TO THE DEVIL A DAUGHTER

TO THE DEVIL A DAUGHTER (1976). Director: Peter Sykes.

Author John Verney (Richard Widmark), who frequently writes on the occult, is importuned by a frightened man named Beddows (Denholm Elliott) to look after his daughter, Catherine (Nastassja Kinski), after she arrives in London. Catherine is a nun who belongs to the Church of the Children of the Lord, a sect that worships Astaroth. The leader of the church, Father Michael (Christopher Lee), is anxious to get his hands on Catherine because of certain bloody rites that must be performed. Initially sweet and compliant, Sister Catherine eventually becomes a danger to Verney's friends, including his literary agent Anna (Honor Blackman) and her boyfriend David (Anthony Valentine). Catherine makes her way to Father Michael as her own father writhes in terror and Verney learns what he can do to fight against the god -- or devil -- Astaroth's entry into earth via Catherine (or something like that). 

To the Devil a Daughter is a co-release of Hammer Studios but don't expect a Hammer classic with this atrocious movie. Most of the actors give it their all (one suspects Widmark wishes he had stayed in America) but they're fighting a losing battle with a hopelessly erratic script and sequences that are so bad they have to be seen to be believed. The last quarter of the film is hilarious, especially a sequence when a character is embroiled in fire and reduced to ashes so quickly that it is more comical than frightening. A bit of business in which a woman commits suicide by draining all of her blood into those special plastic bags turns hysterical when Chris Lee intones with consummate understatement: "she gave her life's blood." An orgy sequence is equally laughable. It's hard to imagine how anything could have been made out of this awful movie, which even Chris Lee can't save. 

Verdict: One of the worst Hammer movies ever made. *1/2. 

ONE OF MY WIVES IS MISSING

James Franciscus and Jack Klugman

ONE OF MY WIVES IS MISSING  (1976 telefilm). Director: Glenn Jordan.

Daniel Corban (James Franciscus) is on his honeymoon in a small town when he tells Inspector Levine (Jack Klugman) that his wife walked out after a minor argument and hasn't been seen since. The laid-back Levine tries to be sympathetic but doesn't think there's much to worry about, especially when Mrs. Corban (Elizabeth Ashley) walks in and announces that she's back. The only problem is that Corban insists that he has never seen this woman before and that she is not Elizabeth Corban! Although Corban thinks of every way he can to convince the inspector that he's telling the truth, his "wife" counters his every move, and the situation truly begins to look desperate ... 

Elizabeth Ashley

Three good lead performances are at the heart of One of My Wives, a twisty tale that has been told before and afterwards. Anne Baxter was the harried honeymooner in Chase a Crooked Shadow (1958), then Janet Leigh in Honeymoon with a Stranger (1969). In 1986 came yet another telefilm, Vanishing Act, which starred Elliot Gould as the honeymooning husband. These were all official or uncredited versions of Robert Thomas' stage play "Trap for a Single Man." Like other versions, One of My Wives is suspenseful and intriguing, bolstered by Klugman's pleasant cop, Ashley's increasingly sinister and witchy portrayal, and Franciscus' credibly mounting fear, confusion and alarm. There is also good work from Joel Fabiani as a priest, Milton Selzer as a grocer, and the ever-lovable Ruth McDevitt as a neighbor. 

Verdict: Good version of this oft-told tale. ***. 

SYBIL (1976)

Nutty as a fruitcake: Sally Field

SYBIL (1976 four hour two-part mini-series. Director: Daniel Petrie.

Sybil (Sally Field) is a young substitute teacher in New York City who tries to hide the fact that she has blank spots in her memory and often wakes up days or even months later with no idea of what she's been doing. After an accident, she meets a sympathetic psychiatrist named Dr. Wilbur (Joanne Woodward), who discovers that Sybil has several different personalities. Using hypnosis and interviewing people from her patient's past, Wilbur determines to discover what happened in Sybil's childhood that made her this way, but Sybil may not like the answers.

Gullible as a guppie: Joanne Woodward

Sybil has much in common with an earlier theatrical film (this one about reincarnation) entitled The Search for Bridey Murphy. Both films were based on best-selling "non-fiction" works that caused a sensation, influenced millions of people, and, incidentally, made much money for their authors. Both books have also turned out to be, mostly, crap. Dissociative Identity Disorder, as its now called, was popularized by the book Sybil, but a new 2011 book entitled Sybil Exposed reveals that, while there may be a few genuine cases of DID, the real woman who was called Sybil was actually faking. "Sybil" confessed this to gullible Wilbur, but Wilbur chose not to believe her. Both women had very good reasons not to own up: Wilbur had her reputation to think of, as well as the money from the book (she worked with a professional writer); and Sybil, who became like a daughter to Wilbur, was virtually supported by her. 

Be a clown: Brad Davis and Sally Field

So while this strips the telefilm of much of its power, we have to look at what remains, and the answer is: not much. Three hours long without commercial breaks, Sybil eventually becomes tedious, with too many repetitious flashbacks, a slow pace, and padding. Emmy-winning Field is quite good, and she gets wonderful support from Woodward and Brad Davis as a free-spirited young neighbor that she dates, as well as others, but after awhile all of those "personalities," male and female, become rather irritating, and the whole thing nearly collapses into farce when "Sybil" turns into her own grandmother on the street. Woodward, of course, appeared in her own multiple personality picture, The Three Faces of Eve (which was also based on a non-fiction book), which engendered the similar Lizzie with Eleanor Parker. Sybil was remade as a TV movie in 2007.

Verdict: Field is impressive, but this is a turgid and unconvincing mini-series. **. 

PLOT OF FEAR

Eli Wallach and Michele Placido

PLOT OF FEAR (aka E tanta paura/1976). Director: Paolo Cavara.

A series of murders are tied in to a sex club that was run by a man named Hoffmann (John Steiner of Shock) as well as a (true-life) dark children's book. Inspector Lomenzo (Michele Placido) questions a private detective named Struwwel (Eli Wallach) who is being hired for protection by some of the other members of the now-defunct club. A young prostitute who was hired for a party at the sex club and who supposedly died of fright may be part of the puzzle -- or not. As Lomenzo questions other people involved in the case, he encounters Jeanne (Corinne Clery), who was at the party where the prostitute died, and their relationship turns sexual. Now he has to wonder how far involved she was in what happened and in the current series of killings. Plot of Fear has a convoluted plot a la Dario Argento, but where that director's work at its best could be mesmerizing, neither this movie nor the direction of Paolo Cavara is in the same league. The storyline verges on the incomprehensible as well, and the denouement makes little sense. The movie has some suspense, however, and Michele Placido makes an attractive and likable leading man, with a pretty Clery more than competent as his lover and suspect. Eli Wallach gets several good scenes as the detective, but Tom Skerritt, as Placido's superior officer, is on camera for maybe a total of three minutes; he did Alien three years later. The picture has no real style and the non-gory murder scenes are not filmed with any elan. Paolo Cavara also directed the similarly mediocre and confusing Black Belly of the Tarantula. Michele Paolo was a busy Italian actor who later appeared in the homoerotic Ernesto.

Verdict: Mediocre, nominal giallo. **. 

THE FRONT

Zero Mostel with Woody Allen in background

THE FRONT (1976). Produced and directed by Martin Ritt. Written by Walter Bernstein.

Alfred Miller (Michael Murphy), a blacklisted writer, asks his friend Howard Prince (Woody Allen) if he will "front" for him, submitting teleplays under his own name and giving him the money minus a 10% commission. Howard decides to do this for other blacklisted writers as well and before long he has become one of the top names in the industry, with plenty of money, a beautiful apartment, and a girlfriend in Florence Barrett (Andrea Marcovicci), who works for the live anthology show to which he sells most of his teleplays. But then the star of the show, comic Hecky Brown (Zero Mostel) is let go because of alleged communist ties, and told that he just might get his career back if he learns all he can about Howard Prince ... The Front is an absorbing picture with a deceptively light tone at first but it leads to a shocking suicide and a dramatic resolution. Mostel gives a knock-out performance as Hecky, bottling up rage and despair until it comes violently loose, and he pretty much wipes the top-billed Allen off of the screen. Allen's casting is problematic. After some early negative experiences when he was not in charge, he has mostly only appeared in his own films, and The Front is a very rare exception. Obviously he respected and trusted director Martin Ritt [Hud], but while his name might have brought more people into the theaters, it's obvious that he's still playing "Woody Allen" (if playing it well) and one can only wonder what another performer might have brought to the role. Still, he doesn't ruin the film and may have helped get its message across. Ritt, writer Bernstein, and several actors in the production were themselves blacklisted in the fifties, including Mostel, Hershel Bernardi [Peter Gunn], and Lloyd Gough [The Green Hornet].  The movie has humor and heart but never forgets the seriousness and tragedy of the fifties witch hunts.

Verdict: Mostel's finest hour and a half. ***.

MURDER BY DEATH

Truman Capote

MURDER BY DEATH (aka Neil Simon's Murder By Death/1976). Director: Robert Moore.

"As a man you are barely passable, but as a woman you are a dog." -- Milo Perrier summing up the situation. 

A mysterious man invites variations of Sam Spade, Charlie Chan, Nick and Nora Charles, Miss Marple. and Hercule Poirot to his home where he challenges them to solve a murder that will occur at midnight. The host is played by Truman Capote, and the detectives by James Coco (Milo Perrier); Peter Sellers (Sidney Wang); Elsa Lanchester (Jessica Marbles); David Niven and Maggie Smith (Dick and Dora Charleston); and Peter Falk (Sam Diamond). If there's one problem with this rather cute movie is that it's a complete farce, with no real plot (just a premise) and nothing much to hang the jokes on. As for the jokes, for every one that garners a laugh there's two that land with a thud. However, the performances are all wonderful, and there's expert support from Estelle Winwood (Miss Marbel's nurse, who now needs looking after herself); Richard Narita as Wang's son; Nancy Walker as the deaf-mute maid; James Cromwell [American Horror Story: Asylum] as Perrier's chauffeur; Eileen Brennan as Diamond's girlfriend; and especially Alec Guinness [The Swan] as the blind butler, Bensonmum. Truman Capote is no actor, but on an amateur level he isn't too terrible as Lionel Twain. On the other hand, Peter Sellers [The Wrong Box] is simply wonderful. Don't expect any coherency (even for a comedy) and you may have fun.

Verdict: Silly, hardly for all tastes, but beautifully-acted and zany. ***.

CAGNEY BY CAGNEY

CAGNEY BY CAGNEY. James Cagney. Doubleday; 1976.

James Cagney had no particular interest in writing his memoirs, but he was tired of authors getting the facts wrong and decided he had better tell his own story. The first section of the book features a lot of tales detailing just how tough Cagney was growing up in a bad neighborhood where you had to prove yourself with your fists. Cagney wouldn't be the first song and dance man who felt a need to affect a super-macho image. (Ironically, one of his first jobs had him dancing in drag!) The book is more interesting when Cagney gets into his career, and he makes it clear that he considers himself, first and foremost, a dancer. Cagney felt that making movies was a grind, and he wasn't thrilled with some of the by-the-numbers assignments he was thrown into, nor with the fact that real bullets were originally used in scenes with machine guns! (Oddly, he doesn't acknowledge that he was making much, much more money than the average person.) He writes pleasantly of his fellow actors, with two exceptions: an unnamed leading lady whom he finds condescending: and Horst Buchholz, with whom he appeared in One Two Three. When Buchholz tried one of his "scene-stealing didoes," Cagney was going to "knock him on his ass." Cagey was a rarity in that he wasn't that interested in a typical Hollywood lifestyle, preferring to live in the east, and he was happily married to the same woman, a former actress, for a great many years. Liberal in his youth, Cagney became more conservative as he got older, and also became a conservationist. The book is full of ruminations on how the picture business has changed, as well as the country, and includes many samples of his poetry, which is much better than Jimmy Stewart's. Cagney comes off as a moderately cultured man with some good horse sense, who didn't allow his movie stardom to completely define him. He writes bluntly of movie colleagues who just can't accept the fact that their careers are over and no one is interested in them anymore, a fate that did not ensnare Cagney, as he became an icon instead of a has-been.

Verdict: Probably not the last word, but an interesting look at a very interesting and talented actor. ***.

FUTUREWORLD

Peter Fonda and Blythe Danner

FUTUREWORLD (1976). Director: Richard T. Heffron.

Some years after a disaster in the amusement world of Delos (detailed in Westworld), the park reopens with a new attraction: Futureworld, where you can take a simulated flight into space. Newspaper reporter Chuck Browning (Peter Fonda) and TV journalist Tracy Ballard (Blythe Danner), who have a more or less friendly rivalry, are invited to be the first to visit the reopened Delos and file stories about it. Tracy thinks it's all marvelous, but Chuck got reports of something rotten going on from a former employee who was later murdered. As the two experience all the wonders of Delos, things happen that make them wonder if something much more sinister is going on. Then the reporters discover that they have been duplicated ... Futureworld is superior to Westworld, with a better plot that goes in interesting directions, and a certain degree of suspense. Fonda [Ghost Rider] and Danner are odd choices to play the main characters, but both do a good job, and Danner, an excellent actress, adds some heft to the proceedings -- she is particularly good in a scene where she is dangerously confronted by the Tracy-clone. Arthur Hill [The Andromeda Strain] is solid as the executive in charge of Delos, and John Ryan [It's Alive] is suitably grim as the head technician in the conspiracy. Stuart Margolin scores in the smaller role of Harry Kroft, a tech worker who helps Chuck and Tracy get into a certain room where there are secrets to be revealed. Yul Brynner appears as the gunslinger from Westworld, but only in a very bad dream sequence that is the worst thing in the movie, although Danner may have been happy that she got to make out with "the King." Futureworld is "soft" science fiction in that it doesn't explore its premise with any special depth. Fred Karlin's score is effective.

Verdict: For once, a superior sequel. ***.

THE WIFE KILLER

THE WIFE KILLER (aka Eglima sto Kavouri/The Rape Killer/Death Kiss/1976). Director: Kostas Karagiannis.

Jim (Lakis Komninos) is married to the wealthy Elena (Dorothy Moore), but he is much more interested in his younger mistress, Laoura (Jane Paterson). Jim has an old acquaintance named Mike (Vagelis Seilinos), who -- we learn at the very beginning -- has been committing a series of violent rape-murders. Jim offers to pay Mike a large sum if he will make Elena his latest victim. Things seem to be proceeding nicely for greedy Jim, but Mike, as well as a doctor who is in love with Elena, may throw a hitch in his plans ... The Wife Killer is an absorbing Greek thriller, modeled on Italian giallo films, that certainly has an interesting premise with some good (if perplexing) twists, but then leaves way too many loose ends to make sense. The acting is good, and Seilinos offers a striking portrait of a conscienceless sociopath who is more clever than his partner-in-crime would imagine. This was loosely inspired on the real-life murder of Ann Chapman, who at first seemed a victim of a sex murderer until others determined that she was possibly killed by corrupt policemen.

Verdict: Colorful and macabre if ultimately unsatisfying. **1/2.

RODGERS AND HART: BEWITCHED, BOTHERED AND BEDEVILED

RODGERS AND HART: Bewitched, Bothered, and Bedeviled. Samuel Marx and Jan Clayton. Putman's; 1976.

This duel biography looks at the lives and careers of the great songwriting team of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. Together the two were responsible for numerous great songs, many now standards, in such shows as Babes in Arms, On Your Toes, I Married an Angel, The Boys from Syracuse, I Married an Angel, Pal Joey, and others, several of which were made into films. The book details how the two men met, their childhoods and early lives, the way they worked together, their sojourns to Hollywood and their work in the film industry, and the eventual discontent that settled in due to Rodger's exasperation with Hart's habit of getting drunk and/or disappearing for days. Written in a post-Stonewall period, Rodgers and Hart doesn't gloss over the probability that, despite his having proposed marriage once to a female friend (actress Vivienne Segal of Pal Joey and The Cat and the Fiddle) whom he'd never even kissed, he was essentially a gay man, although some of his intimates try to deny this. It is typical for people to describe gay men in a pre-Stonewall period as "tormented," but Hart seems to have enjoyed his life to the fullest even if he never found ideal love. (The authors do suggest that Hart would have been much better off if he had taken an insouciant, more positive attitude toward his sexuality a la Noel Coward.) Hart was the lovable prankster while the colder Rodgers was in comparison, a stern, more conventional taskmaster, although he was certainly not any kind of monster and was as kind and forbearing with Hart as he could be. Hart was devastated by being replaced as Rodgers' lyricist by Oscar Hammerstein and the success of Oklahoma, but Dick had not given up on Larry and worked with him on six new tunes for a revival of one of their earlier hits, but he died shortly after, probably due to cirrhosis of the liver. Rodgers and Hart is a good look at the team, but it isn't always well-edited, as instead of inserting comments from those they interviewed throughout the rambling manuscript in a more judicious approach, they simply let certain individuals drone on (often more about themselves than their subjects) for pages with no real context. Samuel Marx [Deadly Illusions: Jean Harlow and the Murder of Paul Bern] was a Broadway reporter and Jan Clayton [The Snake Pit] was in the original cast of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel.

Verdict: Not the last word on the team, not always well put together, but a good enough introduction, and the authors' refusal to "straighten out" Hart is admirable. **1/2.

CROWNED HEADS

CROWNED HEADS. Thomas Tryon. 1976.

Crowned Heads is a collection of four novellas that all deal in one twisted way or another with Old Hollywood and its strange, often grotesque, secrets. "Fedora" deals with a writer who once met the famous movie star of the same name, who is now a recluse, and uncovers the startling truth about her true identity. In "Lorna," the fifty-something actress Lorna Doone, who never quite made it in "A" pictures and who is a pyromaniac, shop-lifter and nympho, tries to escape reality in a Mexican resort, but winds up awash in a sea of sex and booze that causes her more anguish than anything else. [One funny-sad scene has Lorna "paying a call" on a handsome flamenco dancer half her age despite the fact he's expressed no interest in her whatsoever.] "Bobbitt" is an interesting story about the fate of a child star who once owned the world and is now forgotten, but while it's suspenseful and well done it's also a trifle cloying at times, especially at the finale. "Willie" deals with the final hours of a former star who makes the mistake of allowing certain "fans" into his home. This story seems to be inspired by the life of Clifton Webb and the death of Ramon Novarro, which is hardly in the best of taste. "Fedora" was made into a movie, but I've always thought that "Lorna" would have made a fascinating picture as well; it is easily the best novella of the quartet. In the first story it seems to take forever for Tryon to get to the revelation, and similarly Willie's segment is stretched out to inordinate length. For my money, "Lorna" is decidedly the best read in the book. As an actor, Tryon appeared in such films as The Unholy Wife, The Cardinal, and I Married a Monster from Outer Space.

Verdict: Well-written plumbing of Hollywood scandal. ***.

SCHIZO

SCHIZO (1976). Director: Pete Walker.

Samantha (Lynne Frederick of No Blade of Grass) is engaged to be married to Alan Falconer (John Leyton), but she can't shake a feeling of doom or the fear that she is being stalked by her crazy "stepfather," Haskin (Jack Watson of Tower of Evil). Sam seeks advice and comfort from her friend Beth (Stephanie Beacham of Inseminoid) and another friend, Leonard (John Fraser) who happens to be a handy psychiatrist. There's also a young psychic lady named Joy (Trisha Mortimer) who tries to give Samantha a desperate warning. Then bodies start dropping all around Sam ... Schizo is, if nothing else, suspenseful as it drops in its red herrings and clues as to the true identity of the maniac, but it's not especially memorable. Walker also directed The Comeback and House of Whipcord. His movies always just seem to miss.

Verdict: Half entertaining. **1/2.

VOYAGE OF THE DAMNED

VOYAGE OF THE DAMNED (1976). Director: Stuart Rosenberg.

In 1939 Nazi Germany allowed about one thousand Jews to depart the country on a ship bound for Cuba, the SS St. Louis. This alleged "humanitarian" gesture was strictly a propaganda act, a smokescreen, as one character puts it, as it was never intended for the passengers to disembark in Cuba or anywhere else. Turned away by several nations, including, shamefully, the U.S., some of the passengers wold prefer death or mutiny to returning to Hamburg and certain execution in concentration camps. You would imagine that a movie on this subject would be very powerful -- and you can't help but be moved by the passengers' plight and the horrendous persecution and emotional devastation they were undergoing -- but Voyage of the Damned, unfortunately, plays like a lesser Movie of the Week with an almost-all-star, international, Movie of the Week-type cast [with some exceptions], "acting" up a storm at times but nonetheless seeming once-removed throughout it all -- in other words, the acting and direction are fairly perfunctory. Sequences that should have had great impact are pretty much frittered away by Rosenberg, and the movie is about 45 minutes too long, slack and lacking in needed tension. I mean, when you consider the situation these people were in! Some of the lesser known actors, such as Victor Spinetti as Dr. Strauss, who works in Cuba and desperately wants to get his small children off the ship, are more effective than the bigger names, although James Mason and Nehemiah Persoff are solid as usual. Sadly, Voyage of the Damned is blah when it should have been a masterpiece.The very large cast includes everyone from Lee Grant, Faye Dunaway and Ben Gazzara to Max von Sydow [as the captain], Wendy Hiller, Malcolm McDowell and even Orson Welles. Although they all have their moments, these could not be considered one of the better performances of any of them.

Verdict: Watch Judgment at Nuremberg instead. **1/2.

A STAR IS BORN (1976)

Kristofferson and Streisand

A STAR IS BORN (1976). Director: Frank Pierson

Just as the 1954 A Star is Born was re-fashioned for the particular talents of Judy Garland, this 1976 version was a do-over geared for the appeal of Barbra Streisand and her fans, although it is much less successful than the Garland version. Esther Hoffman (Streisand) is working her way up through the club circuit when she meets rock star John Norman Howard (Kris Kristofferson), who is beginning a long slide due to his booze and drug-addled antics. [A bigger problem is that Howard/Kristofferson has a really awful voice.] Esther sings with two African-American women in a group called the Oreos [these two black singers aren't even given names!], but Howard insists on foisting her off as a soloist at one of his own concerts. It is unlikely that the audience, who'd come to hear a famous hard rocker, would have accepted Esther (who sings a complete piece of pop crap called "I Believe in Love") in the first place, but even more ridiculous is that it is clearly Streisand performing at this concert and not the less experienced Esther. Esther and Howard begin an ill-fated romance that leads to an unconvincing finale. Nasally-voiced Streisand is horrible as a rocker, and her acting performance isn't that great, either. It's hard to say if the laid-back Kristofferson is even acting, but since druggies so often do seem out of it, his listlessness may be appropriate. Gary Busey is good, as usual, as a colleague of Howard's. A funny scene has a young lady reporter who beds Howard asking Esther for an interview when she interrupts the two in the sack. The film ends with a long, long concert sequence sung by Streisand, of course. Streisand has made some good movies -- Yentl comes to mind -- but this isn't one of them. "Evergreen" was a hit song from this movie, and "Go to Hell" is a snappy number.  

Verdict: Barbra's Vanity Project. **.

THE PINK PANTHER STRIKES AGAIN

Herbert Lom and Peter Sellers

THE PINK PANTHER STRIKES AGAIN (1976). Director: Blake Edwards.

Chief Inspector Dreyfus (Herbert Lom), driven mad by the incompetency of Inspector Clouseau (Peter Sellers), is about to be released as sane from an institution where he has resided for months when who should come calling but his nemesis, leading to a hilarious encounter on the grounds of the nuthouse. And this is just the prologue. In one of the wildest and funniest "Pink Panther" movies the now totally deranged Dreyfus attempts to wipe out the entire world with a device from his secret headquarters and only Inspector Clouseau can stop him. Lord save us all! There's an amusing scene in a gay bar [naturally Clouseau hasn't a clue], and a "dental" sequence with Lom and Sellers -- both are in top form in this -- that is one of the funniest things in the picture. Michael Robbins is memorable as the butler/drag queen Jarvis, and Omar Sharif has a cameo as an Egyptian assassin. Lesley-Anne Down is the spy, Olga, and Dudley Sutton of The Leather Boys is McClaren. Lom and Sellers make an absolutely splendid comic "team."

Verdict: A very funny movie. ***1/2.

THE LAST OF MRS. LINCOLN

Robby Benson, Julie Harris, Michael Cristofer

THE LAST OF MRS. LINCOLN (1976). Producer/director: George Schaefer. Based on the play by James Prideaux. Broadway Theater Archive DVD.

"We may have been the first family, but we were far from rich."

"After your father was taken from us, people said it would get easier. But it doesn't. It gets harder."

"It is not the years that age us, but loneliness."

Recreating the Broadway show, The Last of Mrs. Lincoln was presented as a telefilm on PBS in 1976. It is wonderful that there will always be a permanent record of Julie Harris' superb performance as Mary Todd Lincoln in the days after the assassination of her husband. Then she has to deal with the death [after already losing two other children and a husband] of her 18-year-old son, Tad (Robby Benson), and what she wrongly sees as the betrayal of her oldest son Robert (Michael Cristofer) when he is forced to have her institutionalized when she has a nervous breakdown. She comes to the home of her sister (Priscilla Morrill), who after all these years still doesn't think Abraham Lincoln was worthy of her. [A great scene in a play full of many has Mary telling off an old biddy (Kate Wilkinson) who has supposedly come calling out of friendship but really just wants to crow.] Mary bonds with a young nephew (Patrick Duffy) who has more respect for her and her memories than almost everyone else around her. Benson and Cristofer are excellent in a stellar cast without a bad performance. The play takes incidents in history and makes them come alive, fleshing out these people in a way no history book could. Although it's excellent at delineating a certain time and place [from 1865 Chicago to Springfield many years later], it also reveals some universal truths. Cristofer later wrote the play The Shadow Box (which was also made into a telefilm) and now appears on the TV show Smash.

Verdict: A masterpiece. ****.

THE OMEN (1976)

THE OMEN (1976). Director: Richard Donner.

"She is an apostate of Hell -- she will die before permitting this."

Undoubtedly influenced by The Exorcist, which came out three years earlier, this movie was almost as influential in its own way, and also engendered several sequels and even a remake -- and is just as sub-literate [but somewhat better than The Exorcist]. An even bigger influence on the film must have been Rosemary's Baby (1968). Ambassador Robert Thorn (Gregory Peck)  is told that his baby son has died, and is importuned into accepting another child [who supposedly lost his mother in childbirth] without telling his wife, Katherine (Lee Remick), who fails to bond with the boy, Damian (Harvey Stephens). It turns out that Damian is actually the anti-Christ [Rosemary's Baby as a child?]: Satanists, in the form of nanny Mrs. Baylock (Billie Whitelaw), want to protect and nurture him, while certain Catholic priests want to murder him -- a mere child! [DIGRESSION: It never occurs to anyone that there is a possibility that being raised by normal, decent people the boy might grow up to be something other than a devil. But the real problem with the movie is that it doesn't give the audience any breathing room. Damian is the devil's son -- and that's that. How much more interesting the film might have been if the Satanists and priests were all a little nuts. In fact, the priests in this movie seem quite demented.] All that being said, it must also be said that The Omen -- on its own anti-intellectual terms -- is a rather accomplished little horror film, with some interesting sequences and set-pieces -- an eerie scene in a graveyard; some flamboyant, well-handled and gruesome death scenes --  and assured direction from Donner. The acting is also generally excellent, with an intense and authoritative Peck possibly giving the best performance of his life, his sheer solidity helping the audience go along with the absurdity of the proceedings. Lee Remick, David Warner [as a doomed photographer], and little Harvey Stephens are also excellent, and Billie Whitelaw is just superb as the nanny quite literally from Hell. Jerry Goldsmith's memorably creepy score holds all of it together splendidly.

Verdict: If you don't take it seriously this is really quite entertaining. ***.

FAMILY PLOT

FAMILY PLOT (1976). Director: Alfred Hitchcock. 

Hitchcock's final film out of fifty-four may not be a masterpiece, but it is a very entertaining, under-rated movie with some clever twists and an interesting plot. Elderly and wealthy Julia Rainbird (Cathleen Nesbit) wants the [phony] medium, Blanche (Barbara Harris) to locate the illegitimate child, now forty, whom her sister gave up at birth so she can make him her heir. Blanche enlists her cab-driving boyfriend, George (Bruce Dern) to help with the search, but is unaware that the heir, now known as Arthur Adamson (William Devane) and his girlfriend, Fran (Karen Black) are behind a series of big-ticket kidnappings -- we learn this early on -- and think Blanche and George are after them for their crimes. Ernest Lehman's excellent script brings both couples and all four main characters to vivid life, and all four actors deliver superlative performances. Nesbit and Ed Lauter as an associate of Arthur's are also splendid. The relationship and banter between Blanche and George is particularly amusing. As this is a light-hearted thriller, even the scene when the couple are nearly killed driving down a winding mountain road when the brakes fail is played as much for laughs as for scares. Handsome production, well-photographed by Leonard J. South. Fran and Arthur live in a very beautiful, exquisitely decorated townhouse. It's interesting to note that only Lehman's and Hitchcock's names are shown durng the opening credits; the actors' names aren't seen until the cast list scrawl at the very end! 

Verdict: A swell way to end a long and distinguished career, although the actors may not have been amused. ***.

BURNT OFFERINGS

BURNT OFFERINGS (1976). Director: Dan Curtis. 

A married couple with a young son rent a mansion for the summer for a ridiculously low price, with the "catch" that they have to prepare meals for the reclusive matriarch of the house, who stays alone in her room in the attic. The occupants of the house -- who are going on vacation -- also include Roz Allardyce [an effective Eileen Heckart] and her brother Arnold [Burgess Meredith, who is also effective, although for some reason he plays the role as a total gay stereotype]. Karen Black and Oliver Reed, both giving good performances, are the married couple, and Lee H. Montgomery also does a fine job as their son, David. As their Aunt Elizabeth, Bette Davis is at first as "grand lady-ish" and affected as she usually was in her older days, but eventually settles in to give one of her better latter-day performances. And we mustn't forget Anthony James, who makes an impression as the sinister nightmare chauffeur without ever saying a word. [James has over 75 credits in movies and television.] Burnt Offerings is an entertaining horror flick, even if it's not always convincing as to the [confusing] supernatural aspects of the storyline. Nonsense the movie may be, yes, but it still builds up to tragic consequences and the ending packs a small wallop. You might say that Burnt Offerings does for the haunted house story what Rosemary's Baby did for witches. William F. Nolan and Curtis scripted from Robert Marasco's novel. 

Verdict: Disquieting -- and depressing -- in its own mostly quiet way. ***.