By Erin Free
In this regular column, we drag forgotten made-for-TV movies out of the vault and into the light. This week: the 1974 thriller All The Kind Strangers, starring the late Stacy Keach, along with Samantha Eggar, John Savage, and Robby Benson.
With the sad passing of Stacy Keach at the age of 85, FilmInk was literally bombarded with memories of the vast array of fascinating performances given by this intense, imaginative, charismatic, and very underrated actor.
There was obviously his most high-profile role as one of TV’s truly essential private eyes in The New Adventures Of Mike Hammer, but there is an abundance of great work on Keach’s resume. He was extraordinary as a boozy, beaten down veteran boxer in John Huston’s 1972 masterpiece Fat City; astoundingly compelling in Burt Kennedy’s chilling 1976 thriller The Killer Inside Me; deeply moving as a nuanced rookie cop in 1972’s The New Centurions, and hilarious as a buttoned-down detective in Cheech & Chong’s uproarious Up In Smoke (1978) and Nice Dreams (1981). There were great westerns (1971’s Doc, 1980’s The Long Riders), a cracking disaster flick (1978’s Gray Lady Down), a stellar period piece (1975’s Conduct Unbecoming), late-game excellence (2013’s Nebraska, 2025’s Jay Kelly), and even a Robert Altman cult classic (1970’s Brewster McCloud).
A titan of the stage, a one-time drug addict, and a convicted cocaine smuggler (!!!), Stacy Keach was also less celebrated as a pursuer and supporter of highly unusual material, appearing in a number of truly bizarre films, including Unsung Auteur William Peter Blatty’s 1980 nuthouse freakfest The Ninth Configuration (aka Twinkle, Twinkle Killer Kane), Unsung Auteur Jack Smight’s undefinable 1970 black comedy The Travelling Executioner, Michael Apted’s vicious 1977 British crime drama The Squeeze, and many more. There was also some truly crazy shit (1978’s Slave Of The Cannibal God; the 1982 Pia Zadora vehicle Butterfly, which is strange, but certainly not as bad as its reputation suggests), and even a direct link to Australia via Richard Franklin’s excellent 1981 outback highway thriller Roadgames with Jamie Lee Curtis.
There were also plenty of telemovies and mini-series (including the likes of 1982’s The Blue And The Gray, and two high-profile Judith Krantz adaptations in Princess Daisy and Mistral’s Daughter), and one of Stacy Keach’s best small screen efforts points further to the late actor’s embracing of unusual material. First broadcast on major US network ABC on November 12, 1974, the moody, deeply unsettling thriller All The Kind Strangers was a major detour for big screen director Burt Kennedy, who was best known for comic-leaning westerns like Support Your Local Sherriff! (1969) and Dirty Dingus McGee (1970). Working from an interesting script by TV vet Clyde Ware, Kennedy crafted something resolutely creepy with this twisted tale of backwoods family dysfunction, and Stacy Keach really shines.
Though All The Kind Strangers is an unusual piece, Keach is very much the sense of normalcy that keeps it on track. He plays the coolly named Jimmy Wheeler, a nice guy photojournalist taking a trip through rural America. When he spots a little kid hauling a huge bag of groceries down a dusty back road, Jimmy offers young Gilbert (Tim Parkison) a ride, and ends up on the backwoods property of what looks like a cross between The Waltons and The Manson Family. A gaggle of dishevelled, orphaned kids is under the supervision of their eldest brother Peter (a young John Savage displaying the off-kilter intensity that would become his stock in trade), a steely eyed teen who rules the roost and runs things his way.
When he soon discovers the nervous, skittish Brit Carol Ann (cult fave Samantha Eggar) doing chores and preparing food for the children (including teen idol and Unsung Auteur Robby Benson – who also sings the film’s theme song – as the second oldest brother), Jimmy distressingly determines that Peter and his siblings are in the creepy habit of luring unsuspecting adults to their property, who are then involuntarily “auditioned” as prospective parents. If deemed appropriate, said adults are “invited to stay” and play parent, and if they aren’t…well, the situation becomes even more dire.
With the creepiness factor entertainingly dialled up to eleven (the backwoods home is hicksploitation heaven, and comes complete with snarling dogs, surprise storms, and loud bursts of thunder and lightning), All The Kind Strangers is an unsettling slow-burn as Keach’s Jimmy Wheeler comes to the disturbing realisation of what has befallen him. He loses a little of his urban swagger at the thought of playing backwoods papa for the rest of his life and starts to fray at the edges, which Keach conveys with his characteristic intensity.
The real thrust of All The Kind Strangers, however, comes via the development of the kids at the heart of the film. Thankfully, these are not demon-spawn, Children Of The Corn-style pint-sized killers, but rather kids who have been battered and bruised by the toughness of their upbringing. When Keach’s Jimmy Wheeler realises this, his struggle to survive shifts drastically, and the film becomes something entirely more melancholy and moving. It all barrels toward a wholly satisfying conclusion (the film runs a mere 75 minutes) that feels strikingly, hauntingly right.
All The Kind Strangers is a brooding, winningly weird mid-1970s telemovie, and Stacy Keach would team effectively once again with Burt Kennedy a couple of years later for the equally arresting The Killer Inside Me. Keach gives a fine performance here, and All The Kind Strangers is a rich testament to this already missed actor’s unconventional gifts and keenly developed taste for the unusual.
Availability: All The Kind Strangers is available to watch “free with ads” via YouTube Movies, and it’s in fairly good shape.
