Dear Dead Delilah

I found that the plot was rather unique, no one in the story is completely perfect. with the main character being a former convict. It would be interesting to see a modern day remake of it! The southern plantation is a little cliche but the gore and the classiness of the movie makes up for that. The acting is wonderfully good especially from a b-movie.

This is one of the truly great low-budget American semi-exploitation movies of the 70's, comparable (talking purely in terms of quality and shock-value) with other forgotten gems like for example "Blood and Lace", "The House that Vanished", "The Evictors" and "The Town that Dreaded Sundown". They don't necessarily revolve on common themes or substances, but they all feature a genuinely unsettling atmosphere and convoluted story lines you can't possibly predict. You continuously feel that anything can happen in this type of movies, from the most absurd plot twists to the totally unanticipated death of a pivot character. "Dear Dead Delilah" (that title alone!!) opens with a magnificently sinister sequence, supposedly taking place in a godforsaken Tennessee town in the mid-forties. We see how an eerie-looking teenage girl rebels vocally against her mother because she can't go on a date with a boy, but then the camera moves away from her room and we notice how chopped off body parts of the mother are spread around the hallway and the mother lies dead in the bathroom. Several years later the young teenager from the intro, Luddy, is released from the mental institution before the opening credits appear on screen. Almost naturally, you then expect the rest of the film to handle about the now matured woman reverting back to her old murderous habits, but that's exactly where the wicked imagination of 70's horror scriptwriters kicks in. Through a series of coincidental events, Luddy ends up working as a nurse in an environment that is even more demented as her own past. The crazed, wheelchair-bound spinster Delilah takes her into her mansion, just when there's a family reunion taking place to discuss Delilah's inheritance. The mean-spirited woman reveals the family fortune of nearly $500.000 is hidden somewhere on the estate, and this obviously generates a large-scaled treasure hunt as well as a sardonic killing spree. Delilah's greedy and troubled siblings are all looking for the fortune, but encounter an axe-wielding maniac rather than a pile of money. Probably not intended for the eyes of nowadays horror crowds, but "Dear Dead Delilah" is a gloriously nostalgic gem with delightfully insane character drawings, unusual suspense and – most surprisingly – outrageously gory make-up effects. The film is extremely bloody with, for example, an explicit decapitation and someone getting shot in the head. The cast is terrific, with Agnes Moorehead as the crazed matriarch on top, and the ambiance is just … thoroughly creepy! Very much recommended!

Thank you, Mr. Vomitron, for your help in obtaining this purely gold gem.

Story of a heavily dysfunctional Southern family. They've all gathered at the mansion of the head of the family Delilah (Agnes Moorehead). She's dying and has hidden a large amount of money somewhere on the estate but won't say where. Someone starts killing off family members with an axe. Who's doing it and where is the money?

Pretty good movie. It's very low budget and was only previously available in edited prints in lousy shape. It's just been remastered and looks great. The script is interesting and the acting is very good--especially by Moorehead in her last theatrical film. As for blood and gore--there's not much but what is there is pretty strong. So--a good drive-in movie from the 1970s. It's great to see it uncut and remastered.

"Dear Dead Delilah" features Agnes Moorehead in her last role as Delilah Charles,who lives in a creepy mansion that her beloved father left to her when he passed away.The body of papa is buried in a mausoleum.When Delilah is close to death her dysfunctional siblings appear to gain the inheritance.They are hacked to death with an axe by a mysterious killer..."Dear Dead Delilah" was directed by famous horror writer John Farris.The cast is solid and there is a great decapitation scene which involves a sharp blade of an axe and a woman on a wheelchair.Her blood is spurting from the neck.Unfortunately the plot is relentlessly talky and dull sometimes.However if you are into cult 70's horror you can't miss "Dear Dead Delilah".6 rusty axes out of 10.

1972's "Dear Dead Delilah" was a popular title during the television rounds of the late 70's, a regular on both Pittsburgh's Chiller Theater and Cleveland's Hoolihan and Big Chuck. Remembered chiefly as Agnes Moorehead's last feature film (though she had some TV roles plus a voice in 1973's "Charlotte's Web"), the former co-star of Bette Davis in 1964's "Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte" gets her own starring vehicle in a similar vein, but on a lower budget. Whereas the death of Bruce Dern in that film was shocking for its time, the violence in this 1972 follow up is far bloodier and more disturbing, a fitting finale for a decade of aging actresses in modern horrors. Like the Bette Davis characters in both "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" and "Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte," the Agnes Moorehead character, Delilah Charles, has lived her entire life in the service of her late father, in this case running a plantation in Tennessee called South Hall (shot on location by legendary Nashville songwriter Jack Clement, who never produced another feature). The eldest in a family of four siblings, Delilah has seemingly been at death's door for some time, and has gathered the rest of the clan for a reading of her will. Will Geer plays cousin Ray Jurroe, who almost married Delilah years before, Michael Ansara plays brother Morgan, a gambler about to be imprisoned on a $40,000 debt, Dennis Patrick plays brother Alonzo, a pathetic doctor who has also fallen on hard times, and Anne Meacham plays alcoholic equestrian sister Grace, who freely carries on with Richard (Robert Gentry) behind the back of his wife Ellen (Elizabeth Eis), Delilah's niece and trusted nurse for the past three years. Richard has been supplying heroin for sadly addicted Alonzo, and is also responsible for bringing in a reformed ax murderess, Luddy Dublin (Patricia Carmichael), who had served 30 years in an asylum after chopping up her abusive mother. While the family objects to Delilah's decision to leave the house and grounds to the state, they are especially mystified by her revelation that Poppa's mythical $600,000 not only exists, but is available for whoever finds it. One by one, the cast is killed off, occasionally in extremely gruesome fashion, and its always Luddy cleaning things up afterward, so no one among the household is even aware that there's a murderer in their midst (manservant Marshall simply disappears from the film). Noted horror author John Farris has very few movie credits, such as "When Michael Calls," a 1972 TV movie, and Brian De Palma's "The Fury," so it's something of a surprise that he would undertake to both write and direct this feature (the only one he ever directed), but his sharp dialogue, expertly delivered by a superb cast, makes the rather talky first half a real joy to watch. Agnes Moorehead delivers a wonderful performance confined to a wheelchair, a real tour de force of regal Southern hospitality, and her bitter confrontations with various family members are laced with sly humor. Dismissed in its time as a cheap Bette David knockoff, and further under appreciated today as just plain boring, the film's reputation is unlikely to improve with today's fast paced audiences. It aired four times on Pittsburgh's Chiller Theater, first on Nov 12 1977 (followed by second feature 1932's "The Mummy"), then solo appearances on Mar 1 1980, Feb 14 1981 (Happy Valentine's Day!), and July 24 1982.