One of my sci-fi/horror/fantasy reviews written 50 years ago: Directed by Boris Sagal; Produced by George Eckstein, for Universal TV, telecast by ABC-TV. Screenplay by Adrian Spies; Photography by Ben Colman; Edited by John Kaufman Jr.; Music by Patrick Williams. Starring: Dean Stockwell, Jane Wyman, Dana Andrews. Paul Henreid, Tim O'Connor, Murray Hamilton, Priscilla Pointer, Katy Sagal, Ann Doran and William Katt.
Boris Sagal tries his hand at psychological horror, and the result is a stylish, no-blood switch. Escaped nut Dean is obsessed with killing the teacher, Miss Bloomquist, who caused him to flunk out of high school. Sagal uses a smeared lens soft-focus for scary, lengthy flashbacks, in which the clock ticks away test time with ominous regularity. The "ancient mariner's rhyme" theme of man unable to change his destiny is well-integrated into the plot.
Boris Sagal tries his hand at psychological horror, and the result is a stylish, no-blood switch. Escaped nut Dean is obsessed with killing the teacher, Miss Bloomquist, who caused him to flunk out of high school. Sagal uses a smeared lens soft-focus for scary, lengthy flashbacks, in which the clock ticks away test time with ominous regularity. The "ancient mariner's rhyme" theme of man unable to change his destiny is well-integrated into the plot.