SCREAM PRETTY PEGGY [1973]

 UNLESS YOU'RE NEW AROUND HERE, YOU ALREADY KNOW MY PENCHANT FOR 1970's MADE-FOR-TV HORROR MOVIES. 

Well, here's one and it's from 1973; pretty much the sweet spot for such things.  Add to this the presence of the one and only Bette Davis and all I need is some popcorn and I'm off to the races!  Despite it's shortcomings (and there are a few), SCREAM PRETTY PEGGY was a nicely diverting and entertaining foray into the seventies world of TV horror.  Ish.  The movie starts with a woman apparently trying to leave a house at night without anyone noticing her. 

Naturally, a ghostly-looking, nightgown-wearing female murders her.  We are then off to see college co-ed Peggy (Sian Barbara Allen) who is REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEALLY pushy with the woman handing out the job applications.  Peggy agrees to a a microscopically-low paying job housekeeping at the selfsame house we just saw a murder happen.  She knocks on the door and Mrs. Elliot (Bette Davis) answers and tells her to beat it.  Her son sculptor Jeffrey (Ted Bessell) says no you're hired.  Peggy is hired for a couple hours a day but in record time (mainly because she's disturbingly pushy) has managed to move in as a full-time caretaker when a drunken Bette Davis falls and breaks her leg.  Bette Davis hiding bottles of booze behind books in the library is priceless!  Jeffrey sculpts some ultra-disturbing statues out of some blood red material and talks about his dead sister.  Or maybe she isn't dead.  And the murdered girl's father turns up looking for her.  What do you think happens to him???  You got it.

The main thing most people say about SCREAM PRETTY PEGGY is that all the surprise twists are absolutely no surprise at all.  You'll completely know the whole scoop about 10 minutes in and none of your guesses as to what happens and who is responsible will be wrong.  This film was directed for television by Gordon Hessler who, it has to be said, isn't the greatest director in the world with THE OBLONG BOX, CRY OF THE BANSHEE and the 1971 MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE typical examples of his rather dull filmmaking.  Having said that, SCREAM PRETTY PEGGY is one of his better efforts despite the rather pedestrian script.  The house, for one, is fantastic outside and the interior set.  The production values and cinematography are pretty top notch owing, I'm sure, to the network backing.  Bette Davis is, of course, perfectly cast as the crotchety old lady who enjoys a tipple.  Ted Bessell, I think, is woefully miscast but does his best with the role.  Sian Barbara Allen is one of those 70's actresses that I've seen everywhere but can't remember where -- she must've done a LOT of television work in the 70's.  Her performance is really rather odd as Peggy is supposedly supposed to be the leading character we identify with but she plays Peggy as practically unhinged throughout the movie.  An odd choice.  Tovah Feldshuh has the cameo role of the previous housekeeper who is murdered at the beginning and her father is played by Charles Drake who was in the muffuggin THE MALTESE FALCON fer gosh sakes.  Allan Arbus of COFFY and Dr. Sidney Friedman of M*A*S*H* plays, of all things, a doctor.  The seventies vibe is all-pervasive which is a huge plus with me! 

Another superb aspect of the film are the fantastically eerie blood-red statues on display in Jeffrey's studio.  The film never dragged for me and kept me entertained if not blown away.