The story opens with a seemingly groggy and disoriented Paul Varney banging on the door of closed antique shop. Varney flashes a wad of cash at the shop owner and once inside, purchases a beautiful full length antique mirror and arranges to have it delivered to his apartment. Hosting an all night party at his apartment, psychiatrist David Sorell meets Varney and his fiancé Barbara Anholt through his friend Miles Donovan. During a discussion about evil spirits and demons, Varney brings up the demon Rakashi. When Sorell questions Varney about it he gets a a bit touchy and leaves with Barbara to race in a vintage car road rally. Looking in his rear view mirror during the course of rally, Varney seems overcome by a reflection in the mirror and wreaks the car killing himself and injuring Barbara.A grief stricken and depressed Barbara moves in with Paul's affluent mother, but instead of recovering, Barbara seems to be drifting deeper into a suicidal state and is becoming obsessed with idea of joining Paul in the afterlife via the antique mirror where she believes Paul's spirit dwells.To save Barbara's life, David Sorell must investigate the circumstances leading up to Pauls death, including the reasons for his purchase of the antique mirror, his knowledge of Rakashi,and his participation in a demon raising ceremony conducted by a convocation of demonologists immediately prior to his purchasing the mirror.During the course of his investigation, Sorell with the help of his friend and mentor Harry Snowden,and despite the attempted obstructions of Miles Donovan,learns there is much more to the Rakashi legend the he could have possibly imagined and that some people he thought he knew, are not what they seem to be. Every piece of evidence he follows leads him back to the mirror and it's hold on Barbara and in the end he finds himself in a fantastic and horrifying neither world struggling for Barbara's very soul. Paul Wendkos knew how to direct television drama and he does a top notch job with Fear No Evil. The film boast a wonderful cast with Louis Jourdan,Carroll O'Connor,and Bradford Dillman and they give excellent performances. Beautiful Lynda Day George is sexy and vulnerable as Barbara. Wilfred Hyde-White, Marsha Hunt, and Katherine Woodville are top notch in key supporting roles. If William Goldenburgs eerie musical score doesn't give you goosebumps then nothing will. This is a very hard movie to locate, but it's truly a little treasure if you do.

One of the most brilliant made for television films ever aired, it is sad to say, appears to be now a "Lost" film as Universal Pictures, after I did research on this title, has no print or material on this title in their vaults.I know this as a fact when I worked with film historian, Philip J. Riley, when working together on my book of the making of "Fear No Evil" (BearManor Media 2012). There is a 16mm in the Library of Congress, and there are prints in the hands of private collectors, but, it appears, that all 35mm materials were possibly junked before the idea recycling titles for VHS/laserdisc and DVD were thought of. Hopefully, someone, or someplace (France?), has the materials so a beautiful digital restoration can be made.

The late 60's in the US produced some unforgettable TV-movies. 1967 had "Games" with Simon Signoret, 1969 gave us the strangely forgotten prize-winning "Male of the Species" with Anna Calder-Marshall & Sir Paul Scofield, and 1969 the erotic thriller "Fear No Evil". The casting was perfect, the writing intelligent, the direction impeccable. These were shows that didn't condescend to a TV audience nor pander to the lowest common denominator - all of these (note the latter 2 of the 3 sadly unavailable to date, and the former available as a used VHS at exorbitant prices) were examples of television that had the best of cinema, provoking, haunting, memorable, risk-taking, trail-blazing. In some ways the eroticism of these 3 TV shows was more daring than the X-rated "Midnight Cowboy". Hard to imagine network television today producing anything of comparable caliber, or to imagine people reminiscing and seeking out copies of the pap we are fed today 30-40 years from now. I would love to get my hands on these last 2, very different but equally entertaining and memorable shows, if only to explain to my offspring that once upon a time there was network television - and it was good. Bradford Dillman and Louis Jourdan were perfect opposites, both seductively charming opposite the virginal blonde beauty Lynda Day (later George), I can't imagine any other actors before or since taking this supernatural horror premise and making it so plausible. Excellent work by all -- so where is the DVD??? (an aside, did Louis Jourdan play Count Dracula before or after Fear No Evil? God, even RENFIELD was sexy in that one, in one memorable scene at least - although Frank Langella was also a honey - and the female star also played Claire in Zeffirelli's "Brother Sun Sister Moon". Must have been later, as he looked a lot older, and I had already left the States when it aired and didn't get to see it until the 80's)

I have a taped copy of this movie ...... somewhere. It is quite special, so I was surprised to find it unlisted in guidebooks such as Mauldin's. An important element involves a demonic force trying to seduce a young woman when she gazes into a mirror. Maybe it's just me, but the idea of an evil force from inside a mirror trying to distort your view of reality and control you seems particularly frightening --- of course one thinks of Dead of Night (1945), the old classic horror film. Also, the scenes where the demon is being summoned are quite disturbing --- the makers of the film seem to have had some special insight into demonology. Bradford Dillman is already dead for most of the movie, but he plays a great haunted spirit on both sides of the grave, and Louis Jourdan is good as the calm, rational psychiatrist trying to help the woman by any means possible, including unorthodox ones.