Janet Leigh is memorable as a determined housewife in “Home on Greenapple Highway.”

The 2 hour lengthy ABC TV film, Home on Greenapple Highway, aired January 11, 1970, and launched
audiences to Lt. Dan August. Right here, the taciturn detective was performed by
Christopher George, who match the position completely. The scores have been so good that
it was become a weekly sequence, however George was unavailable, and the position
went to Burt Reynolds.

Christopher George is well-cast as hard-nosed Lt. Dan August, however nonetheless capable of present compassion towards the folks combined up in his case, in “Home on Greenapple Highway.”

What’s fascinating about Home
on Greenapple Highway was how grownup the subject material was for 1970 tv.
The movie opens with a gory crime scene found by a toddler and the lacking
individual/potential sufferer seems to have been an sad housewife who had a
sequence of salaciously depicted affairs. Primarily based on a bestselling e book by Harold
R. Daniels, the seek for the lacking individual/sufferer is spliced with flashbacks
of the seamy backstory, which jogged my memory of the 1965 characteristic movie Sylvia, a shady woman who’s previous is
investigated. Nevertheless, this TV film is extra hardnosed that the old-school
theatrical melodrama starring Carroll Baker. That is fascinating,
contemplating the a lot stronger censorship on tv versus movie on the time.

Janet Leigh as a dissatisfied housewife, who seems to be for love in all of the fallacious locations. Right here, she hooks up with the nation membership life guard, in “Home on Greenapple Highway.”

The thriller blonde right here is performed by Janet Leigh, in one in all
her finest however lesser-known performances. Aired a decade after a profession excessive in Psycho, Janet Leigh was 42 and struggling
to maintain her profession afloat as a number one woman. The position of a girl who relied on
her face and physique for self-worth hit a bit near the bone for Leigh. Her
daughter revealed after her dying that Janet had consuming issues and feared
rising older, dropping her seems to be and determine. It is ironic in Home on Greenapple Highway that Janet seems to be unimaginable and may be very
weak, however is handled so casually by the male characters. There are some
allusions to her well-known position in Psycho.
Right here she is Marian Ord, in Psycho she
was Marion Crane. In her numerous trysts, Janet sports activities a beautiful determine in numerous
undergarments, which additionally prompted a stir within the Hitchcock basic. Her
characters search to decide out of their uninteresting lives, solely to seek out themselves in nice
hazard. The movie’s ending is a intelligent nod to Psycho.

Janet Leigh was 42 when she filmed “Home on Greenapple Highway.” Regardless of superb performances & trying nice by means of the ’60s, conserving stardom was an uphill battle.

Home on Greenapple Highway has a solid of veteran stars and then-newcomers.
The story is intriguing, there’s some nifty digital camera work, the story is
unsentimental, and the appearing is stable. The kind of crime dedicated and the
last revelation could have been a shocker again then, but it surely’s very commonplace
in the present day in our present actuality present mentality. So the story hardly feels dated by
in the present day’s requirements.

“Home on Greenapple Highway” was a type of TV films that haunted my ’70s childhood when re-run on the afternoon films!

The premise of Home
on Greenapple Highway relies on a real story. A home spouse simply
disappeared in the future in 1961 and was by no means heard from once more. And her kitchen was
left a literal bloody mess, like this film. Whereas there have been all types of
rumors, nothing was confirmed, however that is the place the similarity ends.

Christopher George, Janet Leigh, and Tim O’ Connor provide
standout performances as Dan August, and the couple in query, Marian and
George Ord. 

(R) Christopher George’s Dan August spars with (L) Peter Mark Richman’s sleaze businessman in “Home on Greenapple Highway.”

The actors who play the lads in Marian’s life are good in
their sleazy roles. Burr DeBenning is a rustic membership life guard, who’s a bit
mature act so ageist towards Marian. Peter Mark Richman (Blake Carrington’s
lawyer!) is Sal, a enterprise man who
will get off on treating the needy housewife like a hooker. Lawrence Dane is the brand new
age preacher who needs to do greater than enlighten Marian. There’s boozy
and cynical William Windom because the nation membership president, who picks up the place
the life guard left off.

William Windom is the nation membership president who’s one in all houswife Marian’s lovers in “Home on Greenapple Highway.”

Nice veteran actors like Walter Pidgeon, Keenan Wynn, and
Barry Sullivan provide stable assist. Julie Harris is typecast properly because the
uptight sister-in-law. Joanne Linville is righteously bitchy because the nation
membership president’s rightly jealous spouse.

Julie Harris brings her patented nervous edge to the position of the sister-in-law to Janet Leigh’s housewife in “Home on Greenapple Highway.”

Pre-stardom Ed Asner performs a heavy-handed sheriff. Lynda
Day is a pissy, pot-smoking secretary named Lillian Crane, a riff on Psycho’s Vera Miles as Lila Crane.  And Jan Brady herself, Eve Plumb, is the
Ords’ younger daughter, who discovers the blood-drenched crime scene.

Eve Plumb is the younger daughter who finds a bloody crime scene in “Home on Greenapple Highway.”

Janet Leigh’s innately empathetic persona makes the viewers
wish to perceive her character. Marian is greater than a promiscuous lady. She
is in search of validation and her listing of Mr. Wrongs jogs my memory of In search of Mr. Goodbar, which was additionally
based mostly on a real story. Marian Ord’s husband at all times forgives her as she seeks to
bolster her vanity concerning getting older and dropping her desirability. Among the many
fallacious locations she seems to be for love is with the nation membership life guard, a sleaze
bag enterprise man, a brand new age minister, and the nation membership president! Marion’s
at all times disillusioned, solely to maneuver on to the subsequent man. But, in her naïve means,
her intentions are honest. But, she’s handled as a toy, when she’s in search of
a teen dream model of real love. And Marian’s search doesn’t finish properly. Leigh’s
naturalistic, sturdy appearing make you consider in her character’s motivations, as
tousled as they’re. Leigh gave some terrific performances within the ‘60s and
seemed nice doing so, however one can solely assume it was her age that discovered her more and more
handed over by the ‘70s.

Janet Leigh as Marian, livid over feeling performed, in “Home on Greenapple Highway.”

Tim O’Connor, intense in his breakthrough position on Peyton Place as Elliot Carson, is
equally full of nervous power right here, as George Ord. The unhappy sack, gentle
husband loves his spouse, however she isn’t happy with their middle-class life.
Marian’s concern of dropping her attraction is accelerated by the sensation that life is
passing her by. The affairs not less than jump-start her self-worth, however Marian’s
additionally in search of an actual love, and a means out. And O’Connor’s scenes admitting
all this later are made genuinely transferring by his sturdy efficiency.

Tim O’ Connor as George Ord lastly comes clear about his marriage to Marion.

Right here’s the true life story that Home on Greenapple Highway makes use of as a premise for the fictional novel
and film, based mostly on the 1961 disappearance of Massachusetts home spouse Joan
Risch: https://www.amazon.com/Kitchen-Painted-Blood-Unsolved-Disappearance/dp/1476681848

And right here’s one in all my favourite movies, which starred Janet
Leigh, my tackle 1962’s The Manchurian
Candidate: https://ricksrealreel.blogspot.com/2017/10/the-manchurian-candidate-1962.html

This look on Janet Leigh’s face as Marian Ord touched me, when she begs her newest lover to not snort at her, in “Home on Greenapple Highway.”