Recently watched: 1976 ABC Movie of the Week Death at Love House. Joel and Donna Gregory (Robert Wagner and Kate Jackson) are a husband-and-wife writing duo collaborating on a biography of the doomed Hollywood star Lorna Love, who died tragically young in 1935. (Coincidentally, Joel’s artist father had an impassioned affair with Lorna and painted a portrait of her). And for reasons never fully explained, the couple move into Love’s totally intact Hollywood mansion to research their book (Love House was shot on location at the former estate of silent movie star Harold Lloyd).
Creepily, Lorna’s perfectly preserved, eternally youthful corpse is on permanent display – Snow White-style - in a shrine on the premises. Strange occurrences immediately start happening. Who is the ethereal “woman-in-white” Donna glimpses in the garden? Why are there macabre occult symbols everywhere? Who was Father Eternal Fire, Lorna’s satanic looking “spiritual advisor”? And who tried to kill Donna in the locked bathroom by carbon monoxide poisoning?
Obviously, almost anything produced by Aaron Spelling is bound to be campy fun. Raspy-voiced, gorgeous young Jackson is always an engaging screen presence. With its emphasis on occultism, golden age Hollywood and lurid showbiz tragedies (Lorna is clearly inspired by Jean Harlow), Love House suggests a page torn from Kenneth Anger’s Hollywood Babylon. It will also remind you of other, infinitely superior movies: Sunset Boulevard (1950), The Legend of Lylah Clare (1968), Fedora (1978). And like 1944 film noir Laura, characters spend a lot of time staring, mesmerized, by an oil painting of a dead woman. For verisimilitude, supporting parts are played by actual classic Hollywood veterans like Sylvia Sidney, Joan Blondell, Dorothy Lamour and John Carradine. (The Gregorys’ literary agent is played by Bill Macy - Walter from Maude!).
Less happily, zero effort is taken to make Lorna 1930s “period appropriate”. (She’s seen in flashbacks portrayed by Marianna Hill - cult movie fans will recognize her from Messiah of Evil (1973) and The Baby (1973) - with a feathered blow-dried 70s Farrah Fawcett coiffure). And the ending is worthy of an old episode of Scooby-Doo! Smudged, murky prints of Love House are easy to find on YouTube.
Aaron Spelling was the absolute master of 70s/80s OTT television - Starsky & Hutch, Charlie's Angels, Hart to Hart, The Love Boat and (of course) Dynasty; we loved them all! Jx
ReplyDeleteYes! Re: Aaron Spelling, it's like when you see "A Ross Hunter Production" in the opening credits of a movie. You know you're in safe hands and it's going to be good campy fun x
DeleteWatching this tonight. HOW exciting. I also would like to see Kim Novak in The Legend Of Lylah Clare. It was a ripe time to exhume the corpses of Hollywood rumors and myth. Oh, the list goes on. Savage Intruder is much better than it should be. Heat, Sweet Bird Of Youth, The Roman Spring Of Mrs. Stone, Fedora, Veronika Voss, The Mystery Of Marie Roget, and The Great Put-On. I call them The Veiled Divas. Such a marvelous vein to mine. And, of course, Sunset Blvd. I would love to learn more about all these films. I did a couple of posts on them... but just scratched the surface.
ReplyDeleteGive me your verdict afterwards! Keep your expectations low!
DeleteOh, you care! Well... here it is. I wanted to give poor Kate a sandwich throughout the whole proceeding. Charlies Angels was at it's height when she did this movie. She is a wonderful actress. I love her slight southern accent and her direct manner. They certainly kept her running about. Mr. Wagner. He's so... dull. Not a bit of angst or anxiety in the man. I loved all the cameos. Joan Blondell is one of my favorites and demonstrates she can still chew the scenery with the best of them. She was a bit wasted in the role, but had one wonderful scene. DeCarlo? A bit stiff. But lovely to see. Bill Macy walks through the film being Bill Macy which is fine. The woman that played Lorna... well, she was a bit wrong. We needed Morgan Fairchild - someone seductive and manipulative. The hair was all wrong. But it worked fine. Not as good as I hoped by well worth the watch. Sylvia Sydney is a personal fave and she manages nicely as always. My issue is with the flow of the story. The editing is choppy and the director doesn't seem to know how to complete a scene. Some of the cinematography also left a lot to be desired. It should have been filmed like an old 1940s film noir with lovely framing - especially in all the two character scenes. As horror goes and gothic hollywood goes... it falls just short of being a middle of the road Hammer film. But glad I got to see it... for free - on YouTube.
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