Friday, January 4, 2019

1970's MADE-FOR-TV MOVIES: THE HOUSE THAT WOULD NOT DIE (1970)


There's problems afoot from ghosties left over from the American Revoution in The House That Would Not Die, another example of the Movie of the Week exploring the horror genre.

The plot of this one involved a family getting a good deal on a house only to discover through seances and being possessed by spirits and a lot of things that can't just be explained just by the house settling that the house is flippin' haunted. It's nicely creepy and isn't bad for an early horror edition from the early 70's TV Movie Horror canon.

The Cast:
Barbara Stanwyck-The screen legend plays the new head of the house and has to deal with the scary goings on as well as romantic come-ons by Richard Egan. Miiss Stanwyck had just finished a successful television run in The Big Valley, which concluded its run the year before this movie. She followed up The House That Wouldn't Die with another horror TV movie, A Taste of Evil.

Richard Egan-The burly Mr. Egan of 300 Spartans and Demetrius and the Gladiators fame plays a professor here.

Kitty Winn-Kitty has a rather showy role as the often possessed niece of Stanwyck here. Her most famous career role is probably in another little possession movie called The Exorcist. She also is impressive as the leading lady in Panic in Needle Park with Al Pacino. 

Michael Anderson Jr.-Anderson was one of those guys that seemed to pop up a good bit in the 60's and 70's in films and television. I remember him most probably as one of The Sons of Katie Elder with John Wayne.

The Director: 
John Llewellen Moxy. Moxy followed this up by directing Stanwyck in A Taste of Evil. He also helmed the director's chair in Gene Roddneberry's Genesis II and the small screen classic The Night Stalker.

The Writer: Henry Farrell wrote the teleplay. His most famous work is the horror classic Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?

The Producer:
Aaron Spelling. Spelling served as producer for so many of these films, I think I'm going to stop listing him at this point. (It's going to be a long month, after all!) Interestingly, Stanwyck's last acting credits of any kind were in Spelling's 80's shows Dynasty and The Colbys.



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