The first and perhaps most noteworthy of several attempts made by the veteran Hollywood screenwriter Philip Yordan (1914-2003) to reinvigorate his career in the no-budget horror sphere (essentially the 1980s equivalent of the 1940s Monogram programmers on which he got his start). In its company were the Yordan scripted straight to video oddities DEATH WISH CLUB (1984), BLOODY WEDNESDAY (1987), CRY WILDERNESS (1987) and SCREAM YOUR HEAD OFF (1992). All were released in various formats, and under numerous different titles; none turned a profit.
The OMEN-inspired NIGHTMARE NEVER ENDS (1980), credited to three directors, was released on VHS in numerous versions, including a severely cut-down abbreviation featured in the 1985 three-parter NIGHT TRAIN TO TERROR (which included mini-versions of DEATH WISH CLUB and SCREAM YOUR HEAD OFF). The most complete version is contained on the Genesis Home Video VHS entitled CATACLYSM, although, confusingly enough, its onscreen title is still THE NIGHTMARE NEVER ENDS.
The film, which stars Yordan’s fourth wife Faith Clift, features the late Richard Moll (1943-2023) in one of his most prominent non-NIGHT COURT roles. Moll incidentally made his film debut in the Yordan scripted biopic BRIGHAM (1977), and also appeared in SCREAM YOUR HEAD OFF and (in footage taken from it and NIGHTMARE…) NIGHT TRAIN TO TERROR–and in all three films sported a full had of hair.
The multiple directors and extensive post-production re-editing to which THE NIGHTMARE NEVER ENDS was subjected took their toll on the narrative, as even in the CATACLYSM version it’s choppy and hard to follow. It begins with Dr. Claire Hanson (Clift) and her writer husband James (Moll), who’s just published a book called GOD IS DEAD, heading for a vacation in Las Vegas. She’s been suffering horrific nightmares and visions, which include a meeting of Nazis that concludes with a massacre. Upon arriving in Vegas, Claire makes a dinner date with a renowned psychic who’s killed in his apartment before the date can occur, with “Moloch,” the name of an ancient demon, scrawled on a table.
Cut to Abraham Weiss (Marc Lawrence), a Holocaust survivor who happens to have been one the people seen in Claire’s vision. He’s galvanized upon learning of the existence of Olivier (Robert Bristol), a celebrity playboy who is in fact Satan (proven by a cloven hoof he flashes in an early scene), and travels with a pack of fellow fallen angels in human form. Weiss becomes determined to track down Olivier, who he recognizes as one of his Nazi tormentors (despite Olivier’s youthful appearance), and ends up horrifically mutilated.
James is stalked by a wild-eyed defrocked monk named Papini (Maurice Grandmaison). Speaking of stalking, Olivier is shadowed by Lieutenant Sterne (Cameron Mitchell), who’s obsessed with taking him down (and whose street smart dialogue typifies the hard-bitten phraseology for which Yordan’s scripts were known). Not that this concerns Olivier, who sets a meeting with James at his island home after seeing the author interviewed on TV; needless to say, James doesn’t survive the encounter. Papini, who like Sterne is fixated on eradicating Olivier and his minions, also ends up dead at the hands of his adversary, as does Sterne himself. This leaves Claire, who attempts to utilize her medical expertise to halt Olivier’s reign.
Yordan’s script is an ambitious, thematically rich account whose construction, involving multiple characters, plot strands and locations (with the film having been lensed primarily in La Jolla, CA, where Yordan and Clift were living, and Salt City, UT), is closer to that of a novel than a traditional screenplay. Obviously such a concoction requires a decent budget and a skilled director, two things this film lacked.
The main director of THE NIGHTMARE NEVER ENDS was Philip Marshak (1934-2014), whose Hollywood agent son Darryl is credited as producer (which he also did for his father’s previous directorial effort DRACULA SUCKS). “Nice guy, but he couldn’t direct” is how Faith Clift summed up Philip Marshak’s work. He was replaced with BRIGHAM’s Tom McGowan, who Clift claims “had his own ideas, and they were different than what Phil had written,” and then Gregg Tallas, of whom Clift says “I don’t remember Gregg directing.” The result of their combined efforts, as adroitly summed up by Clift, was “a total mess.”
A major shortcoming is the acting, with Faith Clift and Richard Moll, sorry to say, faring the worst. The poor emoting extends to seasoned performers like Cameron Mitchell and Marc Lawrence, although in fairness the quality of the performances is affected greatly by the inexcusably awful dubbing. Faring best is Robert Bristol, who has an authentically devilish aura as Olivier—although an aura is all he has to his credit.
Add to that clumsily integrated dream/hallucinations, sub-John Carpenter shocks, pandering gross-out sequences (including a glimpse of open heart surgery) and philosophical ruminations about faith and evil, and you’re left with a fascinating but hopelessly scatterbrained mess.
Vital Statistics
THE NIGHTMARE NEVER ENDS (CATACLYSM; SATAN’S SUPPER)
Yeaman, Yordan and Hale Productions
Directors: Philip Marshak, Tom McGowan, Gregg Tallas
Producer: Darryl A. Marshak
Screenplay: Philip Yordan
Cinematography: Art Fitzsimmons, Bruce Markoe
Editing: Bruce Markoe
Cast: Cameron Mitchell, Faith Clift, Marc Lawrence, “Charles Moll” (Richard Moll), Robert Bristol, Maurice Grandmaison, Klint Stevenson, Elizabeth Martin, Christie Wagner, Robyn Russell, Georgia Geerling, T.J. Savage, Philip Yordan Jr., Norma Clift, Lou Edwards, Richard Bulik