The only reason I was attracted to Ted Post's Sandcastles was the strong cast, including Herschel Bernardi, Mariette Hartley, Jan- Michael Vincent, Gary Crosby, and Bonnie Bedelia. Oh, and I should throw in that I always enjoy a good ghost story. I stress "good," as in competent and unnerving.
Well, sure enough there were all the cast members I read in the synopsis, and danged if it wasn't a ghost story, so that let's CBS off the hook for false advertising (although the statute of limitations has long worn off), but that's about it. Sandcastles is a cheese-lover's feast, with emoting and scene-chewing and Bonnie Bedelia, a lovely actress--despite the big "TV ACTRESS" stencil on her forehead--doing that sure-to-captivate-the-gals-in-the-audience stare into infinity when she's got some extra drama-ing to do.
I won't bother with the plot--if you like this sort of cheesy ocean spray, you'll want to run right out to the beach to squeeze off a can of Beach Whiz on the nearest one of those nasty, gassy-looking kelp testicles that smell just awful.
Apparently, the whole reason for this thing to have been made was to cash in on packaging a lame romantic ghoster in a special format-- just like in the "Golden Age of Television"--where the movie or teleplay is shot on videotape, then transferred to film, Kineoscope, I think(???) in order to make crap last longer.
It may have worked with Your Show of Shows and The Miracle Whip Theatre back in the day, but doing it with a movie in 1972 just screams artsy-fartsy, and the producers probably thought this would protect their masterpiece for the next 44 years.
Well, they were partially correct. On a physical level, Sandcastles is watchable.
But I think we were dealing the Fool's Golden Age here.
Well, sure enough there were all the cast members I read in the synopsis, and danged if it wasn't a ghost story, so that let's CBS off the hook for false advertising (although the statute of limitations has long worn off), but that's about it. Sandcastles is a cheese-lover's feast, with emoting and scene-chewing and Bonnie Bedelia, a lovely actress--despite the big "TV ACTRESS" stencil on her forehead--doing that sure-to-captivate-the-gals-in-the-audience stare into infinity when she's got some extra drama-ing to do.
I won't bother with the plot--if you like this sort of cheesy ocean spray, you'll want to run right out to the beach to squeeze off a can of Beach Whiz on the nearest one of those nasty, gassy-looking kelp testicles that smell just awful.
Apparently, the whole reason for this thing to have been made was to cash in on packaging a lame romantic ghoster in a special format-- just like in the "Golden Age of Television"--where the movie or teleplay is shot on videotape, then transferred to film, Kineoscope, I think(???) in order to make crap last longer.
It may have worked with Your Show of Shows and The Miracle Whip Theatre back in the day, but doing it with a movie in 1972 just screams artsy-fartsy, and the producers probably thought this would protect their masterpiece for the next 44 years.
Well, they were partially correct. On a physical level, Sandcastles is watchable.
But I think we were dealing the Fool's Golden Age here.