Three time Oscar nominee Piper Laurie really gets into the groove playing this genuinely hideous mommie dearest, wearing a red wig and braying non-stop that you'd swear it was Helen Lawson she was playing. The longer the film goes on, the more her mute daughter Janit Baldwin begins to look like Hayward around the time of "Smash-Up: The Story of a Woman". Now I am a huge fan of Susan Hayward's and have seen a good majority of her movies. Some, like "The Conquerer" and "Valley of the Dolls", are deliciously bad. But Hayward never starred in a "hag horror", so it's strange to see Piper Laurie emulating her in this truly trashy hag horror, one of the worst of the 1970's.
Laurie is the proprietor of a drive-in movie theater, lucky enough to be able to show such movies as "The Attack of the 50' Woman" long before they were made. Nearly 20 years before, she witnesses her boyfriend being murdered by the mob, and it's obvious that she is holding a secret in regards to that event. Baldwin becomes possessed by something and at one point even seems to be trying to seduce her own mother. Fortunately there's a mallet near by which thanks to one clonk (minus a cartoon "boing!") knocks Baldwin out.
Stuart Whitman and Roger Davis co-star as Hayward's (oops, I meant Laurie's) lover and Baldwin's shrink, but all eyes are on Laurie, looking at one point as if she's going to break into "With a Song in My Heart", or even more appropriately, "I'll plant my own grave" while clad in a sequined red dress. I am glad that I found the original cut as I couldn't have taken anymore, especially when Baldwin started pulling an "Exorcist" with a Linda Blair imitation. I give this an extra star simply for its audacity.
Laurie is the proprietor of a drive-in movie theater, lucky enough to be able to show such movies as "The Attack of the 50' Woman" long before they were made. Nearly 20 years before, she witnesses her boyfriend being murdered by the mob, and it's obvious that she is holding a secret in regards to that event. Baldwin becomes possessed by something and at one point even seems to be trying to seduce her own mother. Fortunately there's a mallet near by which thanks to one clonk (minus a cartoon "boing!") knocks Baldwin out.
Stuart Whitman and Roger Davis co-star as Hayward's (oops, I meant Laurie's) lover and Baldwin's shrink, but all eyes are on Laurie, looking at one point as if she's going to break into "With a Song in My Heart", or even more appropriately, "I'll plant my own grave" while clad in a sequined red dress. I am glad that I found the original cut as I couldn't have taken anymore, especially when Baldwin started pulling an "Exorcist" with a Linda Blair imitation. I give this an extra star simply for its audacity.