World War II (1983) Novelization

Written by Harold King under the pseudonym Brian Harris. Based on the 1982 TV mini-series written by Robert L. Joseph and directed by David Greene and Boris Sagal.  It starred David Soul, Brian Keith, Cathy Lee Crosby, Robert Prosky, Katherine Helmond and Rock Hudson. It tells a (now-dated) story about how shenanigans with the Soviet Union could get out of hand. I say dated only in reference to the fact that it deals with the Soviets. The basic premise still seems pretty solid.

The mini-series this novelization is based upon was broadcast on NBC over two nights on Sunday January 31, 1982 and Monday February 1, 1982. This was the golden era of the mini-series, and this one sticks out from my childhood as one I actually wanted to watch. I recall that even at the time, I could tell that most of it was filmed on a set, but that didn't reduce the effectiveness by much. This is an unsensational telling of how a war could have started between the US and Soviet Russian in the early 1980's. At the time this story was told, the two countries had been locked in a cold war for more than 30 years. The threat of nuclear doom was ever-present for most people of that generation, and the story tapped into that fear in a logical and believable way. 

The original director was Boris Sagal. He was killed early in production in a helicopter accident while on location in Oregon. The production company was scheduled to spend a month on location filming outdoor scenes. After Sagal's death much of this work was moved to indoor sets. There is still the odd shot of the outdoors in the film, but the vast majority are indoors with fake snow. This is noticeable, but as I said, it works well enough. The indoor sets are cramped which compresses the action scenes.

The novelization is a distinct improvement over the mini-series. For one thing, it is not hampered by a TV movie budget and greatly expands the number of soldiers involved. It also uses the geography effectively instead of having to be contained on smallish indoor sets. This spreads the action out more realistically so the cat-and-mouse nature of the battle scenes work better.   Also, the novelization is R-rated with realistic dialogue and action. This serves to make the action more believable. It takes the already engaging premise and does everything a good novelization should do by filling the story gaps and going where movies (or in this case television) can't go for either budgetary or censorship reasons.

Very much recommended if you can find it.

From the back cover:

IT IS THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW...

The starving masses are rioting in wheat-poor Soviet Union.

The United States is in desperate need of fuel.

And a few Russian military fanatics have sent a suicide strike-force to capture the Alaskan pipeline as ransom for America's grain.

Now, a secret battle between a Russian and an American unit rages in Alaska's frozen wastes...

Now, the leaders of the two powers play a terrifying game of nuclear brinkmanship...

Now, two generations after "The Last Good War,", four generations after "The War To End All Wars," the world hurtles toward "The War That Nobody Wants"

The Big One...The Final One...

WORLD WAR III

NBC Miniseries from 1982, starring David Soul, Brian Keith, Cathy Lee Crosby, Robert Prosky and Rock Hudson.

Excerpt:

One of the hangars had been cannibalized to repair and insulate the other. It wasn't a beautiful job, but all it had to do was retain a reasonable amount of heat, which it accomplished, barely. But Caffey's primary problem wasn't keeping the men warm. His problem was keeping enough of them alive after each contact with the enemy (he was using the word now openly) so they could fight again. And again. Until he'd run out of men or ammunition, or until the Soviets quit and went home.

And they weren't quitting.

They'd keep it up, Caffey told one of his NCOs in response to a question during debriefing earlier, if they had to resort to throwing rocks and iceballs. Which was exactly what they'd be down to if later contacts were as costly as the first had been.

He knew he'd hurt the strike force. He'd killed or wounded probably thirty men and crippled if not destroyed the rocket-launching vehicle. Maybe they could patch it up. It didn't matter. It would cost them time. They'd be much more cautious now. They'd move slower. But the price he'd paid was staggering. Two of his four choppers were out of action---half his air force. He'd lost two pilots in the Huey that went down plus two thousand rounds of precious ammunition. A pilot in the second attack Huey was badly wounded and the chopper itself was no longer useful---the bullet-riddled fuselage attested to the miracle that it had returned at all. He'd lost nine men in his infantry---two killed, seven wounded. It wasn't a terribly high casualty count until you considered that he'd only used thirty men in the first skirmish; that's as many as he could cram into two choppers. Thirty percent casualties against three or four percent for his enemy weren't terrific statistics, no matter what he'd accomplished. He'd irritated them and that's about all he'd done. They weren't stopped and they weren't turning back. What they were was angry, Caffey thought. And waiting eagerly for the next time.

These were the things he'd explained in tonight's briefing. He took a long breath when he asked for questions.

"Sir, nobody's mentioned it, but . . . what about our families?" It was the lieutenant who'd asked if the plan would work the day before. "I know it sounds irrelevant, considering what's happening up here, but some of us were due to go home two days ago. I don't want to go back until we've done our jobs, and I know our families don't know what we're actually doing, but . . . what do they think we're doing here?"

"They've been told exactly the truth, Lieutenant." Caffey offered a tiny smile. "You've been snowed in by the weather . . . and you're all eating well and getting exercise."

There was some laughter.

"How much longer can we keep it up, sir?"

"Until the weather breaks," Caffey said. "Until we run out of ammo or the people to use it."

The laughter died away.

SALEM'S LOT (1979)

Directed by Tobe Hooper.  Written by Paul Monash
Starring David Soul, James Mason, Lance Kerwin, Bonnie Bedelia, Reggie Nalder, Geoffrey Lewis, Lew Ayres
1979, 183 minutes, Color, Unrated, 1.33:1
Warner Archives, released 2016

Summary:
Novelist Ben Mears returns to his hometown of Salem's Lot, ostensibly to write his next book but also to work through a traumatic experience from his youth where he thinks he saw the ghost of the owner of the Marsten House.  Now an adult, he wants to explore the nature of evil and whether material things--such as a house--can be inherently evil.  He tried to rent the house but discovers that it's already been rented by two new businessmen, Mr. Barlow and Mr. Straker.  People start to die and Ben comes to think that Barlow and Straker are at fault.  In fact, he comes to think that the supernatural might be involved as some of the victims show evidence of bite marks and missing blood.

Salem's Lot by Stephen King was originally published in 1975 as his second novel.  King had considerable success with his first novel, Carrie, and Lot also sold like gangbusters in paperback.  From a literary standpoint, Lot represented a large jump in quality from Carrie, in that it is a real densely plotted story instead of the pastiche of styles that Carrie used*.  Taking clear influence from Bram Stoker's Dracula, King infuses that gothic base with melodrama worthy of any soap opera.  This is not meant as a criticism.  It's been a few years since I've read the book, but I've always thought it was absolutely fabulous, so at least for me King's approach worked.

SALEM'S LOT was originally broadcast over two nights in 1979.  I missed Part 1 but was scared silly by Part 2.   After those initial TV runs, it was only available on video in the 112-minute theatrical version released outside the U.S.  Besides being 70+ minutes shorter, this theatrical version also had at least two censorship differences from the original broadcast version, which will be discussed below.  I recall trying to watch the shorter version on VHS but not liking it—I kept missing parts in the longer version.  

The cast of SALEM'S LOT is above average for a television production, and by this I mean that James Mason is great.  Outstanding even.  He brings a fair amount of class to the proceedings and digs into his first true horror role with true aplomb.  The rest of the cast is a mixture of familiar TV faces with some out of the ordinary faces, at least for a television horror production.  David Soul, Bonnie Bedelia, and Lance Kerwin were all well-known TV staples at the time of filming, while Mason, Nalder, Ayres, and Lewis were perhaps better known at this time for their movie work.   Soul is not bad in the lead, and does not seem out of his league portraying an intellectual.  Bedelia is somewhat better, though she ultimately has little to do.  Kerwin is even better yet, playing an awkward teenager believable.  Reggie Nalder, as Barlow, is an imposing sight but does not really have much to do.  Lewis especially shines, being one of the few actors to attempt a New England accent and brings a real strength to his scenes as a vampire.

The film's structure largely follows the book's, except for a wraparound section that frames the entire story as a flashback.  In this prologue and epilogue, Soul and Kerwin travel the world and encounter a vampire they must kill.  It is not clear exactly what they are doing — whether they are in hiding or hot on the trail of more vampires.  One could argue that they were looking for Bedelia's character, but again, it not's made clear.  Reportedly, the wraparounds were done to facilitate a weekly series, or at least a sequel.  It is easily the film's weakest part.

The film generally handles the narrative smoothly, with subtle character shading and a clear, linear flow.  The buildup to Mr. Barlow's arrival from Europe is well handled, and although the last third feels a bit rushed, it is still very effective.  The film occasionally betrays its television origins with some variable set designs, such as Kerwin's bedroom.  Yet at other times the production design is outstanding, such as the interior of the Marsten house.  In his first television assignment, director Hooper generates real suspense in several scenes and includes some great, story-motivated jumps.

As mentioned previously, when the film was shortened for its theatrical release several alternate shots were used.  The differences are:

• When Cully Sawyer (George Dzundza) finds Larry Crockett (Fred Willard) with his wife, he holds a shotgun on him.  In the theatrical version, he makes Larry put the barrels of the gun in his mouth.  In the TV version, Larry holds the gun up to his face.
• When Bill Norton (Ed Flanders) is killed, we see him actually be impaled on the antlers.  The aftermath is also shown longer.
• The staking of Barlow (Reggie Nalder) at the end is somewhat gorier.
• The entire sequence in the basement at the end was reportedly darkened for television.  I have never seen this confirmed officially anywhere, so take this one with a grain of salt.

According to Producer Richard Kobritz these alternate shots were created for the European theatrical release and not intended for the television version***.  That said, every home video release after the VHS release of the movie version has used some or all of these shots.   At least some subsequent releases included the Larry Crockett scene but not the Flanders scene.  These variations were probably not intentional.   The full version was released on laserdisc and DVD in the 1990's.   The laserdisc version included the censored shots in the European cut, but I am not sure if the DVD did as well.  More recently, Warner Archives released the full version on Blu-Ray.   I put off rewatching the full miniseries for years, hoping to find a high-quality version.  Prior to this Blu-Ray the best version I had seen was an HD version available for streaming on the now-defunct Warner Archive site.  The Blu-Ray bests that HD version by a fair margin, offering a strong colorful image with almost no print damage on view.   

Cover of the Blu-Ray:

The excellent Tobe Hooper's Salem's Lot: Studies in the Horror Film edited by Tony Earnshaw collects all previous literature of note on this film, and adds a fair amount of new work.  Long out of print, this is worth picking up if you can find it.

* I'm not implying that Carrie is a worse work mind you, but it's easier to put a story together that way than to write it all in one style and point of view.  I may, of course, be full of shit on this.

** Curiously, now that it's all but impossible to see the shorter cut I find I have a compelling urge to watch it again.

***Cinefantastique, Vol. 9, number 2.