Savage Intruder

An ageing, alcoholic movie star employs a young man to assist with the staff at her Hollywood mansion but he turns out to be a drug addicted, scheming, woman murdering maniac. Miriam Hopkins play the faded star perfectly, and this was to be her final role; David Garfield convincingly plays the handsome psychopath. As others have said this is "Sunset Boulevard"/'Baby Jane" but with plenty of bloodshed plus some psychedelic drug sequences. It is something of a curiosity, trashy but fun. I can find very little written about this in my various movie books, sad because it is a film that deserves to be better known. I have the original British VHS, released by Vipco and they weren't shy in pushing this as a gory slasher movie. I guess for 1970 it was quite explicit. Available on DVD as Hollywood House of Horror.

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.

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

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.

Aging and alcoholic past it movie star Kathleen Parker takes a spill and needs a personal assistant. Unfortunately for her, Vic might not be a good choice for the job. In fact he might just be…A Savage Intruder!... Opening to a salvo of in and out fading clips from old movies before the camera draws in upon the Hollywood sign, pulling closer and closer until it fixes on the tattered and peeling facade, rusty strips hanging out and creaky in the breeze, this mean little hippy era psycho chiller poses old school Hollywood as corpse, intent signalled as the shot pulls down beneath the Hollywood sign to reveal some severed human remains. Vic is introduced soon after and things follow a fairly typical path, with the added frisson of an age war aspect. The town may have its stately and dignified older folk, well mannered and good too each other despite their foibles, but the decadence of a new age as embodied in the smarmy Vic is set on mockery, exploitation and worse for the gentler souls. In colourful and modishly trippy party sequences Vic and his chums are a fairly striking bunch of freaks and weirdos, and when they come up against the likes of Kathleen or her contemporaries perhaps maggots claiming their dominion over the dead milieu? Some of the partying scenes come off a little loose and may be offputting, I was amused enough to ride them out though the dated psychedelic touches are best applied in Vic's flashbacks. Chequer patterned surfaces, gaudy colours, close up faces with distorted speech shot through a fish eye lens and a nifty gore shot to top things off, it's a cool sequence if you groove to this sort of time capsule oddity. For more creepy kicks mannequins get a neat showing, as well as some weapon flashing murders, though nothing too grisly goes down. Miriam Hopkins fits the character of Kathleen perfectly, perhaps because she was an old school movie star herself, whilst fellow veteran Gale Sondegard is equally well suited to a role as an older housekeeper. Virginia Wing overacts a little but does OK as a nice young Asian lady, whilst John David Garfield has a suitably oily and arrogant demeanour as Vic. He falls a good way short of being vicious or scary enough though, which brings things down a good deal. Also the film peaks at around the hour mark, with a draggy final block propelled in barely adequate fashion by a few freaky touches. Kinda unsatisfying ending too. Still, the film as a whole is odd enough to be interesting and mean spirited enough to be a little unsettling, so it just about works on the obscure curio level. Not recommended to most, but worth a look if you dig this kind of off the beaten track kookiness.