatural element plot device intended from the start? Again, Gary points out, “Although psychiatry served as the basis for a number of TV series (“The Breaking Point”, “Eleventh Hour”) and Universal was giving every professional prime-time leading man treatment during this period (Roy Thinnes as “The Psychiatrist”), I honestly feel that THE BEDEVILED/FEAR NO EVIL was always intended as a story about a handsome psychiatrist who realizes that x-amount of his patients aren’t crazy, just beset by demons…hence his special interest in all things dangerously supernatural, starting with the Siletski case. The “Enter David Sorell” speech pretty much says it all. And FNE and RITUAL OF EVIL were green-lit by NBC Programming exec Mort Werner, who is on record as saying “There’s always interest in the occult…the Jourdan character could return annually.”

BEDEVILED was given the go ahead with veteran Hollywood writer Guy Endore signed on to do the story. But, as reported to me by Jonathan Etter, the writer was unable to deliver a finished product and Richard Alan Simmons ended up doing the project. Despite the problems, Endore was still given a screen credit for story. Richard Alan Simmon’s story about death, loss, demonic forces, and the fight to restore faith and life was totally original in this highly intelligent and dramatic presentation. The dialogue, written for Louis Jourdan’s David Sorrell, is brisk and interesting (with a caustic dry humor) as his opening scene, taking place at a gathering of friends at his apartment, illustrates. We see a comfortable flat, the walls decorated with various images of primitive art (occult related?), as a sonorous voice intones “In the name of the smoldering legions of hell…I call upon The Devil and his servants…the demon Baal and Forcas…demon Marchocis…Buer…Astaroth…Behemoth…Asmodeus…And Theutus….All these [the camera finally sets upon the speaker – a casual, hip, cigarette-smoking younger man, scotch in hand. This is psychiatrist David Sorell, played by Jourdan] summoned hot upon these hours…to do battle with a pack of infidels…who never know when to go home and who drink up all of my booze and sit around insulting their host”.

Later in the story, meeting with his patient, Barbara Arnholt (Linda Day George), who had just lost her future husband, Paul Varney (played by Bradford Dillman, who we eventually discover was set up by a coven of Demonologists), the viewer gets a glimpse into his professional mindset as they go over the woman’s situation and question whether she has experienced seeing her dead lover.

“Trying to explain the unexplainable is a parlor game; by definition, it’s an exercise in futility”, Sorell lectures Barbara. “The challenge – the real challenge – is to crack the riddle of what can be explained – even though the explanation lies beyond the bounds of what we call normal experience-reason-logic. And the then we find ourselves face to face with the whole bag of tricks – E.S.P.-Psycho-kinesis-Foreknowledge-Ghost Phenomena-Possession – all those things that simply can’t be-could be-might be-sometimes are – no matter how much that jolts our comfortable, common sense universe. Mine was jolted a few years ago – the Siletski case. Still, these occurrences are very rare. They usually have more conventional explanations. Do you have one?”

Despite her unnerving experiences, Barbara nonetheless displays the self-deprecating humor she will exhibit throughout the story: “I… think there’s every possibility that I’m losing my mind,” she cracks. Sorell offers that this is still a good reason to visit a psychiatrist, then adds that her visions of a dead lover coming back might offer luster to what may be erotic fantasies. “Is that what you think they are?” Barbara asks. “For the moment, it doesn’t matter. I assume you’re here for help; I want to help you.” Barbara insists they weren’t fantasies. Sorell asks if she wants these experiences to stop? After a lengthy pause, Barbara replies, softly but firmly, ‘NO!’, explaining that she cannot let Paul go – she loves him. The doctor responds that Paul is dead.

“Not for me! Not…when these things happen.” David responds that in some way, in some place, her lover still exists. Satisfied that she has given him truthful responses, Sorell pushes with this question: “There’s only one way to be with him, isn’t there Barbara?”. He pushes a little more: What must you do?” Barbara, hushed, says “Die”. David then asks if that is what she wants? The girl shakes her head ‘No’.

It is from this point on that the complex screenplay by Richard Alan Simmons goes into high gear as the viewer is plunged into a nightmarish dark world of power-mad obsession, betrayal, loss, and the supernatural. Adding to the tension is the cutting back and forth from Dr. Sorell’s investigation to his patient Barbara Arnholt’s ongoing struggle with the demonic forces attempting to possess her. The mixture of Lynda Day George’s involving acting style with the detached, and cold direction of Paul Wendkos, plays on the viewer’s anxieties concerning the Barbara character. As does the Simmons script. In fact, each time the story cuts from the Barbara character to the Dr. David Sorell character, Barbara is left in an extremely vulnerable state. The character of David Sorrel comes across almost as an alternate Father Karras from THE EXORCIST (with Harry Snowden, his friend and mentor, in the Father Merrin role) as a man who first uses his mind to find a rational explanation (shock-survivor’s guilt – mental illness) to Barbara Arnholt’s situation before exploring the other possibility).

FEAR NO EVIL received high ratings when broadcast on March 3, 1969, and excellent reviews. When one thinks about it, the film represented a number of ‘firsts’ in the history of television: 1. The first made-for-television horror film. 2. The first tele-project featuring Carroll O’Conner, who would of course would go on to fame as Archie Bunker in “ALL IN THE FAMILY” and 3. Famed writer Guy Endore’s final Hollywood project before his death on February 12th, 1970.

Guy Endore (full name Samuel Guy Endore) was born Samuel Goldstein July 4, 1900 to Isidore and Malka Hapern Goldstein in New York. His father was a coal miner, investor and inventor who was not very successful. When he was four years old, Guy’s mother took her own life. Isidore changed their names and placed his children in a Methodist orphanage, later gaining enough money from the sale of an invention to move the family to Vienna (the man said his wife came to him in a dream and wished the children to have a European education). For five years the children lived in Vienna until their father disappeared, the money ran out, and what was left of the family settled in Pittsburgh.

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