Persecution

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.

Once one of the queens of melodrama ("Peyton place " "imitation of life") and of the film noir ("the postman always rings twice") , Lana Turner whose career had waned in the sixties , followed Bette Davis' and Joan Crawford 's footsteps :she tried her hand at horror movies ;so you get what you expect: a festival of camp .

The most memorable scenes are to be found at the beginning and at the end of the film:the Xmas night , enhanced by carrols , in the gloomy room where Davis finds his presents, while the sound of mechanical soldiers is heard ; then his final revenge "I said : lap up!"

The screenplay is disjointed, the flashbacks -which feature Trevor howard,all the same!)are badly introduced in the story ; the atmosphere is rather disturbing , with the principal and her beloved cats that seem to be her real family , for she has her way to destroy her human one. An aging Turner's face adds to the lugubrious Gothic house .

A note about Olga-Georges Picot who plays Monique :in the late sixties/early seventies,this polyglot embassador's daughter was one of the most promising French actresses and played opposite very famous partners ; but her physique and her good looks went against her ,and by the mid-seventies ,she was relegated to soft porn material : in "persecution" ,her role already "predated" her future career:despondent about her failed career,she threw herself out of a window at the age of 57.

1974's "Persecution" was the debut feature of producer Kevin Francis and his Tyburn Films company, a short lived outfit that doesn't exactly hit the ground running with this sluggish psychodrama ("The Ghoul" and "Legend of the Werewolf" are clearly a step up). Born and bred on the great Hammer tradition (his father was cinematographer-turned-director Freddie Francis), the younger Francis sought to keep the British end up with Tony Tenser's Tigon out of the way, and both Hammer and Amicus on the wane, but this initial effort was universally panned and suffered numerous title changes that hurt the box office ("The Terror of Sheba" and "The Graveyard" to name but two). Actor Robert Hutton had virtually retired in front of the camera since relocating from Hollywood to England in the mid 60s, most often seen in movies by director Freddie Francis ("They Came from Beyond Space," "Torture Garden," "Trog," and "Tales from the Crypt"), and decided to turn his dislike of cats into a script that went through numerous other writers before it was shot by director Don Chaffey ("Jason and the Argonauts," "One Million Years B. C."). It's sad to think that what emerged on screen was deemed suitable by any self respecting filmmaker, but Hollywood glamor queen Lana Turner signed on to play the lead (a former glamor queen), what amounted to yet another 'horror hag' outing begun by "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" (more recent efforts cast Agnes Moorehead in "Dear Dead Delilah" and Debbie Reynolds in "What's the Matter with Helen?"). 52 year old Lana Turner still looks majestic as Carrie Masters, a woman still clinging to her wealth and fame, still bitter over being crippled by a jealous husband (Patrick Allen), and continuing a reign of terror over her illegitimate son David (Ralph Bates), whose irrational fear of cats led him to drown her favorite feline in a bowl of milk as a child, because the love she had to give was lavished upon it rather than him. The boy's idea of an appropriate Christmas gift was a handmade ashtray that he was quite proud of; in response, she offered him a coffin to bury the cat in a pet cemetery filled with felines, all of whom bear the name Sheba. David knows nothing about Carrie's husband nor the reason he left her, and is unaware that she has been blackmailing his real father (Trevor Howard) since the day he was born, unwanted by both self-serving parents. The now grown-up David has done quite well for himself, wed to loving spouse Janie (Suzan Farmer), with his own infant son to keep them busy and happy together. Unfortunately, they still live next door to the possessive, unrepentant Carrie, who freely admits that she finds babies 'too helpless,' her birthday celebration turning into a funeral for the defenseless child, suffocated by the current Sheba. Reeling from this disastrous turn of events, the grieving parents are further divided by Carrie's idea for a 'nurse' to take care of Janie, a seductive minx (Olga Georges-Picot) whose physical charms are meant to entice David into a compromising position. Though everything goes according to Carrie's diabolical plan, things just won't end well for anyone in this isolated dysfunction. Among the actors, the only disappointment is Ralph Bates, who made very few theatrical films, and wears the same dour expression from start to finish, but in his defense that sums up his character's downtrodden existence. There aren't any surprises in store even for patient viewers, and this unrelenting catalogue of misery was soundly rejected by audiences and critics alike, Lana herself labeling the picture a 'bomb,' as did Trevor Howard. Tyburn had nowhere to go but up, yet after barely one year only three feature films resulted from their efforts, two of which never even crossed the Atlantic; Kevin Francis deserved better, but so did the entire British film industry as well.

If you like seeing sick, narcissistic folks destroying each other, then I have a film for you..."Persecution"! It's a movie about two very sick people and the twisted relationship they have together.

The story begins with a young boy drowning his mother's beloved cat in a bowl of milk! Apparently, the cat was loved more than he was and he was sick of it and killed the poor animal. Animal lovers might not want to see this as it's pretty realistic.

Many years pass. The boy has grown up and is married with a baby. For some inexplicable reason, he brings his family to see his mother...a cold, uncaring manipulator...full of snide comments but no love whatsoever. Soon she hires a sexy new maid and you realize the 'maid' is basically a prostitute coming to destroy the son's marriage. But before this can happen, one of his mother's cats suphocates the baby...and this, combined with the seduction lead to very bad things...at which point the son snaps and spends the rest of the movie tormenting his soulless mother.

While the film is well made and Lana Turner is excellent as the evil mother (in fact, it's one of her best performances), you might wonder WHY...why would anyone want to watch it? After all, it's a very unpleasant film...though an odd and intriguing character study of the evil mom and her adult son. In fact, if the film was intended to be a prequel to "Psycho", it would have fit very nicely into the Hitchcock film...showing what led to Norman becoming such a dangerous psychopath.

By the way, there is a goof that made me laugh. The son digs up a grave and the body is a skeleton...yet the bones of the hand are fully articulated...like a college model. Real human skeletons completely fall apart as there is nothing to hold these bones together.

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!...