The Screaming Woman

As a very big fan of Mrs De Havilland ,it was a great pleasure for me to see her with her old partner in crime Joseph Cotten (some will remember "hush hush sweet Charlotte" ),even though the latter has a too brief appearance.

Ray Bradbury 's short story was modified and her heroine ,a young girl named Margaret ,was replaced by an older lady ,Laura.Actually the story recalls that of William Irish aka Cornell Woolrich ,"fire escape" (transferred to the screen as " the boy who cried wolf" ) in which a little boy told imaginary stories till a true crime happens.....just as the sheriff and his deputy do not believe that old bat who sees prowlers everywhere ...and who do not want "riffraff " around -the short scene where the "commoner" tells her :"you made my day,no you made my week" is worth the price of admission -

Jack Smight succeeds in confusing the viewer: is Laura a lunatic? (after all,she forgot that the greenhouse was destroyed by fire)has she really discovered a buried alive woman ? Or has she been framed by her daughter-in-law who covets her money and would like her to be considered irresponsible ?As cousin Olivia and her old beau Joseph wanted to do pitiful Davis/Charlotte away from her valuable property in "hush hush sweet Charlotte" .

De Havilland and Cotten met again in "airport' 77" but the movie was a spate of clichés and they were given poor parts.

Laura, a woman in her late 50's just recovering from a sojourn in a mental hospital returns home to her estate in the temporary care of her son and his wife. A rather dubious couple to say the least. While walking in the grounds one morning she hears or thinks she hears groaning sounds emanating from the ground and tries to raise the alarm. Unsurprisingly when help arrives the voice is no longer evident and so the seeds of doubt are raised about her sanity. Caught this one on the box very early one morning and scared me enough to have a really lousy sleep. De Havilland is in her element here as the recovering patient and gives her character enough credibility to even make the viewer wonder as to her mental state. The black & white photography enhances the suspense of the whole story. Unfortunately not available on dvd or video.

I saw this TV movie as a kid with a babysitter and ended up so freaked out that I spent the night in tears waiting for a hand to reach up from under the bed and grab me. I saw it again as a young adult and it still sent chills up my spine with the side profile shots of the buried woman. Very haunting images.

This movie is WONDERFUL. I remember this was one of many great horror flicks ABC made for TV. Others included "When Michael Calls" and "Haunts of the Very Rich". I'd be first in line to buy a DVD box set of those old flicks.

In THE SCREAMING WOMAN, Laura Wynant (Olivia de Havilland) is out for a carriage ride on her estate, when she hears what she believes to be someone calling for help. Adding to her distress is the fact that the pleas are coming from underground, in a filled-in basement! Laura quickly tells her relatives, who are unconvinced.

Of course, the viewer is shown right off that Laura isn't hearing things! Questioning her own sanity, she is coddled by her family, while knowing what she heard must have been real.

Meanwhile, quite conveniently, a close neighbor named Carl Nesbitt (Ed Nelson) has just lightened his marital load, with his wife having "gone away", after he supposedly told her of his affair with another woman. We have been shown otherwise. We know that old Carl has done something very bad indeed!

When Laura calls the police, their reaction makes it clear that everyone must believe that Laura is out of her mind. It so happens that she has recently returned home after a stay in a mental hospital. Will anyone believe her in time to save a life?

Now, one might think that knowing so much about the plot -much of it in the first few minutes- would decrease the overall tension. Instead, it increases it, by making it clear from the beginning that the clock is ticking! Laura does everything she can do, and tells everyone she can find, but no one wants to help. It's a nightmare! Annnd, the climax is... perfection!

Ms. De Havilland is astonishing in her desperate role, carrying the whole movie herself! The wonderful supporting cast includes Joseph Cotten and Walter Pidgeon!

Another outstanding made-for-TV movie from the 1970's! Watch this right now!...