Powerful

Memorable, crazy movie

Brilliant and touching

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

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.

Troubled and kind-hearted little girl Susan Shelley (sweetly played with real charm by Susan Gordon) gets released from an asylum and put in the custody of her broke, ineffectual father Edward Shelley (a fine performance by Don Ameche). Since Susan is the heiress of a considerable fortune, not surprisingly her mean, wicked stepmother Francine Shelley (deliciously essayed to the bitchy hilt by Martha Hyer) begins to torment her. Moreover, Susan has disturbing visions of her deceased mother Jessica Shelley (the one and only Zsa Zsa Gabor). Is Susan going crazy? Or is it a sinister plot to drive her nuts? Director Bert I. Gordon, working from an intricate script by Robert Sherman, relates the absorbing story at a steady pace, does an expert job of creating and maintaining a brooding and gloomy Gothic atmosphere, and stages the shock scenes with considerable brio. The cast have a ball with the juicy material: Susan Gordon makes for a sympathetic lead as the token innocent surrounded by treacherous adults, Maxwell Reed does well as bitter and scarred caretaker Anthony, and Wendell Corey contributes a memorably nasty cameo as sour, cranky and brutally blunt lawyer Clayborn. The special effects are pretty solid and convincing, with a bleeding painting and shots of Jessica on fire rating as effectively creepy images. The inevitable fiery ending may be a tad predictable, but it's still potent and unsettling just the same. The crisp color cinematography by Ellsworth Fredericks supplies a wealth of handsome visuals. Robert Drasnin's spooky ooga-booga score likewise hits the bull's eye. A fun little flick.

So many films have yet to be released that it's shocking what does trickle down from on high onto DVD. You'd think whoever owned this little souvenir of 70's syndication would want to start seeing some long overdue profits from it already. They must be working on a Director's cut. Right.I haven't seen this TV movie for a very long time, but I remember it well. There was a song that played over the credits that was the eeriest thing about Picture Mommy Dead. It was a little nursery rhyme with the chilling refrain; "The worms crawl in, the worms crawl out, in your stomach and out your mouth," or something appetizing like that. Is it coming back to you now?If not, check the DVD when it does come out and see what an evening's TV entertainment used to look like in America in the late 1960's. The best thing about these movies is that because there were only a couple of options on the toob back then, everyone seems to have seen them. These were the days of the 75% share for a TV movie. "Friends" doesn't even come close in viewership. For better or worse that age has come to an end and made us less of a family.

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.