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| Louis Jourdan & Lynda Day |
There have been a lot of eerie, supernatural themed small screen series and movies throughout television history, including Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Supernatural, Charmed, and The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. However, the stalwart heroes and heroines of those shows weren't the first occult investigators to grace the small screen. Back in the early to mid 1970s, Kolchak: The Night Stalker battled monsters, vampires and werewolves in a pair of TV movies and a short-lived (but much beloved) series, and Gary Collins starred as Dr. David Rhodes, a parapsychologist, in The Sixth Sense, which ran for two seasons on ABC. Those shows were pre-dated by one of television's first occult investigators, Dr. David Sorrell, portrayed by Louis Jourdan in a pair of telefilms which aired on NBC, 1969's Fear No Evil and 1970's Ritual of Evil.
Fear No Evil tells the story of Paul Varney, who buys an antique mirror that has a strange effect on him. After attending a party at the home of psychologist Dr. David Sorrell, Paul and his fiancé Barbara are involved in a car accident in which he is killed. Barbara survives, but winds up in the hospital. She moves in with Paul's mother, but that creepy mirror has quite the hold on her, as Barbara sees an apparition of her dead fiancé in the mirror. The evil doppelgänger wants Barbara to join him on the other side. What's the secret of the mirror? Is Paul's friend and co-worker, Miles Donovan, involved in his death in some way? As Barbara begins to lose her grip on reality, it's up to Dr. Sorrell, who has some experience investigating supernatural events, to solve the mystery and help her.
The movie is atmospheric, chilling and fairly intense for its time. If you're a fan of well-mounted tales of the supernatural, you will really enjoy Fear No Evil. The teleplay for the film was written by Richard Alan Simmons, based on a story by prolific author Guy Endore. The wonderful cast features Bradford Dillman as Paul, Lynda Day (George) as Barbara, and Wilfrid Hyde-White as Dr. Sorell's mentor, Harry Snowden. Louis Jourdan is terrific as Sorrell, and there's a fantastic performance from Carroll O'Connor as Miles Donovan. If you only know O'Connor from his role as Archie Bunker on All in the Family, you may be quite surprised at his work in the film. He's terrific in the movie. There are also some familiar faces featured in supporting roles, including Katharine Woodville (who played Natira in the classic Star Trek episode "For The World Is Hollow And I Have Touched The Sky") and Marsha Hunt, who's icily effective in the role of Paul's mother.
Fear No Evil has an offbeat visual style, courtesy of cinematographer Andrew J. McIntyre, a top-notch score by veteran composer Billy Goldenberg, and solid direction by television veteran Paul Wendkos, who also helmed the big-screen thriller The Mephisto Waltz. The film was intended as a pilot for a weekly series titled Bedeviled that would have followed Jourdan's character as he investigated supernatural events plaguing his patients. Sadly, the series never materialized, but a sequel, Ritual of Evil, followed in 1970, which featured Dr. Sorell, once again played by Jourdan, looking into the terrifying events centered around a young heiress, which seem to be work of a powerful witch. It's another excellent thriller, and well worth watching. Both films are available on a double-feature Blu-ray from Kino Lorber, and there are audio commentaries for both movies by writer Gary Gerani, author of Fantastic Television, one of the first (and best) reference works centered on classic genre shows. Here's the trailer for Fear No Evil: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfhvzFcWSVY.
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