Persecution

It's so sad to watch Lana Turner who made amazing drama and romance to do a horror movie at England in twlight's career, as l'd read somewhere that the most of critics deemed the 70' as lost decade to the cinema, l don't agree certainly but they had some reasons to said that, like this movie that is so unexplainable and disturbing, Lana plays a machiavellian mother who mishandle your son in extreme way of without regret, acceptable plot although it wasn't to every taste indeed, while the results in final could be understood as insane is funny to see a horrible revenge, probable the audience will be glad to see it!! the official DVD released here in Brazil's market was a bad copy, needs a upmost new restoration!!

Resume:

First watch: 2018 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 6.25

I found a copy of this movie in a thrift store, and since it only cost fifty cents, I figured what the heck? Probably I should mention that I'm not a die hard fan of British horror films, though I've seen a few that I've liked. I found this one unusual in several aspects. There's the casting of Lana Turner, of course, and she manages to be appropriately (and convincingly) hateful. But two other things struck me most about the movie, the first being was how effectively bleak the movie's atmosphere was; every scene felt grim and dark. Another thing was that the core story could have fit nicely in one of those notorious EC horror comic books. Note that I said, "the core" - as it is, the story in this movie is much too drawn out. While it never gets to be boring, it won't take viewers long to start asking the movie to simply get on with it, which it never does. This story may have worked as one of the stories in a horror anthology movie, but as it is, viewers will lose patience long before the movie reaches the end.

I saw this as Graveyard in a mediocre copy. The thing is producer Kevin Francis, I'm told, won't allow these movie he produced to be released now. Turner is good so it Bates, but the ending confrontation really goes on and on and drags out so much that when the very appropriate ending comes it lacks the impact it should have. Perhaps part of the problem is the lack of music and too talky a finale. The story is more disturbing than scary but the beginning is really the best part, then after an unexpected kill the movie becomes slower and less interesting. Deserves to be seen and seen in better form. Of the three horror films Francis produced I'd put this in the middle, The Ghoul is worse, the final Werewolf film is the least original but the most satisfying.

THE GRAVEYARD (aka: PERSECUTION) opens with young David Masters (Mark Weavers) drowning the family tabby in its own bowl of milk, due to David's belief that his mother loves the cat more than him. His mum, Carrie (Lana Turner) sets out to teach the lad a lesson.

Decades later, a sullen, adult David (Ralph Bates) is now married and a father himself. He takes his overwrought wife, Janie (Susan Farmer) and son to his mother's vast estate for his birthday. Mum's got a new cat, and goes about destroying David's life. Horror and death unfold, as we discover that Carrie's motives don't only involve her felines.

A nice, big ball of yarn, this movie is a perfect 1970's film, brimming with lunacy and senseless slaughter!

EXTRA POINTS FOR: #1- The cat cemetery at the center of the topiary maze! #2- The blazing hot Olga Georges-Picot as the new nurse, Monique! #3- Janie's hilarious trip down the stairs! #4- The utterly absurd, degrading finale!...

Also shown under the titles THE GRAVEYARD and THE TERROR OF SHEBA, this Gothic British horror movie stars Lana Turner as a maniacal mother who delights in making life miserable for her spineless son(Ralph Bates) who is slowly, but surly, tiring of his deranged mama and her wicked, wicked ways. With her beautiful face, every hair in place, her fashionable costumes, and her exquisite jewelry, Lana Turner, at age 53, is still the very essence of Hollywood glamour. But this is 1974 we're talking about, and her name didn't have the same sparkling effect on the box-office that it had in say 1947, so the film went mostly unnoticed by the movie-going public. The picture itself is a dreary and rather ghoulish retread of familiar BABY JANE-ish high jinks. But Turner has fun with her looneytunes character, and makes this otherwise derivative little film quite watchable. Lana personally regarded this as her worst performance, but she isn't bad at all. Actually she's quite good. I'm convinced she did more with the role than anybody else could have. In fact, she won the Best Actress Award at Spain's Festival of Horror Movies. I strongly recommend this film to her fans who should find it quite interesting to see Turner playing the kind of merciless, blood-curdling psychobitch that Bette Davis and Joan Crawford played in their Scream Queen days.