Synopsis for
The Norliss Tapes (1973) (TV) More at IMDbPro »

Writer David Norliss [Roy Thinnes], who has been working on a book debunking the supernatural, hasn't been seen or heard from in over a week, so his publisher, Sanford T Evans [Don Porter], pays a visit to David's house in San Francisco. David is not there, but Sanford does find the first page of his manuscript in the typewriter and a pile of tapes on his desk. Sanford pops the tape marked "1" into the recorder and begins to listen to the story about how David became involved with the widow of sculptor James Cort and the strange events that subsequently took place.

On the recommendation of her sister Marsha Sterns [Michele Carey], Ellen Cort [Angie Dickinson] contacted David Norliss the day after a terrifying incident in which she came upon her dead husband James [Nick Dimitri] in his studio. What he was doing, she didn't know, but she did watch him easily kill their German shepherd as if batting at a fly. She shot him, but the police could not find his body nor any of his blood, and Sheriff Hartley [Claude Akins] refuses to believe it was her husband. However, Ellen is certain about what she saw and thinks it may involve the occult. She explains to David how, when her husband learned that he had incurable Pick's disease, he made a deal with an occultist named Madame Jeckiel [Vonetta McGee] who claimed to be able to cure illness and even grant immortality. To seal the deal, Jeckiel gave James a ring holding the Osiris scarab. Ellen has no idea what the agreement involved, but she did see to it that her husband was buried with the ring on his finger, as per his request.

That night, a young woman is murdered in Carmel, near Ellen's house. The autopsy reveals that her body was totally drained of blood. Sheriff Hartley warns everyone involved not to talk about it, but by the time David makes it down to Carmel, the whole town seems to be a-buzz. David visits Mme Jeckiel who warns him to stay away from Cort's studio, in fact his entire estate, "because it is now the House of Sargoth". Of course, the first thing David does is go snooping in the studio. Everything seems to be in order until he and Ellen notice a statue that wasn't there before. It's a statue of a demon, and it appears to be a work in progress. Even the clay is still damp, so David takes a sample of it for analysis.

Suddenly, James Cort bursts through the door and leaps at them. David and Ellen attempt to get away, but Cort pursues them to the car. David gets the car going just as Cort rips off the passenger door, but they succeed in escaping. David drives straight to the police station where they show the car to Sheriff Hartley, who agrees to accompany them back to the Cort estate and search for Cort. When they find Cort's coffin empty, Hartley concludes that someone has taken the body but recommends that Ellen move to a motel in Carmel for her own safety. That night, Ellen's sister Marsha returns from a trip to New York and, finding no one at the estate, takes a room at a nearby motel. As she's getting ready for bed, James Cort crashes through a window and attacks her. When the motel manager knocks on the door to see why she's screaming, he is knocked sideways by Cort barreling out of the room with Marsha in his arms. The manager calls the sheriff, who gives him the same warning not to talk about what happened until they can find Marsha.

The next day, David telephones Ellen with the news that he's located blueprints of the studio and discovered underground tunnels where he thinks Cort may be hiding. He's also gotten back the chemical analysis of the clay and learned that it is 40% human blood. He presumes that Cort is killing people and using their blood in the clay, but for what purpose? While David drives to Carmel, Ellen is visited by Mme Jeckiel, who tells her about the deal with her husband. In return for the Osiris scarab, which allows him to rise from dead, Cort must sculpt a statue of the demon Sargoth. When finished, the statue will provide a material body for Sargoth. Jeckiel means to find Cort's body before nightfall and remove the ring from his finger, thus preventing Sargoth from entering this world. Ellen leaves a note for David at her motel, and she and Jeckiel go to the studio to search for Cort in the tunnels.

It is almost sundown when Ellen and Jeckiel find Cort's body lying in a coffin. Jeckiel attempts to remove the ring from his finger, but Cort suddenly awakens and kills her. In running away, Ellen stumbles on Marsha's body. Just then, David catches up with Ellen, and they head for the studio where they find that the statue is almost completed. David pulls out a beaker of blood and pours a circle around the statue, explaining that medieval alchemy says that a blood circle on fire will prevent anything from getting out of the circle.

Just as David completes the blood circle, they hear a sound. They hide as Cort enters the studio. He goes directly to the statue and completes it, then drops on his knees and chants. Just as the statue of Sargoth comes to life, David lights the blood circle, trapping both Cort and Sargoth [Bob Schott] inside. The studio goes up in flames. Later, when Sheriff Hartley has the ashes searched, only James Cort's bones are found. Of the demon Sargoth, they find nothing.

Tape 1 has come to a finish. Sanford places tape 2 into the recorder and asks himself whether this tape will tell what happened to both Sargoth and David Norliss. It begins, "It was a rainy afternoon when I received the letter..." [Original Synopsis by bj_kuehl.]