Alfred Sole obit

R.I.P. Alfred Sole, director of Alice, Sweet Alice, has passed away at 78

 

He was not on the list.

We have some sad news to report this afternoon, as genre filmmaker Dante Tomaselli announced that his cousin Alfred Sole, the director of the 1976 horror classic Alice, Sweet Alice (watch it HERE) has unexpectedly passed away at the age of 78.

Born on July 2, 1943, in Paterson, New Jersey, Sole was a movie fan from a very early age. He attended the University of Florence in Italy – at first intending to become a painter, but then switching over to earn a degree in architecture. While working as an architect, he dreamed of becoming a filmmaker, and he started to make that dream come true in the early 1970s. When an investor told him he’d give him the money to make the Western he wanted to direct if he shot an X-rated movie first, Sole made good on his side of the bargain. Unfortunately, his X-rated movie Deep Sleep was pulled from theatres, all prints were confiscated, and he faced a prison sentence on obscenity charges. So that was a mess and the Western didn’t get made. Sole rebounded with Alice, Sweet Alice (a.k.a. Communion, Holy Terror, The Mask Murders, etc.)

Written by Sole and his neighbor Rosemary Ritvo, Alice, Sweet Alice tells the following story:

    Favorite daughter Karen (Brooke Shields) is viciously strangled and set afire in church on the day of her First Communion, and suspicion falls on her jealous and emotionally unstable sister, Alice (Paula E. Sheppard). When the girls’ aunt, Annie (Jane Lowry), is later stabbed on an apartment complex stairway, Alice is sent away. But the attacks continue, prompting priest Father Tom (Rudolph Willrich) and Alice’s dad, Dominick (Niles McMaster), to go in search of the real killer.

Sadly, Sole didn’t have a prolific directing career after that. He directed the 1980 cult film Tanya’s Island, which paired Vanity with an ape created by Rob Bottin, and the 1982 slasher parody Pandemonium, which was originally titled Thursday the 12th (and was a childhood favorite of mine, thanks to its showings on cable stations). That was it for his days of directing features, but he did team up with the Groundlings comedy troupe to co-direct a TV movie called Cheeseball Presents. As Sole said,

    I was not good for Hollywood and Hollywood was not good for me. I didn’t understand the politics. I was just this guy from Jersey who made movies. You go to these meetings with these hotshot executives for hours and nothing gets done! It was just constant frustration. What I really should’ve done is stayed in Paterson and made movies with friends in my hometown, the way I started out, like John Waters or George A. Romero.”

He was offered the chance to make a sequel to Alice, Sweet Alice, but wasn’t interested. What he wanted to see was a remake that would allow for a new draft of the original script, and Tomaselli had been working to make that happen.

After leaving directing behind, Sole found his greatest success as a production designer, working in that capacity on forty different titles over the last twenty-eight years, including Halloweentown, Wishmaster 2, Veronica Mars, Moonlight, Castle, and MacGyver.

Our sincere condolences go out to Sole’s family, friends, and fans.

Production designer (40 credits)

 2017-2019 MacGyver (TV Series) (45 episodes)

- Mason + Cable + Choices (2019)

- Treason + Heartbreak + Gum (2019)

- No-Go + High-Voltage + Rescue (2019)

- Friends + Enemies + Border (2019)

- Murdoc + Helman + Hit (2019)

 2009-2016 Castle (TV Series) (152 episodes)

- Heartbreaker (2016)

- Fidelis Ad Mortem (2016)

- G.D.S. (2016)

- And Justice for All (2016)

- The Blame Game (2016)

 2011/I Lone (Short)

 2009 Melrose Place (TV Series) (1 episode)

- Pilot (2009)

 2009 S. Darko

 2009 Hatching Pete (TV Movie)

 2007-2008 Moonlight (TV Series) (14 episodes)

- Click (2008)

- Fated to Pretend (2008)

- The Mortal Cure (2008)

- Love Lasts Forever (2008)

- Sleeping Beauty (2007)

 2004-2007 Veronica Mars (TV Series) (64 episodes)

- The Bitch Is Back (2007)

- Weevils Wobble But They Don't Go Down (2007)

- I Know What You'll Do Next Summer (2007)

- Debasement Tapes (2007)

- Un-American Graffiti (2007)

 2004 Halloweentown High (TV Movie)

 2004 Slammed

 2003 One Minute Soap Opera (TV Series)

 2003 Right on Track (TV Movie)

 2002 Gotta Kick It Up! (TV Movie)

 2001 The Poof Point (TV Movie)

 2001 Hounded (TV Movie)

 2001 Semper Fi (TV Movie)

 2001 These Old Broads (TV Movie)

 2000 Trial by Media (TV Movie)

 2000 Miracle in Lane 2 (TV Movie)

 1999 Horse Sense (TV Movie)

 1999 Johnny Tsunami (TV Movie)

 1999 Clubland

 1999 Replacing Dad (TV Movie)

 1999 Wishmaster 2: Evil Never Dies (Video)

 1998 Halloweentown (TV Movie)

 1998 The Con (TV Movie)

 1997 Divided by Hate (TV Movie)

 1997 L.A. Johns (TV Movie)

 1997 When the Cradle Falls (TV Movie)

 1996 Every Woman's Dream (TV Movie)

 1996 Unforgivable (TV Movie)

 1996 Face of Evil (TV Movie)

 1996 In the Blink of an Eye (TV Movie)

 1996 Widow's Kiss (TV Movie)

 1995 Legacy of Sin: The William Coit Story (TV Movie)

 1995 Glory Daze

 1995 Bodily Harm

 1995 Night of the Running Man

 1994 Shattered Image (TV Movie)

 1994 Natural Selection (TV Movie)

Writer (8 credits)

 1989 Alfred Hitchcock Presents (TV Series) (story - 1 episode)

- In the Driver's Seat (1989) ... (story)

 1988 Secret Witness (TV Movie) (written by)

  Friday the 13th: The Series (TV Series) (writer - 1 episode, 1988) (story - 1 episode, 1988)

- Bedazzled (1988) ... (writer)

- Tales of the Undead (1988) ... (story)

 1988 Hotel (TV Series) (written by - 2 episodes)

- Till Death Do Us Part (1988) ... (written by)

- Double Take (1988) ... (written by)

 1986 Under Siege (TV Movie) (teleplay)

 1984 Cheeseball Presents (TV Movie)

 1976 Alice, Sweet Alice (original screenplay)

 1972 Deep Sleep (original screenplay - as Ogden Learox Pawlé)

Director (5 credits)

 1984 Cheeseball Presents (TV Movie)

 1982 Pandemonium

 1980 Tanya's Island

 1976 Alice, Sweet Alice

 1972 Deep Sleep

Set decorator (2 credits)

 1993 Darkness Before Dawn (TV Movie)

 1992 Somebody's Daughter (TV Movie)

Actor (1 credit)

 1995 Glory Daze

Abusive Fisherman

Art department (1 credit)

 2009 Castle (TV Series) (additional designs - 1 episode)

- Flowers for Your Grave (2009) ... (additional designs: pilot completion crew)

Art director (1 credit)

 1992 Treacherous Crossing (TV Movie)

Producer (1 credit)

 1976 Alice, Sweet Alice (executive producer)