A few modern actresses come close, but nobody has come along that remotely looks or sounds like Barbara Stanwyck. That gorgeous silver hair, that smooth skin that only required minimal work and that voice of laryngitis which, as Richard Chamberlain called it, was worth a million dollars. After 40 years a star, she wasn't resting on her laurels, and had no problem working in T.V. movies of the week which were considered the new equivalent of the B secondary "bottom of the bill" feature. Add on Richard Egan, a wonderfully rugged but tender leading man, ingénue Kitty Winn, and a beautiful old house filled with evil, and you had the recipe for what made the T.V. movie of the week so much fun.
In my opinion, Stanwyck is by far the best aged of the 1930's to still be working in the early '70s. Certainly of the other three (Crawford, Davis, Hepburn), she looked the most natural and even sexy. Here, she inherits a house from a distant relative, and finds nothing but terror there. It is even worse for niece Kitty Winn who seems to become possessed by it. Neighbor Richard Egan has a strange reaction to a portrait that Winn buys, and later begins to romance Stanwyck, at one point kissing her rather violently.
The 70's had a series of horror movies made for TV, all seemingly rip-offs of "Rosemary's Baby". Some are better than others, but this one has many chilling moments that rank it above the few I've seen. As produced by the not yet famous Aaron Spelling, this manages to have the gloss of his future nighttime soaps, one of which would feature the legendary Stanwyck. This is featured on the DVD collection of five made for TV films, and from what I have seen the only one of interest to me. Stanwyck would appear in one other T.V. horror movie, "A Taste of Evil", but that has not been released as of yet to DVD.
In my opinion, Stanwyck is by far the best aged of the 1930's to still be working in the early '70s. Certainly of the other three (Crawford, Davis, Hepburn), she looked the most natural and even sexy. Here, she inherits a house from a distant relative, and finds nothing but terror there. It is even worse for niece Kitty Winn who seems to become possessed by it. Neighbor Richard Egan has a strange reaction to a portrait that Winn buys, and later begins to romance Stanwyck, at one point kissing her rather violently.
The 70's had a series of horror movies made for TV, all seemingly rip-offs of "Rosemary's Baby". Some are better than others, but this one has many chilling moments that rank it above the few I've seen. As produced by the not yet famous Aaron Spelling, this manages to have the gloss of his future nighttime soaps, one of which would feature the legendary Stanwyck. This is featured on the DVD collection of five made for TV films, and from what I have seen the only one of interest to me. Stanwyck would appear in one other T.V. horror movie, "A Taste of Evil", but that has not been released as of yet to DVD.