The Screaming Woman

I saw this on TV way back in the early 70's and it truly frightened the living daylights out of me.

Anyone from the industry reading this should surely consider a DVD release of this engrossing masterpiece

Laura, a woman in her late 50's just recovering from a sojourn in a mental hospital returns home to her estate in the temporary care of her son and his wife. A rather dubious couple to say the least. While walking in the grounds one morning she hears or thinks she hears groaning sounds emanating from the ground and tries to raise the alarm. Unsurprisingly when help arrives the voice is no longer evident and so the seeds of doubt are raised about her sanity. Caught this one on the box very early one morning and scared me enough to have a really lousy sleep. De Havilland is in her element here as the recovering patient and gives her character enough credibility to even make the viewer wonder as to her mental state. The black & white photography enhances the suspense of the whole story. Unfortunately not available on dvd or video.

I saw this TV movie as a kid with a babysitter and ended up so freaked out that I spent the night in tears waiting for a hand to reach up from under the bed and grab me. I saw it again as a young adult and it still sent chills up my spine with the side profile shots of the buried woman. Very haunting images.

TV-movies from the early '70s, and particularly those legendary "ABC Movies of the Week", make it look so easy to deliver tense and compelling thriller stories! I truly love most of these gems, and "The Screaming Woman" instantly became a new personal favorite! Like the very best of its kind, this film is short and sober but tremendously compensates in atmosphere and plot-intelligence what it lacks in action footage. When a film is based on a story written by Sci-Fi genius Ray Bradbury, you can rest assured the script is pure quality. The plot is simple and straightforward, but oh-so ingenious and intriguing! The ageing and wealthy but mentally unstable Mrs. Laura Wynant returns home to her country estate to recover from a period in an institution. During her first estate tour, out on the horse carriage, however, she hears petrified woman's screams coming from underneath the soil. While Laura is convinced that an innocent woman is buried alive at her property, her greedy family members see her hysterical behavior as the ideal opportunity to control her finances. The already capturing story is made extra stirring thanks to the grisly sub plots and mysterious supportive characters, like the constant bickering between Laura Wynant's son and daughter-in-law and the odd-behaving neighbors. The amazing Olivia de Havilland is phenomenal as the misunderstood and disrespected elderly lady in distress, but she also receives good support for the entire rest of the cast, notably Ed Nelson, Charles Knox Robinson and Laraine Stephens. Jack Smight ("Airport 1975", "Damnation Alley") was one of the most underrated directors of his generation and he delivers some of his best work with this film. My only main complaints are that Joseph Cotton (one of my favorite actors of all times) should have had more screen time and that also the luscious Alexandra Hay's role is too small. The climax is genuinely spine-chilling and guaranteed to haunt your memories for the rest of your life.

Working with this wonderful performer was a great thrill for me. She was like and beginner with great joy and loved every suggestion I made and wanted to rehearse over and over again. I was shocked somewhat because few Oscar winners seem to want to do that with and "unknown" which I kind of was in those days. When waiting around we talked once about Errol Flynn who I think did 8 pictures with her, back in the Warner Bros, days. She said all the bad press he got on being Pro Nazi and other things, was to quote Her. "was ridicules, and believe me I knew him better then anyone." Joe Cotton,all the way back with Wells in "Citizen Kane," was a regular guy, and was the star of the first film I did, still in New Orleans, It was entitled "The Steel Trap" with the wonderful Teresa Wright. I was an extra and scared to death standing next to him in a big scene. The title of this ABC TV movie was something else and they changed it after we started shooting. Olivia really hated the title saying, "All the audience will see is my face screaming from this title."

I wrote this because you all liked the picture so much. Thanks Ed Nelson