212) Crawlspace (1972)

"He existed as an issue between us, and for all intents and purposes, though we had managed to get him out of the crawl, he was still very much present in the house." - Herbert Lieberman.

Director
John Newland
Buzz Kulik

Cast
Tom Happer - Richard Roy Atlee
Arthur Kennedy - Albert Graves
Teresa Wright - Alice Graves
Eugene Roche - Sheriff Emil Birge
Matthew Cowles - Dave Freeman
Dan Morgan - Dr. Harlow
Roger Serbagi - Davalos
Louise Campbell - Miz Gerard
Fleet Emerson - Wheeler

A couple of months ago, my family and I moved from "the Little Apple" in Kansas up to a small town that boasts being the "Irish Capital of Nebraska." Among the action-packed adventures we've had up here, a huge book sale was actually one of the more entertaining excursions we've taken. At my age, it doesn't take much to amuse me. 

Evidently, the current owners of a local antique store called "This N' That" bought the building which housed a huge selection of books that included a ton of paperbacks. When it comes to literature (using the term loosely) I'm a sucker for paperbacks, cheap editions, and I have a forbidden love of movie novelizations. Actually, during a weekend stay in Omaha a few months ago, I just found a paperback novelization of the 1977 movie "The Goodbye Girl" which is based on Neil Simon's play, and stars Richard Dreyfuss and Marsha Mason. I'm a fan of Neil Simon movies so it caught my eye...and my wallet. 

Anyways, the store owners were trying to sell off this huge inventory of books all summer at nearly nothing of a cost. So, they had these random sales throughout the summer. 

Arthur Kennedy as Albert Graves in "Crawlspace."

I found some desirable paperbacks and a few hard cover treasures including a first edition of Charlie Chaplin's book, "My Autobiography," and a first edition of Robert Curran's book "The Haunted" about the Smurl family of West Pittston, PA and the hauntings they claim to have endured. I think it's currently out of print. I read that book twenty years ago in two days. 

Among the haul of paper backs I walked away with, each one costing a quarter each, was Herbert Lieberman's novel "Crawlspace." 

I'd never read anything by Lieberman until now. The title alone caught my attention. 

When it comes to horror and thriller stories, I have this weird affinity for ones that take place in run-down, unsettling homes where the characters find themselves lost in the hallways and walls within. Movies such as "Nothing But Trouble," "The People Under the Stairs" and "The Boy" come to mind. What's inside the walls? What's behind all those doors? What's down in the basement? They have to go in, in order to get out. It's an imagination's playground. 

I couldn't put the book down. But if I did, I was anxious to get back to it. The story begins with a vagrant living in the crawlspace of a New England couple's home. 

According to fantasticfiction.com, it's Lieberman's first novel. And if his other books are anything like this one, Lieberman definitely kicked off his novel-writing career with an entertaining and truly suspenseful book that kept me wanting to come back, no matter how frustrating I found the characters to be. 

And me being...well...me, I had to find out if this, or anything Lieberman wrote, received the honorary movie adaptation. Luckily enough, "Crawlspace" did get a movie adaptation back in '72. It's a made for T.V. That's really nothing special. But it is what it is. I'll take it. 

By the way. I've already reviewed a movie called "Crawlspace" with Klaus Kinski. That's a completely different movie. 

This "Crawlspace" based on Lieberman's book is difficult to find. Regardless, I was determined to find it. I certainly wasn't willing to pay the $172 Amazon was asking for a copy of the DVD. 

So, I found it uploaded for free on the YouTube channel, "TVTERRORLAND." Granted the video quality is a bit poor, but it worked out alright. 

Like the novel, the story begins with an elder couple, Albert and Alice Graves (Arthur Kennedy and Teresa Wright) who live alone in a small home in a quaint New England town. 

The couple never had children of their own. 

Tom Happer as Richard Atlee.

It's winter when the story opens, and the Graves's furnace is low on oil. So, they call for someone to replenish their supply. 

A young-looking kid named Richard Atlee (Tom Happer) comes over to take care of it. When he's done, Alice chats with Richard for a bit before inviting him to stay for dinner, which Richard accepts. Albert isn't keen on the idea but just goes along with it. During dinner, Richard takes an interest in Albert's books, particularly a book of poems by William Blake. Richard asks to borrow it, and Albert reluctantly agrees so long as he promises to return it. 

A few days later, the couple wakes up to noises outside near their cellar door. Albert checks the basement the next morning to see what might have cause the noise. 

When he crawls in, he finds some small items that belong to him including the book of poems he lent Richard. 

Disturbed by this discovery, yet sympathetic to the young man, the couple soon begin to take pity and welcome Richard into their home and take care of him. 

Richard, in turn, works around the house, and often cooks for them as well. 

However, things take a dark turn rather quickly, especially as locals in town don't care much for Richard's presence. Nor do they approve of the Graves giving him room and board. 

The story follows Albert and Alice's relationship, and how negatively it's affected once they invite Richard into their lives. In fact, Richard soon dominates their whole lives. Their irrational kindness morphs to pure regret and a sense of being trapped. Richard doesn't kidnap them, but he develops a psychological hold on the both of them.  

I think this made-for-tv adaptation captures the sharp emotions in the book, but to a diluted degree. 

It needs a longer run time to include some of the more crucial scenes in the book, especially the shocking ending. 

One scene in the book which isn't included in the movie sees Richard showing Albert a cave deep in the woods behind their house where he was hiding for a while. There, Richard and Albert have a conversation about themselves that gives the reader insight into both of their motivations and mind-sets. Some other crucial scenes in the book are simply given lip service. 

The movie goes through the actions, and has a small amount of the book's intrigue, but it doesn't give the story enough time to develop naturally and build up properly. Some of it's there. Just as the characters capture the audience's interest, it bulldozes through the final act and then ends. 

Teresa Wright as Alice Graves.

It feels much too condensed and misses the emotional turmoil Alice and Albert deal with by having Richard stay with them. It tries. It clearly does!

I mentioned sharp emotions. The story deals with empathy, trust, priorities, regret, fear, family, intrusion, duty...there's a lot in this story. 

Despite the compacted movie version of "Crawlspace," it still manages to portray that initial fear behind someone intruding into our lives whom we're unable escape from thanks to fear. 

The actors, especially Arthur Kennedy and Tom Happer, do a well enough with what they're working with. 

The way they depict their respective characters is how I imagined them when I read the book. 

I hope one of these days, Lieberman's initial novel gets a theatrical movie. It has a lot of promise and suspense. It's also timely in a metaphoric sort of way. You know - welcoming undesirable strangers into our own home with only a false notion of charity to back up the insanity behind such a dangerous decision. 

It's a story that should be given the theatrical treatment. The T.V. movie told the story semi-well. And being a made-for-TV film, "Crawlspace" is more like an extended episode of some TV drama. It does as much as it can with what's given to it - good actors and a thrilling, suspenseful story. 

As for the novel, it's the best 25 cents has ever gotten me!