The Astral Factor (1976)

How dull can the police manhunt for a telekinetic invisible strangler possibly be? This movie offers some unique insight on the matter. At its best, it feels like an offbeat episode of a mediocre 70s cop TV series. The script and special effects are about on that level. One interesting wrinkle is that the killer targets middle-aged blondes who remind him of his actress mother, which means a cast partly made up of former 1950s and 60s-era bombshells. Sue “Lolita” Lyon, Leslie Parrish (who wore Daisy Mae’s revealing rags in the 1959 film version of Li’l Abner), television mainstay Marianna Hill and, most prominently, Elke Sommer all earn late-career paychecks as victims and would-bes under lots of hair product. The charmer of the film is Stefanie Powers as the perky girlfriend of perfectly coiffed detective Robert Foxworth.