She Waits

Newlyweds, Laura Wilson (Patty Duke) and her husband, Mark (David McCallum) stay at Mark's family estate, in spite of his mother's (Dorothy McGuire) protests. Mark's first wife, Elaine had died there, and he's very touchy about the subject.

Then, Laura starts hearing a tune found on Elaine's music box, to the point of being haunted by it. She also hears voices, and screams like a banshee sitting on a porcupine! Laura becomes curious about how Elaine died. Mark doesn't want to discuss it, so Laura talks to his mother, who tries to get her to leave the house. She also tells her the truth about Elaine's death. This sends Laura into a mega-tizzy! She screams and screams.

The next thing we know, Laura's entire personality changes into a major meany pants. Has Elaine returned from the dead to possess her, or is Laura cracking up?

SHE WAITS is a tale of family secrets, murder, and possible vengeance from beyond the grave.

BONUS POINTS FOR: Ms. Duke's final scream, that could peel a bunch of bananas from 100 yards away!

EXTRA BONUS POINTS FOR: The music score, which is sort of Bernard Herrmann meets Bach...

A newlywed accompanies her husband to visit his ailing mother at their estate and learns that not only did her husband's previous wife die mysteriously but his mother thinks her spirit is still haunting the place.

Patty Duke seems incapable of phoning in a performance and she's always great to watch, but this definitely feels like a safe TV movie. Not a scare or intense moment in sight, but I've seen worse. Might be best to have it on in the background while you're doing something else.

While falling very much on the melodrama side of things as opposed to aiming for much in the way of overt shocks or scare tactics, She Waits holds together pretty well in its way, building pleasurably to a suitably fraught final block. The plot is simple, David (Ilya Kuryakin) McCallum takes his lovely new wife home to see his mother and work through some of his own issues, only for said mother to stir up the past and his wife's own neuroses into a foaming brew of the possibly supernatural. Actually for much of the time the film could simply be called something like The Menace of the Meddling Mother In-Law, as generally the point of whether or not something paranormal is going on is kept ambiguous, while the fact that the mother is doing no good is beyond question. Still, a quality turn from Dorothy McGuire keeps her character interesting if not beyond cliché, one gets the feeling of genuine fear and torment roiling away inside her, the feeling that she really is doing what she thinks best and exists in a sphere of isolation permitting no outside force to change her mind. It's a decent performance and she has great chemistry with Patty Duke as the beleaguered new wife Laura. Duke captures very well a sense of restless curiosity, steady mounting insecurity and eroding personality, malleable mind within fragile beauty. David McCallum on the other hand is very much a weak link, his acting borders on the somnambulant for most of the film, only developing a noticeable pulse and positive action in the final block, in which he does redeem himself somewhat. The scares are too thin on the ground and the details of the plot are left rather undeveloped, not that I mind having the nitty gritty left to the imagination but I definitely prefer to have a few more hints. Still, there are a few chills and the flowing camera-work gives a nicely foreboding atmosphere to the dark and daunting house in the the majority of the films action is set. Overall I'd say this is a worthy little diversion for fans of this sort of film, though it lacks much in the way of spectacle or thrills and isn't even all that tense, it keeps fairly compelling with its drama and is an admirably sincere and serious entry in a genre which was well on its way to collapsing into the swamps of camp long before this film was made. A fair 6/10 from me, though definitely a film for those already predisposed to enjoy it.

This small and weak TV movie I'd watched in 1980 and never got a chance to see it again as much I love to it simply disappears from the sight, then I have invoke Youtube on those old movie's channel whereof a decent copy with English subtitled that I watched last night, Patty Duke was peak of her career who knows why she accepted to do this awful movie, even had a good casting as David MacCallum, Dorothy McGuire, Lew Ayres and James T. Callaham.

The plot is quite ludicrous to start, the well-born Mark Wilson (David MacCallum) at Europe suddenly marry with Laura (Patty Duke) after three years of absence on America, he is back to home to introduce his newest wife for your sick old mother Mrs. Sara Wilson ( Dorothy McGuire) just arriving at large home Mark meets his mother at her bed and postponed Laura intro to next day, the worried Mrs. Sara demands that both of them must keep away from the house at once, actually in the past Mark was married with a possessive wife Elaine who went to die in obscure circumstance, the premise is that house is haunting by Elaine's ghost.

At night Laura going to Elaine room's door supposedly hearing some voices talking on the phone, entering inside figures out that the telephone line is dead, henceforth Laura stayed anxious, asking for Mark everything about Elaine and her ill-fated death which he often avoid to talk about, just saying that such death was a terrible accident, afterwards a sudden night Elaine's spirit embodies Laura and seek revenge for his death.

Frankly it didn't scare anyone, unharmful chills here and there only, the plot is silly and ambiguous due it has some mismatches on the screenplay for a viewer with sharp eyes is easily noticed for instance, the great actress Patty Duke certainly wasn't be proud of this flimsy feature.

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First watch: 1980 / How many: 2 / Source: TV-Youtube / Rating: 5.

I'm sure 90% of us watched it for Patty Duke and Dorothy McGuire. This TV movie was pretty bad even by 1972 standards. It is like a bad Night Gallery padded with pointless dialogue just to fill the time.

Oh well we only lost a little over an hour of our lives and it only took the actors a few weeks to make. I guess they got their SAG dues paid and maybe a car trade in out of it.