cigarjoe Posted October 1, 2018 Share Posted October 1, 2018 Anybody ever hear of this film? I haven't On IMDb it gets either a 1/10 or a 8,9,10/10. This isone of the of weaknesses of TCM. It's films like this that should get an uncut screening. And you know that with the amount of repeats they could squeeze these in somewhere. A 1971 psychological thriller directed by Barry Shear. I've noticed that some of the reviews mention that they only saw cut versions. The Todd Killings Here is the cast: Robert F. Lyons Richard Thomas Belinda Montgomery Barbara Bel Geddes James Broderick Gloria Grahame Holly Near Ed Asner - Fay Spain - Mrs. Mack Michael Conrad - Detective Shaw Storyline (from IMDb) Based on the true story of '60s thrill-killer Charles Schmid ("The Pied Piper of Tucson"), Skipper Todd (Robert F. Lyons) is a charismatic 23-year old who charms his way into the lives of high school kids in a small California town. Girls find him attractive and are only too willing to accompany him to a nearby desert area to be his "girl for the night." Not all of them return, however. Featuring Richard Thomas as his loyal hanger-on and a colorful assortment of familiar actors in vivid character roles including Barbara Bel Geddes, Gloria Grahame, Edward Asner, Fay Spain, James Broderick and Michael Conrad. Someone with the link check if it was screened ever by TCM. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaveGirl Posted October 1, 2018 Share Posted October 1, 2018 1 hour ago, cigarjoe said: Anybody ever hear of this film? I haven't On IMDb it gets either a 1/10 or a 8,9,10/10. This isone of the of weaknesses of TCM. It's films like this that should get an uncut screening. And you know that with the amount of repeats they could squeeze these in somewhere. A 1971 psychological thriller directed by Barry Shear. I've noticed that some of the reviews mention that they only saw cut versions. The Todd Killings Here is the cast: Robert F. Lyons Richard Thomas Belinda Montgomery Barbara Bel Geddes James Broderick Gloria Grahame Holly Near Ed Asner - Fay Spain - Mrs. Mack Michael Conrad - Detective Shaw Storyline (from IMDb) Based on the true story of '60s thrill-killer Charles Schmid ("The Pied Piper of Tucson"), Skipper Todd (Robert F. Lyons) is a charismatic 23-year old who charms his way into the lives of high school kids in a small California town. Girls find him attractive and are only too willing to accompany him to a nearby desert area to be his "girl for the night." Not all of them return, however. Featuring Richard Thomas as his loyal hanger-on and a colorful assortment of familiar actors in vivid character roles including Barbara Bel Geddes, Gloria Grahame, Edward Asner, Fay Spain, James Broderick and Michael Conrad. Someone with the link check if it was screened ever by TCM. Boy, you tricked me there since I was thinking this was a movie about Thelma Todd and possibly solving her murder by indicting Pat DiCicco or someone else close to her. Just checked the IMDB and Google and saw that this case inspired the movie "Smooth Talk" with Treat Williams and Laura Dern which I have seen. TTK does sound interesting and I'd watch any movie with both Fay Spain and Gloria Grahame in it. I did notice a preponderance of cast members who are more from television series in this film, like Asner, Broderick, Conrad, Thomas and Montgomery but of course Bel Geddes is a veteran of both. Also noticed its director had a plethora of tv credits as director. This is the type of film that would play well at the drive-in and look forward to seeing it sometime, maybe as a Halloween spooker on some cable channel this month? Thanks for bringing it to our attention, Cigar Joe. I thought I'd read every book on serial killers but this guy, Schmid's MO was new to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hibi Posted October 1, 2018 Share Posted October 1, 2018 I've never heard of it. Maybe it played the drive in circuit...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alleybj Posted October 1, 2018 Share Posted October 1, 2018 Skipper Todd really digs girls... it’s his way of killing time. At least the tag line goes something like that. I have the dvd, but haven’t watched it yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cigarjoe Posted October 1, 2018 Author Share Posted October 1, 2018 19 minutes ago, alleybj said: Skipper Todd really digs girls... it’s his way of killing time. At least the tag line goes something like that. I have the dvd, but haven’t watched it yet. where did you get the dvd? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LawrenceA Posted October 1, 2018 Share Posted October 1, 2018 22 minutes ago, cigarjoe said: where did you get the dvd? It's available on Amazon ($13.93 at the moment): 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cigarjoe Posted October 3, 2018 Author Share Posted October 3, 2018 It's on a well known streaming site also but in tv ratio looks like a multi generated copy of a VHS tape. The film is surprisingly well made, you'd think it would have been more juvenile given the subject and the time period. It at times felt like an updated Psycho combined at one point with Ace in the Hole. It actually comes off well. Gloria Grahame and Barbra Bel Geddes are nice to see and Richard Thomas and Robert F. Lyons are great. It may be worth a DVD purchase just to see it in the correct aspect ratio. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cigarjoe Posted October 3, 2018 Author Share Posted October 3, 2018 P.S. The film, I forgot to mention, is ridiculously germane to the "party animal atmosphere" circumstances revolving around the Kavanaugh hearings, check it out. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dhardhag Posted October 3, 2018 Share Posted October 3, 2018 (edited) [...] Edited October 3, 2018 by TCMModerator1 Video removed due to Copyright Concerns Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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