Originally broadcast on ITV on New Year's Eve, 1980, this low-budget but still fairly effective little ghost story features Elaine Stritch as a rather verbose Hollywood film executive who has come across to check out a down-at-heel country mansion recommended to her by a peer of the realm for her upcoming horror movie.
The mansion - or, at least, the habitable part of it - is occupied by a young couple (Ben Aris and Norma West) who are, presumably, related to the aforementioned Lord though they can barely afford to heat or light the place. There's also a surly old maid-servant (played by the redoubtable Stephanie Cole).
The fun begins when events transpire to leave Stritch alone in an unlit section of the old house - a section where a murder/suicide took place many years earlier....
There are no special effects here and the audience are drawn into the tale by the old-fashioned method of Stritch overdubbing her thoughts as she wanders around the house trying to find a way out or even an understanding of the source of her mounting terror.
We eventually find out part (though not all) of what's going on - but will it be too late for Ms Stritch?
Not a bad little thriller. Not up there with the BBC's MR James Ghost Story For Christmas tales but would have been worth having the family gather round the telly to welcome in the new year with. It reminds me very much in the Edward D. Wood short "Final Curtain".
Just don't expect too much and you won't be disappointed.
