The Classic Ghosts: 1970s Gothic Television

There’s something special about the 1970s television and horror. Maybe it was a simpler time without hundreds of cable channels, 24-hour news outlets, and streaming services that made that era a ripe period for great creepy content to bundle up,  stay home, and tune in. In addition to the likes of The Night Stalker, Trilogy of Terror and a slew of made-for-television horror features like Ants and Tarantulas, ABC television made their mark with five ghoulish gothic tales of horror. In 1973 The Classic Ghosts anthology series went to air with five feature-length classic stories. 

The series consisted of creepy fare like The Haunting of Rosalind starring Susan Sarandon. A man is terrorized by the spirit of the wife he murdered in a brilliant new take on The Screaming Skull starring Vincent Gardinia and David McCallum. A writer is haunted by the previous tenant in the room he’s renting in Deadly Visitor starring Gwen Verdon, Stephen Macht, and James Keach. A woman is imprisoned in a warlock’s dungeon in The House and the Brain featuring Gretchen Corbett, Hurd Hatfield, and Philip Carey. Last but no less chilling is And the Bones Came Together about a wronged gravedigger getting his revenge starring Laurence “Sybok” Luckinbill, Robin Strasser, and Herbert Berghof. 

Altogether, I wouldn’t call this collection of five films traditionally "scary," but I’ll give them a very deserved “creepy.” As Made-for-TV productions shot on tape and produced on typical television studio stages like a daytime soap opera, the various entries might be limited but they ride high on atmosphere and production value. If you’re watching these and you get a Dark Shadows vibe from them, well, there’s good reason! Lela Swift who directed The Haunting of Rosalind and The Deadly Visitor also directed over 590 episodes of that classic series! 

The other thing that’s wild for its time, this series was largely produced, crewed, written, and directed by women. Produced by Jacqueline Babbin of Sybil fame, these films essentially disappeared after their initial airing. Feared lost, they were only recently rediscovered and preserved by the UCLA Film and Television Archive. Thanks to their incredible preservation services and Kino Cult, we can once again enjoy these entertaining horror stories. Admittedly these will only be appealing to a select few, but I encourage folks to give them a shot. Growing up I was weaned on this kind of horror show so it fit my jib nicely. Then to get to see this alternate version of The Screaming Skull is a real treat compared to the extremely low-budget and silly version from the 1950s that ultimately haunted MST3K. Overall, they’re great films to open the windows on a cold rainy night, grab a blanket, and turn off the lights. 

Vital Disc Stats: The Blu-ray 
The Classic Ghosts: 1970s Gothic Television arrives on Blu-ray for the first time complements of Kino Cult. Their 18th release in the line, the five feature-length episode series is spread across two Region A BD50 discs. The discs are housed in a standard sturdy case with identical slipcover artwork. The discs load to standard static-image main menus.

Considering these productions were shot on two-inch tape in the early 1970s, the transfers for each episode are a case of “it is what it is.” Maintaining their 1.33:1 broadcast ratio, each story is technically in 1080p, but obviously limited by the original tape format. To that end, for tape-on-Blu-ray release, I’m actually pretty impressed with the results. Fine details are obviously limited, but there’s enough here to see how well-produced each segment was. The costuming and set design certainly don’t look cheap or thrown together on the fly. Colors are generally vibrant with nice rich primaries. Perhaps some sort of sharpening or enhancement was applied, but the only significant anomalies are the standard tell-tale hallmarks of an aged tape production like light trails, slight color bleed, motion blur, and so forth. Not beautiful, but certainly watchable. 

Each episode of The Classic Ghosts we have a decent DTS-HD MA 2.0 audio track. Much like the video transfers, the audio tracks are limited by recording format. Overall I’d say these tracks are quite good, dialog is clean and audible without issue. Sound effects and the music cues can sound a little tinny, but otherwise in good shape and effective at establishing the required spooky mood and atmosphere.

On the bonus features side of things, we don’t have a lot, but what we have is very informative. Leading the pack is a cool look at how these television stories were rediscovered and archived at UCLA by Mark Quigley and his team. It’s also very cool to see they were able to pull from the original 2” tape masters and the ancient technology required to view these massive reels of video. Then we have the video demonstration about what it took to play these tapes again and archive them which is incredible to see these gigantic ancient machines in action.

• The Rematerlization of the Classic Ghosts (HD 20:18)
• 2” Video Demonstration (HD 7:47)

The Classic Ghosts: 1970s Gothic Television is a very fun and spooky throwback viewing experience. The series was essentially lost after the episodes aired and thanks to some impressive sleuthing, restoration, and archiving work, we can now enjoy these five ghoulish fight stories again. While the productions may feel a little "soap opera" at times, they're elevated by some crisp writing, smart direction, and some great performances from a who's who cast of established and rising stars. On Blu-ray, they're a case of "as good as can be" given their recording format, but they're certainly watchable and the audio is in fine shape for every episode. If you're looking for a throwback to a simpler time of televised horror, give this set a run. Recommended