George Peppard is Banacek in Detour To Nowhere

Movie star George Peppard (THE CARPETBAGGERS) turned to network television in the fall of 1972 as BANACEK, which rotated with Richard Widmark’s MADIGAN and James Farentino’s COOL MILLION under NBC’s WEDNESDAY MYSTERY MOVIE banner. Before that, however, Peppard gave the character of Thomas Banacek, a proudly Polish freelance investigator based in Boston, a test run in DETOUR TO NOWHERE, an acceptable pilot movie directed by Jack Smight, with whom Peppard had worked on THE THIRD DAY and would work again on DAMNATION ALLEY.

BANACEK’s gimmick, introduced in this pilot written by series creator Anthony Wilson (LOST IN SPACE), is the “impossible crime,” akin to the classic locked-door mystery. Banacek is called in to investigate the baffling theft or disappearance of an expensive item. In DETOUR TO NOWHERE, the object is an armored car carrying nearly $2 million in gold that vanishes from a desert highway, its drivers left dead at the bottom of a cliff with no trace of the vehicle. Obstacles between Banacek and the mystery’s solution include corrupt sheriff Don Dubbins (THE ILLUSTRATED MAN), grinning tycoon Ed Nelson (PEYTON PLACE), and rival investigator Christine Belford (TO KILL A COP).

The pilot was clouded with controversy. During location shooting in Boston, a 24-year-old female extra accused Peppard of rape. He was eventually cleared in court of all charges. Also, KNBC, Los Angeles’ NBC affiliate, threatened to not air the pilot because guest star Ed Nelson was running for city council in San Dimas, California, and his opponents wanted air time under the equal time rule. Nelson withdrew from the race, and DETOUR TO NOWHERE aired on KNBC as scheduled.

Oscar-winning cinematographer Sam Leavitt (THE DEFIANT ONES) was nominated for an Emmy for his photography here (he lost to KUNG FU’s Jack Woolf). BANACEK was the only NBC WEDNESDAY MYSTERY MOVIE spoke to earn a second season, where it rotated with Dan Dailey’s FARADAY AND COMPANY, James McEachin’s TENAFLY, and Helen Hayes and Mildred Natwick’s THE SNOOP SISTERS. Belford, Ralph Manza as chauffeur Jay Drury, and Murray Matheson as bookstore owner Felix Mulholland made the jump from pilot to series with Peppard. Sixteen BANACEK episodes aired in total. Peppard, of course, found greater television success as the leader of THE A-TEAM.

The Snow Creature

From the father/son director/writer team who gave you KILLERS FROM SPACE, PHANTOM FROM SPACE, and MANFISH comes THE SNOW CREATURE. And because you’ve seen those other films by W. Lee Wilder and Myles Wilder — the great Billy Wilder’s brother and nephew, respectively — you know to stay the hell out of THE SNOW CREATURE’s way. Its only claim to fame is that it is the first American science fiction movie about the Abominable Snowman. It also holds the distinction of being the first American science fiction movie with an actor (reportedly Lock “Gort” Martin) inside a cheap-looking Abominable Snowman suit.

Probably the only Abominable Snowman (hell, I’m calling it a Yeti from here on — less typing) movie partially set in Southern California, THE SNOW CREATURE stars Paul Langton (patriarch of the Harrington family on PEYTON PLACE) as a scientist in charge of an expedition into the Himalayas. He scoffs when his Sherpa guide Teru Shimada (YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE) tells him Shimada’s wife has been kidnapped by a Yeti, so Shimada kidnaps the whole party at gunpoint and forces them to search for his wife. Of course, they find a whole family of them, but only one survives (see the title) to be taken KING KONG-style back to Los Angeles.

Here the movie bogs down (as if it hadn’t already) in an inexplicable subplot about governmental red tape as Customs and Immigration argue whether a frozen Yeti is cargo or a person. Nobody is interested in this — it’s hard to believe the Wilders did — and it would be a huge relief when the Yeti inevitably escapes to wreak havoc in L.A., except the Yeti scenes are so cheap and boring. The creature is tall, but too slight of build to raise fear on its own, and W. Lee uses the same dull shot of it walking out of the dark toward the camera many times, even in reverse.

Oddly, climactic scenes of policemen (including FIVE’s William Phipps) chasing the creature through Los Angeles’ storm drains bring to mind THEM!, another 1954 release. Langton, who provides narration throughout, is a dull leading man, as if a more exciting one would have saved this movie. United Artists gave it a theatrical release.

The Frozen Dead

I don’t know if Herbert J. Leder is the only filmmaker to write, produce, and direct a Warner Brothers double bill, but I feel safe saying he is the worst. Both THE FROZEN DEAD and IT, a killer Golem movie starring Roddy McDowall, were filmed in color by Leder in Great Britain, but released in the United States in black and white.

Dana Andrews — a long way from LAURA — stars in THE FROZEN DEAD as a Nazi mad scientist in London twenty years after the fall of the Third Reich. Undeterred, Andrews moves forward with his heady scheme to rejuvenate the 1500 Nazi soldiers he placed in suspended animation during the war. Unfortunately, their brains don’t work, leaving Andrews with drooling idiots in full Nazi uniforms stinking up his lab (one of them is played by Edward Fox, future star of THE DAY OF THE JACKAL).

To Andrews’ and Leder’s credit, everything is played completely straight. Even the mere hint of camp would have made this material insufferable rather than silly. Though Leder’s direction is unexceptional, some of his images are indelible: a trio of Nazis hanging in a meat locker awaiting eventual reanimation, a wall of dangling arms (foreshadowing!), the decapitated but still living head of a young woman (Kathleen Breck) who can somehow communicate psychically with her best friend Anna Palk (THE SKULL), Andrews’ innocent niece.

No matter how many times filmmakers attempt it (here’s looking at you, THE BRAIN THAT WOULDN’T DIE), a disembodied talking head on a tray is impossible to take seriously (which is why the great RE-ANIMATOR didn’t try), and who knows what Andrews was thinking in his scenes with Breck. Too static and talky to work as a thriller, THE FROZEN DEAD wins points for its ridiculous premise and Andrews’ professionalism, but not enough points to recommend.

Colossus: The Forbin Project

Universal’s perceptive science fiction thriller owes a tad to 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, but manages to stand on its own, thanks to a literate script by James Bridges (THE CHINA SYNDROME) and taut direction by Joseph Sargent (THE TAKING OF PELHAM ONE TWO THREE).

Though THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS star Eric Braeden isn’t without talent, COLOSSUS: THE FORBIN PROJECT could have used more star power to counteract the drab photography (by television vet Gene Polito) and costuming (Edith Head). Albert Whitlock’s visual effects are quite good.

American scientist Forbin (Braeden) creates a super-computer called Colossus that is designed to keep an eye on the Soviets and launch nuclear missiles automatically if it senses an imminent attack. But — whoops — Colossus discovers the Soviets have their own super-computer, and the two machines team up to rule the world. They even shoot off a few nukes to prove they mean business. Can Forbin find a way to destroy his indestructible creation?

Considering COLOSSUS is mainly white guys in suits (and Georg Stanford Brown) looking at monitors, Sargent manages to work up a great deal of suspense. Stakes couldn’t be higher — nuclear annihilation — and the film melds elements of espionage and foreign intrigue into the sci-fi plot. Braeden was known for playing German soldiers in World War II mellers — he was a semi-regular on THE RAT PATROL — and brings a firm intelligence to Dr. Forbin. He and colleague Dr. Cleo Markham (drab Susan Clark) cleverly pretend to have a sexual relationship in order to have private conversations — Colossus agrees not to monitor the couple in bed — but expanding it into an actual romance is the film’s only major misstep.