Ted Hart - More Stories From Thriller

[dem]

Ted Hart - More Stories From Thriller (Fontana, 1975: Adapted by Ted Hart from Brian Clemens's original stories.)

"Nyree Dawn Porter stars in In My Lady's Chamber from the ATV series Thriller created by Brian Clemens."

One Careful Owner
The Next Scream You Hear
Death To Sister Mary
Country Wedding
K Is For Killing.

Death To Sister Mary: Sister Mary walked slowly through the courtyard, deep in contemplation. Her nun's head-dress framed a virginal face and the black habit falling to her feet gave no hint at all of the youthful figure that lay beneath. She went through the archway into the shadowy corridors of the convent. And suddenly two hands reached out from behind to cup her surprisingly voluptuous breasts.

She turned unhurriedly and sudden pleasure came into her voice.

'Oh, it's you Larry,' she whispered softly. 'But you're supposed to be in Taiwan.'

'The deal folded. Aren't you pleased?'

'Pleased? she cried. 'I'm delighted. You're a sight for sore eyes.'

Take one SLIMY FAN, add a FILM-CREW IN PERIL, throw in a RANDY 'NUN', and you've a story that (if you're me) pretty much presses all the right buttons. Life is looking good for young actress Penny Stacey, better known to the public as 'Sister Mary,' a minor character in a popular TV soap. Charles Rook, part-time peeping tom and self-appointed President of the Sister Mary Fan Club (current membership: small), has produced a glossy magazine in her honour. Flattered, she accepts his invitation to attend the SMFC's inaugural meeting . But now the production has been beset by death and disaster. A mugging here, a hit and run there, culminating in the brutal murder of Penny's fiancé. Seems it just doesn't do to get close to our sainted heroine!

Country Wedding: Adapted from the episode broadcast as A Place To Die. Loved-up newly-weds Bruce and Tessa Nelson move to Woldfield where he's to succeed the late Dr. Sharp, who died in mysterious circumstances. The villagers - usual bunch of mildly deformed inbreeds with a downer on Londoners - are an atypically friendly bunch, especially, Bess Tarling, the pleasantly plump housekeeper, and 'Mad Nick', who looks like a leprechaun. But Woldfield folk hide a dark and terrible secret. For years they have waited the coming of 'the Bride of Satan' - "Moon-pale and moon-gold with the left foot limping " - and a honeymoon skiing accident means Tessa fits the profile. Roll on the annual festival ...

[ripper]

Been looking around for this one but have had no luck so far.

'One Careful Owner' is the one about the possessed car--a Rolls-Royce, I think, and starred Donna Mills, who turned up in several episodes of 'Thriller.'

[dem]

Jun 8, 2015 10:57:29 GMT ripper said:

'One Careful Owner' is the one about the possessed car--a Rolls-Royce, I think, and starred Donna Mills, who turned up in several episodes of 'Thriller.'

That's the one. Not quite as strong as Country Wedding and Death To Sister Mary, but still a thrilling, slightly camp read. There's quite a lot of naked flesh on show in this book.

One Careful Owner; Adapted from the episode broadcast as One Deadly Owner. She doesn't really need it, and it swallows her savings whole, but Helen Cook, nude model, feels compelled to buy a vintage Rolls Royce, previous owner Mrs. Jacey, missing presumed eloped with her lover. Helen's agent, Peter Tower, photographer and man about Mayfair, seems inordinately annoyed that she should squander her money on luxuries, but the car is special; it has a mind, and a scream, of its own, and it knows where a body is buried.

K Is For Killing: Sunny Garrick, heir to a business empire, hires wise-cracking, over-sexed, newly-wed detective duo, Arden and Suzy Buckley, to find out who put a price on his old man's head. Dialogue sometimes very It was Alright In The Seventies, otherwise a run of the mill crime story.

[ripper]

Dem, is 'K is for Killing' more comedic than the other stories? I have a vague recollection that it stood out from other episodes due to its being played more for laughs than suspense.

[dem]

Jun 10, 2015 9:40:32 GMT ripper said:

Dem, is 'K is for Killing' more comedic than the other stories? I have a vague recollection that it stood out from other episodes due to its being played more for laughs than suspense.

Was probably intended that way. It's much lighter in touch than the previous stories, vaguely reminiscent of Chetwynd-Hayes' Francis St Clare & Frederica Masters tales minus their supernatural trappings (and Suzy's insatiable appetite is for sex, not food).

Finally, The Next Scream You Hear: Another private detective story with a sit-com feel, this one featuring God's gift to women, Matthew Earp, a legend in his own mind who, infuriatingly, has an unerring knack for solving every case put before him, in this instance, who killed the wife of an American whizzkid. Like K Is For Killing, would not be surprised to find it is more fun to watch than read.

[ripper]

It is curious that out of 5 stories, 2 of a lighter tone were chosen to be adapted for this collection, whereas most episodes were fairly dark and suspenseful from my recollection.

I would have liked to have seen adaptations of 'Ladykiller' in which Michael Jayston marries rich women then drowns them in their bath, 'Nurse will make it Better' with Diana Dors as a witch and the one about the students in a blind school foiling a terrorist plot.

[dem]

Jun 10, 2015 19:01:11 GMT ripper said:

I would have liked to have seen adaptations of 'Ladykiller' in which Michael Jayston marries rich women then drowns them in their bath, 'Nurse will make it Better' with Diana Dors as a witch and the one about the students in a blind school foiling a terrorist plot.

Ladykiller was adapted for the first book, published earlier that same year. I've no recollection of reading it, and certainly don't own a copy now, but found this on Vault MK I. (KC's cover scan, I believe).

Ted Hart - Brian Clemens' Thriller (Fontana 1975)

"Zena Walker stars in Murder In Mind from the ATV series Thriller created by Brian Clemens."

File It Under Fear
Lady Killer
The Colour Of Blood
In My Lady's Chamber
Murder In Mind

File It Under Fear: Several local girls have fallen prey to a serial killer. Liz, a librarian, thinks she's discovered the murderers identity, but her increasingly panicked attempts to warn everyone fall on deaf ears.

Lady Killer: Jenny marries Paul Tanner after a whirlwind romance, blissfully unaware that he's a bigamist and, together with conniving wife #1, he's desperate to get his hands on that sizeable insurance bonus should she tragically precede him to the grave. Similar to the opening story in The Monster Club, but minus the Shadmock.

The Color of Blood: Julie finds herself holed up at a remote country manor with the personable Arthur Page who just happens to be an escaped psycho known as 'the Carnation Killer'.

In My Lady's Chamber: Bereaved Laura Vallance takes on a butler. He turns out to be a variant on Paul Tanner in Lady Killer and, having hired his wife as the maid, soon settles down to the cheery business of poisoning his wealthy employer.

Murder In Mind: A distraught woman, married to a thriller writer, stumbles into a police station, claiming to have murdered a girl with a poker. The lack of victim ensures that she's disbelieved by all but one diligent bobby.

[ripper]

Thank you, Dem, I'm glad to see that 'Ladykiller' was adapted as it was a fine episode. I think in the TV version the killer wasn't a bigamist; he married rich women then drowned them in their bath. His last potential victim was a young Helen Mirren, who managed to turn the tables on him. The story was possibly inspired by the true-life 'brides in the bath' murders carried out by George Smith a century ago.

[ripper]

Just checking on the net and I find that the episode I was talking about was ''A Coffin for the Bride' rather than 'Ladykiller.' My apologies...I have no idea why I confused the two episodes, but 'Coffin' is still a cracking watch if you get the chance to see it.

[dem]

The episode that stayed with me is Screamer; a woman, raped during a railway journey, is subsequently haunted by her attacker, but the police assure her they have the culprit under lock and key. Still she sees him everywhere, until a final showdown in the cellar goes horribly wrong.

Watched the Death To Sister Mary episode on-line last night (first time I've seen it). Robert Powell plays the slimy fan, Jennie Linden the object of his religious devotion, and the hit soap is called Saints & Sinners. Fair to say that, while the plot remains the same - soap opera star mithered by an obsessive fan who wipes out several members of the cast - Ted Hart has sexed-up his adaptation with a striptease here, a crafty grope there.

[ripper]

'Screamer' I do remember and its twist ending. I don't think I have ever seen 'Death to Sister Mary.'

[dem]

This might be interesting, for me, if, sadly, not you. Can only think the above comments re the first Thriller tie-in came from an ancient pre-internet notebook, so how will the stories bear up to a rematch after at least twelve years?

The Colour Of Blood: "I am darned attractive to women. Suppose that's why I hate them so much."

A case of mistaken identity sees Julie Marsh, leggy young solicitor's assistant, hand over £40, 000 in cash to a complete stranger and accompany him to a remote Hampshire country house. Said stranger is James Arthur Page, aka 'The Carnation Killer', an escaped psychopathic killer responsible for the sadistic murders of nine young women and rising. As Chief-Super Terson warns his team, "On the rampage he has the strength of ten ordinary men." It is all looking grim for Julie, but then she is not the innocent she appears and has a potent secret weapon in the form of a besotted lover who'll do anything for her. Someone is going to end up very dead, but who will it be? Very indebted to Robert Bloch's Psycho. Ends in a skirt-ripping frenzy that surely wasn't quite as graphic in the TV episode. Must say, these undemanding adaptations are very entertaining.

[dem]

Lady Killer: In cahoots with his sexy, conniving wife Toni, ladies man Paul Tanner cynically seduces Jenny Frith, a timid, twenty-eight year old virgin who shuns make-up and dresses like an elderly frump, with a view to murder and insurance fraud. After a whirlwind romance, Paul duly proposes marriage, Jenny ecstatically accepts, and they set off on honeymoon. Toni, mistress of disguises, finds Jenny all too easy to impersonate, and looks forward to seeing Paul shove her from the cliff-face so they can cash in on her own "death". But Jenny is full of surprises. Marriage has released the long suppressed sensual siren within and to top it all, she's loaded! Suddenly Toni's life-insurance looks paltry! Paul realises a drastic change of plan is called for.

Toni is not a happy bunny-boiler when she hears the newly-weds enjoying abandoned bad sex over the phone. Further complications arise when Paul's old partner in blackmail, Jack Hardisty, cottons on to this latest scam and demands a sizeable cut of the spoils. As is the case with The Colour Of Blood, it all comes down to a question of who will be the last man or woman left standing. Can see what I was getting at with reference to The Shadmock, but in truth the resemblance is superficial and best ignored!

[dem]

Murder In Mind: Or, as jovial Sergeant Frost christens it, "the case of the missing bra." Following a car accident, a concussed woman who doesn't know who she is, staggers into Middletown Police Station and admits to killing a woman named 'Jill.' The cops establish that their confused visitor is Betty Drew, and her "confession" is remarkably identical to the plot of her novelist husband's latest best-seller, Murder At Midnight. But newly promoted DC Tom Patterson believes there is more than a grain of truth to Mrs. Drew's garbled account of her lost hour, reasoning "You wouldn't really expect anyone with a pair like that to be wandering around bra-less. Now, would you ?" As it transpires he's right, and Betty's magnificent unharnessed breasts soon find themselves in dire peril from George Drew and his amorous secretary.

[dem]

File It Under Fear: There's a killer rapist at large in Barbury-on-Sea and no "well-endowed" young woman is safe. Inspector Cramer is under pressure from upstairs to prevent 'the Moon Killer' from adding to his tally but there's nothing to go on! Suspicion falls on creepy George "Leg man" Bailey at the local library who is forever finding excuses to send Gillie Randall up a ladder so he can look up her miniskirt. Come to think of it, that jumped-up young American detective, Gerry Masters, has been acting strange recently. We can safely rule out harmless eccentric Mr. Stubbs - the kindly old duffer hasn't a bad bone in his body!

Liz Morris, the chief librarian, has her own suspicions. A spinster at twenty-nine and, apparently, devoid of sex-appeal (how she wishes it were otherwise!), Liz is placed in a situation where she has to strike first and ask questions later.

Vague elements of Screamer about this story. Nice ending!