HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS

Haworth, Walter and Parker camp it up

HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS (1972 telefilm). Director: John Llewellyn Moxey.

Okay, get this. An old man lives alone in a mansion with his second wife, who was once accused of poisoning her first husband. Now the old man is convinced his wife is trying to poison him, and he's asked his four daughters to come home for Christmas to help him. However, he has been estranged from his daughters for years because most of them think he is responsible for their mother's suicide due to his affair with wife # 2. Then the murders begin ... Now add to that great premise the fact that the old man is Walter Brennan, his second wife is Julie Harris, and the daughters are played by Eleanor Parker (old faithful), Sally Field (li'l adorable), Jill Haworth (sharp-tongued sophisticate) and Jessica Walter (pill-popping dipsomaniac) -- and that the script is by Joseph Stefano, who wrote the screenplay for Hitchcock's Psycho -- and you've got an ABC "Movie of the Week" to reckon with! Frankly, with all that talent one would have hoped that Home for the Holidays would have been a lot more memorable, but it is an engaging and well-acted [by all] bit of grotesquerie that holds the attention and has a certain degree of atmosphere [of the "it was a dark and stormy night" variety]. George Tipton contributed an interesting score. One of the actors, however talented, sort of gives the game away with an overly, shall we say,  dynamic performance, but the ending will still be a surprise to some. John Fink plays the cute doctor who lives in town and knows all the women.

Verdict: And you think your family holidays are bad ...! **1/2.

A TASTE OF EVIL

Barbara Parkins and Barbara Stanwyck

A TASTE OF EVIL (1971 telefilm). Director: John Llewellyn Moxey.

After starring in the mediocre The House that Would Not Die, Barbara Stanwyck appeared in a second ABC "Movie of the Week" for producer Aaron Spelling, and this time the results are more felicitous. Susan (Barbara Parkins) was raped as a child by an unknown assailant on the grounds of her family estate. After years of therapy in Europe she returns home to her mother, Miriam (Barbara Stanwyck), the strange handyman John (Arthur O'Connell), her uncle and now stepfather Howard (William Windom) and sympathetic Dr. Lomas (Roddy McDowall). It isn't long before her shadowy memories of the assault begin to plague her, and she also keeps seeing the corpse of Uncle Howard, whom she suspects of the rape, in various places -- the trouble is that Howard is alive. A Taste of Evil has a tricky screenplay by Jimmy Sangster (The Nanny, Hysteria, Scream of Fear etc.) that contains some surprises, and good performances from the entire cast. Without giving too much away, it is safe to say that Stanwyck offers a chilling portrait of one of the worst mothers who ever existed on celluloid. She doesn't gnash the scenery as lesser actresses would do, but wisely underplays and is that much more memorable and formidable, making this one of her better latter-day assignments. Some people see this as a remake of the Sangster-written Scream of Fear, but despite similarities the movies are quite different.

Verdict: Interesting enough on its own terms but Stanwyck really makes it worth watching. ***.

THE HOUSE THAT WOULD NOT DIE

Anderson, Stanwyck, and Wynn

THE HOUSE THAT WOULD NOT DIE (1970 telefilm). Director:John Llewellyn Moxey.

Ruth Bennett (Barbara Stanwyck) and her niece Sara (Katherine or Kitty Winn) move into a country house built in the 1700's and willed to Ruth by her cousin. Ruth bonds with her neighbor, Pat (Richard Egan), while Sara makes good friends with Pat's student, Stan (Michael Anderson, Jr.). During a seance, restless spirits in the house make their presence known, and eventually begin to take over the minds of the inhabitants, especially Sara. Is she going mental, or is something supernatural going on? The viewer will be far ahead of the characters in this mediocre flick which was presented as an ABC "Movie of the Week" back in the day. At least there's an interesting cast. Stanwyck, who always gives a solid performance no matter what drivel she's in, is above the material, as expected. Winn later appeared with Al Pacino in The Panic in Needle Park and The Exorcist and its sequel; she was a very good actress and does the best she can with this material. Richard Egan was in everything from The View from Pompey's Head to Wicked Woman, and Michael Anderson Jr. was with Hayley Mills and Maurice Chevalier in In Search of the Castaways when he was a boy. The medium is played by Doreen Lang, the hysterical woman who slaps Tippi Hedren in Hitchcock's The Birds; she's only mildly hysterical in this. Mabel Albertson shows up briefly as another neighbor and a friend of Lang's. This was produced by Aaron Spelling from a screenplay by Henry Farrell [Hush ... Hush, Sweet Charlotte].

Verdict: Stanwyck maintains her dignity in a forgettable and obvious ghost story. **.

THE NIGHT STALKER

Darren McGavin as Kolchak

THE NIGHT STALKER (1972 telefilm). Drector: John Llewellyn Moxey. Written by Richard Matheson.

Reporter Carl Kolchak (Darren McGavin), hoping to get back to the big time of New York from Las Vegas, latches onto a story about women being found dead drained of every drop of blood, and runs with it, discovering that an actual vampire (Barry Atwater) is on the loose, leading to a tense climax in the bloodsucker's lair. This high-rated telefilm [a "Movie of the Week"] introduced Kolchak, who returned in a second telefilm, The Night Strangler, before getting his own series, which lasted one season. McGavin is fine, bolstered by performances from Carol Lynley as his girlfriend, Claude Akins as a cop, Kent Smith as the D.A., and Simon Oakland as Kolchak's belligerent boss, Vincenzo. Elisha Cook Jr. and Charles McGraw are also in the cast and are notable. An unlikely aspect of the plot is that Vincenzo wants to suppress the story, which makes no sense as he's in the business of selling newspapers, and a story of vampire killings would certainly garner a hell of a lot of attention!

Verdict: Entertaining time passer with a nifty premise. ***.