Wow, Geraldine Page and Ruth Gordon in one movie, along with briefly Mildred Natwick. It's a Broadway history lover's dream as these three great ladies represent well over 100 years combined of terrific Broadway performances, and probably close to 150 on screen. Page was a regular critic's pet in her film performances of the 60's (nominated for three Oscar's), and Gordon (a three time nominee as a screenplay writer) won on her second nomination for acting the very same year this came out. Dunnock, seen briefly as the companion that Page murders early in the film, was a critic's darling as well, the original wife both on stage and screen in "Death of a Salesman".
This is a higher notch up on the tag of hag horror, the often tacky moniker for the series of films that came out starting with "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" and continued well into the 1970's, pretty much never ending as long as actresses of a certain reputation considered to act past their heyday. Page is a recent widow whose husband left her nothing, so she knocks off a series of companions for their savings and stocks.
Along comes Ruth Gordon, straight forward and no nonsense, and it becomes very clear that she knows something. When the abandoned house next door is taken over by pretty Rosemary Forsyth, her son and the mongrel dog they've adopted, Page is furious, going out of her way to try to kill the dog who keeps digging where she has buried the bodies. This leads to a tense confrontation between the two women and the final showdown which involves Gordon's nephew, Robert Fuller.
Certainly there have been good hag horror follow-up's and bad ones, and this is one that is exceptional. Page is certainly far from passing her prime, but she was always a character actress and able to play roles older than herself. She is subtle in a way that Davis, Crawford, Stanwyck, De Havilland, Winters and Swanson could never hope to be. Gordon is delightfully sly, and does not at all repeat the eccentric characters of "Inside Daisy Clover" and "Rosemary's Baby". She is closer to the character performances she played in the 1940's in such films as "Abe Lincoln in Illinois" and "Edge of Darkness".
While definitely striving for the mod 60's look, this never goes overboard in being too much. The colors are subtle, and the editing isn't at all psychedelic. The film just goes for tension rather than camp, and succeeds on every level. If others of the genre had strived for more reality than grand guignol and turning their veteran ladies into living and breathing monsters, then they might have a more serious admiration today like this rather than be regarded as camp classics.
This is a higher notch up on the tag of hag horror, the often tacky moniker for the series of films that came out starting with "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" and continued well into the 1970's, pretty much never ending as long as actresses of a certain reputation considered to act past their heyday. Page is a recent widow whose husband left her nothing, so she knocks off a series of companions for their savings and stocks.
Along comes Ruth Gordon, straight forward and no nonsense, and it becomes very clear that she knows something. When the abandoned house next door is taken over by pretty Rosemary Forsyth, her son and the mongrel dog they've adopted, Page is furious, going out of her way to try to kill the dog who keeps digging where she has buried the bodies. This leads to a tense confrontation between the two women and the final showdown which involves Gordon's nephew, Robert Fuller.
Certainly there have been good hag horror follow-up's and bad ones, and this is one that is exceptional. Page is certainly far from passing her prime, but she was always a character actress and able to play roles older than herself. She is subtle in a way that Davis, Crawford, Stanwyck, De Havilland, Winters and Swanson could never hope to be. Gordon is delightfully sly, and does not at all repeat the eccentric characters of "Inside Daisy Clover" and "Rosemary's Baby". She is closer to the character performances she played in the 1940's in such films as "Abe Lincoln in Illinois" and "Edge of Darkness".
While definitely striving for the mod 60's look, this never goes overboard in being too much. The colors are subtle, and the editing isn't at all psychedelic. The film just goes for tension rather than camp, and succeeds on every level. If others of the genre had strived for more reality than grand guignol and turning their veteran ladies into living and breathing monsters, then they might have a more serious admiration today like this rather than be regarded as camp classics.