A ghostly movie

I try watching a different Halloween movie every year.

They are mostly movies that are new to me, but an old one that I haven't seen for a long time will do as well.

I hadn't had anything specific in mind this year, and was thinking Weird Science might work, even if not strictly on theme. Instead, I finally found an option for watching Child of Glass.

Many of my spooky Halloween memories are associated with Disney, from us watching the weekly shows and from the early years of the channel.

The other movie I associate most closely with that is The Watcher in the Woods, but I have been able to see that much more often.

It had felt like Watcher was much more recent, but really they were only two (kind of three) years apart.  

The Watcher in the Woods had its first theatrical release in 1980, but was then re-shot and re-released a year later. Regardless, it did have a theatrical release, so that kind of a publicity campaign and then a lot of television play.

Child of Glass aired as an episode of The Magical World of Disney in 1978 (and in May, not October). Repeats just never seemed to happen. As far as I know, I only saw it once, but I always remembered the glowing girl and the dog, and that she was able to materialize for a dance (which seemed really fake and unfair to Blossom).

I had looked it up many times but with no luck. Finally I found a copy on Youtube. If the quality was not the best, it was still something. Finally!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzg4uQWAAuY 

(One thing that will come out more in a later post: I was also able to locate the book that acted as the source material, and the book is better.) 

For a made for television movie from the late 70s, it is not bad. I don't need to see it again, but I am glad that I was able to see it one more time.

As it was, I ended up more distracted by the familiar faces than caught up in the plot.

Alexander's mother was played by Barbara Barrie, Barney Miller's wife and Nana on Suddenly Susan. His sister was Violet Beauregard, though without her wearing blue or chewing gum there is no way I would have recognized her there. 

In my previous attempts to find the movie, I had gotten that Inez was Sylvia from Little House on the Prairie, but that didn't tell me that Aunt Lavinia was Moses' adopted mother from The Ten Commandments! I mean, these are people whom I had actually seen in other things, even at that young age.

Also, while I probably had not seen him prior to that, I would later become quite fond of Anthony Zerbe as Teaspoon in The Young Riders. I caught him very close to my re-watch in an episode of Columbo and I have to say he is pretty versatile.

It's not a big deal, but it was something I had wanted for a long time and I got it.

I would say that next year I will try Weird Science, but a friend reminded me of Something Wicked This Way Comes. 

I don't remember very much about that one either. I think I need to check it out.