Thirteen years before sitting in a Star Fleet captain's chair and going up against such alien homicidal monstrosities as the Borg, the Kazon, the Hirogen and Species 8472, Kate Mulgrew did battle with a homicidal monster of a much more mundane nature, in 1982's "A Stranger Is Watching." Based on Mary Higgins Clark's best seller of 1977 (which, to be honest, I've never read), the film shows us what happens when 11-year-old Julie Peterson (well played by Shawn von Schreiber)--who had seen her mother brutally raped and killed two years earlier--is kidnapped along with the woman (Mulgrew) who is dating her widower dad. The thuggish lout (Rip Torn) hauls the pair to the underground labyrinth beneath Grand Central Station, a hellish world unto itself, where he caches them and schemes to acquire his ransom. The film is a fairly taut thriller, into which director Sean S. Cunningham manages to generate more suspense than he had two years earlier in the overrated "Friday the 13th." A background score by the great Lalo Schifrin adds immeasurably to the tension on screen, and all four principals--including James Naughton as Julie's understandably desperate dad--turn in fine performances. Unfortunately, the story is a tad too simplistic for this viewer's taste. We never learn anything about the nutjob Artie Taggart, other than the fact that he wants to raise horses in Arizona; his background, and why he's chosen this particular moment to kidnap Julie, remain mysteries. If only the film's screenplay were as multilayered as Grand Central Station itself seems to be! Still, despite the unfleshed-out nature of the picture's most interesting character, the film does manage to keep the viewer riveted. Kate, post-"Ryan's Hope" here but still hardly a household name, is always wonderful to watch, and looks quite beautiful in this early screen role. And while Artie Taggart may not be as relentless as one of the Borg, he still manages to give the old girl a pretty tough time....

After the hit that was "Friday the 13th", director Sean Cunningham would tackle another low-budget horror / thriller item. "A Stranger is Watching" is quite straight-forward (with its foreseeable plot turns, still it's well written), but while not as explicit (as say Friday) it nonetheless held a grimy and nasty approach and this can be attributed a lot to Rip Torn's boldly outstanding performance. He magnificently portrayed a robust, but cold and disturbing killer. The two female leads were not to be overshadowed either, as there is a stellar turn by the young girl Shawn von Schreiber and Kate Mulgrew is affably good too.

After the traumatic ordeal of watching her mother brutally raped and killed, another horrific incident occurs when Julie is kidnapped along with her father's newswoman girlfriend. The kidnapper keeps the two stored deep in the underground passages of New York's Grand central station while waiting for the ransom to be paid. But Julie starts getting visions of what happened that night when her mum was murdered and it becomes clear that her kidnapper was the one who murdered her mother and not the one she accused that's shortly facing execution.

Taken off a novel by Mary Higgins Clark, the material remains edgy and particularly compact with some running themes amongst its calculative structure. There's confidence in Cunningham's swift handling, as the atmospheric suspense is well timed (especially the cat and mouse sequences), the story is always on the move and the stark urban locations give it a gritty, down-to-earth vibe. Lalo Schifrin music is memorably multi-facet, never over-stating it but harvesting a chilling and racy kick that was dangerously sneaky. There's also durable support by James Naughton, Stephen Joyce, Barbara Baxley, Frank Hamilton, Roy Poole, Maggie Task, James Russo and a cameo by William Hickey.

"A Stranger is Watching" from 1982, is a gritty story and manages to be a cut above the usual film versions of Mary Higgins Clark's book.

Normally these have been produced by Grosso-Jacobsen, and the films are made in Canada and use Psycho-type screechy music. They have one B or C-list American star, and the rest are Canadian actors.

This film, made earlier than many of the others, stars Rip Torn and a young Kate Mulgrew in her "Ryan's Hope" days, wearing more dead animals than I've ever seen. It also features James Naughton and my old acting teacher, Stephen Strimpell, and is filmed in New York.

The story concerns the aftermath of the horrid rape and murder of a woman while her 8 year old daughter, Julie, watched helplessly from the stairs.

It's three years later, and that man is going to be sentenced to death. However, the now 11-year-old girl and a reporter, Sharon (Mulgrew), who is also her father's girlfriend, are kidnapped. The kidnapper (Torn) holds the dad (Naughton) up for $180,000, the money put in trust for his daughter from his wife's estate.

The kidnapper has great familiarity with the bowels of the city, where the subway runs, and that's where he hides his victims. Can they escape? Or can someone find them?

There are tense and suspenseful parts of this film, but it moves slowly. As to being a cut above, one might ask why it's only getting a 6, which is what I usually give Mary Higgins Clark's films.

Well, it's only getting a 6 because this is a violent and sleazy story. There is no character development. I'm sure the book is better.