Persecution

Also shown under the titles THE GRAVEYARD and THE TERROR OF SHEBA, this Gothic British horror movie stars Lana Turner as a maniacal mother who delights in making life miserable for her spineless son(Ralph Bates) who is slowly, but surly, tiring of his deranged mama and her wicked, wicked ways. With her beautiful face, every hair in place, her fashionable costumes, and her exquisite jewelry, Lana Turner, at age 53, is still the very essence of Hollywood glamour. But this is 1974 we're talking about, and her name didn't have the same sparkling effect on the box-office that it had in say 1947, so the film went mostly unnoticed by the movie-going public. The picture itself is a dreary and rather ghoulish retread of familiar BABY JANE-ish high jinks. But Turner has fun with her looneytunes character, and makes this otherwise derivative little film quite watchable. Lana personally regarded this as her worst performance, but she isn't bad at all. Actually she's quite good. I'm convinced she did more with the role than anybody else could have. In fact, she won the Best Actress Award at Spain's Festival of Horror Movies. I strongly recommend this film to her fans who should find it quite interesting to see Turner playing the kind of merciless, blood-curdling psychobitch that Bette Davis and Joan Crawford played in their Scream Queen days.

It's so sad to watch Lana Turner who made amazing drama and romance to do a horror movie at England in twlight's career, as l'd read somewhere that the most of critics deemed the 70' as lost decade to the cinema, l don't agree certainly but they had some reasons to said that, like this movie that is so unexplainable and disturbing, Lana plays a machiavellian mother who mishandle your son in extreme way of without regret, acceptable plot although it wasn't to every taste indeed, while the results in final could be understood as insane is funny to see a horrible revenge, probable the audience will be glad to see it!! the official DVD released here in Brazil's market was a bad copy, needs a upmost new restoration!!

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First watch: 2018 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 6.25

I believed I was knowledgeable of movies like this. I thought I was on top of all the B exploitation efforts by faded Hollywood actresses, from the high profile flicks of Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, and Olivia De Havilland to forays by the likes of Ava Gardner, Jeanne Crane, Ann Southern, Veronica Lake, Ruth Roman, and Wanda Hendrix. I thought I knew most of the misfires from these faded ladies from Hollywood's golden era. Except for this one. I've never heard of this one. Ever. Not in my readings of tomes on exploitation and horror films, not in the film commentaries on DVDS, not mentioned in passing by ANYONE on YouTube or in chat rooms. Zilch. Which surprises me, because this film is ripe for that kind of thing. Lana Turner is not a name that springs to mind in regards to this kind of movie, but she made at least another exploitation title(THE BIG CUBE), so she dabbled in this genre a little. The movie itself is rather slow-moving, more like a gothic soap opera than a full-on horror movie. Turner herself looks great (think a late 1950s Lana, as she looked in her IMITATION OF LIFE/PAYTON PLACE era), and a large chunk of the production budget probably went into keeping Ms. Turner coiffed and dressed in the high Hollywood style to which she was accustomed. Turner does an admirable job as the icy Carrie Masters, an overbearing mother who dominates her adult son. It's more psycho-drama than camp, which makes for a slog of a viewing experience. This may be why it isn't remembered today.

Once one of the queens of melodrama ("Peyton place " "imitation of life") and of the film noir ("the postman always rings twice") , Lana Turner whose career had waned in the sixties , followed Bette Davis' and Joan Crawford 's footsteps :she tried her hand at horror movies ;so you get what you expect: a festival of camp .

The most memorable scenes are to be found at the beginning and at the end of the film:the Xmas night , enhanced by carrols , in the gloomy room where Davis finds his presents, while the sound of mechanical soldiers is heard ; then his final revenge "I said : lap up!"

The screenplay is disjointed, the flashbacks -which feature Trevor howard,all the same!)are badly introduced in the story ; the atmosphere is rather disturbing , with the principal and her beloved cats that seem to be her real family , for she has her way to destroy her human one. An aging Turner's face adds to the lugubrious Gothic house .

A note about Olga-Georges Picot who plays Monique :in the late sixties/early seventies,this polyglot embassador's daughter was one of the most promising French actresses and played opposite very famous partners ; but her physique and her good looks went against her ,and by the mid-seventies ,she was relegated to soft porn material : in "persecution" ,her role already "predated" her future career:despondent about her failed career,she threw herself out of a window at the age of 57.

Well, it has a couple of interesting camera angles and a sexy performance by the actress who plays the woman paid to seduce the hero, but the slow pacing causes it to drag too often, the editing is astonishingly bad at times, and the "plot secrets", when revealed, turn out to be totally insignificant. But it's in the last 15 minutes that the movie really jumps off the rails, and comes up with a silly and far-fetched conclusion. (*1/2)