O Intruso

Strange movie, great video box though. I'd like to summerise the plot but this is a movie that has to be seen cold really. Possibly an interesting insight into the mind of a psycho but really just good trashy horror. I'd reccomend it to those of a less discerning taste

Low-budget psychedelic thriller in the "Baby Jane" genre, but it features a terrific performance by the legendary Miriam Hopkins in her last performance (complete with semi-nudity and love scenes), joined by Gale Sondergaard and the under-rated John David Garfield (close your eyes and he sounds like his famous father). The film was never released to theaters and the video came out in England after Hopkins'death. Hopkins portrays an aging alcoholic movie star living in seclusion with Sondergaard as her stern secretary-companion. She breaks her hip and drug-addict psycho Garfield is hired to help care for her. Hopkins and Garfield begin a bizarre affair and the murders begin. Filmed in Norma Talmadge's former estate and with a slightly larger budget, it could have been successfully released. Still a real curio though and worth tracking down if you can find it. Try the UK if you can play PAL or look under the title "Hollywood Horror House." (Originally filmed as "The Comeback.") It deserves a proper DVD release, as does Hopkins' previous movie, Russ Meyer's "Fanny Hill."

Savage Intruder is one of those late 60's/early 70's horror films that adorn formerly famous, formerly glamorous Hollywood starlets in their elder years. Kick-started into action by the surprise horror hit "Whatever Happened To Baby Jane" which breathed new life into Bette Davis and Joan Crawford's practically non-existent careers at that point, suddenly other actresses, who were shunned by the studios which had used them up and spit them out, started lining up to star in low-budget horror movies. Their loss is our gain, because even though Hollywood has no use for them, I find seasoned actresses to be the most fun to watch - especially in a horror film.

This one stars Miriam Hopkins and Gale Sondergaard (who was criminally black-listed by Hollywood when she refused to testify against her husband during the McCarthy-inspired "Red Scare" hysteria in the 1950s). Hopkins is (surprise-surprise) an aging actress who lives as a recluse in her Hollywood mansion of memories. Sondergaard plays her tough but caring assistant. Suddenly, a young handsome stranger who harnesses a charismatic charm as well as a bad temper worms his way into the household, fooling Hopkins but not Sondergaard.

There is a nice helping of sadism, murder and weirdness embedded into the film, sure to please lovers of these kinds of horror movies. Although it is very hard to find, this one is well worth the effort.

You have to thank the good people at Vinegar Syndrome for bringing Hollywood Horror House out of obscurity and into the light again. While it's far from perfect and came at the end of the "Baby Jane"/crazy old dame phase, it's one of the wilder entries into that subgenre with a surprising amount of effective gore.

It all plays out a bit like Sunset Boulevard if the Joe Gillis character was a serial killer who kills older women because they remind him of his mother. He latches on to a faded film star played by Miriam Hopkins and becomes her assistant, confidant, and perhaps her lover. As various people in Hopkins' life start to suspect this homicidal grifter of ill will, he kills them.

Hollywood Horror House appears to have a had a somewhat sizable budget given the sets, quality of actors, lighting, and special effects. After all, how many of these low budget films features a Christmas parade sequence with seemingly hundreds of extras? The film does lose steam towards the end and the ending isn't the most satisfying, but the journey to get there is wonderfully wild.

A campy B-movie that's shamelessly derivative of 'Sunset Boulevard,' 'Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?' and 'Psycho,' but which was more entertaining than I expected. Is this a good movie? No, it's not a good movie. The premise is weak (gosh do you think they could use a little more due diligence in their hiring process?) and the overall script is too. The film lacks any kind of subtlety or refinement, but maybe the alternate title "Hollywood Horror House" was a little hint of that.

On the other hand, it was Miriam Hopkins' last film, and she's a delight to watch. At age 68 and just a couple of years before her death, she throws herself into her scenes, singing a little and getting a revealing massage along the way. The film also scored points for me in its opening shots, showing how dilapidated the Hollywood sign was in 1970, eight years before being saved and rebuilt. We also get a few shots on Sunset Blvd, and I liked how 'old Hollywood' was played off the topical drug/hippie stuff (plus Davis partying with the younger generation made me smile). There is an Asian-American character (Virginia Wing) who is presented to us sans stereotypes (though she is called 'fortune cookie' and hears the jibe "no tickee, no washee", it's by the bad guy). Gale Sondergaard (age 71) rounds out what is a pretty good cast for such a film. I was less convinced by the actual psycho (David Garfield, interestingly John Garfield's son), though I guess he's suitably creepy.

As for the violence, with hands and heads being lopped off and whatnot, it's done in such a campy way as to seem not gory, which could be viewed as a plus or a minus. I guess I wish the film had been more serious and elevated, but as it is, it was a fun watch.