SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

Spidersecu Don't Believe the Hype

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

azathothpwiggins In NIGHT OF TERROR, a teacher named Linda Daniel (Donna Mills- PLAY MISTY FOR ME) and her friend Celeste (Catherine Burns) are giving their usual, children's art class in Linda's apartment. Outside her door, a scuffle draws her attention, so she takes a look, witnessing a man being brutalized in the hallway. When the man is killed for something he supposedly has, Linda's life changes forever. Believing she's been given whatever it is, a group of mob-types, led by Brian Dipaulo (Chuck Connors- TV's HORROR AT 37,000 FEET, SOYLENT GREEN), begin following and terrorizing Linda and Celeste. These guys mean business! While fleeing from Dipaulo, the women are involved in a tragic automobile accident, resulting in Linda's lengthy hospitalization. With Celeste gone, and Linda's legs out of commission, she fears she'll have to face the relentless, maniacal Dipaulo on her own. Enter Captain Caleb Sark (Martin Balsam- PSYCHO, CAPE FEAR), who agrees to help Linda, even taking over her rehab therapy. Taken to an undisclosed location, Linda and Sark hunker down. Meanwhile, Dipaulo and his fellow thugs close in. What is it they want? Why is it worth killing for? Tense and perfectly-paced, this made-for-TV suspense thriller is a great example of the care put into these 1970's productions. Mills and Balsam are fantastic, as is Connors in his eeevil role. EXTRA CREDIT FOR: Agnes Moorehead (THE BAT, HUSH... HUSH, SWEET CHARLOTTE) as Linda's strict physical therapist, Bronsky. Highly recommended...

MartinHafer While the other reviews for this made for TV are very good, my wife and I just didn't see it at all. We both felt that the main character was incredibly annoying, there were many plot holes and the baddies were very inconsistent. It's a shame, as the story could have been a whole lot better.When the film begins, several thugs are confronting some guy in a hallway. In the process, the end up killing him...just outside the room where two ladies are. The ladies truthfully tell the cops they had no idea what occurred but not only do the cops doubt this but the killers! So far, it's an interesting premise. But when one of the ladies is found beaten very badly and their place torn to pieces, the film starts to degenerate into clichés and plot elements that simply don't make a lot of sense. When the injured lady gets out of the hospital, she and the other woman, Linda (Donna Mills), are in their car...and the beaten lady sees her attacker. She responds by driving like a maniac through the parking garage--screaming all the while. The car eventually hits something and it flips--killing the hysterical driver and leaving Linda paralyzed! Talk about overdoing a scene!! Sure, she was scared but this whole sequence was utterly ridiculous.When Linda awakens in the hospital, she's in a strange mood. Instead of trying to get better, she's very whiny and starts yelling at the cops. Why? I have no idea. It also later turns out she's paralyzed and instead of taking her physical therapy seriously, she whines that it is 'too hard'! She whines so much that when the leader of the killers (Chuck Connors) tries to kill her in the hospital, you are rooting for him to succeed.As a result of this hospital attack, the cops arrange for a retired police Captain (Martin Balsam) to take Linda to a hidden location and guard her. During this time, Linda whines a lot more and then reveals that she told her landlady where she was going to hide!! Huh?! Not surprisingly, the killer (always on his own after the first scene--which is odd because if he still had his henchmen the film would have ended VERY differently) soon is spotted nearby and what does the retired cop do? Yup...he leaves her home alone!! Duh. Soon the baddie arrives and like Audrey Hepburn in "Wait Until Dark", she is chased through the home by the killer--but instead of her being blind she's a paraplegic and has to grope her way around the place. And, when she gets on the phone to call for help, the phone goes dead the second she begins to tell them where she is!!! Will he succeed in killing her or what? And, will anyone care?!Again and again, the evil killers DON'T kill people when they should have considering they didn't want any loose ends. Why leave victims to identify them? And, if you are being chased by evil murderers why do you whine and do so little to try to help yourself during most of the film? The bottom line is that the basic idea was sound but the characters were one-dimensional and annoying. The made for TV movie just should have been a lot better.

christopher-underwood This is a 1972 ABC movie of the week and whilst not startlingly original is fairly diverting. Most interesting for the excellent performance of Eddie Egan as an ex-cop, when, of course, he was the ex-cop that inspired The French Connection, in which he also had a small part. Similarly convincing is the ever menacing Chuck Connors as chief bad man who spends the whole film trying to get at the heroine, played by Donna MIlls. Donna is excellent here in a difficult role, mostly performed in a wheelchair, and yes we do get a sequence of her travelling up one of those sinister little one man internal lifts. She would later perform equally effectively with Clint Eastwood in Play Misty For Me.

bigk358 Good movie from the early 70's..An ABC "movie of the week". I watched this in reruns several times. A good Donna MIlls flick. Without spoiling the story, Donna Mills plays a school teacher who;s friend and roommate has something that a drug dealer wants.Donna Mills and her roommate get in a car crash, the friend gets killed and Donna Mills character is rendered a paraplegic who is stalked by this killer (Chuck Conners)..The rest of the movie is a cat-and-mouse series of sequences whereas Donna Mills is staying in this police officers large home alone, when this killer finds her and chases her around the house until the cavalry finally arrives....A good movie for its time.