''Gargoyles'' is an American
made-for-television
A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie or TV film/movie, is a feature-length film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a television network, in contrast to theatrical films made for ...
fantasy
horror film
Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes.
Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apoca ...
, directed by
B. W. L. Norton, and originally broadcast Tuesday, November 21, 1972, for
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
' ''
The New CBS Tuesday Night Movies
''The New CBS Tuesday Night Movies'' (known as ''The New CBS Friday Night Movies'' in its first season) was a weekly 90-minute motion picture made expressly for television. The series aired on CBS from 1971 to 1974. During its first two seasons, ...
.'' It was the first film to feature the make-up work of special effects artist
Stan Winston
Stanley Winston (April 7, 1946 – June 15, 2008) was an American television and film Prosthetic makeup, special make-up effects creator, best known for his work in the Terminator (franchise), ''Terminator'' series, the first three ''Jurassic Pa ...
, for which he shared the 1973 ''
Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Makeup.''
Plot
Dr. Mercer Boley and his daughter Diana are traveling in
New Mexico
)
, population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano)
, seat = Santa Fe
, LargestCity = Albuquerque
, LargestMetro = Tiguex
, OfficialLang = None
, Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...
for his scientific research. They are shown a skeleton of a large creature with wings and horns at a place called Uncle Willie's Desert Museum. Dr. Boley dismisses it as a
hoax
A hoax is a widely publicized falsehood so fashioned as to invite reflexive, unthinking acceptance by the greatest number of people of the most varied social identities and of the highest possible social pretensions to gull its victims into pu ...
assembled from unrelated bones, but Uncle Willie insists that he found the bones together as a whole skeleton. While Uncle Willie tells them tales of
demon
A demon is a malevolent supernatural entity. Historically, belief in demons, or stories about demons, occurs in religion, occultism, literature, fiction, mythology, and folklore; as well as in media such as comics, video games, movies, ani ...
s from American Indian folklore, an unseen force attacks the building, causing a rafter to collapse and kill the proprietor, and starting a fire that consumes the building. Dr. Boley and Diana escape with the horned skull and take it to a motel.
The next morning they report to the police and return to the site of the fire. There they find a group of young men, James Reeger and four others, riding motorcycles around the ruins. The police arrest them on suspicion of causing the fire, against the advice of the Boleys.
That night, two
gargoyle
In architecture, and specifically Gothic architecture, a gargoyle () is a carved or formed grotesque with a spout designed to convey water from a roof and away from the side of a building, thereby preventing it from running down masonry walls ...
s, appearing much smaller than the skeleton and without horns or wings, invade the motel room to retrieve the skull. Dr. Boley chases them to the road where one is struck and killed by a truck and the other gets away with the skull. Boley takes the body back to the room. The alcoholic hotelier, Mrs. Parks, complains but Diana tries to assure her that it was only a family argument.
Diana returns to the police station and pleads for the bikers' innocence but the deputy says only a judge can release them after charges have been filed. She tells Reeger about the dead gargoyle but he mockingly suggests that she and her father are "smoking" something. She does not mention it to the police even though it would prove their innocence, apparently because her father wants it for study. She returns to the motel.
Two slightly larger gargoyles return to recover the gargoyle body, but the Boleys escape with it through the window and stow it in their station wagon. The gargoyles rip the passenger door off and kidnap Diana, then overturn the car rendering Dr. Boley unconscious. The gargoyles take Diana to their cave, where they have many eggs. She meets the gargoyle leader, who is larger and has wings and horns like the skeleton. He tells Diana that they have only been alive for a few weeks after a 500-year incubation, and that humans have repeatedly killed them off in the past, but he vows that they will survive this time. He has several of Dr. Boley's books, apparently also taken from the car, and insists that Diana read to him. As she reads a passage that describes a mythical encounter between a human female and a demon who molests her, the leader approaches from behind and startles her, but assures her that he has "no need for humans."
Dr. Boley convinces the police chief to release the bikers and search for Diana, and Reeger joins them. Mrs. Parks and her helper drive away to get assistance, but the search party later finds her pickup truck empty and bloodied, and her body hanging upside down from a telephone pole with no sign of the helper.
The gargoyle leader has a queen, who also has wings and speaks, and she informs him that "men, horses, and dogs" are approaching the cave, and that many more eggs will hatch the next day. The leader orders that the humans "must be stopped in the desert." Over a dozen gargoyles charge the humans and both sides have casualties.
The leader takes Dr. Boley to the cave and vows "this is the end of your age, the beginning of mine." The queen appears jealous of the leader's attention to Diana, and she leads Dr. Boley to his daughter and lets them escape. Reeger douses the eggs with gasoline but is attacked by several gargoyles before he can get away. While surrounded, he lights the fuel and sacrifices himself, thus also killing what appear to be the only remaining gargoyle soldiers.
When the leader realizes that his war is once again lost, Dr. Boley bludgeons the queen's wing with a rock so she cannot fly, and so the leader must carry her away. He flies away with her to create a new nest somewhere.
[Matt Barone, ''The 15 Best TV Movies Of All Time,'' 'Complex' August 27, 2011 https://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2011/08/the-15-best-tv-movies-of-all-time/ ]
Cast
*
Cornel Wilde
Cornel Wilde (born Kornél Lajos Weisz; October 13, 1912 – October 16, 1989) was a Hungarian-American actor and filmmaker.
Wilde's acting career began in 1935, when he made his debut on Broadway. In 1936 he began making small, uncredited app ...
as Mercer Boley
*
Jennifer Salt
Jennifer Salt is an American producer, screenwriter, and former actress known for playing Eunice Tate on ''Soap'' (1977–1981).
Life and career
Salt was born in Los Angeles, California to screenwriter Waldo Salt and actress Mary Davenport. S ...
as Diana Boley
*
Grayson Hall
Grayson Hall (September 18, 1922 – August 7, 1985) was an American television, film, and stage actress. She was widely regarded for her avant-garde theatrical performances from the 1960s to the 1980s. Hall was nominated for an Academy ...
as Mrs. Parks
*
Bernie Casey
Bernard Terry Casey (June 8, 1939 – September 19, 2017) was an American actor, poet and professional American football player.
Early life
Casey was born in Wyco, West Virginia, the son of Flossie (Coleman) and Frank Leslie Casey. He graduated ...
as The Gargoyle
*
Scott Glenn
Theodore Scott Glenn (born January 26) is an American actor. His roles have included Pfc Glenn Kelly in ''Nashville'' (1975), Wes Hightower in ''Urban Cowboy'' (1980), astronaut Alan Shepard in '' The Right Stuff'' (1983), Emmett in '' Silverado'' ...
as James Reeger
*William Stevens as Police Chief
*John Gruber as Jesse
*
Woody Chambliss
Woodrow Lewis Chambliss (October 14, 1914 in Bowie, Texas – January 8, 1981 in Ojai, California) was an American character actor who appeared in both feature films and television. He is probably best known for his appearances as several cha ...
as Uncle Willie
*Jim Connell as Buddy
*Tim Burns as Ray
*Mickey Alzola
*Greg Walker
*Rock Walker as Gargoyles
;Uncredited
*
Vic Perrin
Victor Herbert Perrin (April 26, 1916 – July 4, 1989)Cox, Jim (2007). ''Radio Speakers: Narrators, News Junkies, Sports Jockeys, Tattletales, Tipsters, Toastmasters and Coffee Klatch Couples Who Verbalized the Jargon of the Aural Ether fr ...
(opening narration and voice of Gargoyle leader)
References
External links
*
*
*
Gargoylesat
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
{{Authority control
American supernatural horror films
Gargoyles in popular culture
American horror television films
1972 television films
1972 films
1970s American films