Happy Mother's Day, Love George

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!

Three Oscar winners-Patricia Neal, Cloris Leachman and Ron Howard are stuck in this strange mishmash of a movie.

What starts out as a drama about a young man searching for his roots takes an extreme wrong turn about 3/4 of the way through and becomes a slasher flick for no discernible reason. Up until then it's not a bad little film but that severe shift in tone scuttles the movie completely. How did this ever attach a cast like this to such a messy enterprise? Perhaps old trouper Darren McGavin in the director chair was able to convince his actor friends to join the project but it does none of them any favors.

Darren McGavin enjoyed a lengthy career as one of Hollywood's most likable and dependable performers, best remembered as intrepid reporter Carl Kolchak in the film and TV series of THE NIGHT STALKER. It may be a surprise to learn that he, like Larry Hagman, directed a single horror film in his heyday, and never did a second (in Hagman's case it was "Son of Blob"). 1973's "Happy Mother's Day, Love George" was of course a torturous title, soon reissued as "Run Stranger Run," under which it was seen far more often. McGavin proves to have a fine visual sense, and allows his powerhouse cast to bring their characters to vivid life, from a script by Robert Clouse, who had previously written McGavin's 1972 Steven Spielberg telefeature "Something Evil," soon to graduate to director himself with Bruce Lee's final film "Enter the Dragon." Fifth billed Ron Howard, after "American Graffiti" but before HAPPY DAYS (his name now shortened from 'Ronny'), actually stars as drifter Johnny Hanson, journeying from Los Angeles to the New England town of Malone Bay (location filming in Nova Scotia in October 1972) to discover the truth about his parents, who gave him up for adoption right after he was born. Cloris Leachman's café owner, Ronda Carlson, recognizes the young man as her son the moment he walks in, driving her cook, Eddie Malone (Bobby Darin), into fits of jealousy. From there, Johnny locates the home of Ronda's estranged sister, Cara Perry (Patricia Neal), and especially Cara's nubile teenage daughter Celia (played by Neal's real life daughter Tessa Dahl), who admits to her cousin her instant attraction and unbearable loneliness. The film moves at a leisurely pace, McGavin happy to indulge his cast in maintaining intrigue despite the more familiar elements. As things escalate into full on horror during the final half hour, only the final encounter between Johnny and the killer rings false, the director seemingly losing interest in a clear denouement. Still, the atmosphere, the banjo-led folksy music score, and the believable performances make up for any shortcomings in the script. Simon Oakland, soon to join McGavin in the KOLCHAK series, makes his final screen appearance as the sheriff, who seems to know everything about everyone, even the identity of Johnny's father, while Bobby Darin would pass away only months after the picture's sparse release. The director's comely wife, Kathie Browne, shows up briefly to become a murder victim, while Gale Garnett, nearly 10 years after her big hit "We'll Sing in the Sunshine," also comes to a bad end by pushing the desperate culprit into a corner (she had another horror film still ahead, 1980's "The Children"). The greatest impression is left by the lovely Tessa Dahl, only 16 at the time, making it a shame that she forsook her mother's profession of acting to follow that of her father, author Roald Dahl (her daughter is gorgeous model Sophie Dahl). After 30 years of performing in Hollywood, Darren McGavin had what it took to be a director of great promise, but like so many before him left audiences wondering what kind of impact he might have had behind the camera had this initial film found proper distribution, admittedly a tough film to market. Lastly, he does make an uncredited appearance on screen, unrecognizable wearing a mustache in photographs depicting the title character of George Perry, Cara's long dead husband.

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.

Typically strong performances from Cloris Leachman and Patricia Neal are the spotlight attraction in this mostly-forgettable (and, approppriately mostly-forgotten) protoslasher/mystery about adolescent Ron Howard shaking a rural American town full of well kept secrets to its roots when he arrives to search for his biological parents. Meanwhile, resident country-bumpkins are turning up dead. Coincidence? Probably not.

No big surprises to be had here, as the plot takes many highly predictable twists and turns. Regardless, HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY, LOVE GEORGE is a passable time-waster with a mildly effective low-key atmosphere, and creditable performances by a cast of well-established players offer this project much needed validation.

Neither here nor there...you can certainly live without it.

5.5/10