La mansión de las sombras

A race car driver suddenly develops a strange psychic ability to detect impending danger. He has a vision involving a woman in peril; a parapsychologist implores him to find her and try to avert whatever danger she is in. He winds up at an English manor house – the one he saw in his vision – where he encounters the woman and a host of other untrustworthy characters.

Leonard Nimoy seems to have been enjoying himself in the title role of this entertaining TV movie. Like others have said, it does have the whiff of a pilot for a TV series about it. It would be quite easy to imagine a male/female psychic/parapsychologist team going around and saving innocent people from bad guys every week. But alas no, there was no series of this. However, that doesn't change the fact that Baffled! is a fair amount of fun. It has a pretty compelling mystery plot to it that combines ESP with the occult. The acting from everyone is good while the production values have that solid made for TV cosiness about them. If I had to make a complaint, it would be a minor one, but it would be that despite the great build it has a slightly overly silly denouncement that would not have looked out of place in a Scooby Doo cartoon. But, no matter, this one is still a lot of fun.

In between his iconic small screen and big screen STAR TREK career, Leonard Nimoy headlined this television movie that was really an intended pilot for a British series co-starring sophisticated blonde beauty Susan Hamphire: an ESP expert aiding Nimoy's famous race car driver to channel visions of a veteran actress murdered in a castle where he, reluctantly at first, takes on the case...

BAFFLED! has all the elements of a good mystery but without enough doomed tension. And yet it works from the affable chemistry between Nimoy and Hampshire, brightening up the surrounding ensemble of Agatha Christie-like suspects including a tempestuous Rachel Roberts; Vera Miles as the possibly doomed starlet; and scene-stealing Jewel Blanch as a childlike pre-teen whose personality morphs into a creepy, possessed teenager...

Making the best scenes a "Spock verses THE EXORCIST" kind of thing, and a year earlier. But it's really Susan Hampshire's ride. She energetically tackles the part as if it were truly the beginning of an assured series. In fact this "movie" ends with their next case shaping up. Sadly, it was her show to lose.

This non_classic, remembered fondly by some, forgotten by most, is likely to be enjoyed the most by fans of 1970s made-for-tv genre movies, Leonard Nimoy or Vera Miles completists, or avid fans of all things psychic. It is in the same vein as The Sixth Sense tv series, AKA Circle of Fear, with Gary Collins, except that where the latter was quite earnest, Baffled is relatively light-hearted and decidedly unintense. It consists largely of Leonard Nimoy driving around a rear-projection landscape, mannequins being tossed off of cliffs, and cheeky flirtation among certain of the adult leads. Baffled is a mellow easy chair in which you might sit as you fold your laundry.

Leonard Nimoy stars as a race car driver with psychic visions in "Baffled!" also starring Susan Hampshire, Vera Miles, Rachel Roberts, and Jewel Blanch. After the Nimoy character reports on television that he had a vision that caused him to lose control of his race car during a competition, he is visited by Susan Hampshire. She is a student of psychic phenomenon and believes he should follow up on what he saw - a manor house in England, the phrase "It's Wyndham in Devon, dear," and a familiar-looking woman who is need of help.

He agrees to join her after he has another vision which is much stronger -- and scarier - than the previous one. The two of them end up at a manor house which has been turned into a sort of resort hotel. There, they meet the woman of the vision - an American film star who is waiting for her ex-husband, her young daughter, and some rather strange characters.

Judging by what happens at the end of this entertaining movie, "Baffled" seems to have been a pilot for a TV series. The stars - Hampshire and Nimoy - are delightful, and the story is an interesting one that manages to tie in not only psychic phenomenon but a satanic element as well. Vera Miles does an effective job as a woman anticipating a reunion with her ex, Rachel Roberts is terrific as the owner of Wyndham, and Jewel Blanch is very good as Miles' daughter.

This intriguing story will hold the viewer's interest, and it is immensely helped by the likability of the main characters.

Learning that this was intended as a pilot for a tv series actually helps sum up how this movie felt to me. There were hints throughout that the main characters, Spock and his lady interest, either had a prior relationship or were building toward a more involved future one. There are no big surprises here and there is definitely plenty of 70s cheese. But I found myself watching the entire movie and enjoying it. Worth a look if you come across it.