How Awful About Allan

Generally I don't crib, but I've seen absolute gibberish being rated pretty highly if it comes out of a big studio with a big cast. Now this movie here is not that special, but it is well directed, has great acting by the cast and some decent camera work. The story seems slightly predictable but it is credible and works for this kind of movie. The reveal at the end does come across as a surprise.

Anthony Perkins live up to the role and shows his range as an actor here. This is a very good movie, albeit a short one. Full marks the the director and his crew.

Allan (Anthony Perkins) is blamed for an accidental fire that killed his father (Kent Smith), disfigured his sister (Julie Harris, who wears a plastic device over part of her face) and landed him in an institution. Eight months later, partially blind and guilt-stricken, he's let out of an institution and rents a room from his estranged sibling in an effort to put his life back together, but someone is out for revenge and wants to drive him crazy. Is it his darling sis? Friendly neighbor/ex-girlfriend Olive (Joan Hackett)? The creepy new boarder? The father back from the grave? Or is it just in Allan's mind?

Perkins can do the paranoid/fragile/slipping-sanity act in sleep and Harris and Hackett offer good support, but this telepic is dull, light on plot and fizzles out way before the finale. Blurry POV shots and murky photography make for a pretty oppressive viewing experience. Henry Farrell adapted his novel of the same name. Aaron Spelling was the executive producer.

Atmospheric psychological thriller has Perkins ideally cast as the brooding music lecturer, left psychosomatically blinded after he witnesses his father perish in a house fire, which also disfigures his elder sister (Harris). After spending eight months in a mental hospital he returns to the house and is cared for by his sister, but his recovery is hampered by the presence of a suspicious boarder who comes and goes under cloak of darkness, and who Perkins is convinced, is trying to kill him.

It's sometimes tense and gripping, though the small-scale TV treatment confines the plot to strictly minor status. Hackett co-stars as the kindly neighbour, keen to help Perkins emerge from his deteriorating psychosis, while Kent Smith has a bit part as the once-feared patriarch, favoured by Harris but with whom Perkins' relationship was strained.

Provokes an occasional shiver, but it's still a very timid tale that relies too much on the wind machines and 'dark, stormy night' routine, a consequence (but not necessarily an excuse) perhaps of the TV budget. There's a throwback moment to "Psycho" at the film's climax which might bring a smile to your face if you know what to look for, while the distinguished cast deliver their dialogue with stage-born professionalism and the overall result is a modest time-filler with potential.

Right from the start of this film I was captivated. This is one of those family drama films where one of them or someone else near the family is off their rocker - but who and why? It's a film that builds suspenseful steam towards it's climax with a stare at the end that only Anthony Perkins could pull off so well.

There are a couple of moments in the film where you will think of Psycho like when Allan or Anthony Perkins picks up a photo and says "Mother?" and that stare at the end. BUT the character of Allan is not like Norman Bates, you would have to watch "Allan" to see the clear differences in the two characters - which Perkins pulls both off well.

I have seen this film before - it's a vague memory - but was very pleased to see this one again. Well worth watching if you like GOOD made-for-TV films, Anthony Perkins and intense, dramatic psychological thrillers. They don't make 'em like this anymore folks.

9/10

This is a pretty good made for TV film. Tony Perkins is always worth watching. He so underplays his character that for a long time, I couldn't stand him. There are lots of people who care about him and he seems so ungrateful. Then weird stuff begins to happen. He is so filled with guilt, feeling he is responsible for the fiery death of his abusive father and the disfigurement of his sister, we can see the guilt, there on his sleeve. Though he is aware of his anger, he still tries to go on. At one point, he really begins the process to get himself put back in the institution which held him since the fire. People try to help him, but there is a constant undercurrent of deception. But we can't put our fingers on it. Perkins does so much with his facial expressions and, of course, Julie Harris is one of America's best actresses. There are many twists and turns and questions and they are subtly put forth. There is no heavy handedness here, which would have ruined the film. See it if you can.