Paper Man

I saw this on TV when I was 8; it was incredibly scary then. Saw it years later and marveled at the prescient use of computers and identity theft mixed with s.f. horror that could have appeared in "Ring." And there would be no "Videodrome" without it.

This is actually an enjoyable little computer thriller that shows off the popular perception of computers in 1971. Aside from enjoying Dean Stockwell's great early-70s hair, it's great to see the characters gather around a hard copy terminal as they enter input, and shuffle through the piles of printed output. Taking advantage of a computer error, a group of college students create computer records for a fictitious persona to use an untraceable credit card - an early attempt at identity theft that becomes dangerous when the students start dying one by one. I am a big fan of these 1970s TV movies, and this is a decent example with the mystery keeping my interest throughout.

I'm watching the flick right now. It's fascinating to recall that at the time the flick was made, computers were something very seldom encountered in daily life. Heck, even credits cards like BankAmericard and MasterCharge were only three or four years old. The computer lab is pretty realistic. Sure the computer has waaaaaay more blinky lights than a real one would have and there are two windows behind the computer that are there solely to give it a look of evil eyes. But when the computer students set down to work, they works at teletype consoles!

It's kind of neat to watch what the computer world was in the seventies. Those massive machines, producing data from the input of cards. The flashing lights and spools of magnetic tape. This is the story of an early effort to use the computer for evil means. It doesn't start that way. A group of college kids enlist the computer nerd, Dean Stockwell, to help them create and artificial being (made of paper, as in identity only). The purpose is to help them with their financial troubles, to challenge money into and out of accounts. Anyway, Dean Stockwell, looking about as weird as can be with those sunken cheeks and unibrow, becomes the suspect in a series of murders that seem to come from the computer's control. This starts as almost supernatural. A young woman is asked to use her charms to keep him on task by the hunky ex-Vietnam vet. There is more to this than meets the eye. It's hard to pull for Stockwell because he is so strange. He has some deep dark secret that must be revealed at some point. Describing it makes it sound really stupid, but there is really quite a lot to this film and it works reasonably well.

When a group of college students mistakenly come into the possession of a credit card, the titular PAPER MAN is born. His name is "Henry Norman" and the group conspires to give him a fictitious "life" of his own. When the bank gets wise, another student named Avery (Dean Stockwell) reluctantly joins in. Avery is a computer genius, and uses his skills to complete the ruse.

Not too shockingly, things begin to get a bit more complicated than originally anticipated, even taking a turn for the sinister and deadly. Has "Mr. Norman" somehow become real?

PAPER MAN is a very good made-for-TV, science fiction / horror / mystery movie from the golden age of such projects. There are some genuinely creepy moments here! The story is solid, and the characters are well-realized, sort of prefiguring the students in FLATLINERS in both arrogance and naivete. The ending is astutely chilling, considering how computers have actually developed in the decades since!

Co-stars Stefanie Powers as Karen, and James Olson as Art Fletcher.

EXTRA POINTS FOR: Spotting the printout portrait of Alfred E. Neuman in the computer room!

This film deserves to be rediscovered...