TheMistyCopse_64
Joined Oct 2013
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TheMistyCopse_64's rating
This is one of the best, early
episodes of the series, a more literate, moody, artful installment than we sometimes got. I wish the show had always been this good, this focused, this atmospheric, as too many BIG VALLEYs were by rote and overly formulaic -- but then, that's 1960s television.... But it was one of the few entries directed by producer Arnold Laven... The story follows Audra's infatuation with an opportunistic investor whose motives towards the drought-stricken San Joaquin valley are something less than altruistic. Tom Tryon guest stars as the rapscallion to whom Audra is attracted.
While SINS isn't perfect, and it's bloated at 5 1/2 hours, it has a crisp, glossy, mid-'80s competence that almost works, a program starring (and produced by) Joan Collins, doyenne of the decade.
Although Aaron Spelling would never have greenlit the budget for all this European location shooting for DYNASTY (despite his doing so for LOVE BOAT twice a year), SINS has the look, posh production design (compared to DYNASTY's drab, inert sets) and vibe that DYNASTY should have had -- at least in Seasons 5 and 6 -- but absolutely didn't.
A shame... Except for the very first and final years (which were pretty good) most of DYNASTY was muddled and suffocated -- sparkling PR to the contrary -- further scarred by the creative perversities of the producers and their excessive control-and-manipulation of the actors. With more relaxed love-and-attention (if not higher budget) DYNASTY could've, and should've, been more like what SINS gave us.
Although Aaron Spelling would never have greenlit the budget for all this European location shooting for DYNASTY (despite his doing so for LOVE BOAT twice a year), SINS has the look, posh production design (compared to DYNASTY's drab, inert sets) and vibe that DYNASTY should have had -- at least in Seasons 5 and 6 -- but absolutely didn't.
A shame... Except for the very first and final years (which were pretty good) most of DYNASTY was muddled and suffocated -- sparkling PR to the contrary -- further scarred by the creative perversities of the producers and their excessive control-and-manipulation of the actors. With more relaxed love-and-attention (if not higher budget) DYNASTY could've, and should've, been more like what SINS gave us.
It was so easy at the end of the '50s and early-'60s to make something feel creepy, what with the end-of-the-world, twilight-zone-y ambiance of the period. All you had to do was turn a camera on... I first saw SCREAMING SKULL when I was 7 or 8 years old, and even though I could tell even then that it wasn't really "a real movie," the threatening intro (which tells us the film might kill us) and the eerie zeitgeist pulled me in... The actors are almost good-ish, the moody locations are spooky, there are minor shocks, and, yes, Mickey's hair is indeed long for 1958 --- but the film is strictly a C-movie affair, and a long-winded one (though only 68 minutes).