The Screaming Woman (1972)

Must See Movie...

A Masterpiece!

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

TV-movies from the early '70s, and particularly those legendary "ABC Movies of the Week", make it look so easy to deliver tense and compelling thriller stories! I truly love most of these gems, and "The Screaming Woman" instantly became a new personal favorite! Like the very best of its kind, this film is short and sober but tremendously compensates in atmosphere and plot-intelligence what it lacks in action footage. When a film is based on a story written by Sci-Fi genius Ray Bradbury, you can rest assured the script is pure quality. The plot is simple and straightforward, but oh-so ingenious and intriguing! The ageing and wealthy but mentally unstable Mrs. Laura Wynant returns home to her country estate to recover from a period in an institution. During her first estate tour, out on the horse carriage, however, she hears petrified woman's screams coming from underneath the soil. While Laura is convinced that an innocent woman is buried alive at her property, her greedy family members see her hysterical behavior as the ideal opportunity to control her finances. The already capturing story is made extra stirring thanks to the grisly sub plots and mysterious supportive characters, like the constant bickering between Laura Wynant's son and daughter-in-law and the odd-behaving neighbors. The amazing Olivia de Havilland is phenomenal as the misunderstood and disrespected elderly lady in distress, but she also receives good support for the entire rest of the cast, notably Ed Nelson, Charles Knox Robinson and Laraine Stephens. Jack Smight ("Airport 1975", "Damnation Alley") was one of the most underrated directors of his generation and he delivers some of his best work with this film. My only main complaints are that Joseph Cotton (one of my favorite actors of all times) should have had more screen time and that also the luscious Alexandra Hay's role is too small. The climax is genuinely spine-chilling and guaranteed to haunt your memories for the rest of your life.

Nobody will listen to dotty old widow Olivia de Havilland when she tries to convince anyone and everyone--her son, the police, her neighbors, her doctor--that she hears a woman's voice calling for help from below the ground on the outskirts of her property. Although hysterical, de Havilland is able to relate her findings succinctly--but since she was just released from a sanitarium, her anxiety is determined to be the product of a faulty mental state. TV-made adaptation of a Ray Bradbury short story (initially a 1940s radio play) keeps its leading lady on the verge of a breakdown throughout. Too bad the scenarist, Merwin Gerard, needed to pad the proceedings with background detail on a cheating husband's love life and a wicked daughter-in-law eager to take control of Olivia's estate. Remade again for television as part of "The Ray Bradbury Theater" in 1986.

Someone hit it on the head when they talked about the dirt caked on the woman's face. It made her look like a monster herself! When the side views of her were on screen I was so scared, I would hide my face against the couch and it was like somehow I could magically still see the horror of it. She looked 500 years old with the dirt! And the moaning, "Helllllp Meeeeeeee" over and over. Id love to see it again now, Im sure like many movies that used to scare me it would seem much tamer now, but anyway, it was so good to find any reference to this movie from my long ago, that I've never met anyone who has seen it. I guess this will be my last post on here. I'm not sure that I can always write ten lines about everything I've seen, and I hate taking the time to apostrophe words when I am typing on the internet. This was an incredibly scary movie to me when I was 7-8 years old but I didn't have 10 lines of material prepared for it, so I guess I will just be enjoying everyone else's posts about obscure movies that I thought I was the only one who had seen it. Anyway, Thanks for listening, and hopefully I have 10 lines and no apostrophe errors, goodnight.

Working with this wonderful performer was a great thrill for me. She was like and beginner with great joy and loved every suggestion I made and wanted to rehearse over and over again. I was shocked somewhat because few Oscar winners seem to want to do that with and "unknown" which I kind of was in those days. When waiting around we talked once about Errol Flynn who I think did 8 pictures with her, back in the Warner Bros, days. She said all the bad press he got on being Pro Nazi and other things, was to quote Her. "was ridicules, and believe me I knew him better then anyone." Joe Cotton,all the way back with Wells in "Citizen Kane," was a regular guy, and was the star of the first film I did, still in New Orleans, It was entitled "The Steel Trap" with the wonderful Teresa Wright. I was an extra and scared to death standing next to him in a big scene. The title of this ABC TV movie was something else and they changed it after we started shooting. Olivia really hated the title saying, "All the audience will see is my face screaming from this title."I wrote this because you all liked the picture so much. Thanks Ed Nelson