After 30 Years, They're Still Here

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By 1982, Steven Spielberg already had done some remarkable things on film.

He had given us "Jaws," "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and "E.T." In the years ahead, he would give us "The Color Purple," "Empire of the Sun," "Jurassic Park," "Schindler's List" and "Saving Private Ryan," among others.

Few, if any, movie directors have had the kind of influence he has had — with so many groundbreaking filming techniques in so many genres.

Few directors have had the talent for telling a story — and telling it well, no matter how complex it might be.

And, to be sure, the movie that was released 30 years ago today, "Poltergeist," was one complicated tale. Spielberg didn't direct it, though. He produced it. "E.T." was his directorial project in 1982.

Tobe Harper actually directed it — but it definitely had a Spielberg feeling to it.

I never heard Spielberg — or anyone else — say what inspired the story — an ordinary family living in a subdivision whose lives are turned upside down by a supernatural intrusion.

The reason for the invasion remains hidden until near the end of the movie, when the family's patriarch puts two and two together and realizes that the property, which was once a cemetery, was not relocated as he had been told, that only the headstones had been moved. The bodies had been left where they were, and their souls were not at rest.

As a longtime fan of the Twilight Zone, I often thought the movie's plot was inspired by an episode about a young girl who vanishes to another dimension through a portal that appears in her room. Viewers of the Twilight Zone heard about the supernatural guests but never saw them.

Similarly, the youngest girl in "Poltergeist" was snatched away by spirits who gained access to her through the closet in her bedroom. (For the most part, they were never really seen, either.)

But I have found no evidence to support my conclusion that the show inspired the movie — other than my own suspicions.

It isn't important, I guess. A good story is a good story, whatever its inspiration may be, and "Poltergeist" was a darn good chiller for a hot summer day.

Of course, much of what makes a good story is good story telling, and there haven't been many directors in the last 35 years or so who could match Spielberg.

And, in Spielberg's hands, "Poltergeist" was more than simply a scary film. In the last three decades, it has come to be regarded as a true classic of the horror genre.

The line "They're here" — with that lilt in Heather O'Rourke's vocal delivery — is one of the most recognizable lines in movie history.

Indeed, "Poltergeist" seemed like a blessing for all who were affiliated with it. It cost less than $11 million to make and took in more than $120 million at the box office.

Those numbers were dwarfed by "E.T.," however, and, ultimately, "Poltergeist" and its series of sequels earned a reputation for being cursed. That was because some of the movie's stars died prematurely — a series of tragic coincidences that were, nevertheless, enticing for the movies' genre.

It all began 30 years ago today.

Death of a Director

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"A man will die, a writer, the instrument of creation: but what he has created will never die! And to be able to live for ever you don't need to have extraordinary gifts or be able to do miracles. Who was Sancho Panza? Who was Prospero? But they will live for ever because — living seeds — they had the luck to find a fruitful soil, an imagination which knew how to grow them and feed them, so that they will live for ever."

Luigi Pirandello (1867–1936)
Six Characters in Search of an Author

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You may not recognize the name of Lamont Johnson.

That's probably understandable. He was an actor early in his career, which included playing Tarzan on the radio, but he moved on to directing mostly in his later years. Sometimes he directed theatrical releases; sometimes he directed episodes of TV series, other times he directed TV movies.

He worked on all kinds of projects, and much of the time, there seemed to be no real link between them. But, in truth, there was one common link, as Claire Noland observed in the Los Angeles Times — most of his projects dealt with sensitive topics.

Johnson, who died Sunday at the age of 88, "dealt with interracial romance in 'My Sweet Charlie' (1970), homosexuality in 'That Certain Summer' (1972), blacklisting in 'Fear on Trial' (1975) and the civil rights movement in 'Crisis at Central High' (1981)," Noland wrote.

It was also through Johnson that I learned the true story of the only American soldier to be executed for desertion since the Civil War. He had a fondness for history that I could appreciate.

He didn't just direct movies, though. He directed numerous episodes of TV series — including eight episodes from the original Twilight Zone series between 1961 and 1963. One of his earliest directorial efforts for the series was an episode that really lived up to the early reputation of the series.

It was called "Five Characters in Search of an Exit."

The episode's name was inspired by a play that was written by Luigi Pirandello nearly 90 years ago — "Six Characters in Search of an Author." When I was about 14 or 15, that play was performed at the college where my father taught. I remember that because my brother had one of two children's roles in the play — both of which were nonspeaking.

Just to briefly recap the story — and it has been many years since I have seen the play — these six characters interrupt the rehearsal of another play, and it is revealed that they are unfinished characters looking for an author who will complete their story.

The college production in which my brother participated was quite successful. It was entered in many dramatic competitions, and advanced to a regional competition in Fort Worth. I well remember driving to north Texas with my mother and my brother, picking up my grandmother in Dallas and going to Fort Worth, where we watched my brother and his castmates perform, then we saw some other truly special collegiate performances over the course of several days.

Anyway, the name of that play has stayed with me all these years, and it gave me a special appreciation for the Twilight Zone episode that was inspired by it. Five characters — a hobo, a clown, a bagpipe player, a ballerina and an Army major — find themselves in some sort of circular room, and no one knows who he or she is or how he or she got there.

If you've never seen the episode, I'll let you watch it for yourself and see how the story is resolved.

A Hero's Birthday

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"I believe we need heroes. I believe we need certain people who we can measure our own shortcomings by."

Richard Attenborough

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Today is Richard Attenborough's 86th birthday.

I'm not sure what modern viewers think of when they hear his name. Many may only know him as a film director, and he certainly has made his mark in that area. He won an Oscar as the director of one of my favorite films, "Gandhi," and he directed many other films as well.

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Others may think of him as an actor, and he has had a distinguished career in front of the camera as well.

Certainly, moviegoers remember him as the grandfatherly entrepreneur in 1993's "Jurassic Park," but his time as an actor dates back to 1942.

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That was a couple of years before he married his wife, Sheila Sim, who recently observed her 87th birthday.

In their 60–plus–year marriage, the Attenboroughs had three children together. One of their daughters, Jane, was killed in the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004, along with her own daughter and her mother–in–law.

An advocate of education, Attenborough took his grief and turned it into a positive, establishing the Jane Holland Creative Centre for Learning at Waterford Kamhlaba in Swaziland in his daughter's memory.

That was truly an heroic act.

A Birthday Milestone

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It wasn't so long ago that living 100 years was a rare accomplishment in the human experience.

Medical science has come up with drugs and other treatments that can extend lives that probably would have ended much sooner even 20 or 30 years ago. As life expectancy has increased, so has the number of centenarians.

When Richard Bare was born on Aug. 12, 1909, his parents probably had little reason to think that he would live to see the dawn of the new millennium, much less his 100th birthday. Reaching one's 100th birthday was not unheard of at the time, but it was more infrequent than it is today. There are more than 96,000 people in America who are at least 100 years old.

Bare joined that group today.

At this point, perhaps you are wondering, who is Richard Bare? Well, he is a director/writer/producer who spent most of his career working in television, but he did a lot of film work, too. He wrote, produced and/or directed more than 60 one–reel short subjects with titles that typically began "So You Want ..." from 1942 to 1956.

That series began with a film called "So You Want to Give Up Smoking," which was somewhat radical considering that it was made more than 20 years before the surgeon general linked smoking to cancer and respiratory disease and launched a public health campaign. Other self–help titles in Bare's "So You Want ..." series dealt with needing glasses, allergies, impending fatherhood and occupational goals.

As a writer, he was responsible for episodes for "Going My Way" and "Route 66."

But his most lasting legacy may be the work he did as a director. He was the director of some films and episodes of several TV series, including "Alias Smith and Jones," "Nanny and the Professor," "Lassie," "Maverick," "Petticoat Junction" and "77 Sunset Strip."

His most noteworthy directorial efforts, though, may have been for the original "Twilight Zone" and "Green Acres."

Bare produced some of the most classic "Twilight Zone" episodes, including "To Serve Man." And he directed virtually every episode of "Green Acres."

His career apparently ended in the early 1970s, but he announced in November 2007, at the age of 98, that he was working on a revival of "Green Acres."

Nothing has come of that planned revival, to my knowledge. And, even if Bare managed to launch a new incarnation of the series, the cast would be almost entirely different.

But the fact that he was working on it at his age should be an inspiration to us all.