Certainly seems there was a golden age of psychological thriller-- and this one is more of a chair-gripper.
Some say uncomfortable, some say "what was the point?", some say, "The quality of the picture was lousy."
I watched it as presented on New Castle After Dark, and they found a good copy of it, because the colors were lush and the scenes--meaning each room of a mansion--was very deep and ornate. An undertone of Edward Gorey on safari here, especially with the gloomy etchings one is treated to. Always cool when vintage movies have lots of art that someone had to actually create.
It is hard to escape the Baby Jane vibe, or for me the Grey Garden vibe... there was a lot to capitalize on there at that time. Rich people unfettered by a life of necessary routine and budget constraints: Think of how crazy you could go.
The cast is stellar - I would say no one underperforms, but that Carol Kane absolutely blows this thing up and out of this world with her portrayal of an utterly self-indulged psychopath with a preternatural understanding of African anthropology.
Others ask, how could they be doing this in an American neighborhood? But I think this might have been set below the border, because the old man says "Why don't you go up to Arizona for a week?" It would explain the brief flashes of a hilly, lush outdoor world - the old-timey looking convertibles - the tropical contents of the mansion.
