HOW AWFUL ABOUT ALLAN

Anthony Perkins

HOW AWFUL ABOUT ALLAN (1970 telefilm). Director: Curtis Harrington. Executive producer: Aaron Spelling.

Legally blind, if only psychosomatically, Allan (Anthony Perkins) is released from an institution and comes back to the house where he lived with his sister, Katherine (Julie Harris). Allan was unable to save his father when fire broke out in their home, and Katherine was disfigured during a rescue attempt. Needing money, Katherine takes in a mysterious boarder who rarely speaks and whom Allan can hardly see. He is convinced that there is something sinister about this stranger, and that he is trying to kill him. Allan's former fiancee and neighbor, Olive (Joan Hackett of Dead of Night), does her best to convince him that his worries are all in his head. But Olive may have no idea what Allan is really dealing with. How Awful About Allan certainly has an intriguing premise (taken from a novel by Henry Farrell, who also did the teleplay), and the cast is very interesting, but the developments, besides being psychologically dubious, are not as compelling as one might have hoped for. Giving an unremarkable, even disinterested, performance, Perkins [Pretty Poison] makes Allan completely unsympathetic, and the best work comes from Harris and Hackett -- the former, however, being too true to her character, does little to keep the audience from figuring out the final revelation. Producer Spelling and author Farrell also teamed up for The House That Would Not Die with Barbara Stanwyck the same year.

Verdict: It's understandable why this flick is pretty much forgotten. **.

THE CAT CREATURE

Gale Sondergaard and Meredith Baxter

THE CAT CREATURE (1973 telefilm). Director: Curtis Harrington.

Joe Sung (Keye Luke) steals a cat-medallion from a recently opened Egyptian casket, and begins a chain of deaths from a clawed creature that counts him among its victims. The trail leads to Hester Black (Gale Sondergaard), a shady lady who runs an occult shop. Lt March (Stuart Whitman of Eaten Alive), aided by egyptologist Roger Edmonds (David Hedison of The Lost World), investigates the case, which also embroils Hester's new assistant, Rena Carter (Meredith Baxter). While it's fun at first seeing such veteran actors as Kent Smith [Cat People], John Carradine, Luke, Milton Parsons (as a coroner, naturally), and especially an excellent and criminally wasted Sondergaard [The Letter], The Cat Creature is pretty bad, with one of Robert Bloch's least inspired scripts. Tabbie cats are not exactly fearsome animals, for one thing. "Peter Lorre Jr." -- actually a man named Eugene Weingand who pretended to be Lorre's son -- has a small role as a murdered pawnbroker. Baxter is given a pretty embarrassing role to play.

Verdict: Great to see Sondergaard still in top form, but the movie is terrible. *1/2. 

KILLER BEES (1974)

Gloria Swanson and her little darlings

KILLER BEES (1974). Director: Curtis Harrington.

Semi-estranged from his family, who own vineyards as well as a town, Edward van Bohlen (Edward Albert) brings his pregnant fiancee, Victoria (Kate Jackson), home to meet the family. This consists of his father, Rudolf (Craig Stevens), brother Helmut (Roger Davis of House of Dark Shadows), and Uncle Matthias (Don McGovern), not to mention his grandmother-matriarch Mrs. van Bohlen (Gloria Swanson). Victoria has a hard time being accepted by the van Bohlens, and matters are made worse by attacks from bees swarming all over the vineyards. Seems the van Bohlens have a strange connection to the bees that came with the family decades ago from Africa. Given bizarre roles to play, both Jackson [Night of Dark Shadows] and Swanson [Beyond the Rocks] manage to acquit themselves nicely, with the latter clearly enjoying herself as she puts on a rather hammy show at times. The movie could easily have been called Queen Bee if it hadn't already been used for a Joan Crawford movie. The bees themselves never actually seem to "attack" anyone but there is a macabre climax in the mansion's attic. Curtis Harrington also directed Queen of Blood.

Verdict: If you take the absurd developments with a grain of salt, this is one of Harrington's better latter-day movies. ***.

GAMES

Simone Signoret

GAMES (1967). Director: Curtis Harrington.

"I'm afraid I'm accustomed to infinitely more exciting -- and dangerous -- games."

Jennifer Montgomery (Katharine Ross) is a wealthy gal with an artist husband, Paul (James Caan), and a beautiful Manhattan townhouse. Alas, Jennifer isn't too bright. When a cosmetics saleslady named Lisa Schindler (Simone Signoret) shows up at her doorstep and faints from hunger or something, Jennifer invites this total stranger to stay and the woman simply moves in. If you can buy that utterly improbable scenario [I mean, give her a meal and send her on her way] you might buy the rest of this admittedly entertaining but often stupid movie that borrows a plot device or two from Signoret's better known film Diabolique. Paul has a game room full of macabre pinball machines and the like but Lisa tells him his games are tame as, say, compared to Russian roulette, and before long the members of this strange household are playing increasingly violent practical jokes on one another, with delivery man Don Stroud eventually becoming an unintended victim. But there's even more intrigue afoot after that ... Signoret gives a very good, enigmatic performance and Stroud is fine, while Ross and Caan will probably not consider this one of the better showcases for their talents -- they both "underplay" so much after someone is shot in their house that it's almost unintentionally comical. The movie itself cries out for more atmosphere and more inventive direction. Florence Marly of Harrington's Queen of Blood plays a baroness and party guest in one sequence; Kent Smith is the family retainer; Estelle Winwood is a neighbor with cats; and Ian Wolfe is a doctor -- all are on the money. Signoret won a well-deserved Oscar for her work in Room at the Top, which this in no way resembles.

Verdict: These games are a little too familiar. **1/2.

QUEEN OF BLOOD

The very odd Florence Marley as a sinister queen

QUEEN OF BLOOD (aka Planet of Blood/1966 ) Writer/director: Curtis Harrington.

Using footage from a foreign space epic or two for FX shots, Curtis Harrington [What's the Matter with Helen?] fashioned this quaint horror-sci-fi tale using some American actors and Czech-born Florence Marley. Astronauts Alan Brenner (John Saxon), Laura James (Judi Meredith) and Paul  Grant (Dennis Hopper), among others, fly to pick up an alien visitor who has landed on the wrong moon. The visitor is a silent, spooky, weird alien queen (perfectly cast Marley) with green skin, an acorn hairdo, and a certain strict diet that Dracula could empathize with. Before long the crew find themselves fighting off her unwelcome advances. Queen of Blood is disjointed, but eventually it becomes modestly entertaining. Basil Rathbone plays a doctor who seems more fascinated by Marley's appetite than appalled. The actors do the best they can, considering what they have to work with. Meredith was the princess in Jack the Giant Killer. Now and then you'll hear some of Ronald Stein's music from Attack of the 50 Foot Woman.

Verdict: Okay, but no It, the Terror from Beyond Space. **1/2.

VOYAGE TO THE PREHISTORIC PLANET

VOYAGE TO THE PREHISTORIC PLANET (1965). Writer/director: John Sebastian. (Direction of added American scenes by Curtis Harrington). 

AIP took a Russian science fiction movie and made two new movies out of it by adding scenes with American actors: Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet was the first of the two. As astronauts in 2020 explore the planet Venus, Basil Rathbone [yes, Sherlock Holmes!] and Faith Domergue [of It Came from Beneath the Sea fame] communicate with them from HQ and another ship. [Rathbone and Domergue have no scenes together. Rathbone is filmed with two young actors, while Domergue -- with an unflattering beehive hairdo -- is all by her lonesome.] The astronauts encounter a tentacled killer plant, funny hopping rubber lizards [men in costumes], a mechanical brontosaurus, and a phony flying reptile. [There's also a quick shot of a squiggling underwater creature]. One of the astronauts hears a woman's voice as well as music, and they find a statue, shaped like a reptile, that proves Venus had once had a flourishing civilization -- and, the strangely poetic ending would indicate, still does. There's also a big robot -- and a hilarious scene with reel to reel tape [in 2020]! Composer Ronald Stein effectively reuses his music from Attack of the 50 Foot Woman. Rathbone and Domergue actually give good performances in their added sequences. However, they can't disguise the fact that the original movie, while not entirely terrible, was probably no world-beater. Followed by Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women. 

Verdict: Rathbone and Domergue deserved better. **.

WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH HELEN?

WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH HELEN? (1971). Director: Curtis Harrington.

In the 1930's two women whose sons are convicted of murder move to Los Angeles to start new lives and open a school for budding Shirley Temples. Adelle (Debbie Reynolds) is a pretty dancer with high hopes for the future while Helen (Shelley Winters) is a religious type who's haunted by the gruesome death of her husband. As Adelle becomes romantically involved with the father (Dennis Weaver) of one of the moppets, Helen becomes increasingly unhinged, leading to violent complications. Written by Henry Farell (Baby Jane; Hush ... Hush, Sweet Charlotte) Helen has an excellent premise that isn't developed as well as it could have been, and Harrington's uninspired direction is no help at all. The trouble is that the "horror" stuff has to happen to justify the film's existence (despite it's already interesting plot line) and it just isn't as convincing as, say, Hush ... Hush. The two lead actresses are fine, however, even if Reynolds falls a little short during the more dramatic moments. Weaver and Agnes Moorehead as a greedy evangelist are on the money. Micheal (sic) MacLiammoir seems to be doing a Sidney Greenstreet impersonation as Hamilton Starr, the school's vocal and dramatic teacher, but he's a lot of fun, and there's some humor generated in regards to the tykes -- one of whom is Pamelyn Ferdin -- and their mothers -- one of whom is Yvette Vickers (Mrs. Barker)! While much of the movie is predictable, Farrell still manages to stick in a minor twist or two. The little girl who does the "You Big Bad Man" number is terrific!

Verdict: Interesting failure. **1/2.