Dying Room Only

A favorite t.v. movie from the 70's. Again, Richard Matheson creates atmosphere and suspense out of almost nothing as a couple stops at a remote diner/motel and the husband never returns from the bathroom. From the bathroom? Who writes a suspense movie where the husband apparently falls in the toilet? The man who brought you the vindictive 16 wheeler of "Duel." Unlike that clever but overpraised feature, "D.R.O." (What's up with that title? It can't be a play on "S.R.O." can it? You don't buy tickets for the toilet?) stays close to realistic scale, and the less than apocalyptic climax is a face-off by two determined middle-aged women. Complain all you want - it worked for me then, it works for me now.

Not many movies give great thrills/suspense like Dying Room Only or Steven Spielberg's Duel. A couple makes a stop in the Arizona desert at the Arroyo Motel, a shabby diner-like place with two hostile locals: a cook (Ross Martin) and a customer (Ned Beatty). When Cloris Leachman comes back from the toilet her husband (Dabney Coleman) has disappeared. Now she's on her own and does her best acting ever. A lady at the motel (Louise Latham) and the local sheriff (Dana Elcar) aren't much help either and no contact with home can be made. So Cloris must search the place herself... Eerie atmosphere and great suspense should teach modern movie makers how to save on budgets and do some real entertaining. The big mystery: why doesn't a great thriller like this one get reruns or gets out on DVD? Only crappy overpriced VHS tapes in the net can be found... ABC please please please spread this movie.

I just saw "Dying Room Only" for the first time in over 30 years, and this is a typically great 70's TV-movie thriller. A couple (Cloris Leachman looking pretty good, and hubby Dabney Coleman) stop at a lonely desert cafe (in the daytime, not the nighttime as the summary here states) and the husband disappears as the wife is in the ladies room. The only two possible witnesses (the cafe cook and customer Ned Beatty, in a great sleazy role) are saying nothing. What happened? Where did the husband go? The movie then takes off to have Cloris Leachman trying to figure it out, since she is getting almost no help at all from anyone. Is even the local cop in on it, whatever "it" may be? Everyone is suspect. Nighttime comes, and danger looms....

I do agree with the reviewer that stated this film could have been better in the second half. The first half is amazing - very suspenseful and thrilling. The second half kind of veers into "typical" fare but is still decent.

A bunch of familiar 70's faces round out the small cast. Especially since the film is fairly short at about 1:13 (most TV-movies back then were 90 minutes with the commercials) this is definitely a fun watch.

Well-received but unsatisfying movie-of-the-week written by Richard Matheson, expanding his short story about a married couple driving through the desert who stop at a roadside diner for a bite to eat. The husband goes into the men's room and never comes out, leaving his wife in the hands of the suspicious-acting staff at the diner and the unsympathetic local law. Matheson could have taken this plot any which way, but instead settles on the most obvious scenario. I was hoping for something along the lines of "The Twilight Zone", perhaps placing the husband in an alternate reality. Instead, it's Formula 101--the old abduction plot--and the obviousness holds no suspense for us. In the lead, Cloris Leachman does very well, although she doesn't have much to work with. A promising premise, but I was "Dying" for a better denouement.

Is Richard Matheson awesome or what? Who else could conceive of something so simple and sinister as a woman's husband disappearing in a men's room at a broken down café in the desert? The same guy who conceived of a monster truck stalking a beleaguered motorist to great effect in "Duel," and that's only a slight sample of the other legendary tales he's penned. His skill at deriving something so evil out of the ordinary is very comparable to Stephen King at his '70s peak with "Night Shift" and "Dying Room Only" is indicative of that prowess --- it still makes an impact on people I show it to today.

The great news is that this film is now widely available as part of the Warner Archives collection, remastered in widescreen, and though there's nothing but the film on the disc, it's a bargain at about $10.

The locals, played by Ross Martin and Ned Beatty are creepy and cruel, the motel night clerk is surly and obtuse. It's really all on Ms. Leachman to figure it out, and Chloris does a really fine job here: she transmits her urgency and controlled panic without making herself into a blithering, hysterical wreck. She's a strong heroine. Dabney Coleman is almost unrecognizable as her husband, here, he's so very young looking.

I've heard many comparisons to "Breakdown" but this film is really only similar in plot structure. Breakdown was an adrenaline fueled roller coaster ride that was definitely one of the better road thrillers ever produced. DRO is more a psychological head-game and a mystery, more suited to rainy evenings at home than crowded nights at the multiplex. Pick it up, before they remake and ruin it.