Winter Kill

I recall staying up late one night back in 74' and watching this in the dark with my older brother, all while staying over night at my grandma's house, down stairs in the basement. I guess you could say that was a perfect setting.

I was enthralled in the story and I remember a night scene in which pebbles were tossed at a window, where a woman lived (I assumed it was her home) by some unknown person, just tossing them to get her attention, one at a time. Finally getting her attention, she stood in the window and by the time the audience figured something was about to happen, she was fatally shot to death!! I was horrified. This T.V. thriller seemed to have a pace that was a little sleepy in it's delivery of the story and the action of the characters in some parts, but that was probably just the 'm.o.' of it.

Now it's been over 30 years and I would really enjoy seeing this again from beginning to end, but I wouldn't know where to look for it on the dial. I don't know if it is on tape or disk either. Some of the classic stuff doesn't always get market shelved to the public, like it should.

Anyway if you are an Andy Griffith fan, I should think you would like him in this and be intrigued by this story too. I rate it an 8. (***)

After Mayberry, producers plugged Andy Griffith back into a sheriff's role & transplanted him to the high country of N. California. The town (Eagle Lake) is a ski resort, where Nick Nolte, a year or so shy of his big break in "Rich Man, Poor Man," is an instructor. A sudden string of homicides has the town fathers eager for a resolution before the tourist season begins (a theme used a year later in the theatrical "Jaws").

TV movies were becoming the forum for the changing morality & formerly taboo topics (the sheriff has a live-in girl friend; the plot revolves around the locals that aided in a young woman's abortion), even moreso than theatrical flicks, & "Winter Kill" is a fine crucible of the kinds of things the networks were peddling in prime time back then. There @Eagle Lake, the adulterers probably outnumber the tourists.

Movie features a slew of familiar TV faces of the time: John Larch, Eugene Roche, Charles Tyner. Occasionally rebroadcast on TNT, altho it might be more @home on Lifetime. Some good suspense; definitely not for children.

Anything Andy Griffith plays in as a sheriff is usually good. This movie keeps the viewer in suspense until (almost) the end, when it becomes apparent who the villain is. Interesting, and nice scenery.

Clearly done on a rather low budget, the TV movie Winter Kill is not a great piece of film making by any stretch, but it might be worth a view.

The plot revolves around the search for a serial killer in a small ski resort town. So ok, some of the supporting actors are not very good, and the first part of the movie is meandering and slow enough to test the patience of a few viewers. However, when the movie got into gear in the second part, it managed to be entertaining and well-thought, if not rightdown tense, and the resolution left me pretty satisfied.

Andy Griffith is convincing as the Sheriff. Between the supporting cast, a young Nick Nolte in one of his first screen appearances.

This is a great film with 60's and 70's character actors, and roles at a 70's pace. A murder mystery but still has lovable characters that work well together. During these years much of what we were given in murder mysteries gave you the culprit right up front. No guess work with Columbo, Murder She wrote, Quincy, Barnaby Jones, later Diagnosis Murder with Dick Van Dyke. Worth watching.