Tue 15 Jan 2019
A Made-for-TV Movie Review: THE HOUSE ON GREENAPPLE ROAD (1970).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , TV mysteries[9] Comments
THE HOUSE ON GREENAPPLE ROAD. Made-for-TV movie. ABC-TV, 11 January 1970. Pilot film for the Dan August TV series. Christopher George (Lt. Dan August), Keenan Wynn, Janet Leigh, Julie Harris, Tim O’Connor, Walter Pidgeon, Barry Sullivan, [Peter] Mark Richman, William Windom. Based on the novel by Harold R. Daniels. A Quinn Martin Production. Director: Robert Day.
I don’t know the background behind the making of this far better than average TV movie, whether it was considered a “pilot” film for a possible series from the very start, or or if after did well in the ratings, and only then, they (the people at the network) decided to see what they could do to take advantage of its success.
Which I believe it was. For one thing, just look at that cast. Some standard TV stalwarts, to be sure, but some actors whose names were big enough to catch anyone’s attention. True, the production was TV level, not big budget movie level, but it wasn’t running in pinch-penny mode, either.
Of course when it came time to cast the part of Dan August for the series, they chose Burt Reynolds. I have never seen any episodes of the series, but Reynolds’ usual cheeky if not cocky screen presence is to my mind quite the opposite of Christopher George’s calm and sedate portrayal of the role. (He reminded me at times of Jack Lord in that other series you may know about.)
Lots of people will remember this one for its opening scene. A young blonde girl, maybe 10 or so, comes skipping home from school, calls out for her mother. No answer. She goes into the kitchen, sees broken dishes all over the floor, and a huge amount of blood smeared on the walls and the refrigerator. No one home, she realizes, and off she goes next door to stay with her aunt.
Suspicion falls immediately on the woman’s husband, even though there is no body to be found. August’s leisurely investigation, in spite of hurry-up pleas from the mayor himself, turns up the fact that the lady was pretty much a tramp. Flashbacks show in detail the missing woman’s various affairs, giving August plenty of other suspects.
There is a twist in the story, which is a good one — which includes the possibility that there is no twist, so I’m not giving anything away — and the acting is top notch all around. It’s pretty much a routine investigation, but it’s also one that builds in tension as it goes, and it’s told well.
January 15th, 2019 at 3:10 pm
Just had a chance to check out the new DVD restore job on this, which is included on the newly released Dan August series set.
Because of restoration clarity, I was able to make out the copyright date on the film: MCMLXVIII (that’s 1968 to the rest of us).
This means that Greenapple Road sat on ABC’s shelf for more than a year before the network finally put it on.
At this time, the long-standing relationship between ABC and producer Quinn Martin was starting to decline; ABC hadn’t bought a number of his pilots (including this one) and QM was starting to shop his wares elsewhere (like CBS).
Between times, Chris George made another pilot at Paramount, The Immortal, on which ABC was quite high.
The net looked at other George vehicles that they could show to aid in the Immortal hype; Greenapple Road, which ABC hadn’t shown because of its awkward length (with commercials it came to about two hours and fifteen minutes, and QM wouldn’t edit), got a throwaway airing on a Sunday night – and wound up getting big numbers and favorable critical notices to boot.
Not long afterward, The Immortal pilot aired as a 90-minute Movie Of The Week, and got numbers just as big (that night, anyway).
1970 was a back-up-the-truck year for ABC; the bosses decided to go with both Dan August and The Immortal, and offered Chris George his choice of which show he wanted to do.
George chose The Immortal, which was more in his hard-action wheelhouse.
At the same time, George told ABC that his friend Burt Reynolds was looking to get back into TV, after a string of not-so-hot potboiler movies.
After some persuading (on all sides), ABC had themselves two new action dramas for the fall.
Looking at the Dan August, you might notice that Burt Reynolds is quite the sobersides in the series episodes; he hadn’t started doing talk shows yet, and his humor was then a well-kept secret (his agents were still selling him as NuBrando).
Reynolds began talking on Griffin, Carson, and the like about mid-season, showing what his friends had always known about him (charming, funny, not at all Brando-like), but the writers didn’t catch on, and Dan August became a near-miss; had QM and ABC known about funny Bert beforehand, who knows?
Footnote: The Immortal only ran half that season, while Dan August made it to a full year.
So There Too.
January 15th, 2019 at 5:39 pm
Thanks for all of this inside information, Mike. It’s exactly was I was looking for online but could not find. I received the new box set for my birthday last week and decided to jump right into it. I’m interested in how Burt Reynolds does in the role. As my review suggests, I’d assumed he would be his usual humorously cocky self, but you say otherwise. I’ll let you know what I think very soon now. However he was asked to play it, it’s nice to know that the show lasted its full season.
January 15th, 2019 at 4:04 pm
I’ve wanted to see all this since 1970!
Am very happy to hear that this and the Dan August series are on DVD.
January 15th, 2019 at 5:41 pm
I’m sure I watched this movie back in 1970. I remembered the first scene, but pretty much nothing else. I’ve since read the user review on IMdB. Well over half of them say that they say the movie when they were kids, and it scared them stiff. No wonder.
January 15th, 2019 at 6:29 pm
Burt in Dan August and Hawk (where he was a Native American cop in a big city) was a sober even sullen character with little of his usual mannerisms, though a twinkle or two creeps into some of the August episodes. To some extent that was also true of his stint on GUNSMOKE though he had been light and charming on RIVERBOAT.
This was an exceptional made for television movie and I have read it did well in theaters in Europe when it was released there. Janet Leigh had still been pretty big box office not all that long before this was made, though I suspect her casting here was both because of her name and the PSYCHO connection (considering she is dead from the opening) as well as her considerable acting skills.
This was probably Harold Daniels best book, certainly best known, though I read a few good ones by him. I don’t know if he ever used August again, which seems odd with the series and the relative success of the book.
January 15th, 2019 at 11:02 pm
Followup #1:
In Harold Daniels’s novel, the character’s name is Lt. Daniel Nalon; the book is a standalone (a term not in use at the time of its appearance, but you know what I mean).
One thing I recall was that in the novel, Lt. Nalon is a married man; his wife plays a small role in his investigation.
Also, the novel concludes with an ‘epilog’ of sorts, detailing the outcome of the trial.
When I read this, it occurred to me that QM’s screenwriter, George Eckstein, might have tacked it on to the movie (they were already over two hours, so what the hell).
Followup #2:
(Warning: possible irrelevancy)
The first time I ever saw “Funny” Burt Reynolds was in 1969 (the year before the series), on a Chuck Barris game show called The Game Game.
In this one, three celebs answered questions of the sort you’d find in those “personality test” you’d find in magazines; a civilian contestant would try to outguess the celebs and win prizes and such.
Burt Reynolds was still in his ‘surly’ period: he was there to plug a programmer called Skullduggery, which I’ve seen (and the least said about it the better).
Burt was between toupees at the time; his hair was plastered to his skull, kind of a tribute to Julius Caesar and Zero Mostel.
Also on the panel were Doug McClure, a crony of Burt’s (who most likely brokered the appearance), and Jessica Walter, who served as audience to the two guys.
The Game Game was produced in the standard style: five shows in a session, three in a row, then a dinner break (with a wet bar), then two more for a week’s worth.
All these years later, I seem to recall that McClure and his pal Reynolds got a little rowdy early on (see ‘wet bar’ above), while the emcee, Jim McKrell, ceded control by the Tuesday show.
I’ll never forget the Friday show.
At each show’s conclusion, Jim McKrell would read a brief spiel from the teleprompter, encouraging the folks at home to watch next time.
For this Friday show, after five rowdier-than-usual shows, McKrell started by saying something like “Well, it’s the final show of the week”, whereupon Reynolds got up, walked over to McKrell, hoisted him over his shoulder, and carried him offstage.
Beaming broadly, Doug McClure stepped to the podium and flawlessly delivered McKrell’s spiel from the prompter, remembering to substitute his own name, to the riotous acclaim of all.
At the very close, Reynolds returned, followed by Jim McKrell, with that “I’m gonna kill all of you” smile on his face.
It was the following year that Reynolds got the Dan August gig, where he was told to resume scowling.
You can see the results on the DVD.
Followup #3:
That copter shot at the start, used throughout the series, is of Oxnard, CA, where the locations were mostly filmed.
Once he started doing talk shows, Burt Reynolds made much of the fact that Jack Lord, his competition on CBS, had all of the Hawaiian Islands, while he had all of Oxnard …
I guess you had to be there.
F
January 16th, 2019 at 4:45 am
QM preferred his leading men stoic – Robert Stack, David Janssen. Reynolds said he didn’t want to play another cop exactly because of the limited opportunities for humor. But QM offered $15,000 per ep.
February 15th, 2020 at 3:46 am
Glad to see IMDb cites this review in its listing for the telefilm!
November 20th, 2021 at 5:54 pm
Interesting info from Mike Doran about QM refusing to edit…other sites say Greenapple WAS edited down, removing 30 minutes from the runtime that seems INCREDIBLY long, either for theatrical or a TVM…I think this came from a Janet Leigh biography.