That was an excellent one.

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

I have a strange and inexplicable fondness for horror movies that feature eerie & sinister nursery rhymes… So, in spite of the mediocre rating and overall negative reviews around here, I already knew I was going to love "Picture Mommy Dead" from the very first minutes, because it opens with grim images of a woman's bedroom on fire and Zsa Zsa Gabor lying dead amidst the flames, and we simultaneously hear a kids' choir gently singing: "The worms crawl in, the worms crawl out… in your stomach and out your mouth!" All this happens even before the equally macabre opening credits appear on screen. To me personally, there aren't many better ways to begin a horror movie. Furthermore I also shamelessly admit being an admirer of director Bert I. Gordon, even though he's widely considered as one of the worst in the genre and frequently the target of mockery in popular shows like MST3K. Although his oversized animal attack movies ("Food of the Gods", "Empire of the Ants") are undeniably more entertaining, "Picture Mommy Dead" might very well be Mr. BIG's finest achievements. Sure it's still a little rough around the edges, with some very inept editing and far too many dialogs that are overlong and laughably melodramatic, but nevertheless also an atmospheric film with seriously sick & disturbing themes and several powerfully uncomfortable sequences. Edward Shelley goes to pick up his teenage daughter Susan in the secluded convent where she spent several years in order to process the traumatizing death of her mother. Susan is the primary heiress of her mother's fortune, which unwarily brings her in a lot of danger. Daddy got married again, with Susan's former governess Francine. She's a totally immoral and money-hungry woman who constantly manipulates Susans as well as her own husband, and she even non-stop suggests calling a head-doctor in order to accelerate Susan's return to the madhouse. There's also creepy Uncle Anthony, a nastily scarred freak who whispers in Susan's ear – in great detail – how her mother slowly and painfully burned to death. Even her own beloved daddy behaves mysteriously, because he's completely broke and only has access to the inheritance in case Susan dies or gets declared insane again. The poor girl soon begins to suffer from awful nightmares and vivid hallucinations, but are they real or inflicted on her by her hypocrite family members? Martha Hyer truly gives a remarkable performance as the wicked stepmother! Her exaggeratedly phony and hypocrite attempts to help Susan remember the whereabouts of a valuable necklace definitely form the highlights of the film! Also impressive are the numerous hallucination sequences, which are quite perverse and shocking for 1966. We have bleeding paintings, diabolical dolls, accusing furry animals and even a spontaneously combusting Zsa Zsa Gabor! In order to quickly cash in on the huge contemporary success of "The Birds", Bert I. Gordon is even clever enough to insert a couple of fierce falcon-attack sequences. The climax is deliciously demented and I daresay even somewhat romantic (in a sick and perverted kind of way). Apart from the aforementioned Martha Hyer and Zsa Zsa Gabor, "Picture Mommy Dead" also features notable and atypical performances from Don Ameche and Bert's own daughter Susan Gordon. Recommended, of course, what else did you think?

Young Susan Shelley (Susan Gordon--the director's daughter) is released from an institution three years after witnessing her mother's (Zsa Zsa Gabor) death. Her dad Edward (Don Ameche) has remarried to a young beautiful gold digger named Francine (Martha Hyer). Susan moves in with them and immediately starts having hallucinations of seeing her dead mother...and a necklace. Is she going crazy again?OK thriller--not as bad as it sounds. It moves fairly quick, has a few nice jump moments, there's a fairly bloody (for 1966) murder and I certainly did not see the ending coming. Beautiful house too. The only big debit is Gordon. She looks way too old for her role and just simply isn't a good enough actress. Ameche isn't much better. However Hyer is having LOTS of fun with her role and makes this fun to watch. The flashbacks with Gabor are fun too. So no great shakes but OK. I give it a 5.

I saw this on TV way back when -- it was the only thing on in prime time, so of course we had to watch it -- and had forgotten the title. Then I saw a picture of Martha Hyer on ebay a few minutes ago and wondered where I'd seen her.Ta DAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Also in The Carpetbaggers.This movie was terrible. Don Ameche and Zsa Zsa Gabor were right at home.What other movie this bad sticks in the mind of a boy who was 8 at the time?Martha Hyer was that captivating.The ending is a shock but does not really justify watching the whole thing.And who wasn't happy when Don Ameche finally got his Oscar?If only I could write Martha Hyer a fan letter, I sure would.

Sure the acting is a little overdone (most all of the movies from the 60's were), but this film boasts a few great special effects, a intricate story, and a shocking ending. After the death of her mother, a young girl goes into a "convent" due to a nervous breakdown. When she is released a few years later, she returns to her home and begins having delusional flash-backs from the night of her mother's death. Reminiscent of "Night Gallery" in premise, appearance, and score. If you like 60's B-Movies, try to find this shocker.