What the Peeper Saw

"Poor Marcus, poor little devil..."

I first came across What the Peeper Saw back in the late 1980s at my best friend Robby McDonald's house in rural New Jersey late one Saturday night as we were channel surfing trying to find something else to watch after Saturday Night Live.  According to James Arena in his fantastic 2012 retrospective tome, Fright Night on Channel 9: Saturday Night Horror Films on New York's WOR-TV, 1973-1987, this 1972 film aired in the final year of Fright Night's fourteen year long run on channel 9 WOR-TV on May 9, 1987, so this was probably the exact date my buddy and I stumbled across it.  I don't think we watched the whole thing but probably caught it already in progress as we flipped back and forth during commercial breaks between Night Flight or Saturday Night Dead, intrigued by the radiant Swedish beauty of Britt Ekland and the suggestive incestuous overtones between her and her young stepson--though admittedly if Britt Ekland was my stepmother I would probably go crazy with Oedipal yearnings as well.

Watching this film again for the first time several decades later I found there was quite a bit of tastefully shot soft focus nudity which I'm sure was mostly cut out of that late night airing so long ago but I do seem to recall seeing quite a bit of skin back then which had kept this memorable title stuck in my brain ever since; for several years afterwards Robby and I--hopped up on coffee and cigarettes or, later on in high school, semi-zonked out of our heads on harsh locally grown skunk weed and/or oregano--would channel surf the analog airwaves late at night in vain, always searching for What the Peeper Saw, hoping to catch another airing of that weird Euro trash movie about the pervy kid and his hot blond step mom we saw that one time.

Marcus, the sociopathic kid at the center of the film played effectively by Mark Lester, has a memorably creepy scene early on in the film where he unabashedly takes a bath in front of his new step mother Elise, the aforementioned Ms. Ekland; he proceeds to play with a rubber bath toy, evocatively squeezing it so that water squirts from it in a not very subtle Freudian act before groping her bosom from behind while she's on the telephone with his recently widowed father.  This was the very scene that Robby and I saw years ago, after which we just looked at each other and said in unison, "what the fuck is this movie we're watching, and how have we never seen it on TV before?".

After finally seeing the entire uncut film again on the recent Blu-ray release from VCI, I can say this really is one great little fucked up movie, with a fucked up ending to match, though I can see why it was probably only ever shown once or twice late at night and not frequently aired during daylight hours in a Saturday afternoon monster movie matinee slot for the kiddies!

A few other small and probably insignificant observations from this sleazy exploitation psycho-drama:

• The main titles look like something straight out of a Wes Anderson film:

• The movie was produced by Leisure-Media, Inc., the most seventies sounding film production name ever.

• Young master Marcus has a German Shepherd named Trotsky(!?)

• There's an odd scene occurring in the background during the latter half of the film that takes place at a swinging shindig where several party guests gather around a human table comprised of a presumably naked black woman laying on her back with fruit perched on top of her body for the guests to partake of and enjoy.

• There's a strange painting of what looks like a three headed horse or perhaps a bull's head in the main couple's bedroom, the type of painting that would traumatize a young child for life.

I'm sure there are other similar little details that I missed but these were the ones that stuck out for me.

Here's the trailer, enjoy!

Don't touch that dial...

Here's a fantastic intro and commercial bumpers for a short lived Sunday afternoon genre movie series called "Planet 7 Cinema" that aired on channel 7 WABC-TV in the New York City area in the mid 1980s.  I always recalled this intro primarily because it was where I first watched At the Earth's Core (1976) one lazy Sunday afternoon at the family home in New Jersey, and since then always associated a strange laughing blue mechanical man and wind up dog with that film due to the great triumphal intro score by Mike Vickers that was also used to good effect in this creative and colorful bumper that really captured my imagination as a kid.

Special tip 'o the hat to YouTuber Tapthatt2012 for preserving this little piece of NYC television nostalgia for future generations.

Enjoy!



Note: I really don't recall if the silence at the beginning of this clip before the music kicks in was intentional or a transmission error, though my guess is it is an error.  One would think the little toy dog's yaps should be audible but until any other version shows up on YouTube, this is all we've got to go by.

The Night Stalker

I'm embarrassed to admit that up until last week I had never seen The Night Stalker (1972), its sequel or the short lived series featuring Carl Kolchak before--I was always a Trilogy of Terror, Gargoyles, and Don't Be Afraid of the Dark guy myself--but Kolchak really is right up my alley (1970s, Dan Curtis, made for TV, supernatural).  I had first heard of Kolchak back in the 90s when The X-Files creator Chris Carter admitted Kolchak was the inspiration for and spiritual godfather of Fox Mulder.

Since The Night Stalker is considered one of the great made for television movies of the 1970s, I probably don't have anything new or interesting to say about it that hasn't been said before or better by others, so with that caveat out of the way I will simply say I enjoyed his first outing immensely and look forward to seeing more of Kolchak.

A few things I noticed and/or liked about this movie:

• Darren McGavin was perfect as rumpled newspaper reporter Carl Kolchak.  I had really only known him before as the dad in A Christmas Story but loved him here as Kolchak.
• Kolchak drinks beer out of cans with pull off tabs!  His apartment is small and dingy and there's nothing in his fridge except a few beers.
• Along with his shabby apartment, Kolchak's car is also really beat up and rusted.  He's a real working class schlub which I can totally relate to.
• Hey it's Sheriff Lobo! (Claude Akins).
• I love the neo-noir jazz score that plays while Kolchak is running red lights trying to get to the vampire's latest crime scene.
• Best quote from Kolchak: "I've seen a lot of weird things in my life...I have never, EVER seen anything like this".  I wonder if George Lucas had watched this film right before writing Han Solo's eerily similar statement aboard the Millennium Falcon in Star Wars?

Anyway I'm looking forward to watching the sequel The Night Strangler and the series (which I just picked up on sale for around $25 at Barnes & Noble).

Here're the first ten minutes to whet your appetite: