The Eyes of Charles Sand (1972)

Sorry, this movie sucks

Absolutely the worst movie.

It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

I saw this originally in 1972 when it aired on TV, and I remember it scaring the living daylights out of me as a kid. Just recently purchasing it from the Warner Archive, I sat down to relive my teenage memories.The film is about Charles Sand, a businessman who awakes from a vivid dream about his uncle, dead in his coffin, sitting up and pointing at him, with no pupils in the dead man's eyes. At the same time he is awakened by a phone call - his uncle has just died. His aunt Alexandra tells Charles that as the last living male member of the Sand family he has inherited "the sight" from his uncle. This "sight" will cause him to have visions from time to time in order to help people with some problem in their lives. It's not that Charles is a selfish or self-involved guy as much as this is not exactly a turn in his life that is welcomed. As he asks his aunt Alexandra - "Why me?".Almost immediately he begins to have visions of a dead woman reaching out to him, of a dead man falling through a wall, and of a young woman with long red hair in a long fur coat.It turns out that Emily Parkhurst (Sharon Farrell) of the wealthy prominent Parkhurst family is the red headed woman in trouble. She believes her brother is dead, and she says she continually sees visions of him, covered in blood. Now this is the part of the film that lost about one star from my rating. As Emily, Sharon Farrell is doing a most irritating Mod Squad version of Ophelia through about half of this movie. Nobody will take her seriously and from her behavior it is not hard to figure out why this is so. When Charles Sand gets involved, Emily's older sister tells Sand that the brother is in London and has written and called Emily several times since she claimed he was dead, but she just hangs on to her belief in his death beyond all reason. So now Sand is not only having to deal with doubts about his new gift, but doubts that the first person he has encountered since receiving this second sight is in trouble at all versus just being crazy.The last ten minutes or so are very suspenseful and worth putting up with Ms. Farrell's over-the-top performance. I'd recommend it especially if you liked the old made for TV movies of the 70's.Just one more thing. I really was scratching my head at first in response to the detached performance Joan Bennett gave as Charles' widowed aunt Alexandria when talking to Charles about his new found gift and the uncle's death. But then I realized it probably just fit in with what she already knew and what Charles' uncle wrote to him in the letter describing his new sixth sense "Neither man of God nor man of science can help you now. You are alone."

Peter Haskell, formerly of the short lived "Bracken's World," starred in this pilot for a proposed series about a young man that is able to see "the dearly departed". He is called to investigate the mysterious death of the brother of loony Sharon Farrell (in an Emmy-worthy performance) and must contend with the other members of her family, sister Barbara Rush and her smarmy husband, Bradford Dillman.The movie has its moments, especially when Haskell's visions come out of the blue and surprise the viewer. Also, the "borrowed" Mancini score is tense-filled and goose-bump inducing.Spoiler: The highlight is when the reserved Rush becomes unglued, revealing her true nature.Though, it's not a great film, it does hold the interest for 90 minutes and that's all one should expect from a TV-movie.

I saw this movie when I was 8 and I think it was on around the same time that the screaming woman was on. I always remembered those two movies and could never get them out of my mind. This one as well as the screaming woman scared the living daylights out of me. If only they made thrillers as good as this for the big screen. I have been looking for this one as well as The screaming woman forever. Can anyone out there tell me if they have a copy of this? Now that we have DVD technology I suppose that the studio that owns the rights to it needs enough of a demand to put it on DVD, but as in the case of the Screaming woman I suppose that there are some cable stations looking for content that have shown this. Has anyone out there taped it?

An ABC Tuesday night "Movie Of The Week", THE EYE OF CHARLES SAND is good little thriller. Upon his uncle's death, Charles Sand (PETER HASKELL) receives his inheritance. What has his uncle left him ? Aunt Alexandra (JOAN BENNETT) calls it "the sight". Charles thinks its more like a curse, but what it is is the ability to see the past, future, ghosts, and more. Sort of an ESP+. Even during his uncle's graveside service , Charles sees an apparition of a dead woman in front of the Parkhurst masoleum, and the very real Emily Parkhurst (SHARON FARRELL) running around the cemetery in a state of agitation. Charles finds a bracelet that Emily had left in the cemetery and goes to return it to her at her large family estate where she lives with older sister Katherine (BARBARA RUSH) and Katherine's husband Jeffrey Winslow (BRADFORD DILLMAN). Katherine thanks Charles for his kindness and also informs him that sister Emily " is not a well girl." Emily soon contacts Charles again and informs him that she sees her dead brother Raymond all over the place and that the apparition that Charles saw at the cemetery was of her dead ancestor Lottie. Emily has Lottie's diary and believes that she is reliving her doomed relative's tragic life. So now Charles Sand gets to solve this mystery and try to save FARRELL's sanity. There are a few spooky visions and some real scares in the climax, actually quite good for a made for tv movie. It's evident that this movie was left open ended in case ABC might decide to make this a weekly series along the lines of THE SIXTH SENSE which was on the air around that time with GARY COLLINS