Imagine for a moment that you're out walking about in your yard or a field when you could swear that you just heard someone call for help -a woman perhaps- but no one seems to be there. You hear the sound again and strangely enough it seems to be coming from the ground but that would mean... someone's been buried alive! You rush back to get help for this poor person but alas, because of you recently having a mental breakdown, no one believes you. That is the premise of "The Screaming Woman" and it plays out in a way that's more compelling than most movies today. Olivia de Havilland plays Laura Wynant, a wealthy but recently released mental patient who tries in vain to get anyone to believe her,be it her son, her lawyer, and the cops, knowing that every second that ticks away is another second in which the buried person is dying a slow and horrific death beneath the dark, damp earth. Miss de Havilland shines here, from those first five minutes of realizing the awful truth ( a scene that will send shivers down your spine) to the stunning conclusion, de Havilland keeps your eyes glued to the screen in a solid performance of a desperate woman. So desperate in fact, you can see the anguish in her eyes each time she realizes people thinks she's nuts. It also helps that the film is well written and directed on what must have been a modest budget. However, as this film proves, you don't need an enormous budget to make a good movie; you just need a good story and good actors to tell it. At the same time, one may feel a little bit of sadness while watching this because you only have to look at modern television to realize how far we have fallen in terms of what our culture now considers entertainment. Still, if you long for some quality entertainment, I highly recommend this on you tube.
Review of The Screaming Woman
