A Howling in the Woods

Back in the 1970s and 80s, Barbara Eden starred in about two dozen made for TV movies. In most of the ones I've seen, she played a lovely woman hunted or haunted by something or someone...and "A Howling in the Woods" is no different. While it's not nearly as good as her classic "The Stranger Within" (where she was impregnated by aliens!!), the mood of this 1971 film is quite nice...it's just a shame the script wasn't worked out better.

Eden plays Liza, a woman who's just left her husband* and has gone home to see her family who lives out in the country (it was filmed at lovely Lake Tahoe). However, despite being gone for years, she is not greeted as an old friend but with a strange coldness...and in a few cases, downright unfriendliness. In fact, throughout the film the only person that is really nice to you is the husband--who actually seems like a swell guy. Additionally, Liza's father is supposedly gone to Mexico...leaving Liza's step-mother behind. But this story makes little sense and Liza starts to wonder what the secret is that the town is hiding (it turns out to be two, actually) and what happened to her father.

Throughout all this, there is a great sense of foreboding--something these made for ABC films really did well. Sure, the song they kept repeating throughout the story (it's apparently by Bach) is great, but it was repeated too often--the only problem with the otherwise creepy mood. Otherwise, the viewer is kept on the edge of their seat watching and waiting and waiting.

Now this comes to the mysteries. They are NOT so good because in both cases there needs to be a very lengthy exposition by folks to ultimately explain them instead of letting the truth unfold more naturally. This is actually pretty sloppy...and disappointing. Still, the movie is a decent time-passer and a great excuse to see the lovely Barbara Eden in action once again. Worth seeing but certainly not a must-see.

*By the way, I loved seeing Larry Hagman cast as Eden's husband in the film- --and I kept expected Eden to call him 'master' or try to grant his every wish or hear the "I Dream of Jeannie" theme!

I remember seeing this movie on TV in 1971 while in the 10th grade in high school and it was pretty good. [Most of the TV movies of that era were shown from 9:30 PM to 11:00 PM (EST) so they were only 1-hour-and-30-minutes in length, but this one was a full-two-hours!] I missed the ending because I had a paper route to deliver at 4:00 the next morning (actually, 2 of them) so I had to go to bed. Anyway, what I remember is: Barbara Eden inherits this old hotel when her uncle dies. Disheartened with her marriage, she goes to stay at the hotel with the idea of remodeling and then running it. Shortly after she arrives, the townspeople tell her to leave and at night, she hears a dog mournfully howling in the nearby woods. As she tries to solve the mystery of the howling dog, she was told that a six-year-old girl was found "accidentally drownded" in the nearby lake. [She was told this by the dead girl's six-year-old cousin Betsey (Lisa Gerritsen).] As Eden's character investigates the howling dog and the "accidental drowning," of the little girl, she become convinced that the two incidents are related.

It was about this point I had to go to bed so I could deliver the newspapers to my customers on my paper routes, so I don't know how the movie ends up. It would be really great if this movie were to be released on home video, so I could see the ending. I recently found a copy of the paperback novel on which this movie was based, so I know how the novel comes out, but I'd still like to see the movie so I can see how it comes out. (I suppose it is similar to the ending in the novel.) Anyway, I'm willing to pay whatever the price is for a VHS or DVD, so home video companies, here's your chance to make some more money off of me! How about it?

Barbara Eden and Larry Hagman definitely didn't end things on a sour note after I DREAM OF JEANNIE as the next year they starred as a married couple in a mystery-thriller that sounds like a werewolf-horror, the made-for-television A HOWLING IN THE WOODS. Then again, they're hardly on screen together at all. It's mostly Eden's ride, beginning three decades of TV movies...

Centers on a rich woman who returns to a woodsy small town where she's given the silent treatment by the locals. Expository from her mother-in-law Vera Miles's wimpy secret lover John Rubinstein teaches us the town's been broke since her currently out-of-town father sold a factory, and only he and his family got rich. Although Eden's character is no spoiled brat since she made her own money as a fashion designer in New York fashion designer while Hagman, a photographer of naked women, wants her to return home via random phone calls...

The townspeople want her gone too, which is most of the mystery involved without that many thrills. Eden, sans her cute smile, broods most of the time, trying to figure things out after the initial long-stretched shun...

Which is also the most entertaining aspect as she and the audience remains in the dark while various characters add up including Ruta Lee as a jovial diner waitress; Ford Rainey as the sheriff; Lisa Gerritsen as an abused little girl; and Tyne Daley as the only person willing to eventually speak up. After which Hagman earns half his paycheck and... almost helps out. At one point near the end, wanting to join her quest for the truth, his wife tells him, "You stay here... I'm better off alone."

Perhaps Eden was predicting her own solo TV-movie future following what would always be her signature role as the friendly Astronaut's gorgeous Jeannie. Meanwhile, Larry Hagman's lucrative television future hadn't yet begun: From this point it was no more Mr. Nice Guy.

Starring I Dream of Jeannies titular Barbara Eden and Larry "JR" Hagman A Howling in the Woods isn't what I expected at all. It was a pick and mix movie so I didn't know what to expect but based on the title I assumed horror and likely werewolf.

Well it's not a horror and no wolves were or otherwise are to be found. Instead it's a thriller about a woman returning to small town America to see her father but being met with a very unpleasant welcome from a town with a dark secret.

It's a slow burner but that works to its favour, what doesn't sadly is the movies weak structure and instantly forgettable characters.

Does everything come together in the end? Yep. Is the revelation interesting? Absolutely. But the film itself is badly flawed and though watchable is something I feel could and maybe should have been considerably better.

The Good:

Some good ideas

The Bad:

Poorly structured

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

I am in no way saddened that I missed out on telegrams

A woman from New York City (Barbara Eden) returns home to a small town by Lake Tahoe, but the townsfolk are strangely unfriendly. Larry Hagman plays her husband, Vera Miles her stepmother, John Rubinstein her stepbrother and Tyne Daly a young woman who has secrets to share.

"A Howling in the Woods" (1971) is a small town mystery with some thrills at the end. Despite being a television production, the cast is noteworthy and the rustic Lake Tahoe locations are exquisite. Unfortunately, the contrived story is too drawn out and would've worked better at 74 minutes.

It's a worthwhile movie for the highlights noted as long as you don't mind slow pacing and some artificial scripting, just don't expect any werewolves.

The movie runs around 1 hour, 35 minutes, and was shot at Tahoe City, Lake Tahoe and Universal Studios, Universal City, California.

GRADE: C+/B-