SPOILERS!!!
I recommend watching this movie BEFORE reading spoilers or the book, due to unexpected twists & surprise events.
The story and plot were quite exceptional which caught me completely by surprise, twice. There is a haunting quality to this story. An unusual role for Hayley Mills which draws you in, despite the negatives.
The Director did not do justice to this story. Hayley Mills, playing the role of a young, wealthy "American" girl in Britain (with her British accent) was absurd. A simple change of lines in the script would have fixed the problem by altering nationality and her point of origin without negatively impacting the film.
I adore Hayley Mills so it was quite an unexpected shock when she suddenly met with her demise in the film. Hayley was indeed anorexic but this was the "Twiggy" era where "thin was in." However, wardrobe shouldn't have selected open-chest dresses where her ribs were so prominent.
The "Dream house" was oddly inappropriate for the setting and the feel of the film. It was like one of those "ultra modern" Frank Lloyd Wright designs. This big, white, modern art house was a blotch against the backdrop of the quaint, beautiful English country setting. Even with the fun and exorbitant features of automated walls, floors, hidden pools the house (for this setting) was gaudy and tastelessly offensive to most of the viewers.
The continuity was hard to follow. It jumps around between flashback narration, different time-lines, visual hallucinations, audio hallucinations, dream states, things that made no sense and various events and scenes where you have trouble following which part goes with what scenario. The ending of the movie seemed to be cut off in mid sentence and left unfinished. You definitely have to watch it more than once to track the nuances of this storyline.
Hywell (Michael) was quite complex in this role. The behavior of his character seemed to run hot and cold for no apparent reason. Thus, his character was quite puzzling until the very end of the movie when the sinister secrets of his past deeds were revealed. It was certainly a shock to learn what his character had done to his new wife and his dark affiliation with their houseguest.
The nude scenes with Ekland were completely unnecessary. They cheapened an otherwise classy suspense story. It seemed rude and disrespectful in a Hayley Mills movie. I don't blame Agatha for her reaction. It was a trashy thing for the director to do and didn't fit with the film any more than the gaudy house. Agatha should have retained more control over the movie adaptation.
The film editor did a terrible cutting job as the scenes jumped suddenly from one event to the other without transition. The worst case was when the glass door was shattered and the scene instantly cut from the shattering glass to a neighbor on the edge of the porch attacking the new owner. As it was cut, the neighbor was directly outside when the glass was shattered so he would have seen or heard what smashed the glass. His reactions made no sense. There needed to be some kind of transition of time, events and occurrence to separate the flow of the scenes.
Santonix, the dying architect character had terrible dialogue written for his lines, which were confusing to say the least. Most of his lines made no sense, even after watching the film more than once. Lines such as: "You should have gone the other way" "You let her take possession" "Have you any idea where you are going" and "I can't reach you" were in drastic need of improvement. They didn't make sense and were crammed together without context or flow. It also implies his character knew about the fiendish murder plot and did nothing to stop it... other than his few odd lines of dialogue. The actor genuinely appeared sickly in real life. I was surprised to find he is 83 years old.
Dubbing the singing voice for Hayley was a terrible choice. The singers voice was too mature for the very young Hayley and did not come close to matching her distinctive voice. They could have had the singing in the background of the film without depicting Hayley as the singer. It is very disturbing hearing this heavy voice coming out of Hayley.
It was sad to learn George Sanders killed himself 5 months before this movie was released. He was quite excellent in his role, as usual. It is a shame he didn't appreciate the talent and popularity he had. It was reported that the costly effects of a minor stroke had affected his speech, stamina and certain abilities like playing the piano. Some of the effects were said to have been noticeable in his final film, Psychomania. The stroke effects, depression, drinking and loss of properties were mentioned as reasons for his final decision.
I was also surprised to learn this movie had not been released in the US. It explains why I had never heard about this Hayley Mills movie. Apparently, it received a poor response in the UK. I'm not surprised. Hayley was a Disney star and a household name. I doubt the audience was ready to see her character murdered in a dark role like this and likely would not have been received well. Most problems were due to the director, dialogue and editing... Certainly no fault of the actors or Agatha's story which were all excellent.
It is still a great story with a marvelous cast and well worth watching... more than once. It is a surprising storyline with unexpected twists and turns.
I recommend watching this movie BEFORE reading spoilers or the book, due to unexpected twists & surprise events.
The story and plot were quite exceptional which caught me completely by surprise, twice. There is a haunting quality to this story. An unusual role for Hayley Mills which draws you in, despite the negatives.
The Director did not do justice to this story. Hayley Mills, playing the role of a young, wealthy "American" girl in Britain (with her British accent) was absurd. A simple change of lines in the script would have fixed the problem by altering nationality and her point of origin without negatively impacting the film.
I adore Hayley Mills so it was quite an unexpected shock when she suddenly met with her demise in the film. Hayley was indeed anorexic but this was the "Twiggy" era where "thin was in." However, wardrobe shouldn't have selected open-chest dresses where her ribs were so prominent.
The "Dream house" was oddly inappropriate for the setting and the feel of the film. It was like one of those "ultra modern" Frank Lloyd Wright designs. This big, white, modern art house was a blotch against the backdrop of the quaint, beautiful English country setting. Even with the fun and exorbitant features of automated walls, floors, hidden pools the house (for this setting) was gaudy and tastelessly offensive to most of the viewers.
The continuity was hard to follow. It jumps around between flashback narration, different time-lines, visual hallucinations, audio hallucinations, dream states, things that made no sense and various events and scenes where you have trouble following which part goes with what scenario. The ending of the movie seemed to be cut off in mid sentence and left unfinished. You definitely have to watch it more than once to track the nuances of this storyline.
Hywell (Michael) was quite complex in this role. The behavior of his character seemed to run hot and cold for no apparent reason. Thus, his character was quite puzzling until the very end of the movie when the sinister secrets of his past deeds were revealed. It was certainly a shock to learn what his character had done to his new wife and his dark affiliation with their houseguest.
The nude scenes with Ekland were completely unnecessary. They cheapened an otherwise classy suspense story. It seemed rude and disrespectful in a Hayley Mills movie. I don't blame Agatha for her reaction. It was a trashy thing for the director to do and didn't fit with the film any more than the gaudy house. Agatha should have retained more control over the movie adaptation.
The film editor did a terrible cutting job as the scenes jumped suddenly from one event to the other without transition. The worst case was when the glass door was shattered and the scene instantly cut from the shattering glass to a neighbor on the edge of the porch attacking the new owner. As it was cut, the neighbor was directly outside when the glass was shattered so he would have seen or heard what smashed the glass. His reactions made no sense. There needed to be some kind of transition of time, events and occurrence to separate the flow of the scenes.
Santonix, the dying architect character had terrible dialogue written for his lines, which were confusing to say the least. Most of his lines made no sense, even after watching the film more than once. Lines such as: "You should have gone the other way" "You let her take possession" "Have you any idea where you are going" and "I can't reach you" were in drastic need of improvement. They didn't make sense and were crammed together without context or flow. It also implies his character knew about the fiendish murder plot and did nothing to stop it... other than his few odd lines of dialogue. The actor genuinely appeared sickly in real life. I was surprised to find he is 83 years old.
Dubbing the singing voice for Hayley was a terrible choice. The singers voice was too mature for the very young Hayley and did not come close to matching her distinctive voice. They could have had the singing in the background of the film without depicting Hayley as the singer. It is very disturbing hearing this heavy voice coming out of Hayley.
It was sad to learn George Sanders killed himself 5 months before this movie was released. He was quite excellent in his role, as usual. It is a shame he didn't appreciate the talent and popularity he had. It was reported that the costly effects of a minor stroke had affected his speech, stamina and certain abilities like playing the piano. Some of the effects were said to have been noticeable in his final film, Psychomania. The stroke effects, depression, drinking and loss of properties were mentioned as reasons for his final decision.
I was also surprised to learn this movie had not been released in the US. It explains why I had never heard about this Hayley Mills movie. Apparently, it received a poor response in the UK. I'm not surprised. Hayley was a Disney star and a household name. I doubt the audience was ready to see her character murdered in a dark role like this and likely would not have been received well. Most problems were due to the director, dialogue and editing... Certainly no fault of the actors or Agatha's story which were all excellent.
It is still a great story with a marvelous cast and well worth watching... more than once. It is a surprising storyline with unexpected twists and turns.