Country: USA
Original Transmission Date - 01/10/1974
Whilst Richard Matheson
is still chiefly known for his novel I am
Legend (1954) and the ensuing film adaptations of it that followed in 1964,
1971, and 2007, and for his screenwriting work for cinema in the 1960s
(highlights include House of Usher
[1960], Night of the Eagle [1962], The Raven [1963] and The Devil Rides Out [1968] his work for
American network television in the 1970’s remains as equally interesting, in
spite of the relative lack of column inches it receives. This lack of attention
may be due to the fact that a number of his teleplays were overshadowed by the
men who directed and/or produced the movies. Duel (1971) for example is rarely discussed as a Richard Matheson
film despite the fact that he wrote the teleplay and the short story it was
based on. Film scholarship has chosen to make Steven Spielberg the main man.
His teleplays The Night Stalker
(1972), The Night Strangler (1973), Scream of the Wolf (1974), Dracula (1974), Trilogy of Terror (1975), and Dead
of Night (1977) were all presided over by director/producer Dan Curtis. For
some Curtis is an ‘auteur’, and the films previously mentioned are almost
always discussed as part of his oeuvre rather than Matheson’s. In my opinion it
is Matheson’s world view that informs these productions, and this state of
affairs only goes to highlight an institutional and scholarly lack when it
comes too appreciating the contribution of the screenwriter.
Matheson concluded 1974
with his fifth teleplay of the year The
Stranger Within. On this occasion he was working away from Curtis, with
directorial duties assigned to Lee Phillips (who later went on to direct the Carrie [1976] rip off TV movie The Spell [1977] and production duties
handled by Neil T. Maffeo under the auspices of Lorimar Productions. The movie
would air on ABC on October 1st 1974, thus bringing the curtain down
on a tremendously prolific and fertile year for Mr. Matheson. Once again
Matheson was in the position of adapting one of his own short stories, and as
usual it is Matheson’s literate and intelligently structured narrative that
most impresses. Almost all other aspects of The
Stranger Within suffer from a blandness that at times feels deliberate. A
tactic employed perhaps to emphasise the increasingly histrionic and hysterical
behaviour of Ann Collins (Barbara Eden). If this is the case then full credit
to the filmmakers, but I suspect it wasn’t. A major weakness of the movie is
that it lives and dies by its central performance. If you buy into Eden’s
performance as the wife of a man who has had a vasectomy, who nevertheless
becomes pregnant, and the ensuing odd behaviour that follows, then you’ll get a
lot out of this movie. I personally couldn’t stand her performance!
The film does do a good
job of setting up a rather apathetic vision of upper middle class suburbia. The
husband David (George Grizzard) is a teacher, who is quite comfortable with
their lifestyle, happy with the decision he made to get a vasectomy (a result
of a traumatic miscarriage for Ann) and totally and thoroughly dull. The
revelation such as it is, of course leads to accusations of infidelity, and the
first third of the movie spends a lot of time covering the accusations and
arguments. This is pure soap opera, something a lot of these 1970’s TV movies
seem powerless to avoid. Once Grizzard has been given his little opportunity to
over-act, and no further explanation is forthcoming, the film concentrates on
the increasingly disturbing behaviour of Ann as the foetus grows at an alarming
rate inside her. This includes eating copious amounts of salt, drinking gallons
of coffee, and speed reading through hundreds of scientific and historical
textbooks. It all adds up in David’s mind to one conclusion...Abort! Abort!
Abort! So then we enter the next soap opera element phase of the
narrative...the obligatory abortion debate! Unfortunately for David it is a
moot point because every time they attempt to drive to the clinic, Ann is
wracked with agony, and she becomes convinced the creature inside her refuses
to be destroyed.
Parts of this sub Rosemary’s Baby (1968) intrigue works
quite well, and as the narrative goes forward and each expert is dumfounded by
Ann’s condition, so the predictability of the conclusion increases. Ann by now
is having visions of an alien sea, and these ramblings have inspired her to
paint a picture of an alien world. While the abortion debate is contemporary
and somewhat opportunistic, it still seems somewhat passé. However to the films
merit it is a very early example of an alien abduction narrative. Ann’s
painting even pre-figures the clay mountain built by Richard Dreyfuss in Close Encounters of the Third Kind
(1977), and I feel certain Spielberg would have been familiar with The Stranger Within. The
science-fictional twist is a relief, because at certain points it does seem as
though The Stranger Within is going
to take its imitation of Rosemary’s Baby
to the extreme. But these are only minor positives in the films favour;
ultimately this movie is a dour affair. All technical aspects are flat,
unimaginative, and lethargic. To excuse this as limitations of the medium just
doesn’t wash, there was some very accomplished and stylish films being made
within television at the time. The film wastes too much time on the adultery
angle, too much time on the weird diet (how many times do we have to see Eden
eating salt and drinking coffee?) too much time on the speed reading (a point
made at least ten times) and not enough time on the alien/sci-fi angle of the
narrative. The Stranger Within is a
failure, but an interesting one.
© Shaun Anderson 2013
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