O Estranho Retrato

WOW I have been trying to remember the name of this movie for a very long time... today I goggled the famous "the worms crawl in, the worms crawl out"... and found the title of the movie "Picture Mommy Dead". I re-watched this movie today after I found the movie title again and I must say it is pretty good old film.

I recalled that as a kid this movie scared me... but after re-viewing it as an adult I find it a good mystery/thriller film.

The movie is worth watching if you like older "whodunnit" types of movies. Nobody will ever find out Daddy.

The Hearse Song is the creepiest part of this film -- the part I remembered for years.

7/10

One of those low budget films that had lots of style. Filmed at the famous Doheny Mansion in Beverly Hills, opening scene has a horrendous bedroom fire consuming the dead body of Zsa Zsa Gabor. I first saw this in the 70's and being a teenage pyro I was fascinated by the fire sequences. Teenage girl Susan Gordon (Producer Bert Gordon's daughter) gets let out of a convent 7 years after her mother (Zsa Zsa) gets crispy in the previously mentioned fire. Seems the girl still has some issues and things get wierd after her dad (Don Ameche) brings her back to the house where it happened! (How tacky is that?) Enter her old nanny (Martha Hyer) who just wed Daddy Don Ameche. Seems Martha wants to get her hands on an old Diamond necklace Zsa Zsa reported missing before the fire. Seems Martha is a bit of a tramp and will let anyone grab a hold of her Double D cups that will tell her where the jewels are hidden. Dig the crazy scene where Susan scratches a portrait of Zsa Zsa and the picture starts to bleed! They don't make 'em like this anymore. Wendell Corey makes a rare appearance (right before he died) as a surly character who likes tormenting Susan with remarks about the fire like "it must be what hell is like" just to watch Susan twitch out big time. Great bit of film noir (even in color) this movie has lots of shadows, great photography & direction, even the scene where the bedroom is ablaze is photographed in an almost beautiful way with the flames towering up expensive drapes and ashed slowly cascading down. Great fun, it's on video I hope they put this film on DVD. Of course, anything with Zsa Zsa Gabor is a hoot, even though here she is essentially playing herself.

PICTURE MOMMY DEAD had the potential to be more than a little potboiler. Photographed handsomely in Pathe color amid elaborate settings, its look is far beyond that of the average programmer.

But two things defeat it: an absurd plot and a dreadful performance by Susan Gordon in the central role as the traumatized victim of a horrible murder scene.

The adults are a little over-the-top in performing--especially Don Ameche, Martha Hyer (looking very glamorous), and Maxwell Reed. No doubt they knew the melodramatic material was so overly meller that it didn't matter much. Hyer at least is convincing as a greedy woman who has only one objective: to get her hands on as much estate money as possible after the death of the girl's wealthy mommy and especially a glittering diamond necklace.

Zsa Zsa Gabor flits about once in awhile when flashbacks permit the girl to remember a few events as they unfolded in the past. She's every bit the glamorous creature she always set out to be, and mercifully is not burdened by too much dialog.

Most surprising is that this wasn't photographed in low-budget style in B&W. Instead, the sharp color photography puts it on a higher level than the script would suggest.

The story lacks credibility as it goes along, becoming more and more improbable by the time it reaches a predictable conclusion.

Summing up: Watchable, but hurt by a central performance that is cringe worthy.

This is one of those movies I saw as a young kid back in the late 60's that always stuck with me, so creepy when I was little and now that I am older it is just plain campy!!!! Susan Gordon overacts playing the demented daughter of Don Ameche and Zsa Zsa Gabor. Seems Susan comes out of a convent or was it a mental institution? Anyway, she's got major issues since her Mom burned to death in the family mansion. Now Daddy Warbucks has married her former nanny, sleazily played to the hilt by Martha Hyer. The nanny wants all of Daddy's money and is willing to do anything and anyone in order to get it. I love the scene where the toys are coming alive, pretty creepy stuff when you are 8 years old and not too bad now that I'm 43. Lot's of fun to watch and the ending comes as somewhat of a surprise. Enjoy.

I have a strange and inexplicable fondness for horror movies that feature eerie & sinister nursery rhymes… So, in spite of the mediocre rating and overall negative reviews around here, I already knew I was going to love "Picture Mommy Dead" from the very first minutes, because it opens with grim images of a woman's bedroom on fire and Zsa Zsa Gabor lying dead amidst the flames, and we simultaneously hear a kids' choir gently singing: "The worms crawl in, the worms crawl out… in your stomach and out your mouth!" All this happens even before the equally macabre opening credits appear on screen. To me personally, there aren't many better ways to begin a horror movie. Furthermore I also shamelessly admit being an admirer of director Bert I. Gordon, even though he's widely considered as one of the worst in the genre and frequently the target of mockery in popular shows like MST3K. Although his oversized animal attack movies ("Food of the Gods", "Empire of the Ants") are undeniably more entertaining, "Picture Mommy Dead" might very well be Mr. BIG's finest achievements. Sure it's still a little rough around the edges, with some very inept editing and far too many dialogs that are overlong and laughably melodramatic, but nevertheless also an atmospheric film with seriously sick & disturbing themes and several powerfully uncomfortable sequences.

Edward Shelley goes to pick up his teenage daughter Susan in the secluded convent where she spent several years in order to process the traumatizing death of her mother. Susan is the primary heiress of her mother's fortune, which unwarily brings her in a lot of danger. Daddy got married again, with Susan's former governess Francine. She's a totally immoral and money-hungry woman who constantly manipulates Susans as well as her own husband, and she even non-stop suggests calling a head-doctor in order to accelerate Susan's return to the madhouse. There's also creepy Uncle Anthony, a nastily scarred freak who whispers in Susan's ear – in great detail – how her mother slowly and painfully burned to death. Even her own beloved daddy behaves mysteriously, because he's completely broke and only has access to the inheritance in case Susan dies or gets declared insane again. The poor girl soon begins to suffer from awful nightmares and vivid hallucinations, but are they real or inflicted on her by her hypocrite family members? Martha Hyer truly gives a remarkable performance as the wicked stepmother! Her exaggeratedly phony and hypocrite attempts to help Susan remember the whereabouts of a valuable necklace definitely form the highlights of the film! Also impressive are the numerous hallucination sequences, which are quite perverse and shocking for 1966. We have bleeding paintings, diabolical dolls, accusing furry animals and even a spontaneously combusting Zsa Zsa Gabor! In order to quickly cash in on the huge contemporary success of "The Birds", Bert I. Gordon is even clever enough to insert a couple of fierce falcon-attack sequences. The climax is deliciously demented and I daresay even somewhat romantic (in a sick and perverted kind of way). Apart from the aforementioned Martha Hyer and Zsa Zsa Gabor, "Picture Mommy Dead" also features notable and atypical performances from Don Ameche and Bert's own daughter Susan Gordon. Recommended, of course, what else did you think?