Sweet, Sweet Rachel

Out of the literally hundreds of made-for-TV occult horror and thrillers movies that the glorious seventies & eighties decades brought forward, I wouldn't list "Sweet, Sweet Rachel" in my personal top 20. I even doubt it would make top 50, and yet it still remains a more than adequate and worthwhile effort with an overall sinister ambiance, a couple of admirable fright sequences and a number of terrific performances. Like more often the case during the early 70s, the film served as a pilot episode for a TV-series that was named "The Sixth Sense" and ran for a season or two. As the title implies, the series dealt with paranormal phenomena and various types of psychic powers. In "Sweet, Sweet Rachel" as well, almost every character is either telekinetically gifted or an expert in the domain of ESP (Extra Sensory Perception) so as the viewer you'll require at least a fair portion of suspension of disbelief in order to enjoy the film. Rachel's beloved husband Paul fell – or jumped – to his death from a window and our grieving widow is terrified that her telekinetic powers unconsciously caused his death. Psychic powers apparently run in the family, as it turns out that Rachel's aunt Lillian played ESP games with Paul over the phone and that also her niece Nora was desperately in love with him. Dr Lucas Darrow, a medical authority in the field of ESP, investigates the murder case with the help of his blind assistant Carey, but strange mental forces nearly get them both killed as well. Clearly someone is using his/her psychic powers to commit murder. Is it Rachel, either consciously or not, or another member of the family driven by the good old-fashioned motives of greed and jealousy? One thing's for sure, you definitely don't need any paranormal superpowers in order to figure out the film's plot. When there are only six lead characters, of which two are good guys and the other four behave themselves in various degrees of suspicious, you don't have to be Sherlock Holmes in order to point out the culprit. The highlights of "Sweet, Sweet Rachel" exist of isolated moments of tension, for example a few menacing phone calls and a talking sculpture's head. The lovely Stephanie Powers makes an excellent damsel in distress, and she receives solid support from a handful of veteran actors like Alex Dreier, Pat Hingle, Louise Latham and Chris Robinson. Director Sutton Roley also made the fantastic - albeit criminally underrated – apocalyptic horror film "Chosen Survivors" that every fan of 70s horror should watch.

This was the pilot for the short-lived ABC series called 'The Sixth Sense'. By the time the series got under way, actor Gary Collins took over the part of Dr. Darrow. This character was primetime's first paranormal psychic investigator - way before another ABC favorite, 'The Night Stalker'. At any rate, the history of 'The Sixth Sense' is a very unhappy one. It's hard to get the original episodes of the series, if not impossible. It was chopped up and reedited into Rod Serling's 'Night Gallery', according to the accounts of many fans and people who know much more about the show's history.

The series was basically about Dr. Darrow getting to the origins of certain paranormal disturbances and hauntings in various places. It was a great show, from what I remember of it. Too bad the original episodes can't ever be seen again. All we are left with are the re-edited versions that were incorporated into 'The Night Gallery' series. Sometimes you have to wonder where Hollywood's mind is. They deliberately ruin good shows for reasons beyond our comprehension!

Why didn't Rachel (Stefanie Powers) just go to a psychologist or counselor if she was having problems coping with her husbands death? Instead she sees an ESP person or "expert", ends up in some weird stuff, her Aunt is a medium or psychic and Rachel goes crazy thanks to her Aunt trying to drive her that way -- all over wanting control of the family money. About 1/2 of the people in the film are insane. - So if that sounds appealing then you might like this film a little bit. Its' not the best of it's kind but it's not the worst of it's kind either.

I like films about ESP, psychics, telepathy and those types of things but this one I found just so-so - not bad but not good.

OH, if you watch this film, prepare yourself for some awful singing at a funeral from a woman who's voice will drive all of the mice in your house away and gag maggots. Her voice is worse than fingernails on a blackboard. *Shivers*

5/10

Overstuffed TV movie-of-the-week has a psychic researcher from a California university and his blind assistant (who really is psychic!) investigating a young widow and her relatives after she comes to him distraught over her husband's suspicious death--seems he leapt from an upstairs window in their cliffside manor calling out her name. Portly Alex Dreier and calm, rational Chris Robinson are quite the twosome on this baffling case, prompting one to wonder if "Rachel" was meant to be the pilot for a weekly series (apparently it wasn't, but it's a nifty idea!). "Special guest star" Stefanie Powers gets convincingly hysterical under the thumb of her nefarious aunt and uncle (Louise Latham and Pat Hingle, a nightmarish duo), while Dreier pulls a fast one on a homicide detective after his department fails to do an autopsy on a dead body. Directed by television veteran Sutton Roley from a teleplay by Anthony Lawrence, this is an eerie little effort, though the lack of any light relief is distinctly felt. ** from ****

I first saw this when I was 9 years old and although it's probably well past dated by now, at the time it was a pretty scary movie for the ABC movie of the week. The tunnel scene with Louis Latham as Nora Piper still gives me chills and the opening sequence with the ESP cards is a pretty good setup to the whole premise of the movie. This was around the time of the TV series "The Sixth Sense" and it has that kind of feel to it. Another ABC Movie of the Week recommendation is "Crowhaven Farm" or even "The Eyes of Charles Sand" which were both creepy and had a sense of dread to them. I kind of wish they made movies like this again or at least try to remake them so they don't seem dated.