Tag Archives: Bette Davis

31 Days to Scare ~ Scream Pretty Peggy (1973)

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by 31 Days to Scare, Movie Review • Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

The Facts:

Synopsis: A sculptor hires young college girls to take care of his elderly mother and his supposedly insane sister, both of whom live in the old family mansion with him.

Stars: Ted Bessell, Sian Barbara Allen, Bette Davis, Charles Drake, Allan Arbus,Tovah Feldshuh

Director: Gordon Hessler

Rated: NR

Running Length: 74 minutes

TMMM Score: (5/10)

Review: All I keep reading about in the many movie rabbit holes I often find myself in was how different TV movies were before the advent of cable television.  Back in the ‘70s and ‘80s these were stop-what-you’re-doing and watch events that commanded the attention of a public that saw famous faces from screens big and small.  While not the most current A-listers, these stars of yesteryear or rising hopefuls would appear weekly in dramas, comedies, and a rather large selection of mysteries/thrillers or horror films with commercials to break up the mounting tension.  These are the ones that are the most interesting to me (obviously for this series) because to hear people tell it, they still remember the scares these tales of terror gave them. 

One of the most famous stars to grace these pulpy movies was none other than Oscar winner Bette Davis (The Watcher in the Woods). While her time on the silver screen had mostly run its seasoned course by the time the TV Movie of the Week picked up steam, she found regular work as a “special guest star’ in numerous television projects that made good use of her poise and presence.  It could be said the first TV horror for this era was 1973’s Scream Pretty Peggy and while it doesn’t rank high on the list of the most memorable roles Davis created, it is notable for providing the actress some meaty moments to chew on while the rest of the cast is left with paltry scraps to pick over.

It’s almost unfair to promote Davis as being such a star of the movie because she’s really not in that much of the 74-minute film.  The cast is small enough as it is but the bulk of it plays out between young Sian Barbara Allen as college student Peggy Johns who seeks out a job as a housekeeper at the massive estate of famed sculptor Jeffrey Elliot (Ted Bessell).  Hired more to look out for his aging mother (Davis), Peggy’s eager to please Jeffrey because she has an ulterior motive for wanting the job in the first place.  An aspiring artist herself, she seeks his approval for her own piece and maybe something more than their employer/employee relationship but both Jeffrey and his mother keep themselves at a distance for reasons that slowly become clearer.

I’d say more but there’s not a lot of plot left to talk about above and beyond that.  I was surprised the script, co-written by longtime Hammer Studios screenwriter Jimmy Sangster (Horror of Dracula, The Brides of Dracula, among others) and Arthur Hoffe is so staid and without much action.  I’ve a feeling it was Hoffe’s premise that Sangster was brought it to flesh out and amp up.  Yet there’s only so much one can do to raise the stakes, especially in the early ‘70s on network TV, for this particular story with its similarities to another famous suspense director’s most known movie. I won’t say which, but the lead actress has a daughter that followed her into the movie business, same genre too. 

More energy in direction from Gordon Hessler would help, or at least from the cast. However, aside from Davis who is a massive trooper in getting her scenes imbued with some sense of urgency, the two main leads treat the proceedings like they’re acting out a family drama rather than a house of horrors mystery.  In fact, while I liked Allen’s free-spirited Peggy at first, once it becomes obvious how much of a follower she was and to such a wet blanket like Bessel’s cardboard bland Jeffrey I was almost rooting for the sinister figure we assume to be Jeffrey’s insane sister to catch and eliminate her like she had a young Tovah Feldshuh (Love Type D) in the pre-credit sequence.

How glad was I to see that boutique home media distributor Kino Studio Classics was releasing a number of these TV movies in a 2K remaster just in time for Halloween?  I’d started to watch Scream Pretty Peggy on YouTube before (tip, you can watch SO many of these old movies of the week via YouTube) and the quality was good but not great.  The folks over at Kino Studio Classics have obtained a sparkling remaster that looks just gorgeous.  It’s crisp and colorful, down to the gaudy eye make-up and lipstick Davis wears, a small callback to her look in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, maybe?   For that alone, the movie is worth a look, but it will likely be more of a view out of curiosity than anything else.  It’s not bad enough to be laughable, not scary enough to be scream-able, but Davis makes it interesting enough to be watchable.

If you’re looking for reviews of other TV movies of this era, check out my posts on Home for the Holidays (1972) with Sally Field and A Howling in the Woods (1971) with Barbara Eden.

31 Days to Scare ~ The Watcher in the Woods

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by 31 Days to Scare, Down from the Shelf, Mid-Day Mini, Movie Review • Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

The Facts:

Synopsis: An American family move into a British country house only to encounter malevolent spirits. The ghost of the owner’s daughter, long missing, torments the family’s young girl.

Stars: Bette Davis, Carroll Baker, Lynn-Holly Johnson, Kyle Richards, David McCallum

Director: John Hough

Rated: PG

Running Length: 84 minutes

TMMM Nostalgia Score: (8/10) TMMM Actual Score: (4/10)

Review: Every single one of us has that certain film or television show that we have this picture of in our mind from when we were younger.  It’s frozen in golden amber and locked inside a memory you want to keep right where it is for fear of anything spoiling those feelings you experienced while taking it in or the company you were with.  The trouble is, eventually, you’re going to come across those same films and TV shows as you grow older and that’s when the balloon pops and you have to face up to the harsh truths that what you thought was the bees knees as a kid was really a cow pie.

My greatest example of that is The Watcher in the Woods.  Released in 1980 by, of all studios, The Walt Disney Company, this supernatural PG-rated horror film was an odd project for Disney to take on.  Yes, they’d had a run of films leaning towards the older child (this was before the late ‘90s boom of animation and when live-action went silly again) but this was something different entirely.  Adapted from Florence Engel Randall’s strange but spooky 1976 novel A Watcher in the Woods and filmed across the pond in several picturesque location settings, it had a top line cast starting wtih Oscar winner Bette Davis along with Carroll Baker (Kindergarten Cop) and then-popular Lynn-Holly Johnson (For Your Eyes Only) who was skating high off of her success in Ice Castles.  Kyle Richards (Halloween) would play Johnson’s younger sister as part of a family that moved to beautiful English manor that came cheap…and they soon find out why.

I can’t tell you how much I remembered this movie being scary.  I mean, I really thought in my head this was what all horror films were like and since it played so often on the Disney Channel during October it became a staple in my house.  Over the years, I had clearly forgotten about it because when I went to watch it again a few years back I was stunned by how pedestrian, schlocky, and shoddy it all was.  It’s barely held together by toothpaste and paperclips and you can see why Disney allowed the movie to play for about two weeks in theaters before pulling it after negative reactions and recutting it to play more to their audience.  No matter, I’ve seen both versions and neither are any good whatsoever.  I know this may not win me any points with the legions of fans that worship The Watcher in the Woods but I’m calling it like it is.

What a disappointment, too, because everything is there to make something that doesn’t have to be super scary but at least could maintain some semblance of a mood for a period of time.  The supernatural element of the piece has potential, as does the mystery surrounding its origin.  Yet it’s almost impossible to watch because the actors keep getting in the way. The performances are so dreadful that they distract from the plot, not to mention poor Davis has to lurk around the joint and appear menacing though we clearly know she’s harmless in the overall arc of the plot.  Johnson, in particular, is just horrible and thankfully Richards matured into a less automaton-like actor.

A 2017 remake for television starring Angelica Huston didn’t fare much better and perhaps The Watcher in the Woods is just an entity that can’t be captured on film.  It’s certainly not represented well in this Disney production which would thankfully be one of their few attempts at this type of genre film.  If you’re up for a little heartbreak and haven’t seen this in a while, go ahead and give this one a re-watch.  Those that haven’t experienced this ghastly ghostly film should beware.  Try The Haunting of Bly Manor for a much more interesting UK-set ghost tale.