MovieChat Forums > The Resurrection of Zachary Wheeler Discussion > Another classic telemovie of the early 7...

Another classic telemovie of the early 70s

posted 13 years ago by jeffyoung1
3 replies | jump to latest

I saw this forgotten telemovie gem back in the early 70s, some time after it came out in 1971. The early 70s was the 'Golden Age' of made-for-television movies that featured low budget but high production and acting quality, an apparently lost art in Hollywood.

"The Resurrection of Zachary Wheeler" is a hybrid of thriller suspense and science fiction. Its concept was a little ahead of its time, introducing scientific bioengineering and cloning and organ harvesting. I found this movie on dvd at a .99 cents store. The film to dvd transfer needs digital remastering badly. the dvd manufaturer did the best it could but the original film print shows its faded colors badly. However the resolution and clarity are sharp so you need not feel cheated out of the one dollar.

[–] editdad 13 years ago

This movie was done as a "low budget" feature for concessions under various
union and guild contracts. It was one of the first to be shot completely on
video tape, both in studio and locations in Southern California and New Mexico.
The edited video tape was converted to 35mm silver negatives at Vidtronics, a
division of Technicolor. It was released to theaters on 35mm and TV ststions
on 16mm. As best that I could determine, the original video tape master has
been mis-placed as well as the 35mm elements.

[–] editdad 13 years ago

[–] lvrepoman 12 years ago

Bradford Dillman was the king of these movies. The public domain is just flooded with his stuff.

For what it's worth, I'll take these low-budget flicks over the modern SyFy Channel CGI-fests any day.

"He was running around like a rooster in a barnyard full of ducks."--Pat Novak