Circle of Fear (TV Series) The Concrete Captain (1972) User Reviews

Telly in the 1970s was great!

[khunkrumark · 7/10 · 5 February 2019]

Good entry from the now dated anthology series. This one was directed by Richard Donner. Five years later he directed Superman... five years previously he was a major contributor to the awesome (and sadly forgotten) Banana Splits Show.

The series attracted awesome American acting talent and this episode is no exception. Walter Burke isn't on the screen long enough for my liking.

The story is the usual ghost nonsense but it's made palatable with generous use of outdoor coastal scenery, zippy direction and a quality cast.

Sea Side Terror

[AaronCapenBanner · 7/10 · 14 November 2014]

Stuart Whitman & Gena Rowlands play Ed & Kate Lucas, who are vacationing when he picks up a local souvenir that is a statue made of concrete with a harpoon sticking out of it. Kate is inexplicably fascinated by it, constantly picking it up and looking at it. She is then compelled to visit a local sea side inn where the proprietor happens to know the story behind the statue, a tragic love affair involving a real sea captain and his lost love known as Katharine. This leads to strange events occurring until they are drawn into a real ghost story to be played out with them as the main participants... Good episode with a nice atmosphere and interesting story leading to a suspenseful end.

Underrated episode of the series

[ebeckstr-1 · 7/10 · 31 October 2021]

A very good ghost story, with some really cool visual elements. While the ending is somewhat conventional, and there is an obnoxious slap-the-hysterical-woman moment, it's still and entertaining piece of 70s American television.

The ghostly Jonathan Harker salutes the living.

[mark.waltz · 8/10 · 25 February 2021]

It's interesting that the tragic hero who died leading to this ghost story is named after the romantic hero of Bram Stoker's "Dracula". This story focuses on the living, Gena Rowlands and Stuart Whitman, on a trip, staying at a seaside inn (close to the season but open to them) where the late Jonathan Harker and his eternal love Katherine are buried. You can hear their ghosts communicating, and apparently so does Rowlands who can hear the haunting sounds coming from the sea.

She has purchased a little chunk of concrete which contains a miniature anchor, perhaps the tool to unleash these spirits from their earthly bondage. Rowlands becomes ill which forces them to stay there, and this makes her more haunted by the legend which apparently had the late ship captain trapped along the sea, unable to get out, and eventually covered in concrete after being shot by a harpoon.

Rowlands continues to be drawn into the tragedy which threatens to create a new one, especially when Whitman finds her restlessly roaming the shores while still sick. As the episode develops its storyline, you'll be drawn in by its haunting legends, especially as Rowlands begins to take on the personality of the late wife, Katherine. Walter Burke, as the inn caretaker, adds a genuinely spooky element to the episode, perfectly increasing the gothic tragedy of the haunting story.

A great show

[BandSAboutMovies · 8/10 · 15 January 2022]

Ed Lucas (Stuart Whitman) has found his wife Kate (Gena Rowlands) the perfect souvenir. The Concrete Captain is a small chunk of concrete with a miniature harpoon in it. Lucky for him - and maybe not so good, really, when you see how it all happens - she loves it.

She's actually obsessed with it.

The Concrete Captain ends up being real and his ghost thinks that Kate is his long-lost love Katharine. And he's coming back for her.

This episode of Ghost Story was based on a short story by Elizabeth Walter, whose story "The Spider" was an episode of Night Gallery, "Fear of Spiders." Three more of her stories would end up in this series: "The New House," "Pendergast" (which was called "Elegy for a Vampire") and "Travelling Companion" (which was called "Time of Terror). The story was adapted by JImmy Sangster and Richard Matheson, which if you think about it, is pretty much as good as it gets.

This was made four years - and plenty of TV work - before Richard Donner would make The Omen and show the world just how good he was. Anyone who watched this episode would already know that, as this gothic ghost story wanders the silent and gray shores of a coastal town that's been shut down.