An upbeat, eager college student, Peggy Johns (Sian Barbara Allen, "You'll Like My Mother") hires on as housekeeper to sculptor Jeffrey Elliot (Ted Bessell, 'That Girl') and his elderly, cranky mother (the legendary Bette Davis, "All About Eve"). As time goes on, she realizes that this cagey twosome are not being forthright with her, and have some pretty big skeletons in their closet.
As these ABC TV movies of the week go, this is a pretty good spook show from genre specialist Gordon Hessler ("Scream and Scream Again"). It gets off on the right foot with a very atmospheric opening, and does deliver some genuine suspense and creepiness as it plays out. It travels far on Allens' effervescent, appealing personality, Bessells' engaging performance, and that old Davis fire; the screen veteran brings a lot of spark to the proceedings. The script was co-written by noted genre scribe Jimmy Sangster ("The Curse of Frankenstein") and Arthur Hoffe, and unfortunately, it's the kind of story that any savvy movie watcher should be able to predict before the climax arrives. This viewer could say which movie most clearly inspired Sangster, but that would constitute a major spoiler, so...
The music score by Robert Prince ("Squirm") has just the right sinister quality, as does the cinematography by Leonard J. South ("Family Plot"). Overall, the movie is well paced (these TV genre movies of the 70s typically run about 74 minutes without commercials, so you do expect a certain snappiness to the story), and solidly entertaining. Ultimately, it's also twisted stuff, so viewers should be quite amused with the big reveals late in the game.
Co-starring Charles Drake ("It Came from Outer Space"), Allan Arbus ("Coffy"), German beauty Christiane Schmidtmer ("The Big Doll House"), and Tovah Feldshuh ("Stephen Kings' Silver Bullet"). Jessica Rains, who plays the woman in the employment office, is the daughter of the great Claude Rains.
Seven out of 10.
As these ABC TV movies of the week go, this is a pretty good spook show from genre specialist Gordon Hessler ("Scream and Scream Again"). It gets off on the right foot with a very atmospheric opening, and does deliver some genuine suspense and creepiness as it plays out. It travels far on Allens' effervescent, appealing personality, Bessells' engaging performance, and that old Davis fire; the screen veteran brings a lot of spark to the proceedings. The script was co-written by noted genre scribe Jimmy Sangster ("The Curse of Frankenstein") and Arthur Hoffe, and unfortunately, it's the kind of story that any savvy movie watcher should be able to predict before the climax arrives. This viewer could say which movie most clearly inspired Sangster, but that would constitute a major spoiler, so...
The music score by Robert Prince ("Squirm") has just the right sinister quality, as does the cinematography by Leonard J. South ("Family Plot"). Overall, the movie is well paced (these TV genre movies of the 70s typically run about 74 minutes without commercials, so you do expect a certain snappiness to the story), and solidly entertaining. Ultimately, it's also twisted stuff, so viewers should be quite amused with the big reveals late in the game.
Co-starring Charles Drake ("It Came from Outer Space"), Allan Arbus ("Coffy"), German beauty Christiane Schmidtmer ("The Big Doll House"), and Tovah Feldshuh ("Stephen Kings' Silver Bullet"). Jessica Rains, who plays the woman in the employment office, is the daughter of the great Claude Rains.
Seven out of 10.