"The Possession of Joel Delaney" (1972)

What is about films from this period (1971), particularly those set in NYC, where everyone looks so dirty? The clothes and hairstyles don't help. But everyone looks like they're covered with grease and grit.

Despite all that, Perry King was a hot piece who should have had a bigger career.

Weird those two playing siblings—I think of them being from different generations. Shirl is 15 years older than Perry King, so I guess they sort of are.

B U M P

R2 I think that was probably intentional, though. If I remember correctly, her character was supposed to be quite a bit older than him, probably around 10 years (in the film, it is mentioned that she raised him after their mother committed suicide).

Does anyone remember this crazy film? YES. It was supposed to be Shirl's film comeback. Wasn't.

This would be a good double feature with The Reincarnation of Peter Proud.

Seen it. It was decent. Typical crazy campy cult 1970's horror.

Why would someone named "Joel" have the last name "Delaney"?

I lived in Ireland for three years and met/heard of many Delanys there, but never a single Joel.

Never heard of this one but I’m definitely going to check it out. Thanks OP. The full movie is on YouTube.

It isn’t campy, R7. I don’t know what you think that word means, but it doesn’t describe this movie.

By the way, this has only ever been available on VHS and DVD. Australian Blu ray label Imprint announced last week it’s finally coming to Blu ray with a new restoration. It should be available for pre-order in Australia now and in the US as an import soon enough (though there will be delays), through sites like Deep Discount and Amazon.

Thanks for doing the search for us R9 Real MVP

R10 Sorry I meant hammy.

I would happily be in possession of Joel Delaney’s big cock.

Thank you OP . I love these type of obscure movies made in the 70s especially ones filmed in NYC.

R8 I don’t know. I myself wonder why so many people you see in (mostly) older movies are B&W. I have lived for quite some time—and in many places—and have yet to see one B&W person.

Perry King was famous, but never became FAMOUS. Why?

R3 he never really got "that" role—a lead that could have pushed him into the mainstream. He was gorgeous and a good actor, but it was kind of just the luck of the draw. He had a bigger career in television than he did film.

He also made a few questionable choices as far as movies go, like "A Different Story" with Meg Foster, where he played a gay man, and she, a lesbian, who fall in love with each other and start living as heteros. He showed his cock in "Mandingo", but that movie also was not particularly great. Despite that, he was always hot as fuck.

Perry King was GORGEOUS and still looks good. He was especially beautiful in Joel Delaney.

I can’t remember if he ever showed cock or VPL.

Shirley was very pretty in this movie. All of those glamorous fur coats, gloves, etc. looked great on her. She also played the disaffected white Manhattan elitist snob perfectly, but you also get to see her defenses break down as the film progresses, and she becomes more likable and less of a cunt.

There were a surprising number of 'non-horror' supernatural thrillers in the 1970s. I read both Delaney and Peter Proud and the books were creepy as hell. Does anyone remember a book around that time that purported to be by a ballerina with the NYCB who experienced possession?

The most surprising and disturbing thing was the scene in which the little boy ( about 10) is forced to dance full frontal naked on the coffee table. I'm sorry, but it wasn't necessary, and where was his family?

R22 is that in the uncensored version? They don’t show his peenis, do they? The blu ray coming out is uncensored. I’m not sure if the DVD is cut or not.

Yes, they show everything. It must be the uncensored version. Not the one they show on tv.

The scene is rather repulsive, given the child involved. Certainly a girl would never have been asked to do this. It isn't meant to be erotic, R23, unless you're ( well, you know).

R21 Gelsey Kirkland? Wait, that was cocaine, not demonic possession.

This movie looks weird, and that scene with the naked kid sounds creepier than any of the possession stuff.

R17 r18 r19 He was very hot. Sexy in The Wild Party, too. He, like John Beck, was in a few mid-70s features but never got to be A list. King was still hot on Melrose as Brooke’s (Kristin Davis’s) father on Melrose Place.

I remember the first time I saw this movie was as a child in August of 1981. It was the ABC Friday Night Movie. Even edited for network television, it was still creepy as fuck. I've seen it a few more times since then and I have the DVD. It's not a movie I particularly love, but I do have an affection for movies shot in NYC in the 70s and enjoy re-watching them now and again.

Hard to understand why Shirley didn't do The Exorcist. You'd think she'd be interested in that and it was supposedly based on her. Blatty was a friend.

Anyone know why she didn't do the film?

I thought it was because she had just done this.

She seems annoyed about Blatty here.

R14 Try Hi! Mom, The Landlord, Jennifer On My Mind and Little Murders

R23 On the VHS released back in the day the boy's penis is seen in the shot when he opens the sliding doors and throws his clothes out.

Watch ABBY. It came out in 1974 right after the Exorcist. A black woman is possessed by a sex demon and fucks men.

Good luck finding a copy of Abby that doesn't look like its been sitting at the bottom of a sewer for twenty years.

A shit film

Found it a little dull when I first saw it, but I hear there's a Blu-Ray coming out soon so maybe I'll give it another shot. A lot of people I trust seem to enjoy it. Maybe I went in with the wrong expectations.

I think Perry King was greatly hampered by his good looks in becoming a bigger movie star. When he started out in the early 70s, Hollywood was into quirky character types: Dustin Hoffman, Al Pacino, Donald Sutherland, Robert Duvall, Walter Matthau, George Segal, Elliott Gould, et. al. and not especially interested in "pretty" leading men (Robert Redford excepted, though compared to Perry, Bob was an ogre).

There was something about Perry's refined good looks that also seemed to suggest he was gay, IMHO. I think even the name Perry was not helping him, silly as that might sound.

Plenty of good looking men were working in Hollywood - they just weren't really respected as actors unless they had clout left over from the 60s like Warren Beatty and Robert Redford.

The boy who had the nude scene went on to appear in JAWS 2 as Larry, one of the teenagers. He survived the shark.

Our Shirl looks dirty and gets her tits out the year before in the New York-set drama DESPERATE PEOPLE.

It was her "Art Movie" phase.

Here Heeeeee.

One of my all-time favorite erotic films!

*grabs crotch*

Hooooooooooooooo!!!

Hee hee!

Joel Delaney is the only 'horror' film MacLaine ever appeared in. She didn't make many genre films

'The Mephisto Waltz" is creepy. Stars DL fave Barbara Parkins.

Oh I don't know....What a Way to Go! is a pretty great horror film, r44.

According to IMDB trivia, MacLaine turned down The Exorcist in order to do TPOJD!

Roger Ebert gave it 2 out of 4 stars and noted the ending involving the young boy made to strip and eat dog food and said it made one feel unclean and he also noted the plot contrivance of her running away to an isolated beach house off season where help was miles away. And obviously MacLaine's brother knows where it is and after signing her brother out of the psych ward at Bellevue and discovering his girlfriend's severed head she still allows him access to her children. And has this wealthy socialite never heard of cabs or car services as she takes the bus to Spanish Harlem..

R39 Do you think he is gay? Or are you suggesting others may have assumed he was gay, due to his appearance?

I have no idea, r49, but don't you think he gave off a sort of gay vibe in the 1970s/80s?

Surely, some of the DL experts here will know for sure.

Never gave off a gay vibe to me. He was twice married with a daughter from each wife. He played a gay man who just needed to find the right woman apparently in A Different Story with Meg Foster a a lesbian who just needs to find the right man. Not well received. It sank without a trace.

I watched the movie thanks to this thread. Those are some cheesy severed heads. I thought Shirley looked great with long hair and I liked the beach house at the end.

'The gay activists alliance has circulated a letter expressing alarm about A DIFFERENT STORY and, indeed the group has a point' Janet Maslin NY Times review 'The movie's use of their homosexuality is indeed exploitive, insensitive, and offensive in a variety of ways' 'Mr. King is worse than the movie, which is no mean accomplishment' 6.14.1978

Shirley made another film in NYC around this time called Desperate Characters. It was a dark, depressing film. I mean she was good in it, but seeing it as a kid creeped me out.

I miss the days when movies didn’t have to be politically correct. Filmmakers in the Seventies treated audiences as if they had intelligence and could make their own opinions about things. The nudity in this movie was meant to be shocking, not pornographic, as it’s viewed today.

R22 'where was his family?' At a bank cashing a paycheck.

Perry King is in Andy Warhol's BAD/ 1977 / is this any good? link below

R57 I loved this movie when I was young and pretentious. It has a certain mood. But let’s just say Carroll Baker is no Sylvia Miles.

R57 What can I say? it's not bad and Baker is good.

Any chance he was forced to strip down and show peen in Jaws 2, r41? Hubba hubba!

King did full frontal in Mandingo

Someone here must have had Perry King at one time or another. Spill.

He hit me in the head with a fondue pot, r62.

R57, Bad (1987) is pretty hilarious. It’s tragic that it’s never gotten a home video release apart from VHS. Christ almighty! Everything with Warhol’s name attached to it should be available in HD somewhere, but that’s not the case.

Cheers OP & R9. This looks great, and I'm looking forward to watching it. King looks like an older version of young Froy to me: same eyes, jaw, and chin. Nose is a bit similar as well come to think of it.

This film was fantastic.

I am guessing R65 and R66 are the same person(?) If you liked the film, I'd also recommend the book it's based on. It's kind of hard to find, but there are used copies online for fairly cheap.

Cheers R67, yes the same horror and demon loving film buff here. This film was really a product of its era. The author, and/or screenwriter probably didn't intentionally set out to make it a social commentary on what Whites and the upper class thought of Puerto Ricans, and Spanish Harlem more broadly, but it certainly seems like it today. MacClaine was excellent, BTW.

Perry King went to Yale and Julliard. Undergrad major in drama according to wikipedia. (sounds gay)

I remember this movie. I thought it was good for what it was: a horror movie from the 70s. It was unusual in that it had Shirley MacLaine in it. You didn't see her doing stuff like this very often. But I thought she was good in it. And Perry King was good too. God, he was SO handsome! A gorgeous man who aged well.

Yes, the Chris MacNeil character in "The Exorcist" was based on Shirley MacLaine. The character is red haired, freckled, outspoken, foulmouthed and not very bright. Doesn't sound like an appealing character, does it? But she's apparently well liked by everyone she comes in contact with for some reason. A distorted image of MacLaine's daughter Sachi was used as the cover photo for the book jacket of the novel when it was released. This led people to believe that it was the true story of MacLaine and her daughter, that Sachi was the possessed child in the novel. MacLaine always denied that and said that William Peter Blatty had stolen a photo of Sachi from her house in order to use it on the cover of his book. But Sachi doesn't believe that; she believes her nutty mother gave Blatty the photo to use. I tend to believe that, too.

I cannot WAIT for this blu ray!!

For those interested who are fortunate enough not to be in Australia: you can order an import copy through a few different retailers. In the US at least, DeepDiscount orders them, and I believe small business DiabolikDVD does as well. You pay reasonable prices, too, not just a straight currency conversion rate.

Imprint is also putting out sincere DL fav Let’s Scare Jessica To Death, which has already been released stateside by the horrid Scream Factory (though they did a decent job on this one). Imprint has better artwork, though, with a slipcover and a clear plastic case inside instead of Scream Factory’s cheesy blue. I’ll be importing the Australian release for the artwork and packaging alone.

Sorry to hijack with home video collector geekery—back to your regular scheduled programming.

Forgot the link the blu ray. You can poke around the site and find the Let’s Scare Jessica listing, too…

R71/R72 I am a geek for this shit too. I have a large number of Scream Factory Blu-ray releases, including Let's Scare Jessica, but I also want to get the Imprint edition of it just because the package looks so great. I will definitely be getting their Possession of Joel Delaney release too (I still have the DVD), and probably The Gift. The only Blu-ray I own from Imprint is The Day of the Locust, which, if you poke around online, got really middling reviews from people (some claimed the DVD looked better), but I thought it looked good enough, and certainly better than the DVD. I don't need A/V perfection when I'm watching movies, but I do appreciate the sharpness of Blu-ray compared to most DVD transfers.

Yeah, blu rays are almost always better looking than the DVDs. They have to really botch a release somehow to make it worse than the film’s DVD.

By the way, some other great titles from Via Vision — not their Imprint line — are Ghost Story AKA Circle Of Fear, which was an anthology series sort of like Night Gallery, but better… They have the complete series (it was just one season, 1972) on Blu ray, and it’s fantastic. So many DL favs appear as guest stars in it.

Another great series is Hammer House Of Horror, again similar to the above, just with mostly British actors, set in Britain. You can watch it on Amazon Prime first.

Imprint in general is great, as all their artwork is better than their films’ other blu ray releases in other territories. They’ve also done some worldwide premiers, like Sorry, Wrong Number (theirs is the only blu ray available) and now The Possession Of Joel Delaney. I believe there are others, too.

My DVD copy has the title as The Possession in white print and Of Joel Delaney in black print.

So does my DVD, R75. Is that odd?

[quote] Why would someone named "Joel" have the last name "Delaney"? I lived in Ireland for three years and met/heard of many Delanys there, but never a single Joel.

Well, the movie is set in the U.S., R8.

Every time we see Perry King I kept thinking how he looks like Jodie Foster. Shirley was so rude at Bellevue when she shoves that woman aside to get served. And what happened to Joel's cat?? And the family dog disappeared too. But I do love a movie where there is forced dancing.

R76 The film is set in NY where people shove others aside all the time especially on subway platforms

R78 ^ 4U

[quote] But I do love a movie where there is forced dancing.

LOL

R8 would the movie be better and/or more convincing if it had been Joe Delaney?

Trying to make Rosemary's Baby type bucks without a good director. Shirley MacLaine and that mascara! She must not be as bright as she thinks or she would never make up like that. I like her, but she's no genius.

I'm watching this on YouTube and can't believe how in '72 it didn't strike me that in the book and film the devil and Africa are sort of equated. At least as far as I've watched. Wow. It was such a different world and I'm so glad it's gone.

Worst wig ever on Shirley. I'm beginning to pick up the vibe that we are SUPPOSED to despise these entitled white people. She's mean to her housekeeper. She deserves an encounter with the devil!

They're referencing Santeria, I think. Apparently it is supposed to be devil-worship, while Christianity--millions dead in wars and inquisition--is angelic. Lol.

Hey, take it easy.

[quote] I'm watching this on YouTube and can't believe how in '72 it didn't strike me that in the book and film the devil and Africa are sort of equated. At least as far as I've watched. Wow. It was such a different world and I'm so glad it's gone.

You're not too bright, are you Fern?

Brighter than you, Chad.

Wasn't Miss Dunaway in a film about the santeria that was the hit of all of Europe and Cannes?

The devil and Africa are not "equated," you moron. You have no idea what you're talking about.

Motherfucker, read the Wikipedia article and a few other sources. Everyone but you saw it as "New York is getting too black and brown" themed. Anyway, I dropped this pos after 20 minutes. You can debate with yourself if you are so worked up.

Oh god, Wikipedia! Well, why didn't you SAY so!

[quote] Everyone but you saw it as "New York is getting too black and brown" themed.

How does this (ridiculous) theory have anything to do with your original statement equating the devil and Africa? If you're going to argue, at least try and do it partially correctly. You're a disaster.

This movie has nothing to do with the devil or Africa. It's a man getting possessed by a serial killer, and his white rich sister seeking help from the killer's Puerto Rican community to exorcise him using Santeria-based rituals. R92 must be our resident NY warrior .

I liked it when Shirley got tough with the Bellevue desk lady. Now see here!

Where do you think Santaria in Puerto Rico comes from, dumdum? Yeah, Africa. You're so out of the loop you don't even know the ethnic and racial make up of Puerto Rico. Ever hear of the Taino? No, of course not. You think PRs are "Hispanic." God help you. You'll get no more education from me.

I know where Santeria comes from, asshole. But saying that having characters whose religion is Santeria is equating Africa with the Devil is the stupidest thing I've read on here in a long time. It's a fucking religion practiced by many for centuries, it's not some plot device invented by a hack writer to condemn black people.

Your kind of education no one wants. You continue to be a fucking moron.

Repeating the word moron doesn't speak well of your education. Can't think of any synonyms to project on me to help you feel better about your ignorance?

When you find something that works, you stick with it.

And you should just give up. How many more times do you need your ass handed to you?

Is this the film where she screams at the waiter that she wants her creme brulee?

R97 you can't even spell "Santeria," you idiot. Get the fuck out of here with your holier-than-thou "it's not MY job to educate YOU" shit.

Googled it finally, huh? I don't need to be able to spell it to understand that its roots are African. You can't be educated, so fuck off.

Perry is no Joe Penny.

Not to throw petrol on this fire, but the Taino are not of African origin. They're Arawaks, the indigenous people to the land, and were more closely related to indigenous people of South America. Perhaps they were not culturally South American, yet their DNA is similiar. NOT African!

I had to look it up, but apparently the Taino's ancestors are related to the Yanomami.

Do you think they were hoping to make a sequel based on the last shot when it appears Shirley is now the one possessed?

R107 Perhaps, but it certainly would be a great idea to revisit either way.

That birthday party is so staged its like a Joan Crawford experience like when Shirley announces to take your places so that the cake can be brought out.

R103 is glutton for punishment. And I'm also guessing a glutton, period.

The putrescent troll on this thread who keeps trying to prove he's intelligent has at least, inspired by his 'battle of wits' with me (he was unarmed, of course) learned to google Taino (found out there were people on the islands before the whiteasses got there!), learned that Wikipedia is better than being basic and stupid all your life, and has been furiously trying to insult me. Brother, I've blocked you now, so go to bed in your piss-soaked sheets and sleep it off.

Oh good, now you won't be able to see him make fun of how you spelled the word "slender" in another thread. (S-l-e-n-d-a-r)

r69, there is no undergrad major in drama at Yale.

There are plenty of Irishmen named Joel.

why do you think the wooden window covers on the beach house had numbers?

I revel in the fact that R111 shall continue to see the poster which he had initially disagreed with here, as his chip on his shoulder influenced him to believe I'm the same person, simply for attempting to clear up a falsehood.

I didn't need to look it up to know you were wrong, as I live VERY near a predominately PR neighbourhood (Humboldt Park in Chicago and have a Puerto Rican ex.) He claims Taino descent from the original Caribbean stock. What I did need to fact check however, was which South American indigenous group their ancient ancestors are most closely related to.

I'm just a BIT put off by claims that certain historic individuals, or peoples were African, when in point of FACTS, they are NOT. I'm very sincerely sorry to our aforementioned poster, and other maladjusted, poorly educated souls. Black people cannot claim to be everyone. i.e. Ancient Israelites, Ancient Egyptians, Macedonians, NOW THE BLOODY TAINO!

I'm culturally sensitive, and respectful enough to have mentioned upthread how the not-so-subtle social commentary on Puerto Ricans and Spanish Harlem in NYC C.1971 impressed upon me. Many on DL would probably not qualify me as "white enough", as it were, so spare us any White Supremacist bull.

That said, whatever is going on with the influx of (apparently African American) Dataloungers lately going on about race, and in this case, the WRONG race, when it isn't even germane to a discussion? They're nasty, headstrong, and eager to show everyone just how ignorant they are.

R111 Please kindly learn to properly use the trolldar feature of this site, before making your ignorant calculations, and subsequent accusations. TIA

Dear god, you two.

Do you really think anyone else cares?

R117 Please pay better attention. It is NOT two people. It is four total. Only the poster with the bruised black ego, who enjoys usurping the identity of others as "Africans" believes it's him and only one other poster.

Curiously, I had only posted two bits on the Taino. There's three other posters in this Africa shite.

Why even bother to comment if you don't care?

I care in that you're clogging up the thread with stupidity.

But it's DL, so there are always more threads.

Carry on, idiots. Everyone cares *so* much about your extremely important argument.

R119 I'm bloody sick of race baiting trolls, and posters derailing threads about imagined or misperceived racism at every turn. It's exhausting. It's not an "important argument" as you were to put it, it's correcting a patently false claim. Are we to assume and/or believe that Cultural Appropriation is acceptable and good on DL, so long as ignorant and angry African Americans are the posters engaging in it? Sorry mate, but as a Jew, I'm long sick of many of them claiming the Ancient Hebrews and original Israelites were African. There's a group of them that can be fairly labelled as Black Supremacists. They need to be called out.

Don't play into this shite, Allow me to speak my truth that I'm not the "putrescent troll" . Two factual posts (neither aimed nor directed to anyone specifically) do not make a troll. Take it up with the African American poster.

Furthermore R119, I've contributed R65, R66, R68, and R108...The majority of my remarks here are not in the greasefire argument over Africans.

Be careful walking into a DL greasefire.... you may get scorched; especially when you accuse the poster speaking the truth as "clogging the thread with idiocy" Ffs, could you even be more trollish? Fuck you, and your provocations.

I think both your brain and your arse is clogged.

^are clogged

You seem like a really well-adjusted person.

I am half Puerto Rican and I can confirm that a lot of us are indeed descended from the Taino.

R123 Damned right I am. You do no benefit to anyone suffering a delusion, or holding a false belief by sitting quietly whilst they argue with others from a pig headed false premise. We bring others up by gently pointing out the truth, and the facts. DNA does not lie.

Cheers Chaos.

And, they're remaking The Reincarnation Of Peter Proud...

Ugh, please don't.

R115, so that the help would know which plank went over which window. No wonder the Puerto Rican spirit wanted to kill these people. That house was only occupied 2 months out of the year, at best!

Whoever’s remaking Peter Proud is a gigantic loser.

By the way, the original is okay, but not great.

Terrible movie, but Shirley looks fabulous

Watching this trailer ( I've seen bits and pieces of this movie over the years but never from start to finish) they modeled this movie vaguely on Rosemary's Baby (1968)- which of course is a FAR better film.

Is it worth seeing? I don’t fetishize Perry King, Shirley McLean nor am I a closet pedo who cares about naked 10 yr olds. Is it an effective thriller??

I think the movie STINKS

That’s what I figured r133

I so enjoy when a thread disolves into a hissy fit among queens. All the emotion, drama, and energy put into proving I'm right, you're wrong...about some piece of crap subject.

On a Possession of Joel Delaney thread, no less 😆

[quote]Please pay better attention. It is NOT two people. It is four total.

It's probably just one poster and his 3 sock puppet accounts, as it often is when a thread devolves this way. You can tell by the one-note faux outrage of the most aggrieved commenter that you're being trolled.

R127 why don’t you have a life? I know….. you suck dog ass