The Legend of Hell House (John Hough, 1973)

Cast: Clive Revill, Pamela Franklin, Roddy McDowall, Gayle Hunnicutt, Roland Culver, Peter Bowles, Michael Gough. Screenplay: Richard Matheson, based on his novel. Cinematography: Alan Hume. Art direction: Robert Jones. Film editing: Geoffrey Foot. Music: Delia Derbyshire, Brian Hodgson. 

There are those who are so fond of horror movies that they'll accept almost anything as long as it provides the necessary creep factor. But I am not one of them, so I found The Legend of Hell House silly and dull, with an exceptionally preposterous ending. It's the usual haunted house nonsense, with a group of "researchers" who spend nights investigating the paranormal reported to be rife in the creepy old mansion. In this case there's Dr. Barrett (Clive Revill),  a physicist who purports to believe that ghosts and such are natural phenomena -- something to do with electricity -- and brings along a machine that's supposed to neutralize them. His wife, Ann (Gayle Hunnicutt), insists on joining him, and they're accompanied by two mediums, Florence Tanner (Pamela Franklin) and Ben Fischer (Roddy McDowall). Fischer has been there before, many years ago, in a similar exploration in which everyone was killed or maimed except him. It's a mark of the screenplay's ineptness that we never get a full explanation of why he decided to return, except that he and Barrett and Tanner have each been promised £100,000 if they can expel the spooks. None of the characters is particularly likable, so we don't have much invested in their survival. Neither the writer nor the director is skilled at building suspense, and the result is a marshaling of clichés unleavened by wit.  

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (Ronald Neame, 1969)

Maggie Smith and Pamela Franklin in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

Cast: Maggie Smith, Robert Stephens, Pamela Franklin, Gordon Jackson, Celia Johnson, Diane Grayson, Jane Carr, Shirley Steedman. Screenplay: Jay Presson Allen, based on her play and a novel by Muriel Spark. Cinematography: Ted Moore. Production design: John Howell. Film editing: Norman Savage. Music: Rod McKuen. 

My problem with the title character of the film version of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is that she seems to have sprung full-blown -- mannerisms, catchphrases ("I am in my prime"), ideology and all -- from the imaginations of the people who created her, screenwriter Jay Presson Allen and actress Maggie Smith. I'm no more able to envision a backstory, a childhood, or an inner life for her than I am for a Dickens character like Mr. Micawber. At least in Muriel Spark's novel there are hints of something more, but they haven't translated well to the screen. Which is not to say that Smith didn't deserve her Oscar for playing the role; it's a fascinating, nuanced performance, from Jean Brodie's initial dominance to her comeuppance to her final defiance. If we don't know how Jean came to imagine herself an Übermensch, that's our problem, the film eventually suggests. Better to sit back and watch some fine performances: Robert Stephens as the randy art teacher, the always wonderful and welcome Celia Johnson as the headmistress, and 19-year-old Pamela Franklin convincingly transforming the 12-year-old into the post-pubescent student whom Jean underestimates. But anathema upon the producer or whoever decided to commission Rod McKuen to write a goopy song that unaccountably was nominated for an Oscar. At least it plays only over the end credits when you can easily escape it.

 

The Third Secret (Charles Crichton, 1964)

The Third Secret (Charles Crichton, 1964)

Cast: Stephen Boyd, Pamela Franklin, Richard Attenborough, Diane Cilento, Jack Hawkins, Paul Rogers, Alan Webb, Rachel Kempson, Peter Sallis, Patience Collier, Freda Jackson, Judi Dench, Peter Copley. Screenplay: Robert L. Joseph. Cinematography: Douglas Slocombe. Production design: Thomas N. Morahan. Film editing: Frederick Wilson. Music: Richard Arnell.

The Third Secret is a moderately engaging whodunit probably most remembered today as Judi Dench's first movie. She plays the assistant to a gallery owner, Alfred Price-Gorham (Richard Attenborough), who becomes a suspect in the murder of a psychoanalyst, Dr. Leo Whitset (Peter Copley). Actually, Whitset's death was ruled a suicide until Alex Stedman (Stephen Boyd), an American who is a well-known commentator on British TV news, rejects the idea that Whitset, who was his analyst, could have killed himself. So Stedman starts snooping, aided by Whitset's precocious young daughter, Catherine (Pamela Franklin), who also doesn't believe her father could have committed suicide. She knows the names and addresses of Whitset's other clients, who include not only Price-Gorham but also a beautiful but neurotic young woman, Anne Tanner (Diane Cilento), and a distinguished judge, Sir Frederick Belline (Jack Hawkins). Stedman figures that each of them had a motive for killing Whitset, to keep the secrets they had confided in their analyst from becoming known. Naturally, complications ensue, and there are some mildly shocking twists before the truth -- the titular "third secret" -- comes out. Dench's few brief moments on film hardly make it worth seeking out, but it has the familiar comfortable quality of British mysteries and some nice black-and-white Cinemascope camera direction by Douglas Slocombe.