Joan Crawford plays a reclusive millionaire named Della Chappell. She lives with her grown daughter (Diane Baker) in their mansion. They never leave the house and stay up at night. No, this is not a vampire movie but that would have been cool. It actually starts out as a fairly interesting story. Ambitious lawyer Barney Stafford (Paul Burke) tries to broker a land deal between Della and a big company, only to be met with resistance from her. Then Barney decides Della must be keeping her daughter against her will so he has to help her. There's a great deal of tension here and everybody keeps telling Barney he doesn't want to challenge Della. All of this sounds like it could have been a good thriller.
Unfortunately, the movie backs off of this and begins to portray Della in a sympathetic light. It loses all of the tension and intrigue it had built up. What we wind up with then is a rather boring soaper with a disjointed plot. I wondered when watching the opening titles if this was made for TV and, sure enough, it originally was a pilot for a TV series. A car chase towards the end reminded me of the old "Toonces the driving cat" sketches from Saturday Night Live. Not a bad way to spend 70 minutes but no great shakes, either.
Unfortunately, the movie backs off of this and begins to portray Della in a sympathetic light. It loses all of the tension and intrigue it had built up. What we wind up with then is a rather boring soaper with a disjointed plot. I wondered when watching the opening titles if this was made for TV and, sure enough, it originally was a pilot for a TV series. A car chase towards the end reminded me of the old "Toonces the driving cat" sketches from Saturday Night Live. Not a bad way to spend 70 minutes but no great shakes, either.