WELCOME HOME (1971)

 "WHERE DID YOU COME FROM?  YOUR NAME?"

  Dr. Frank Bowers has been in hospital after recuperating from a car crash.  He is released and goes home to his country cottage to surprise his wife Penny on his discharge from the hospital.  Unfortunately, when Frank goes into the cottage and sneaks up behind Penny to give her a hug, she shrinks away in terror. 

Calling for her husband, a man comes into the room and asks Frank who the hell he is and how he got in here.  Confused, Frank says, "It's my HOME!  Who the hell are YOU?!?!?".  The other man replies he's Dr. Frank Bowers.  It soons becomes clear that no one recognizes him as Dr. Frank Bowers -- including his wife -- and another man is living his life. After freaking out a tad, the 'other' Dr. Frank Bowers wrestles Frank down to the couch and gives him a few CCs of something to knock him out.  Frank is put to bed to sleep it off as the Bowers have guests for dinner:  Mr. & Mrs. Sherwood.  During dinner, Frank wakes up and calls the coppers then crashes the dinner party in the dining room pleading with the Sherwoods to recognize him as Frank Bowers.  They too have no idea who he is.  Det. Sgt. Greene arrives and tries to make sense of what's going on.  Of course, there's more going on here than a retread of 'William Wilson'; in fact the initial setup is where all similarity ends.  There are sinister goings-on . . . . uh . . . . going on.

This made-for-TV little horror flick from the British series 'OUT OF THE UNKNOWN' takes its starting point from the classic Edgar Allan Poe doppelganger story "William Wilson" as an inspiration and takes off from there.  There is nothing better than British TV from the 1970s and this has all the atmosphere and 'feel' of that superb decade. 

Dr. Frank Bowers - One is played by Anthony Ainley whom most people remember as the Master in DOCTOR WHO starting with THE KEEPER OF TRAKEN until the OG series went on 'hiatus' in SURVIVAL.  Ainley famously came from a family of actors and here he does a nice job with the confused hysteria such a character must needs go through.Jennifer Hillary as Penny looks very, very familiar to me and I swear I've seen her in many things but this appears to be her only credit.  Weird.  Maybe SHE has a doppelganger too?  Bernard Brown as Frank Bowers - Two has actually been in many things from CROWN COURT and LOVEJOY to MISS MARPLE:  4.50 FROM PADDINGTON.  Gerald Sim, of course, is a well-known character actor who perhaps I know most as the Rector in TO THE MANOR BORN but his genre credits include DR. JEKYLL & SISTER HYDE and Hitchcock's FRENZY.  Mr. and Mrs. Sherwood are played by John Downer (from the 1979 CASTING THE RUNES) and Margaret Anderson (from THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT).  WELCOME HOME has a lot of twists and turns that keep you guessing.  Just who IS Frank Bowers?  And who is the real Frank Bowers?