Monday, February 26, 2018

News, News, and Some News

I'm exhausted, but undeniably glamorous!
I'm so sorry I haven't been able to keep things moving on my blog in the ways I'd like, but I have lotsa news that I'm, like, crazy excited about!

I guess we'll do the time sensitive stuff first: If you are in San Antonio or can get to San Antonio on Saturday, March 3rd, please come see me at the San Antonio Pop Con. I'll be giving a presentation on Made for TV movies at 1:30, and then I'll be signing Are You in the House Alone? A TV Movie Compendium: 1964-1999 for the rest of the day. It's a free con put on by the local library and it looks amazing. Check out the presentation schedule here.

I am thrilled to announce that not only did Are You in the House Alone make Barnes and Noble's Best of Horror list for 2017 (OMG!), but it has been nominated for Book of the Year at the Rondo Awards!

Confession: I wasn't on the original list of nominees, but a few of you dropped the Rondo folks a line and I'm so touched that anyone took the time out to request that I be added to what is a great list of books written by a group of lovely and talented writers. I'd also like to give a big shout out to Mike White, who mentioned my exclusion on his Impossible Funky blog. That meant a lot. You can send your votes to taraco@aol.com. (If you want to throw a write-in vote my way for my commentary for The Spell, I won't stop you)


If you find you must vote for another book then follow your heart, but I think you should all make sure that you've checked off The Twilight Zone Podcast in the Best Multi-Media Horror Site category. Tom always does his best to put together an A+++ show and he deserves an award for all of his hard work (plus, dat voice... **drooling**)! Make sure you vote for the TZ podcast called The Twilight Zone Podcast... there's another TZ show on the list (which I'm sure is wonderful, but still... Tom should win!). Tom even made a post where you can just cut and paste his entry into an email. Easy peasy. Do it!

Hiding from my public
Back to me!

In non-TV news: Arrow Video announced last Friday that they are releasing a US/UK Blu Ray of Wes Craven's first horror film, The Last House on the Left, which my good friend Bill Ackerman (Supporting Characters) and I are providing a commentary track for! I am still pinching myself. I think many of you know that I'm a diehard Craven fanatic, so this opportunity has been a dream come true for me. Last House is due to be released in May, you can pre-order via Diabolik if you are in the US or through Arrow for you UK folks.

That's Joe Ziemba making me sound important
I did my first Made for TV Mystery Movie screening at the Alamo, and it was sold out! The evening and event were so amazing, and I'm beyond grateful for the chance to share my love of TV movies with people. I'll be doing another one in April and will share the link to buy tickets via my social media when they become available. On March 2nd I'm hosting the AGFA Secret Society screening. It's sold out, and I'm just mentioning cuz I'm excited. 


By the by, if you haven't had a chance to check out the Made for TV Mayhem Show, give us a go. We'll be talking Kathleen Beller telefilms in March. Join us.

So, now you can see why I'm not around as much (but did you see I posted a review of Madame Sin as part of a recent Classic TV Blog Association blogathon?), but I'm doing my best to keep the love alive! You can always visit my social media if you want to talk TV and horror. I'm on twitter @madefortvmayhem and my facebook is simply Made for TV Mayhem. Say hi!

I may or may not have more news for you in the near future. But hopefully soon (Amy, soon)!!! Absolutely every single one of you that I've run across in person and online has been so supportive of what I'm doing. Thank you!!!

Sunday, February 18, 2018

The Classic TV Blog Association Presents The Classic TV Villain Blogathon: Madame Sin (1972)


Network: ABC
Original Airdate: January 15th, 1972


Sometimes you run into something so (wonderfully) bonkers, you are left a little beyond words. When the thing that is loopy happens to be a TV movie, you can sometimes count on the late great Alvin Marill to help clear things up. To quote his entry from Movies Made for Television on the 1972 telefilm Madame Sin:

In her initial movie for television, Bette Davis is a ruthless, all powerful mystery woman who abducts an ex-CIA agent and forces him to help her steal an ultra-modern Polaris submarine.

Thank you Alvin, this gets us started. I mean, sure that description is outlandish, but where does the bonkers come into play, you ask? Well, first of all Davis is a half-Asian evil-doer residing in a Scottish castle. She has holograms of musicians playing enormous round harps, and her underground laboratory looks like the sinister workings of a Progressive auto insurance advert!

Flo from Progressive in 30 years
To help her along the way is the aforementioned CIA agent, Anthony Lawrence (Robert Wagner). He’s kidnapped somewhere in London by two women dressed as nuns who use the aid of a strange sound wave machine to throw Lawrence off his game. Out of sorts, he is flown to the castle, where he’s manipulated by a new programming device that works almost like a dog whistle, but with human-recognizable sounds. Turns out Madame Sin once had a tumultuous affair with Lawrence’s father and feels she can influence him with her familiar ties. To a degree this works, but the wicked Madame can’t stop herself from resorting to even dirtier tricks, which involve manipulations so wonderfully evil that it would impress the likes of the greatest small screen love-to-hate-them villains (JR Ewing, I’m looking at you!). And don’t forget, she delivers these emotional and physical blows to her opponent complete with false eyelashes and the bluest eye shadow I have ever seen! The fab obviously elevates her duplicity another notch.

Evil never looked so strangely fab!
Madame Sin commits all kinds of villainy, from faking deaths, to stealing and selling submarines for 1 billion dollars. But she’s at her best when she’s remembering her love affair with Lawrence’s father. She makes jokes no one quite gets ("we spoke only in Croatian!" har har?) and frankly, gets all bent out of shape that her lover never mentioned Miss Sin to his son. So, what does she do when she gets mad? She renders Lawrence deaf and throws him to the wolves of Scotland, which is really just a bunch of tourists who don’t want to be bothered with helping anyone. Evil, I say!

I'm here all week, guys.
As mentioned in Marill’s concise review, Madame Sin marked Bette Davis’ small screen movie debut. This TVM has an interesting history in that it was sold as a pilot film for a sadly unrealized US series, but was scheduled to play theaters overseas. Watching the unfortunate fate of Lawrence, one has to wonder if the series was meant to star Wagner at all, or if was going to follow the exploits of the great Madame (OMG. What did we miss out on?!?).

A board meeting of EVIL! Malcolm must be taking notes off camera
Shooting began in February of 1971 and the film generated some decent attention in England, where part of the film was shot. Bette, like all great divas, seemed to enjoy the response, but was quick to give credit to Madame Sin’s director, David Greene, whom she referred to as “brilliant… but different” in an interview she did for Sight and Sound magazine. She also enjoyed working with Wagner, who was also a producer on the film. In another interview appearing in Variety, Davis said that Wagner was “a very bright lad.”

Davis also felt that despite forty plus years in the biz, she was working on a role that that was fresh. In her interview with Sight and Sound she said, “This film is a new experience for me. For one thing, it‘s a crime fantasy and usually I like to find some way of relating to my characters. But how can you relate to someone as outrageous as Madame Sin? So I have to invent all the time. It’s fun.”

Life is good when you're this wicked!
True to her words, Davis looks like she’s having the time of her life. And that sense of fun isn’t just contained by Davis’ extravagant performance (complete with one of the best sashays I’ve seen in a long time. In short, she’s werking!), it can also be seen in the great Denholm Elliot, who plays her right hand man, Malcolm. He actually seems to be having even more fun than Davis (and was probably just giddy being in the same room with her). It’s impossible not to notice that subtle half grin that appears with some of his best dialog delivery!

Madame Sin
: It’s so disappointing to beat men. They never admit when they’ve lost. Unlike myself. But I’m never faced with the problem of losing because I always win.

Malcolm: Well I’m with you. That is if I understand you correctly, which seems highly improbable.

Evil harpist must be a resume builder...
While the film can seem a bit campy with its strange premise and flamboyant dialog delivery, it had some serious money behind it. Davis’ simple yet outrageously gorgeous wardrobe was designed by the great Edith Head, and aptly places Miss Davis in head to toe villainous glamour! Madame Sin was shot mostly around London and at the famous Pinewood Studios, with some other exteriors shot on the Island of Mull in Scotland. Madame Sin’s gorgeous castle came courtesy of Glengorn Castle (aka Castle Sorn). The acropolis is not just a tourist attraction, it’s now a bed and breakfast!* In short, this film is an oh-so-70s feast for the eyes, and a mind-blowing treat of strange, and wonderfully bizarre filmmaking. While it isn’t a copycat of Wagner’s 1967 TVM How I Spent My Summer Vacation, that colorful and awfully fun comedic spy thriller would make a fantastic double bill with Madame Sin!

Location, location, location!
Unfortunately, despite the positive press the film received while it was in production, London critics weren’t so kind with the final product. Richard Combs of London’s Monthly Film Bulletin remarked that Madame Sin suffered from a “dull script, a wooden hero and an abysmal ending.” The film opened at the Astoria in London’s West End and pulled in a respectable but only “Okay” box office of $8,556 (according to Variety). It was the replacement for Anthony and Cleopatra, which had grossed half as much the week before. Therefore, I call it a success!

Its premiere on American television went over much better critically, although Davis’ TVM debut didn’t set the world on fire (shame on us!). Kevin Thomas of the LA Times said Madame Sin was “lots of fun,” and he enjoyed the “handsome production.” Still, the ratings were average, and the TVM drew an 18.4/24. Not horrible but much like its West End run, it was only OK.

Promotional still used in Sight and Sound magazine
This was actually just one of two pilot movies Davis shot around this time. The other was The Judge and Jake Wyler (NBC, 12/2/1972), which was a Levinson/Link telefilm (they created Columbo). Davis tones down the glamour in the role of “The Judge,” and doesn’t spend much time doing much of anything except talking the phone. Of course, Davis’ star shines in any role, but if I were to pick one show to go to series, it would be hard to turn down Davis’ unforgettable strut as the evil Madame Sin.

This blog post is part of the Classic TV Blog Association's Classic TV Villain Blogathon. Get the full list of participants with links to their articles here. And, enjoy!

*And thank you to Gore Blimey from the Trilogy of Terror podcast for helping me with information regarding Glengorn Castle. You're the best!