When this was first aired, girls, back in 1973, (the year I graduated high school!) I guess I was too busy trying to get myself into college, propelling me to a trajectory toward the stars (celebs, not astral) to bother with this horror schlock! But forty years later, and for a Labor Day Weekend, it was a delightful hoot!
Shirley Knight, for a very brief time, was billing herself as Shirley Knight Hopkins. No one cared about Hopkins, only Knight, so she got smart to this. She also, over the years, got heavy, and even here, ten years after "Sweet Bird Of Youth," she still has a figure, but is more filled out than when she was at ingenue weight, playing Heavenly Finley.
This story is both a ripoff of "Rosemary's Baby," (but still better than that NBC remake) combined with an indictment of Corporate America, where people sell their souls to get ahead, and features some of the most glamorous witch costumes this side of "The King And I." The red robes look like a cross between a community theater production of that musical, or waiters in a second rate Chinese restaurant. Against the black backgrounds, I have never seen anything macabre look so stunning.
And the cast--Shirley, Kathryn Hays as Janet, her roommate, who has a hilarious scene, where she is, literally, bottled up. Then there is Neva Patterson, and even Bridget Hanley, from "Here Come The Brides." I am telling you, this was a hoot! I howled with laughter during the faux dream sequence; if only Ralph Bellamy had turned up as Dr. Sapirstein! But, I guess, copyright laws would not let him make an appearance.
This is some of the best trash I have ever seen, darlings! Don't miss it!
And don't miss Kathryn Hays in the bottle! It will make you long for Billie Burke, as Glinda, in Munchkinland!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment