Last night we found a good one from the BBC and writer Nigel Kneale, who brought you "Quatermass and the Pit." In "The Stone Tape"(1972), a British electronics firm, Ryan, Inc., is moving their headquarters into an old, abandoned stone mansion on the grounds of a vast wooded park. The general manager is on site but unhappy with the new digs. "Why didn't they just tear it down and build a new one for half the price?" Computer genius "Jill Greely" (Jane Asher) arrives and is nearly crushed by a delivery truck after suffering a hallucination in the parking lot.
But now we get down to business and the tech team is gung-ho, acting very much like you'd expect a bunch of confident computer nerds to act, only this is 1972, so instead of Bill Gates shouting insults and F-words, we have boss "Peter Brock" (Michael Bryant) fronting for Mr. Ryan himself, inspiring and goading his troops, who joke and talk a mile a minute. It's Corporate America in England ("Go Team!"), with The Company as a substitute for family. And tech arrogance has never been in short supply. All the gadgets we now take for granted have been in development since the 1940s and were already on board, in earlier iterations, by the late 1960s, so just picture Elon Musk and his top assistants isolated in their electronic world, but in a haunted house, and you have a picture of the team in this movie. The Ryan Corp. is ready to take on "The Japs" (Nigel Kneale's words, not mine) because if they don't come up with an idea to defeat The Japs, then The Japs are gonna monopolize the electronics industry. Peter Brock states the goal: "Listen up, ladies and gentlemen. We need a new recording medium. One that will overtake magnetic tape." And with that, Kneale predicts the coming of silicon and microchips. Brock says: "Give me something that will hold Wagner's Ring Cycle on a ball bearing and you'll all be millionaires."
The team, urged on by the equivalent of Steve Jobs (who was 17 when this movie came out), is pumped up and ready to produce. The only problem, as pointed out by Jill Greely, is that the data storage room is not yet ready. General Manager "Colly" (Iain Cuthbertson) apologises. "It's the workmen, sir. They refuse to go into that room." "Why not?" asks Brock. "Well sir...they, um....they say there's noises." Eager to get started, Greely checks out the room herself on a break. It's an old US Army storage area from WW2, but it's moldy-walled and creepy, with what looks like a cell off to one side. Suddenly, Greely hears a scream. The ghost of a young woman in 19th century dress appears at the top of a stone staircase. Greely runs out, but being a scientist, she's hesitant to tell anyone what she's seen and heard, because Neil deGrasse Tyson might mock her.
But she eventually tells Peter Brock because she's scared. Remember, she had that "hallucination" when she arrived, in which a freight truck almost crushed her. Brock has already stated that he needs Jill because of her brains, so, even though he doesn't believe in ghosts, he agrees to check out the data storage room by conducting an experiment. The Ryan Company has all the electronics necessary to prompt the appearance of a ghost and record it's supernatural sounds and image. "If there's a presence in there, as you claim, we can capture it and drive it out." He's doing this mostly to appease Jill, and to get the construction guys back to work, but while the tech team is in the room, doing their thing, the ghost appears and screams again, loud and clear at the top of the steps. But for some reason, they can't capture her on tape.
Brock inquires about the history of the building and learns from a local priest that it was the site of an exorcism in 1890. He's determined to get whatever-it-is out of the storage room so construction can commence, because now he has competition for the position of CEO. An older, eccentric appliance inventor named "Crawshaw" (Reginald Marsh) has a computerized washing machine ready for the production line (presaging Mr. Dyson and his vacuum cleaners). It can tell your Rayons from your silks and your ketchup-stained cottons. Crawshaw has convinced Mr. Ryan to nose Brock out as CEO. Brock, in turn, needs his Magic Wand recording medium that will put The Japs out of business and allow him to retake the throne. Suddenly it hits him: "The ghost! She's in the stone! Her residue is in the stone!" Nigel Kneale doesn't state this, but he's talking about the piezoelectric effect, which I learned about from the genius Dr. Joseph Farrell. Certain minerals in rocks, like quartz (which Kneale does mention), can conduct electricity at low levels but over a contiguous area because of the minerals' molecular continuity, which may account for supernatural phenomena like ghostly images at places where such rocks are present, under certain weather or lunar conditions. In other words, piezoelectricity, combined with fog, magnetism, certain temperature conditions, wind, etc. can account for the appearance of ghosts; and not just as "imaging effects", but as real spirits, because spirits can materialize in these conditions. In short, human spirits who wish to be seen can appear through piezoelectric confluences, and they are aware of this function of nature. Pizeoelectricity is a medium that allows them to be seen.
By now, the tech team has broken out the big guns: giant megaphone-like broadcasting horns, which make amplified ULF sounds. They use these in an attempt to "push" the ghost out of the stone steps. All this time, Jill Greely is feeling the ghost's terror and knows her history from the town priest. She may have been murdered by being pushed down the steps. It would've been nice if writer Kneale provided more context here. Was the building an asylum? We never find out. Information on the ghost takes a back seat to the high tech investigation and the driven corporate impulse of Peter Brock. But man, is it a spooker, though a talky one. Imagine yourself in a castle, with Bill Gates about to invent Windums so he can become the world's richest man, prodding his savvy-but-morally-immature team, who know nothing of religion or it's history and couldn't care less about the human spirit, but then they are faced with a very real ghost who is screaming in their faces, so they try to use their technology to get rid of it, while belief systems are challenged en route. That's the deal in "The Stone Tape", with British actors talking fast, as they often do. Two Big Thumbs Up, and Two Gigantic for the prediction of computer technology as it is today (the movie was made 51 years ago). Jane Asher was too posh for Paul McCartney, but he loved her and she inspired many Beatles classics. The picture is very good. ////
The previous night, poor Sally Field was put through the wringer in "Home for the Holidays"(1972), another chiller from Aaron Spelling and director John Lewellyn Moxey. I'd never heard of this one, but many IMDB'ers were rating it highly, and boy, does it earn the praise. You have to have a Christmas-themed slash-fest at Halloween, right? Eleanor Parker plays "Alex Morgan", the eldest of four daughters headed home for Christmas to see their ailing father (Walter Brennan) one last time. It's not because they love him; in fact they all despise him. His cheating drove their mother to suicide. Then he married "that witch" (Julie Harris), as they call her, the woman he cheated with, and everyone knows she got away with murder by poisoning her first husband so that she and Dad could be together. What a mess. The daughters are only visiting because Dad has written to Alex, saying that Harris is now trying to poison him to get his money! They only care because they want the money, too. They'll be damned if that poisoner is gonna get it.
Rain pours down as Alex drives to the airport to pick up her sisters: "Frederica", "Joanna", and "Christine" (Jessica Walter, Jill Haworth, and Sally Field). Frederica is addicted to booze and pills, Joanna to men; she's been married three times. Only little Christine (Sally Field is 26 but looks 16) seems unscathed by the family history. But they all agree that Julie Harris has to be stopped. Conferring with Dad, he says there's only one solution: "Kill her!" Alex says "of course we can't do that. Dad was speaking metaphorically. You know how he is." Dad's a rotten man, but so is his wife the poisoner. No one will drink the tea she offers. She explains to Christine: "You know I was acquitted by a jury". Christine wants to believe her, but the sisters insist she's a killer. The nice, handsome doctor from up the road visits the house, to give Christine a necklace for Christmas. "I remember the crush you had on me when you were ten." She mentions her sisters' suspicions about Harris. "Could you check on Dad, to see if he has any signs of poisoning?" The doc says "okay", but he can't make a determination without more lab tests, and it's pouring outside, lightning is flashing, and it's Christmas Eve. The hospital will be short staffed. "Your father is ill but not on the verge of death. It can wait. Call me after Christmas if the phone's back on. if not, come and see me. I'm just through the woods. Hopefully the storm will let up." Phone service out? Stormy night? A trip through the woods? All the ingredients are in place for sheer terror.
Middle sister Joanna decides she can't take any more of Dad's accusations (he has a line about her being a nympho "since jr. high school" that's shocking even now, but in 1972 it was out-regis). She wants to fly home. "But the airport will be shut down," Alex cautions. "Okay then, I'll drive to a motel. Can I borrow your car?" Alex says "Alright, but you'll have to drive back after Christmas to pick us up." But she never makes it to the car. Outside, a raincoat-wearing psycho is waiting with a pitchfork. Goodbye, Joanna.
The other sisters don't see this, and assume she made it to the motel. But now, Frederica has freaked out, and is popping downers. Alex warns her about an overdose. Frederica decides to take a bath. "Maybe that will snap me out of my depression." But she brings her vodka with her, and drowns with help from the psycho. Poor Christine finds her body in the tub, and now the screaming starts. Sally Field makes a convincing scream queen - shrill and manic. But neither she nor Alex assume foul play in Frederica's death, because Freddie was a barbiturate addict, and mixing them with vodka. Was it suicide or just an accident? They're more worried about what to do with Julie Harris, who they're sure is poisoning Dad.
"I'm gonna go get the doctor," says Christine. "He lives just past the woods." "Yeah," says Alex, "but it's dangerous with the rain and lightning!" "Yeah, but I know the way. I'm going!" And she puts on her coat and runs out of the house. Well, whataya think happens now? The raincoat psycho is waiting in the woods. Poor Christine becomes the prey in a Texas Chainsaw type chase, complete with slips, falls and prickly-bush face scrapes. When she comes to an old barn, looking for a place to hide, she stumbles over something - a hand! In the ground! Then she sees a half-buried face! It's her dead sister Joanna! Let the Sally Screaming begin! "Home for the Holidays" is another TV horror gem from the early '70s. Some DVD company (not streaming, but DVD) would do well to restore all these classics and release them as a set or series of sets. Most were from the ABC Movie of the Week, but NBC had their share, too, and they were all well done. That's why they not only hold up fifty years later, but still scare you. The picture is fair on this one. Don't miss it. ////
And that's all for tonight. Rams won, so it's a good day. Man, guess what I saw on my CSUN walk tonight? A skunk! Yep, I was coming down the walkway by the old Fine Arts building. The area is under construction, and I already see rabbits all the time (bunnies will soon overtake the campus), and I've seen the raccoons that come up out of the sewer. There are always the humble possums who trundle along the hedges, but this is the first time I've ever seen a skunk, and there was no mistaking it! Long low furry body, less clumsy than a raccoon but with a similar walk. And the big white stripe down the all-black back, just like Pepe LePew. I thought, "Wow, an actual skunk. How the heck did he get on campus?" Probably from the sewer. But, man, we've never had wildlife like this before. In the past, you never saw a bunny. Now there's dozens. You never saw a raccoon until about ten years ago. There are feral cats spread out in their domains. And now a skunk. Poor guy won't have many friends....
But keep bringing on the critters! I send you Tons of Love, as always. xoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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