[miketardis]

HELTER SKELTER (1976)
Directed by Tom Gries. Stars George DiCenzo, Steve Railsback. I first read HELTER SKELTER my first year out of college. I was working the graveyard shift at WXOU, Oakland University's radio station, and I usually read to pass the time between records. Here’s some advice: alone in the middle of the night in a rickety old building is the worst possible setting in which to read HELTER SKELTER, which is Vincent Bugliosi’s 1974 best-seller about the Manson Family murders. Bugliosi is the Los Angeles County district attorney who prosecuted Manson and members of his cult who were convicted of committing the seven “Tate-LaBianca” slayings.
HELTER SKELTER was remade in 2004, but it’s hard to imagine it being more gripping than Tom Gries’ 1976 version, which aired over two nights and four hours almost five years to the day after Manson was handed the death sentence by a California jury (California later repealed the death penalty, and Manson is now serving life). Told in docudrama fashion, Gries opens his film with the discovery of the bodies in Roman Polanski’s Beverly Hills mansion, which included Polanski’s actress wife Sharon Tate. The crime scene is surprisingly bloody for network television at that time, although audiences inured by LAW & ORDER will barely shrug.
Gries (QB VII) and writer JP Miller (DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES), along with character actor George DiCenzo, who sometimes addresses the home audience directly as Bugliosi, carefully lay out the puzzle pieces and introduce us to a sprawling cast of characters: the cops, the lawyers, the victims, and, yes, the killers. The ugly star of our story is Manson himself, a lunatic, sociopath and--in the eyes of his followers--Jesus Christ. Matching DiCenzo’s solid turn is Steve Railsback (THE STUNT MAN) in a star making performance as Manson. It’s nigh impossible to tear your eyes away from Railsback, who nails the madman’s wide-eyed presence so distinctly that you fear the actor may have a murderous skeleton or two in his own closet.
HELTER SKELTER is three hours that feels half its length. It’s smart and skillfully presented, but most importantly, it’s a powerful reminder that no Hollywood screenwriter can create a greater evil than what already exists in our own backyards. Nancy Wolfe, Christina Hart and Cathey Paine are chilling as Manson’s female co-defendants. Also with Marilyn Burns, Paul Mantee, Sondra Blake, Jon Gries, Alan Oppenheimer, Linden Chiles, David Clennon and Marc Alaimo.