The House That Would Not Die

The House That Would Not Die is a solid TV-film that could have been stronger had screenwriters stuck closer to Barbara Michael's excellent supernatural suspense novel, "Ammie, Come Home." Michael's story is set in Washington, D.C.; Ruth, a Department of Commerce official, has lived in a Georgetown row house for some years after inheriting it from a distant cousin. There is no ghostly presence until Ruth's niece Sara moves in with her to attend a nearby university. Sara first hears a voice in the night calling "Ammie, come home," but aunt & niece decide it's a neighbor calling a lost pet. When Ruth meets one of Sara's professors, the adventurous son of a famous Washington hostess (a character based on Marjorie Merriwether Post), the ghostly presences intensify & become violent. By using entries in the family Bible and searching old newspapers & archives, the 4 major characters (Ruth, the professor--who becomes her love interest--Sara & her boyfriend) piece together the tragic tale of the house's original builder & his daughter, Amanda. During the Revolution, Amanda's father was a royalist but Amanda fell in love with a young officer in the American army. When her father discovered they were about to elope, he killed them & buried the bodies in the basement of his house. He lived there as a recluse until he was killed when the house burned. Relatives (Ruth's ancestors) inherited the land & built a new house, never knowing what had happened. After young Sara moved in, the spirits of Amanda & her father began to re-enact their tragedy endlessly. It is the disembodied voice of Amanda's lover calling, "Ammie, come home."

Why the writers moved the film to Amish country in Pennsylvania is a mystery, unless they figured in 1970 Washington had enough problems & didn't need any more ghosts. Having Ruth occupy the house only as the film begins robs the novel's story line of a major point: that Ruth had lived there for some years with no sign of supernatural activity. The sudden appearance of a voice crying in the night is, in the novel, an unexpected, vaguely ominous occurrence,which Ruth & Sara assume is a neighbor. That there are neighbors in Georgetown highlights a second point in the novel that is weakened by the shift to Pennsylvania: a setting in highly civilized, urbane Georgetown makes supernatural events seem even more incongruous with everyday life than the film's rural setting in Pennsylvania, where the house's isolation, like Hill House in "The Haunting," seems to invite every ghost within shouting distance. (Why are these houses always 'way out in the country?)

Despite inferior adaptation from the novel, performances & production values in The House That Would Not Die are exceptional in every way. Stanwyck & Egan are physically perfect for the characters described in "Ammie, Come Home." As the at-times-possessed Sara, Wynn must portray not only that modern young woman but the long-dead Amanda too, and she does a very solid job. Her boyfriend is portrayed by Michael Anderson Jr., who does not resemble the tall, slim, dark character in Michael's novel, but plays the role well. All things considered, this is a worthwhile TV-film that will repay a viewing. But don't deny yourself the chance to read the book.

Back in the late 1960's and through the early part of the 1970's the occult became an extremely popular subject for TV and movies. ABC was making "Movies Of The Week" that appeared usually on a Wednesday night. This was one of them. This one involves a haunted house which was recently bought by Barbara Stanwyk and soon she with the help of family and a helpful neighbor Richard Egan try to get to the bottom of things. Literally.

I was 14 when I first saw this and for weeks I wouldn't go into our basement. Don't watch it alone!

The house That Would Not Die is one of the all-time great ghost stories ever filmed. In fact, the only thing wrong about it is that it's total running time was only about 75 minutes to fit into a 90-minute time slot. It should have been a full ninety minutes or longer and released to theaters. Ruth Bennett (played by the great Barbara Stanwyck who hands off scene after scene to her younger co-stars to let them shine in their own right) inherits a centuries-old house built before the Revolutionary War, in the Amish Country of Pennsylvania. The original owner, General Douglas Campbell, was suspected of collaborating with the British during the war. His daughter, Amanda (Ammie) and her boyfriend, American Soldier Anthony Doyle, confront him, and they disappear shortly after, ostensibly eloping. For the rest of his life, Old General Campbell roams the countryside calling: "Ammie, come home!", a cry heard two hundred years later by Stanwyck and her young niece, Sara Dunning (played by the pretty and very talented Kitty Wynn, after they move into the house. Aided by Stan Whitman (played by Michael Anderson, Jr., another very talented actor), and Professor Pat McDougal (played by another great actor, Richard Egan) they endeavor to discover the reason why the general is still searching for his long-lost daughter after two hundred years. The resolution and climax of this exciting ghost story will have one and all riveted to the edge of their seats, especially if properly viewed at midnight, Saturday night, during a thunderstorm with howling winds and crashing thunder.

Somewhat uneven and even at only 80 minutes begins to outstay its welcome. But I don't wish to be too harsh for there is a marvellous performance by Barbara Stanwyck which helps to hold this together and if only Richard Egan could have been half as good this might have a been a great picture. It's a TV movie with minimal budget but even without special effects the possession scenes are most effective.

This starts as a haunted house movie but swiftly moves into the possession business and in these scenes Egan acquits himself well and Kitty Winn (who would have a role in The Exorcist three years later) is particularly good and indeed is the main reason for those shivers down the spine more than once during this modest but successful little film.

Recently I had the good fortune of coming across an old ABC movie of the week called "The House that would not Die", starring the always talented Barbara Stanwyck. In the movie, Ms. Stanwyck and her niece buy an old, charming house in the country, thinking that they have found their dream home. However,as is always the case in these films, strange things begin to happen, such as disembodied voices, bizarre wind gusts that seemly appear out of no where, and Stanwyck's niece, Sara, begins acting as if someone or something has taken her over. The result is a well done ghost film that relies on creating a spooky atmosphere rather than any gore or violence. Such a shame that television does not have more movies like these anymore. God, how I miss the age of the miniseries. If you get a chance, check this out on you tube. We won't be disappointed. 9 out of 10.