Spectre

Gene Roddenberry’s pilot about investigators of the occult or supernatural

A criminologist and occult expert hooks-up with a cynical doctor (Robert Culp and Gig Young) to investigate the mogul brother of a lady friend in England, who is rumored to be involved in the black arts and possibly with the demon Asmodeus. Ann Bell plays the woman, James Villiers the mogul and John Hurt their brother. Majel Barrett has a bit part.

“Spectre” (1977) was made as a possible pilot for a TV series, written & produced by the creator of Star Trek. But don’t expect sci-fi, as this comes in the tradition of occult-investigation movies like “The Witches” (1966), “The Devil Rides Out” (1968), “The Crimson Altar” (1968), “The Night Stalker” (1972), “The Night Strangler” (1973) and “The Norliss Tapes” (1973).

The protagonists were obviously patterned after Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson with the doctor being the skeptic, akin to Skully in the future X-Files. Unfortunately, the dialogue seems forced and the filmmaking is gauche in a cheesy way. Take, for instance, the revelation of the succubus in the first act, which is more laughable than scary.

Then there’s the overlong occult ritual in the last act, which is curiously more tedious than exciting. Time needed spent on establishing the protagonists and making them interesting to the viewer, rather than rushing into some unlikely (to be nice) case. Still, this is colorful and there are some highlights if you like those aforementioned films, but it’s the least of ’em.

Gig was struggling with alcoholism at the time of shooting and so this was written into the script (since he was obviously drinking while performing). Interestingly, he met his future wife on set, Kim Schmidt, who's uncredited as a police officer. She happened to be his fifth spouse. Seventeen months after the flick's release, he evidently shot her to death in their apartment in the Big Apple before turning the gun on himself. He wasn't yet 65 and she was only 31. It was a tragic end, needless to say.

The uncensored version runs 1 hour, 38 minutes, and was shot at EMI Elstree Studios, northwest of London in Borehamwood, as well as 5-7 miles north at All Saints Pastoral House in St Albans.

GRADE: C/C+