Thriller - the ITC Movie Versions

Thriller was made by ATV and the definitive versions are those that aired on British TV during its original run between 1973 and 1976, all but one featuring the famous fish-eye lens / peephole opening and closing credits and Laurie Johnson's exceptional theme music (the one exception being If It's a Man - Hang Up! but in that case the new titles and music were still produced by ATV including music by Laurie Johnson). However for many years starting in the late 1970s this was not the case. ITC - the wing of Lew Grade's ATV company that produced and marketed shows for the international market - reformatted the original ATV series. These new versions were preceded on-screen by the ITC logo / ident and strident start-up music, replacing the ATV ident and music seen on the original UK broadcasts. All bar one were given a generic "1974" copyright date irrespective of when they were produced (If It's a Man - Hang Up! was correctly dated as 1975):

ITC logo seen during the era of the Thriller TV Movies

Each episode was stripped of its official Thriller identity and turned into an ostensibly distinct TV movie whose official name was the on-screen title, e.g. "Possession" and not Thriller. Laurie Johnson's theme music and the fish-eye lens credits were dropped and replaced by new opening and closing titles tailor-made to the particular "movie". In some instances the original ATV episode title was replaced by a new one, e.g. Lady Killer became "The Death Policy". These strategies were seen as making the show more marketable than trying to sell the original series and it does seem that from a purely commercial viewpoint they were correct as these "new" movies were sold, broadcast and repeated many times all over the world over many years.

New on-screen title for "Possession" produced by Film-Rite

While there were occasional small differences in actual episode content (with some movies running slightly longer than the original versions) the movies were more clearly extended by the new opening and closing titles running far longer than the ATV originals. This was done so that they would better fit longer time slots. The closing titles made this extension most obvious (sometimes painfully so) by scrolling very slowly over the end artwork, freeze-frame or animation. In addition to further aid this extension they included much fuller crew credits than on the originals and this was useful in ascertaining in more detail who worked on the episodes.

The main talking point and controversy concerned the new titles for each episode / movie. It's fair to say that the visuals of the new titles are generally poorly-regarded, often bizarrely-done and in some cases amateurish, crass and tasteless. Some were more inventive, imaginative and impactful but even these still felt out of place with the episodes proper due to differences in production, lighting, picture quality and often it being obvious they were filmed in the USA rather than Britain where the episodes were set. In fairness the producers of the new titles had a very difficult task given that they couldn't use the original actors, production staff or settings and their budget seems to have been very limited. The music on these opening and closing titles (which will be covered separately) was often far better as it was sourced from library music companies such as KPM but even that didn't properly fit with the Laurie Johnson music on the episodes themselves.

For all their faults though, the ITC movie versions were a key part of many viewers' experience of the show. This was especially so for those who watched the show in the 1980s including the repeats on British TV between 1980 and 1984. These movie versions also then did important work as recordings of them from across the world circulated among fans and allowed them to see episodes they'd never seen before.

Production of the movie versions

Production of the new opening and closing titles was shared between two American companies: Film-Rite and Creative Productions; Dolphin Productions. These had quite distinct approaches. Film-Rite used newly-filmed sequences in the USA (although trying with varying degrees of success to seem like they were made in Britain like the rest of the episode). Although actors did feature on-screen to recreate or improvise upon events in the episodes proper, in almost all cases no faces were shown as this would have made it obvious the original actors were not being used. "Headless" figures were the norm although some heads were shown from behind where - rather like stand-ins - they could pass as the original characters. Often just hands or feet were shown while use of shadows / silhouettes was also sometimes used to disguise the lack of original actors and settings. In a few cases faces were seen, e.g. a photograph of an intended victim in "Mirror of Deception", but this was an improvisation / extension of events seen in the episode and reasonably plausible. The strategy could backfire though, e.g. the new titles for File It Under Fear showed the eyes / features of a voyeur which some viewers felt were too close to those of the actual killer in the whodunit that followed. Clips were sometimes used within these new titles and in a few cases dialogue from later in the episode was placed over the new sequences. While some of these clips were well-judged others gave a lot away such as showing killings within the action to follow. 

The end credits were usually accompanied by a montage of images supposedly linked to events in the story although these were often inaccurate and perhaps designed to be eye-catching rather than factually-correct. A few ended on a freeze-frame from the final scene with the credits scrolling over it. While the credits could certainly be useful in ascertaining the full crew there were frequent misspellings / typos of names:

End credit artwork for Someone at the Top of the Stairs, the image almost suggesting that Chrissie and Gillian are happily skipping away from the house!

Thirty of the movies had titles produced by Film-Rite. They are as follows with new titles in bold in brackets:

The Colour Of Blood (The Carnation Killer); Someone At the Top Of the Stairs; Possession; File It Under Fear; Ring Once For Death (Death In Small Doses); Once the Killing Starts; Kiss Me And Die (The Savage Curse*); Only a Scream Away; K Is For Killing (Color Him Dead); I'm the Girl He Wants To Kill; A Coffin For the Bride (Kiss Kiss, Kill Kill*); Death To Sister Mary (Murder Is a One Act Play); In the Steps Of a Dead Man; Come Out Come Out, Wherever You Are; The Next Scream You Hear (Not Guilty); Screamer; A Killer In Every Corner; Killer With Two Faces; Nurse Will Make It Better (The Devil's Web*); Where the Action Is (The Killing Game); The Double Kill; Won't Write Home Mom - I'm Dead (Terror From Within); Good Salary - Prospects - Free Coffin (Mirror Of Deception); The Next Victim; A Midsummer Nightmare (Appointment With a Killer); Sleepwalker; Nightmare For a Nightingale (Melody Of Hate); Dial a Deadly Number; Kill Two Birds (Cry Terror!); Death In Deep Water.

* These three are officially credited to "Visualscope" but the style is barely distinguishable from Film-Rite so it seems likely it is either an alternative name or division of Film-Rite.

Dolphin Productions took a rather different approach with animated titles, again very slow-paced with credits laid over them. Although their techniques were at one time quite technically impressive, by the 1980s this was less evident and to contemporary eyes they look very basic although occasionally quite effective. Some of the images in the animations were as fanciful as those used by Film-Rite in its end credit artworks as this Dolphin image from "Anatomy of Terror" (the particularly misleading new title for An Echo of Theresa) shows:

Other images were rather more conventional and used some interesting colours and effects as in this example from Spell of Evil:

While the use of animation rather than live action meant that Dolphin avoided the lurid scenes of some of the Film-Rite efforts it also meant that their titles generally seemed more pedestrian. A tendency to over-literal animation also led to some of their credits being hard to take seriously although a few of their sequences were pretty decent and would have been more effective without all the padding,

Dolphin produced the titles for the following thirteen episodes / "movies" - new titles where used in bold and brackets: 

An Echo of Theresa (Anatomy of Terror); Lady Killer (The Death Policy); The Eyes Have It; Murder In Mind; A Place To Die; Spell Of Evil; One Deadly Owner; Sign It Death; Night Is the Time For Killing (Murder On the Midnight Express); The Crazy Kill (Fear Is Spreading); If It's a Man - Hang-Up!; The Next Voice You See (Look Back In Darkness); Murder Motel.

It is unclear why two different companies produced titles, or why the numbers allocated are so dissmilar. Possibly ITC wanted to explore different styles. Another theory, backed by the argument that the earliest titles are the work of Dolphin, is that Dolphin withdrew from the process for some reason and Film-Rite took over. It's possible ITC felt the Film-Rite titles were more eye-catching on-screen (even if that were not always for the right reasons) and preferred to use their services.

Trailers

Trailers were produced for various of the "movies" and these can be found on the DVD sets and sometimes on the internet - ones for A Killer in Every Corner and The Next Victim can be seen on this video seven and a half minutes in (after the Dolphin movie titles to Murder Motel). All these are essentially composed of clips from the episodes in question and are generally effective in capturing the flavour of the production. Trailers for any film or programme have to strike a balance between enticing interest and giving away key developments. Most of these stay on the right side of the line but the one for Come Out, Come Out Wherever You Are gives rather too much away while another for a whodunit actually shows one of the suspects launching an attack at the climax of the "movie". Some have inserts from the new movie titles, quite extensively so for Come Out. Those from Dolphin (The Death Policy and Spell of Evil) are presented simply in this form but all but one of those by Film-Rite are accompanied by rather over-the-top, horror-type voiceovers which, although quite entertaining, do somewhat detract from the subtle style of Thriller. The dramatic style is most notably unrepresentative for Terror from Within, which is one of the most low-key stories, and for which the supernatural elements are rather overplayed by the narrator.

The most curious trailer though is that for File It Under Fear. Although produced by Film-Rite this has no voiceover and the action shown is purely an extended sequence from their new filmed titles with no clips at all from the original show - hardly a representative guide to the episode. Maybe this was an experimental trailer, a sign that Film-Rite were not impressed with the original episode or particularly impressed by their new titles!

Usefully there are hidden boards present before each trailer (these can be found on the DVDs by rewinding from the start) which give precise dates on when the Film-Rite trailers were made, or at least completed. Unfortunately there are no boards for Dolphin which would have helped establish if they worked on the series before Film-Rite. These trailers were produced between 1978 and 1980, although others may have been produced at earlier or later dates. In date order the Film-Rite trailers were completed as follows:

Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are (29.12.78); Dial a Deadly Number (30.1.79); In the Steps Of a Dead Man (7.2.79); Sleepwalker (29.6.79); Color Him Dead (5.7.79); Mirror Of Deception (11.12.79); Murder Is a One Act Play (9.1.80); Terror From Within (25.1.80); File It Under Fear (21.2.80); Cry Terror! (10.3.80)