It's easy to see why some people might think that this was a TV remake of the 1946 David Selznick thriller directed by Robert c and Mark starring Dorothy McGuire, George Brent, Ethel Barrymore and Kent Smith. It does indeed play like a movie of the week that would have been quickly forgotten, and while there were many classic movies remade for television in the 1970's, is one actually did play briefly on the big screen. It most likely have week long engagements neighborhood theaters but did not fill the house, causing it to b a quickly forgotten flop. A story cast is gather together, but they are lacking the script and the cinematic impact that would have been much needed to make this better than what turns up.
There is definite sympathy for Jacqueline bisset, a mute wife and mother who witnessed her husband and daughter burned to death in a fire. Now she is staying with her grandmother (Mildred Dunnock) as a series of serial killings occur in the area where victiks include women suffering from similar imperfections and becomes the intended next victim during a thunderstorm. As she is mute, she really can't communicate her fears to grandmother Dunnock, uncle Christopher Plummer, his secretary/mistress Gayle Hunnicutt, brother John Phillip Law, sardonic nurse Elaine Stritch or drunken cook Sheila Brennan. And where is the spiral staircase? A minor part of the plot, found in a mostly unseen part of the house where Bissett goes to hide when she learns the truth.
This lacks the cinema magic of the remake, coming off rushed, pedestrian and unneccessay. It's obvious who the villain is, so the suspense of the original is completely absent. Dunnock, Plummer and Stritch get the best lines, but there are strange subplots abound, one involving the seemingly unnecessary killing of a vagrant by local police. It's also unpleasant in many ways with humor often forced. Blame it on lousy direction, a screenplay that just didn't work, and a reql lack of believable motivation.
There is definite sympathy for Jacqueline bisset, a mute wife and mother who witnessed her husband and daughter burned to death in a fire. Now she is staying with her grandmother (Mildred Dunnock) as a series of serial killings occur in the area where victiks include women suffering from similar imperfections and becomes the intended next victim during a thunderstorm. As she is mute, she really can't communicate her fears to grandmother Dunnock, uncle Christopher Plummer, his secretary/mistress Gayle Hunnicutt, brother John Phillip Law, sardonic nurse Elaine Stritch or drunken cook Sheila Brennan. And where is the spiral staircase? A minor part of the plot, found in a mostly unseen part of the house where Bissett goes to hide when she learns the truth.
This lacks the cinema magic of the remake, coming off rushed, pedestrian and unneccessay. It's obvious who the villain is, so the suspense of the original is completely absent. Dunnock, Plummer and Stritch get the best lines, but there are strange subplots abound, one involving the seemingly unnecessary killing of a vagrant by local police. It's also unpleasant in many ways with humor often forced. Blame it on lousy direction, a screenplay that just didn't work, and a reql lack of believable motivation.