NIGHTMARE AT 43 HILLCREST is an hour-long TV episode from a forgotten series called THE WIDE WORLD OF MYSTERY. Some of these have had DVD releases to capitalise on the success of DARK SHADOWS man Dan Curtis, who directs with his fellow DARK SHADOWS alumnus Lela Swift. Sadly, this isn't a supernatural story, rather a dragged-out crime procedural that puts an innocent family into an ordeal from hell when a corrupt cop plants heroin in their home. I found the set-up to be more than a little ridiculous; the villain's motivations aren't really strong enough to justify his career-destroying behaviour here. There's a lot of volatility but not much suspense, and little sympathy for the plight of the characters.
The Wide World of Mystery (TV Series)
Nightmare at 43 Hillcrest (1974)
User Reviews
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bland TV movie about the fallout from police framing a suburban family as drug dealers
FieCrier29 September 2005
According to the video box, this is based on a true story. Produced by Dan Curtis (Dark Shadows, Trilogy of Terror, etc.), and the cast and crew is made up of a number of his regulars. Evidently broadcast as part of ABC's "Wide World of Mystery" though available individually on videotape now, which is how I saw it.
It starts with cops breaking into a house at about 2AM. They roust the Leydons from their bed, and the couple's daughter, though without announcing themselves as police. They start searching the house, and asking where the stuff is. Eventually, they say they're police and that they're looking for heroin.
One of the cops, "Sandy" Bates, realizes they got the wrong house, and quietly tells Clarence "Clare" Hartog, the guy in charge. Clare decides they need to plant heroin in the house, or otherwise their careers are over. The family is put under arrest. The two cops in charge spend the night shredding reports dealing with the right house (43 N. Hillcrest), and creating false reports for 43 Hillcrest.
Not surprisingly, the family has to go through a rough spot of suspecting each other. Likewise, their house is vandalized by people, and they receive harassing phone calls. Dad gets let go from his job, daughter is suspended from school. Linwood, a cop from the bust approaches them with his suspicions, and the rest of the movie deals with how the case proceeds and unravels.
Though nowhere near the same league as other miscarriage of justice movies like Hitchcock's The Wrong Man (1956), this isn't bad. It has the cheap look of something shot for 1970s television with studio cameras. I didn't catch any shadows of boom mikes, though there's one shot where one senses the lock on a camera being undone so it can pan.
Anyone know anything about the case this was based on?
There are trailers at the end for other TV movies available through USA Home Videos - The Ambush Murders; Cocaine: One Man's Seduction, and The Blue Knight (the George Kennedy one).
It starts with cops breaking into a house at about 2AM. They roust the Leydons from their bed, and the couple's daughter, though without announcing themselves as police. They start searching the house, and asking where the stuff is. Eventually, they say they're police and that they're looking for heroin.
One of the cops, "Sandy" Bates, realizes they got the wrong house, and quietly tells Clarence "Clare" Hartog, the guy in charge. Clare decides they need to plant heroin in the house, or otherwise their careers are over. The family is put under arrest. The two cops in charge spend the night shredding reports dealing with the right house (43 N. Hillcrest), and creating false reports for 43 Hillcrest.
Not surprisingly, the family has to go through a rough spot of suspecting each other. Likewise, their house is vandalized by people, and they receive harassing phone calls. Dad gets let go from his job, daughter is suspended from school. Linwood, a cop from the bust approaches them with his suspicions, and the rest of the movie deals with how the case proceeds and unravels.
Though nowhere near the same league as other miscarriage of justice movies like Hitchcock's The Wrong Man (1956), this isn't bad. It has the cheap look of something shot for 1970s television with studio cameras. I didn't catch any shadows of boom mikes, though there's one shot where one senses the lock on a camera being undone so it can pan.
Anyone know anything about the case this was based on?
There are trailers at the end for other TV movies available through USA Home Videos - The Ambush Murders; Cocaine: One Man's Seduction, and The Blue Knight (the George Kennedy one).
I love shot on video movies
BandSAboutMovies24 March 2020
Warning: Spoilers
This is based on a true story and all about the Leyden family and how they went up against the law.
One evening, Gregory (Jim Hutton, Psychic Killer, The Green Berets), his wife Esther (Emmaline Henry, Elise Dunstan from Rosemary's Baby) and their daughter Nancy (Linda Curtis, daughter of director/producer Dan Curtis, who would sadly die a year after this film aired) are having a quiet evening when the cops burst in. The reason? Heroin.
Yes, police commissioner Clarence Hartog (Peter Mark Richman, so memorable as teacher Charles McCulloch in Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan)has made a mistake, but he's not going back on it. It was supposed to be a bust at 43 North Hillcrest, not 43 Hillcrest. But now, he's shredded all the evidence and forced one of the cops, Sandy Bates (Don Dubbins, From Earth to the Moon), to be part of his scheme.
This made for TV movie also features Mariette Hartley (who was in all those Polaroid commercials with James Garner) and John Karlen (who was also on Curtis' Dark Shadows as Willie Loomis).
Willie Katz wrote this, but he's perhaps better known for the song "Mr. Touchdown U.S.A.," which was used in Some Call It Loving, Yes Man and Jackass 3D. Lela Swift, who also directed several episodes of Dark Shadows and Ryan's Hope, provided co-direction.
This is a great artifact of 1970's TV, shot on video and filled with dark themes of uncaring police and a downer ending. It's one of the few commercially released episodes of ABC's The Wide World of Mystery. Sadly, not many episodes are available, which makes me upset. These hour-plus mini-films are just plain awesome.
One evening, Gregory (Jim Hutton, Psychic Killer, The Green Berets), his wife Esther (Emmaline Henry, Elise Dunstan from Rosemary's Baby) and their daughter Nancy (Linda Curtis, daughter of director/producer Dan Curtis, who would sadly die a year after this film aired) are having a quiet evening when the cops burst in. The reason? Heroin.
Yes, police commissioner Clarence Hartog (Peter Mark Richman, so memorable as teacher Charles McCulloch in Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan)has made a mistake, but he's not going back on it. It was supposed to be a bust at 43 North Hillcrest, not 43 Hillcrest. But now, he's shredded all the evidence and forced one of the cops, Sandy Bates (Don Dubbins, From Earth to the Moon), to be part of his scheme.
This made for TV movie also features Mariette Hartley (who was in all those Polaroid commercials with James Garner) and John Karlen (who was also on Curtis' Dark Shadows as Willie Loomis).
Willie Katz wrote this, but he's perhaps better known for the song "Mr. Touchdown U.S.A.," which was used in Some Call It Loving, Yes Man and Jackass 3D. Lela Swift, who also directed several episodes of Dark Shadows and Ryan's Hope, provided co-direction.
This is a great artifact of 1970's TV, shot on video and filled with dark themes of uncaring police and a downer ending. It's one of the few commercially released episodes of ABC's The Wide World of Mystery. Sadly, not many episodes are available, which makes me upset. These hour-plus mini-films are just plain awesome.
Jim Hutton at his best!
climbingivy19 February 2012
Warning: Spoilers
I think that Nightmare At 43 Hillcrest is an excellent episode of ABC's Wide World Of Mystery made for television series,not to be confused with the British Thriller Brian Clemens television series from the same time period in the early 1970s.I picked this movie up on VHS tape a few years ago,strictly because I am a big lover of Jim Hutton shows and movies.I was pleasantly surprised by an incredible story of a police mix-up and the cover up that ensues afterwards.It is almost impossible to believe that an incident like this could actually happen in the good ol U.S.of A.The cast is excellent.Jim Hutton and Mariette Hartley are two of a stellar cast.Nightmare At 43 Hillcrest was directed by Dan Curtis of Dark Shadows fame.Check this one out.I Have This Movie.
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