cult film freak: royal dano

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>year: 1981 cast: Olivia Barash, Matthew Laborteaux rating: ****1/2</u></td></tr>
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Don’t let the flowery title fool you: LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE can be intense, gruesome, and downright creepy...<br />
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And this two-part episode, named after the title character… a young girl who’s raped by a mysterious man wearing a clown mask… epitomizes all this – in droves.<br />
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Olivia Barash, as “Sylvia,” a sweet pre-teen exuding a haunting, docile innocence, has “blossomed” early – causing the locals, including bad boy Willie Oleson and good boy Albert Ingalls, to take interest. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>The Infamous Mime Mask</u></td></tr>
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Her father, played by veteran actor Royal Dano, blames her for the chaste curiosity and impending sexual assault: the latter a harrowing (though implied) scene mirroring theatrical early-eighties horror films, but being in a kid-friendly TV show, it’s that much more shocking. <br />
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A sweet-natured love story between Sylvia and Albert plays within an ominous, foreboding backdrop... Although we never know the rapist’s identity till later, there’s a good chance it’s blacksmith Richard Jaekal, no stranger to dramatic villain roles.<br />
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For Michael Landon, who wrote and directed the episode, SYLVIA is a risqué feature film in itself, sublimely balancing old-fashion romance with calculating terror. But it’s child-actress Olivia Barash (who’d grow up to star in racy cult flicks REPO MAN and PATTY HEARST) that really makes it work, brandishing every possible emotion within a two-hour frame.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Olivia Barash</u></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Interview Selection with actress OLIVIA BARASH</u></td></tr>
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<b>Was it difficult filming such intense subjects at a young age?</b><br />
<br />
Nothing
  on that set was difficult because Michael Landon was directing. One of
  the best directors I’ve ever worked with. He would emote me by crying 
 behind the camera in the rehearsals as well as the shooting of the  
intense scenes.<br />
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That particular cast of actors was  
amazing to work with! From Matthew Laborteaux, to Royal Dano, who played
  my abusive father, to Richard Jaeckel who played the rapist. All,  
highly professional, veterans and genuinely good people.<br />
<br />
<b>How did you play the death bed scene? </b><br />
<br />
I
  put myself<i> in</i> Sylvia’s heart. I believed in that moment that I wanted 
 to marry Albert more than anything else. I also just recalled the  
emotion that Matthew Laborteaux put forth for and with me in that scene.
  It was so hard not to cry after my character died, when Albert layed  
his head on me, sobbing.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>title: LITTLE HOUSE: THE MUSIC BOX year: 1977 </u></td></tr>
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In a standout episode of LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE, that
 infamous rich bitch Nellie Oleson has a music box and poor little Laura
 Ingalls really, really wants it. It’s that simple? You wish!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSI_KjbmHLGvvYkHObuObFf9COJFmf4XIvcxM8xqiJ9s_GFiDO-Lb3HAR3LL4F0SGgKDcpxFRpfnNnzCyB-gMPAJELf7znrQfGcIsAZE225_RRGp9Kmk_Esz45LJfvDhmzOeq8fObOShc/s1600/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSI_KjbmHLGvvYkHObuObFf9COJFmf4XIvcxM8xqiJ9s_GFiDO-Lb3HAR3LL4F0SGgKDcpxFRpfnNnzCyB-gMPAJELf7znrQfGcIsAZE225_RRGp9Kmk_Esz45LJfvDhmzOeq8fObOShc/s320/1.jpg" width="227" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Melissa Sue Anderson & Katy Kurtzman</u></td></tr>
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Laura, 
after swiping the box from Nellie’s bedroom during a private club 
meeting, hides it in her barn. And whenever needing a “fix,” she goes 
inside and listens to the chiming, metronomic tune that, after hearing 
it a dozen times, might drive you crazy. It sure does Laura… as the tune
 permeates into surreal, creepy, guilt-driven nightmares connecting herself to what looks like the Salem Witch Trials. <br />
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The standout 
guest star is Katy Kurtzman, who in the next season would play a young 
Caroline Ingalls… Here she’s a sweet stuttering prairie girl named Annie
 who Nellie keeps from joining her club because… she’s just not normal 
enough, in Nellie's estimation, to belong. During one scene Nellie 
recites an impromptu poem that seems written by Mohammed Ali: “A chicken
 can squawk and a butterfly can flutter… But Anna can’t talk… All she 
can do is stutter!” This (and other classic Bad Nellie moments) makes 
for a classic episode: Especially after "The Prairie Bitch" Nellie catches Laura with the Music
 box and blackmails her into a form of mental slavery. And as Laura 
conceals the truth, she breaks poor Anna’s heart... All leading to a 
climactic emotional scene that proves Katy Kurtzman, who stutters and 
cries at the same time, was one talented child actress.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsEm_Sl81RPHegvmhUKfhyphenhyphenqJ17poRck2zV6DXoaBXa_wztb8octjqIoH0PvCMT5IgUvyLtDSITPqHuvX6FpAzX3BuwrtGDZRMkwV-QPA2u5PkOVQU4chSB53MIErPDP4AdAH0q9dQqHL1W/s1600/200576_431875170196521_601748243_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsEm_Sl81RPHegvmhUKfhyphenhyphenqJ17poRck2zV6DXoaBXa_wztb8octjqIoH0PvCMT5IgUvyLtDSITPqHuvX6FpAzX3BuwrtGDZRMkwV-QPA2u5PkOVQU4chSB53MIErPDP4AdAH0q9dQqHL1W/s1600/200576_431875170196521_601748243_n.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>title: CHILD OF GLASS year: 1978 cast: Steve Sims, Katy Kurtzman, Olivia Barash rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr>
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While
 it's perplexed adults for centuries, the children in Disney films seem 
to have grasped the Meaning of Life… at least in their eyes: When 
something needs discovering, discover it!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>DVD Cover... Where's Olivia?</u></td></tr>
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In this made for TV movie, a 
family moves into an antebellum mansion once owned by a river pirate. 
The mother and father are about as important as those mushmouthed 
teachers in Peanuts cartoons – this is all about the curious son 
Alexander, played by the late Steve Shaw, who meets the niece of a local
 palm reader.<br />
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And as the young adventurous "Blossom Culp," Katy Kurtzman
 creates a memorably quirky tomboy: Donning glasses and dressed like a 
traveling orphan, she determinedly riles Alexander into seeking the 
truth behind the mansion's history. But he gets the prime directive on 
his own with the help of a blue-hued ghost.<br />
<br />
The daughter of the 
mansion’s former owner, “Inez Dumaine” died mysteriously and, to acquire 
eternal rest, provides a riddle that desperately needs solving. Cult 
actress Olivia Barash, as the lovely little wraith holding a fluffy dog,
 makes sporadic yet important appearances, and at one point turns human 
for a heartfelt slow dance during a party, later providing a dog/cat 
chase to add some lightweight hijinx to the underlying spooky vibe… 
especially with the dependably villanious Anthony Zerbe on board. But 
even with the suspenseful chills, it's a great movie for kids, 
especially creative ones.

eighties, michael landon, olivia barash, richard jaekal, romance, royal dano, suspense