Haunting in ‘Home on Greenapple Highway’ 1970

Janet Leigh is memorable as a determined housewife in “Home on Greenapple Highway.”

The 2 hour lengthy ABC TV film, Home on Greenapple Highway, aired January 11, 1970, and launched
audiences to Lt. Dan August. Right here, the taciturn detective was performed by
Christopher George, who match the function completely. The rankings had been so good that
it was changed into a weekly sequence, however George was unavailable, and the function
went to Burt Reynolds.

Christopher George is well-cast as hard-nosed Lt. Dan August, however nonetheless in a position to present compassion towards the folks combined up in his case, in “Home on Greenapple Highway.”

What’s attention-grabbing about Home
on Greenapple Highway was how grownup the subject material was for 1970 tv.
The movie opens with a gory crime scene found by a toddler and the lacking
individual/doable sufferer seems to have been an sad housewife who had a
sequence of salaciously depicted affairs. Based mostly on a bestselling e book by Harold
R. Daniels, the seek for the lacking individual/sufferer is spliced with flashbacks
of the seamy backstory, which jogged my memory of the 1965 function movie Sylvia, a shady woman who’s previous is
investigated. Nevertheless, this TV film is extra hardnosed that the old-school
theatrical melodrama starring Carroll Baker. That is attention-grabbing,
contemplating the a lot stronger censorship on tv versus movie on the time.

Janet Leigh as a dissatisfied housewife, who seems for love in all of the mistaken locations. Right here, she hooks up with the nation membership life guard, in “Home on Greenapple Highway.”

The thriller blonde right here is performed by Janet Leigh, in one among
her greatest however lesser-known performances. Aired a decade after a profession excessive in Psycho, Janet Leigh was 42 and struggling
to maintain her profession afloat as a number one woman. The function of a lady who relied on
her face and physique for self-worth hit a bit near the bone for Leigh. Her
daughter revealed after her loss of life that Janet had consuming issues and feared
rising older, dropping her seems and determine. It is ironic in Home on Greenapple Highway that Janet seems unbelievable and may be very
susceptible, however is handled so casually by the male characters. There are some
allusions to her well-known function in Psycho.
Right here she is Marian Ord, in Psycho she
was Marion Crane. In her varied trysts, Janet sports activities a stunning determine in varied
undergarments, which additionally brought about a stir within the Hitchcock traditional. Her
characters search to choose out of their boring lives, solely to search out themselves in nice
hazard. The movie’s ending is a intelligent nod to Psycho.

Janet Leigh was 42 when she filmed “Home on Greenapple Highway.” Regardless of positive performances & wanting nice by way of the ’60s, retaining stardom was an uphill battle.

Home on Greenapple Highway has a forged of veteran stars and then-newcomers.
The story is intriguing, there’s some nifty digicam work, the story is
unsentimental, and the performing is stable. The kind of crime dedicated and the
last revelation might have been a shocker again then, nevertheless it’s very commonplace
at this time in our present actuality present mentality. So the story hardly feels dated by
at this time’s requirements.

“Home on Greenapple Highway” was a type of TV motion pictures that haunted
my ’70s childhood when re-run on the afternoon motion pictures!

The premise of Home
on Greenapple Highway relies on a real story. A home spouse simply
disappeared someday in 1961 and was by no means heard from once more. And her kitchen was
left a literal bloody mess, like this film. Whereas there have been every kind of
rumors, nothing was confirmed, however that is the place the similarity ends.

Christopher George, Janet Leigh, and Tim O’ Connor provide
standout performances as Dan August, and the couple in query, Marian and
George Ord.

(R) Christopher George’s Dan August spars with (L) Peter Mark Richman’s sleaze businessman in “Home on Greenapple Highway.”

The actors who play the lads in Marian’s life are good in
their sleazy roles. Burr DeBenning is a rustic membership life guard, who’s a bit
mature act so ageist towards Marian. Peter Mark Richman (Blake Carrington’s
lawyer!) is Sal, a enterprise man who
will get off on treating the needy housewife like a hooker. Lawrence Dane is the brand new
age preacher who needs to do greater than enlighten Marian. There’s boozy
and cynical William Windom because the nation membership president, who picks up the place
the life guard left off.

William Windom is the nation membership president who’s one among houswife Marian’s lovers in “Home on Greenapple Highway.”

Nice veteran actors like Walter Pidgeon, Keenan Wynn, and
Barry Sullivan provide stable assist. Julie Harris is typecast effectively because the
uptight sister-in-law. Joanne Linville is righteously bitchy because the nation
membership president’s rightly jealous spouse.

Julie Harris brings her patented nervous edge to the function of the sister-in-law to
Janet Leigh’s housewife in “Home on Greenapple Highway.”

Pre-stardom Ed Asner performs a heavy-handed sheriff. Lynda
Day is a pissy, pot-smoking secretary named Lillian Crane, a riff on Psycho’s Vera Miles as Lila Crane. And Jan Brady herself, Eve Plumb, is the
Ords’ younger daughter, who discovers the blood-drenched crime scene.

Eve Plumb is the younger daughter who finds a bloody crime scene in
“Home on Greenapple Highway.”

Janet Leigh’s innately empathetic persona makes the viewers
wish to perceive her character. Marian is greater than a promiscuous girl. She
is on the lookout for validation and her checklist of Mr. Wrongs jogs my memory of In search of Mr. Goodbar, which was additionally
primarily based on a real story. Marian Ord’s husband all the time forgives her as she seeks to
bolster her vanity concerning getting old and dropping her desirability. Among the many
mistaken locations she seems for love is with the nation membership life guard, a sleaze
bag enterprise man, a brand new age minister, and the nation membership president! Marion’s
all the time disillusioned, solely to maneuver on to the subsequent man. But, in her naïve manner,
her intentions are honest. But, she’s handled as a toy, when she’s on the lookout for
a teen dream model of real love. And Marian’s search doesn’t finish effectively. Leigh’s
naturalistic, sturdy performing make you imagine in her character’s motivations, as
tousled as they’re. Leigh gave some terrific performances within the ‘60s and
regarded nice doing so, however one can solely assume it was her age that discovered her more and more
handed over by the ‘70s.

Janet Leigh as Marian, livid over feeling performed, in “Home on Greenapple Highway.”

Tim O’Connor, intense in his breakthrough function on Peyton Place as Elliot Carson, is
equally crammed with nervous power right here, as George Ord. The unhappy sack, gentle
husband loves his spouse, however she isn’t happy with their middle-class life.
Marian’s concern of dropping her attraction is accelerated by the sensation that life is
passing her by. The affairs not less than jump-start her self-worth, however Marian’s
additionally on the lookout for an actual love, and a manner out. And O’Connor’s scenes admitting
all this later are made genuinely transferring by his sturdy efficiency.

Tim O’ Connor as George Ord lastly comes clear about his marriage to Marion.

Right here’s the actual life story that Home on Greenapple Highway makes use of as a premise for the fictional novel
and film, primarily based on the 1961 disappearance of Massachusetts home spouse Joan
Risch: https://www.amazon.com/Kitchen-Painted-Blood-Unsolved-Disappearance/dp/1476681848

And right here’s one among my favourite movies, which starred Janet
Leigh, my tackle 1962’s The Manchurian
Candidate: https://ricksrealreel.blogspot.com/2017/10/the-manchurian-candidate-1962.html