What a beautiful movie!

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Even the director of "The Godfather" and "Apocalypse Now" had to start somewhere and here you have it. This early Coppola, (he wrote it as well as directing), was produced by Roger Corman and was filmed in Ireland. Despite being a cheapo it's quite a smart little horror picture. The acting is mostly terrible despite the presence in the cast of those fine Irish actors Patrick Magee and Eithne Dunne. The leads, shipped from America, were William Campbell and Luana Anders though their names would hardly boost the films box-office appeal so it's left to a fledgling Coppola to jizz things up which he does quite effectively. The creepy black and white photography of Charles Hannawalt also helps.

Arriving at a family gathering, a series of weird accidents befalls the family who soon find that a vicious killer with a startling secret is among them and have to fight to get out of the house alive.This one here is a really lackluster affair. The fact that this one contains some really big plot-holes really stands out. The most easily-spotted one is that the whole family has a way to get in touch with while away as she provided them with an address during introductions but none of them feel the need to correspond during the time. The reasoning isn't that effective to warrant no one wanting to check up on it, and as there's a way to check it out for authenticity, that's a little hard not to believe. There's several others as the jumbled nature of the story is also a problem since it seems like three separate stories rolled into one. The inheritance plot starts off the film, then switches gears to get to the murder mystery and then becomes a rather weak psycho-thriller with a police investigation. This really could've been cleared up a little easier to make it more understandable. The last real flaw is that it's really way too slow. The murders don't start occurring until almost the last act and there's not a whole lot of action before that. This really should've included a little more into it to get the action rolling and instead it plays long sections with nothing going on. This one does manage a few good moments here and there, as the opening scene is quite memorable as a man and a woman argue as they take a rowboat onto a lake. With music blaring from their transistor radio, the man has a heart attack and the woman promptly disposes of him and the radio overboard, finishing with a great shot of the man hitting the bottom of the lake along with the radio which is still playing. The initial murder is a truly shocking and totally unexpected scene, as it occurs just at a moment when the initial story is starting to take shape, and you don't see it coming. It also manages to boast some very gory and quite strong murders, including a graphic ax hacking in a scene ingeniously shot up from under the surface of the water and a decapitation that shows one the victim's decapitated head goes bouncing down into the water. The shots of the large Gothic castle inspire some nice atmospheric shots, and along with a few other really nice scenes, comprise the film's good points. Overall, though, this one is pretty lackluster.Today's Rating-PG: Violence.

Only for Francis Ford Coppola fans. Not a great movie. Francis Ford Coppola's 5th movie as director, and he clearly had not reached anywhere near the heights of his craft yet. The fact that the movie is produced by Roger Corman, the king of B-grade schlock/horror gives more away than the fact that Coppola is writer/director.Plot is weak and haphazard and the pacing is uneven. Cinematography is quite bad. Shooting in black-and-white might be the ideal way to film a crime-thriller, but any advantage in mood is entirely negated by the poor picture, especially texture, quality.Audio quality is appalling. There is a constant hum during the entire movie. Not often one even notices audio quality, and this was particularly irritating.Performances are mostly decent. A few over-actors but nothing too bad.On the plus side, there is a decent feeling of suspense and "whodunnit?". Coppola manages to sustain an air of mystery about the characters, despite the uneven pacing.Only worth watching if, like me, you're a Francis Ford Coppola fan and feel compelled to watch all his movies.

I never heard of this movie before, it was in my box I bought at wal mart bout a year ago,, yea finally sitting down to watch em all i'm at like number 50 out of 100. so this movie was pretty darn good, I love the plot line, from the very beginning scene till the end you really don't have a clue who done it,, you know why but not who, obviously it's for the money of course, where's there's a will there's relatives,, I just loved the opening scene , where the wife throws her husband off of the boat after he has a heart attack, he conveniently leaves his pill bottle empty has a heart attack, so you know what the manipulative money grubber woman does,, throws her poor hubby overboard,, goes back to the hotel room and types a note to mother from her dearly departed husband,, now that's conniving and creepy.