Actually, it's just one film, but it takes a while for them to really make that clear. This is a very strange TV movie that stars Arthur Kennedy as an arson specialist who links the burning of an arthouse movie to a series of other crimes. He gets to go Hollywood and goes inside a movie studio where only a limited number of prints of the film are now available and they are desperately trying to rent the last one from being destroyed. An all-star cast features Warren Oates, Nita Talbot, Henry Jones, Jeff Corey, Russell Johnson and in his film debut, Tom Selleck. There's a separate storyline involving Hotel proprietor Norma Crane who when not at the desk sits in her room and watches old movie.
As this is the early 1970's, and her TV appears to be black and white, the prints of these movies do not look very good at all. Of course, this was before video cassette and restoration, so the grainy TV showing is very realistic to this time. I'm surprised she didn't have to fix the vertical or horizontal that used to be on the old analog TV's. Indeed, Ms. Crane does look a lot like Suzanne Pleshette with the combination of Polly Bergen and Elizabeth Ashley. Film audiences will recognize her as Golde in the movie version of Fiddler on the Roof released just a year after this. A guest at the hotel befriends her, upsetting her partner Johnson who threatens him. There's a lot going on in an hour and a half of a very convoluted film that also has a touch of the late 60's/early 70's counterculture at a few points in the film. Kennedy, one of the best unsung actors of the golden age of Hollywood, is very good but the script is never sure of which direction it wants to be going in. That makes it very dated with a couple of interesting elements, but for the most part, a lot of it bored me.
As this is the early 1970's, and her TV appears to be black and white, the prints of these movies do not look very good at all. Of course, this was before video cassette and restoration, so the grainy TV showing is very realistic to this time. I'm surprised she didn't have to fix the vertical or horizontal that used to be on the old analog TV's. Indeed, Ms. Crane does look a lot like Suzanne Pleshette with the combination of Polly Bergen and Elizabeth Ashley. Film audiences will recognize her as Golde in the movie version of Fiddler on the Roof released just a year after this. A guest at the hotel befriends her, upsetting her partner Johnson who threatens him. There's a lot going on in an hour and a half of a very convoluted film that also has a touch of the late 60's/early 70's counterculture at a few points in the film. Kennedy, one of the best unsung actors of the golden age of Hollywood, is very good but the script is never sure of which direction it wants to be going in. That makes it very dated with a couple of interesting elements, but for the most part, a lot of it bored me.