A Name for Evil
"A Name For Evil" is my pick for the WTF movie of the '70s! Pre-dating BURNT OFFERINGS, THE AMITYVILLE HORROR and THE SHINING, A NAME FOR EVIL is the story of John Blake (Robert Culp, "I Spy," "The Greatest American Hero"), a man who takes up residence in the decrepit home once owned by his great grandfather, "The Major." Soon The Major makes his presence known and eventually he possesses his grandson.
Unlike the aforementioned movies, this film is uncertain whether it wants to be a drama, horror, thriller, ghost story, possession flick or a porno... midway through, Culp finds The Major's horse in the woods and literally rides into the local bar, where the townsfolk strip him and entice him to join them in a musical hillbilly hoedown orgy montage (complete with an uncredited appearance by '60s hitmaker Billy Joe Royal). From that point on, the film becomes completely incoherent... but completely unforgettable. And it contains this brilliant, off the wall one-liner: "You were masturbating like a fourteen year old child!" As the credits rolled, I discovered the film was made by Penthouse, which explained the plentiful nudity but not the illogicality of the rest of the movie.Turns out the movie was made around 1970 under the title "The Grove" with a budget of $750,000 and MGM was supposed to release it. Partway through production they went bankrupt and the movie was never finished. Those naked hippies must not have been cheap. Somehow or other Penthouse Productions got the footage and cobbled it together for a release 3 years later. The film garnered plugs in Penthouse and Playboy, ran briefly then vanished, later to get dumped on VHS. With the exception of people like myself who discovered it back in the days of home video, it's only been in recent years that the film's started getting noticed on DVD. More about the making of the film can be found at The Consummate Culp.
Billy Joe Royal's song "Mountain Woman" was pressed as a promotional 45 by MGM Records, but copies are extraordinarily rare... probably because MGM ultimately didn't release the film. In 2006, Dominic Frontiere's score (sans the Royal track) was issued on CD by La-La Land Records.
The other portion of the music on this album is Frontiere's score from THE UNKNOWN, a pilot for a TV series that aired as an episode of "The Outer Limits" titled "The Form of Things Unknown." Also worth noting, the score from THE UNKNOWN was later recycled in the short-lived, cult loved television show "The Invaders." Not that that has anything to do with anything.
The film has surfaced on AMC in recent years (it's beyond me why American Movie Classics aired it -- or 90% of the shit they air), where I'm sure it was further butchered to hell. There was a DVD release but the film is seemingly in public domain so it's a dupe of the VHS release. Here's hoping someday someone will unearth a better print... or at least a copy of the script so I can figure out what the hell was supposed to have been happening. Weird, weird movie.
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