Happy Mother's Day, Love George

Actor Darren McGavin made a stunning directorial debut with this suspenseful chiller about a series of gruesome murders in a small New England fishing village that end up having a bizarre connection to an adopted teen(Ron Howard) who is searching for his biological parents. The marvellous cast includes Cloris Leachman(as Howard's mother), Patricia Neal(as Howard's aunt), Bobby Darin, and Simon Oakland. The most memorable performance is given by Tessa Dahl, who not only plays Neal's daughter in the film, but is, in fact, her daughter in real life. Released to theatres as HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY, LOVE GEORGE, the film was retitled RUN, STRANGER, RUN for home video release.

This is an interesting film in that it's one of the first cinematic efforts of a TV actor who would go on to become one of Hollywood's most famous directors (Ron Howard) and the sole directorial effort by another (at the time even more famous) TV actor, Darren "The Nightstalker" McGavin.

The interesting cast also includes singer Bobby Darin and McGavin's "Nightstalker" co-star Simon Oakland. But perhaps the two real heavyweights here are Patricia Neal and Cloris Leachman as two feuding sisters living in a small New England town. Howard plays the teenage son of Leachman, who she gave up when he was a baby due to a scandal which might have had something to do with the mysterious death of her sister's husband (the "George" of the title). The small town is also plagued more recently by the disappearances of a number of middle-age men (including later in "Jaws 2"). Howard's character quickly becomes a suspect when he returns to the town after many years, but there's also the two sisters, the mother's jealous boyfriend (Darin), and the aunt/sister's sexually precocious teenage daughter (Tessa Dahl), who speaks in an English accent for no real reason and immediately tries to seduce her own first cousin (who may be even MORE than a cousin).

Interestingly, despite its predominantly American cast, this movie very much resembles another early 70's Patricia Neal movie, the British film "The Night Digger". Tessa Dahl,who gets an "introducing" credit here, is Neal's real-life daughter and her father is Brit poet/writer Raould Dahl (which would explain the English accent,I guess). Raould Dahl had written the screenplay for "The Night Digger"; according to the credits he had nothing to do with this film, but the two films are strangely similar nevertheless. This film is brilliantly acted, suitably atmospheric, and well-scripted until the very end, which is very abrupt and pretty much non-sensical. The ending is definitely flawed, but this is still an interesting movie. I'd like to know more of the story behind it.

Following the previous year's "You'll Like My Mother," starring the equally All-American Richard Thomas, this film plays off the boyishness of the lead for added effect. The location filming is great, if only a bit tedious, and we are entertained by Patricia Neal's scenery-chewing. Cloris Leachman actually underplays her role. Bobby Darin is wasted as a throw-away supporting character.

The plot is a bit interesting, although the killer's identity is telegraphed within the first fifteen minutes.

Ron Howard is directed well by Darren McGavin, revealing that the former could have been a much more serious actor, but was instead saddled with the horrendous "Happy Days" series the next year. McGavin sandwiched this between the "The Night Stalker" TV movie in 72, and the subsequent series (as an actor, of course).

Tessa Dahl is tolerable as the disturbed young woman.

Worth a watch, but don't expect, well, "You'll Like My Mother."

S-L-O-W, poorly scripted 70s junk What a disappointment! Patricia Neal acts like she's Bette Davis in WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? The pace is deadly slow--even for a 70s movie--and the Ron Howard character spends scene after scene just wandering through the town. Staring at a house. Wandering some more. Just awful.

NOTHING happens the first hour. And the Bobby Darin character suddenly is "gone" and the end is too little too late.

Skip it.

Runaway, Video viewer, runaway!

At first I only wanted to watch "Happy Mother's Day, Love George" because it was in my personal top three of 70s movies with the coolest sounding titles (alongside "Sometimes Aunt Martha Does Dreadful Things" and "Whoever Slew Aunte Roo?"), but as soon as I got a good look at the names involved in the cast & crew I got even more intrigued by this curious mixture between mystery, melodrama and raw horror! The film was directed (and produced) by none other than Darren McGavin; the one and only lead star of the cult series "Kolchak: The Night Stalker" and several other TV hits. This was the only long-feature film that Carl Kolchak directed, which is a bit of a shame since he doesn't do such a bad job at all. The script was penned down by Robert Clouse, who made a few legendary Kung-Fu classics starring Bruce Lee ("Enter the Dragon", "Game of Death") but also a handful of severely underrated horror and thriller flicks like "The Pack", "The Ultimate Warrior" and "Deadly Eyes". The cast is possibly even more dazzling, with the pairing of movie queens Cloris Leachman and Patricia Neal, but also Simon Oakland, writer Roald Dahl's daughter Tessa, pop-singer Bobby Darin (in one of his last appearances before his untimely death) and a still very young Ron Howard (decades before he became one of Hollywood's most acclaimed directors himself). So, in case you're even just remotely interested in versatile ensemble casts, this film is worth tracking down! But there's more, as "Happy Mother's Day, Love George" is also a compelling and pleasantly deranged '70s shocker. Admittedly the first full hour is slow-paced and rather uneventful, but I guarantee that your patience will be rewarded with a virulent – albeit easy to predict – finale. Ron Howard plays the timid young stranger Johnny Hanson who arrives at a small fisherman's town in search of his long lost parents. From the very first moment he sets foot into Ronda Carlson's diner restaurant, she knows that Johnny is her son but she keeps her mouth shut. For you see, Johnny's conception led to a giant family feud, as the father was the husband of Ronda's sister Cara and he – George – died shortly after in mysterious circumstances. Whilst wandering around town, Johnny also meets Cara's daughter Celia and she promptly gets a crush on him, not knowing he's her half-brother. Meanwhile, the little town is also plagued by several mysterious disappearances of male inhabitants. Is there a connection? Well, sure there is! As far as I was concerned, the totally bonkers finale more than enough compensated for the slow and dullish start. Besides, the slow start gives you the opportunity to enjoy the acting performances. It's too bad that Bobby Darin's role is small and insignificant, because a more outrageous role so close before his death would have made him even more immortal. The denouement (as in: the revelation of the killer's identity) is fairly obvious and not at all surprising, but don't let this ruin the fun.