The Legacy (1979)

the audience applauded

Sadly Over-hyped

Blistering performances.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Margaret and Pete embark on the most chilling mystery of their lifetimes. The couple become deeply involved in one of the creepiest families to ever graze a movie screen and may regret leaving their home that day - or will they? The couple cannot find away to leave the mansion - even driving away they find all roads lead back to the old manor home. Will they escape? Will they survive? Who or what is The Legacy? The Legacy is a very good old film that has just the right blend of mystery and horror to satisfy both audiences and is also recommend for lovers of occult films.9/10

American Interior decorator Katharine Ross and architect boyfriend Sam Elliott are commissioned for a job in England. While touring the beautiful English countryside, they are in a traffic accident with a limo containing filthy rich John Standing, who insists that the banged up couple experience his hospitality at his grand manor while their motorcycle is being repaired. Once there, the two are joined by an array of flamboyant guests, who all seem to owe some kind of allegiance to Standing, who Ross is puzzled to hear mentioned is bedridden and at death's door. Apparently called forth to receive some kind of death bed bequests, the guests die grisly deaths one by one, as attempts to escape from the manor grounds are frustrated at every turn.Released back in the late 1970s, The Legacy was a modest box office success despite some rather lackluster reviews, but few people seemingly remember it. It is hard to understand any ill will towards it. The story is a twist on Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None with some supernatural elements added to good effect. This story has been used often throughout cinema history for good reason - because it is effective and solid. The death scenes are memorably grisly without the stomach-turning pretensions of the modern day torture porn proliferating the screen since the success of Saw.Director Richard Marquand has a decent command of atmosphere and his actors, and captures the beautiful English countryside in all its glory. The film moves along at a brisk clip. He establishes a respectable modicum of tension and provides enough of a showcase for some of the suspense sequences to wrap the viewer up in the story. The sequences with the woman trapped beneath the surface of a pool and a wayward fireplace log that causes a rather shocking demise are suitably memorable. I also like the sequence where Ross and Elliott launch an escape attempt only to find every single road leading them in circles back to the mansion.The cast is strong and appealing. English veterans like Standing, Charles Gray, and Hildegarde Neil are well cast. As is Margaret Tyzack as an enigmatic caregiver who seems to have some sort of symbiotic relationship with the manor's sinister cat. Roger Daltrey is on hand in an attention-getting glorified cameo as one of the ill-fated guests.Ross and Elliott are both immensely appealing and sympathetic as the trapped fish-out-of-water Americans. Ross does a credible job of rendering her character's mounting panic palpable, which she moves nicely to frustration and then ultimately acceptance of the predicament. Elliott is really not an essential character plot-wise, but he shares tremendous chemistry with Ross and provides a note of likable stability among the more eccentric house guests. Plus one is never quite sure where he will ultimately fit in the final denouement.If any real criticisms can be leveled at the film, it would be predictability. It is not really a shock who the last person standing is and it is something we have suspected all along - indeed the film does not do much to keep it a secret. Yet to say that this robs the film of suspense would be erroneous as the viewing journey to get from point A to B is largely entertaining. By contrast, I think this traditional (albeit predictable) rendering of the material is far more suspenseful and enjoyable then the more recent modern rendering found in Identity, where an overly ambitious mid-plot twist finds the suspense petering out like a deflating tire.I would heartily recommend this to fans of thrillers, mysteries or genre films without any compunction. Ironically, I have found that older viewers seem to have a higher appreciation of it than younger ones, perhaps due to its more traditional trappings.

The title might give one the erroneous impression that this is another 'haunted house' film in the tradition of THE HAUNTING (1963), while the theatrical poster – with its feline imagery – gives rise to comparisons with THE TOMB OF LIGEIA (1964); ultimately, it is more like THE OMEN (1976)-meets-SUSPIRIA (1977), with a dash of AND THEN THERE WERE NONE (1945) thrown in for good measure (albeit no discernible reason)!Typically, we find American stars (in this case, Katharine Ross and Sam Elliott) lost in a British setting: they are summoned there for a mysterious $50,000 contract but are apparently diverted from their destination by an automobile accident – yet, when the man responsible invites them to his large mansion, it is obvious that they were expected! Ross, in fact, is revealed to be a direct descendant of – and dead ringer for – a 17th century witch who had been burned at the stake (but conveniently left behind her memoirs!). The current landlord, John Standing (recently seen in the contemporaneous THE CLASS OF MISS MacMICHAEL), is actually the original witch's son(!) – but he is slowly losing his power and reverting to his true decrepit age: the sight of him bed-ridden in silhouette evokes memories of the ancient hag at the ballet school in the afore-mentioned SUSPIRIA. He is doted upon by sinister nurse Margaret Tyzack (who can also turn into Standing's familiar – a white cat! – at will) and whose scrupulous devotion to her charge recalls the Antichrist's nanny in THE OMEN; for the record, Tyzack died only recently, and the same is true of co-scriptwriter Jimmy Sangster – in whose honor this viewing was held to begin with.The other guests (who turn up at the mansion in a helicopter), form with Ross, the six disciples who have been blessed by Standing over the years in exchange for their service: Charles Gray (as a former Nazi adept at shooting arrows), Roger Daltrey (ideally cast as a jovial but sarcastic music producer), Lee Montague, Hildegarde Neil and Marianna Broome (an Olympic swimmer-turned-nude model in her last film before retiring to paint!). The catch here is that all the others had been responsible of some crime which will soon come back to haunt them, so that when Ross takes over, Standing asks her to replace them with new acolytes/victims. The deaths themselves are quite inventive (drowning, choking, combustion, shotgun malfunction) and at least one of them downright creepy (the mirror sequence) but, as I said, do not make much sense especially when it seems that Standing is always hovering in the vicinity when they happen – though Tyzack is at least partly responsible for Daltrey's bloody asphyxiation, whereas Ross notices a pattern in her always being the last to interact with the victim prior to their demise.While the heroine does not immediately recognize – or even accept – her legacy, her boyfriend is seen as an inconvenient presence all along, so that there is immediately an attempt to get him out of the picture by having him scalded while taking a shower and then injured when breaking through the shower glass!; later, he is also attacked by a pack of dogs which, again, is a nod to THE OMEN. Still, the two subsequently make numerous attempts to escape, on horseback and by stealing Standing's Rolls Royce but, eerily, every road they take only leads them back to the mansion (a Bunuelian touch though probably unintentional). In the end, Ross decides to stay and embrace her destiny and apparently convinces Elliott too (after having almost had his head blown off, taken a fall down the stairs along with Tyzack-cat, and having also made a shambles of Standing's room – filled as it was with hospital equipment – and even burned the old man to a crisp!). The film benefits from having two top British cameramen on board (Dick Bush and Alan Hume), but the score by Michael J. Lewis is less successful especially since it incorporates a romantic ballad sung by Kiki Dee over the opening credits!

Katherine Ross and Sam Elliot star as the couple who are two successful architects who leave the USA to accept a job in England, Whilst arriving there taking in the beautiful country side, they have an accident as their motorbike crashes they accept a lift from the mysterious Jason Mountolive John Standing who invites the duo back to his estate for 'Tea' but the pair unwittingly become embroiled in mysterious goings on at a stately house situated in the typical horror films fashion of ' the middle of nowhere' 'the Legacy' refers to six heirs who are all waiting in line to inherit a vast fortune but all is not what it seems as the respective heirs start to die in mysterious circumstances.The Who's Roger Daltery has a small part which arguably could of been played by Mick Jagger!, Genre favorite Charles 'Rocky Horror' Gray also stars in this largely unseen British production which has surprisingly has not been updated! there are some terrific or is that horrific? gore sequences Horror fans will enjoy! witness the now infamous pool scene!