Written by William F. Nolan Directed by Dan Curtis | Story by Fred Mustard Stewart Country of origin United States | |
Starring Roy Thinnes
Angie Dickinson
Don Porter Music by Bob Cobert (credited as Robert Cobert) | ||
The Norliss Tapes is a 1973 American television horror film directed by Dan Curtis and written by William F. Nolan, starring Roy Thinnes and Angie Dickinson. Framed through a series of tapes left behind by the missing Norliss, an investigator of the occult, it tells the story of his encounter with a widow and her artist husband who has inexplicably returned from the dead.
Contents
The film was originally produced by NBC as a pilot for a television series which was ultimately not produced. The film premiered as a standalone movie on NBC Networks on February 21, 1973.
Plot
David Norliss, a occult investigator, vanishes from his home in San Francisco, California, leaving behind a series of tapes explaining his absence and recent investigations. The narrative follows along with Norliss's voiced recordings, listened to by his friend, Sanford Evans.
Norliss had recently investigated an incident reported by Ellen Cort, a widow who was attacked by her recently-deceased husband, James, one night on their estate near Monterey. She confesses to Norliss that her husband, who had been suffering from a crippling disease, became involved in the occult after meeting a mysterious woman, Mademoiselle Jeckiel, who attended one of his art exhibitions. She also says he was buried with a mysterious Osiris scarab ring that Jeckiel gave him.
That evening in Carmel, a young woman is attacked by James in her car, causing her to crash and die. When she is found, her skin is similarly a dark shade of grey, and a coroner confirms her body was thoroughly drained of blood. Norliss travels to Carmel to meet with Sheriff Tom Hartley to discuss Ellen's claims. Later, Norliss and Ellen go to visit James's crypt on the estate, and find his body inside, the ring on his hand. Norliss goes to San Francisco to meet Charles Langdon, a gallery owner who had called Ellen inquiring about purchasing James's ring. Langdon, now armed with the knowledge that the ring was buried with James, goes to the family crypt after their meeting, but finds the coffin empty; as he leaves the crypt, he is attacked by James.
Norliss meets with Mme. Jeckiel, who makes vague claims that he should stay away from the Cort estate. That night, Norliss and Ellen go to investigate James's art studio, where they find a large sculpture Ellen claims was not there days before. Suddenly, James breaks through the studio door. Norliss shoots him multiple times, but he continues to chase them out of the studio. As they drive away, James rips off the door of their car. Sheriff Hartley goes with Norliss and Ellen to the estate, and they find his crypt empty. Late that night, Ellen's sister, Marsha, has just returned to San Francisco from a business trip to New York City; she arrives at the Cort estate, hoping to spend the night with her sister. When she finds nobody home, she instead lodges at a nearby motel. As she prepares to shower, James breaks into the room and attacks her, carrying her into the nearby woods.
In his research, Norliss discovers a series of underground tunnels were built on the Cort estate in its construction in the 1920s; additionally, lab results on clay from the sculpture show it is made up of human blood. Mme. Jeckiel meets with Ellen unannounced, and reveals James had made a pact with Sargoth, an ancient Egyptian god, to create a sculpture through which Sargoth could enter the world; in exchange, James would receive immortality. In order to stop him, she insists they must remove his scarab ring.
Ellen and Mme. Jeckiel locate the tunnels under the property in search of James, and find him resting inside a pine box coffin; as Mme. Jeckiel attempts to remove the ring, James awakens, and bites her neck. Ellen flees into the tunnels, and stumbles upon Marsha's corpse. Norliss finds Ellen in the tunnels, and the two flee, surfacing in James's art studio, where the sculpture appears almost finished. James then enters the studio; as Norliss and Ellen watch, he summons Sargoth, bringing the statue to life. Norliss is able to stop him by making a circle of fire to contain them, burning the studio to the ground.
Evans finishes listening to the tape, and wonders if Norliss's disappearance is related the incident described on it. He begins to play another tape, which documents an unknown second event.
Cast
Production
Originally written under the working title Demon, The Norliss Tapes was adapted from a story by Fred Mustard Stewart; writer William Nolan said that he took Stewart's basic premise of a "walking dead man" and adapted it into a teleplay that was mostly made up of his own ideas.
The pilot was shot in San Francisco and Monterey, California.
Release
The film premiered on February 21, 1973. It was later released on DVD for the first time by Anchor Bay Entertainment in 2006, licensed by 20th Century Fox. The DVD, now out of print, featured theatrical trailers as bonus material.
Critical reception
Variety said: "Curtis directed the film with an eye to tension, and that he manages. The idea behind Nolan's script has validity, with its open dependency on the supernatural. The basic thrust, to scare, is what counts, and there Nolan, Curtis, Thinnes, and company succeed. The Hollywood Reporter also praised the film, calling it: "a lot of fun, with a new twist on the old vampire story." Maitland McDonagh of TV Guide also praised the film, calling it "a creepy, handsomely shot bogey tale that holds up surprisingly well."
In Television Fright Films of the 1970s, critic Dan Deal called The Norliss Tapes "one of the lesser entries in the Dan Curtis canon," faulting it for its "over-reliance on dialogue, shallow characterization, an unimpressive monster and too much shorthand logic."