Several years before they were on the Poseidon Adventure together and in separate films dealt with Cleopatra Jones, Stella Stevens and Shelley Winters Coast Guard together in this remake of the 1941 version of the play "Ladies in Retirement" where Stella, secretary to Shelly, brings in her two younger siblings, one of whom she thinks murdered their parents. Winters is not too pleased that she finds it's the younger sister in the Attic, a sacred sanctuary she holds as a shrine to her late husband, and that's when Stella breaks down and tells her the truth. This leads Winters to ask her to find another place for them as she can't live in fear with a murderer present, and of course, that leads to....a murder.
This is a campy horror that isn't unintentional comedy but it certainly funny in many moments, particularly with the presence of a dog and a certain body part. Beverly Garland has a fun cameo as the lover of Winters' masseur who makes an appearance at a meeting at Winters' home and drunkenly takes over in an amusing melodramatic scene. Skip Ward and Barbara Sammeth are the younger siblings of Stevens, which is the previous version were two older sisters. That version was a Gothic period thriller while this is set in the present day. It reminds me of a William Castle film without the goofy music and gimmicks. Winters pretty much plays herself, which is always fun, and Stevens gets to show her character's own mental issues and death gives her a lot of ranges to play. I wish I could say I give this a "hand", but that's up to the dog.
This is a campy horror that isn't unintentional comedy but it certainly funny in many moments, particularly with the presence of a dog and a certain body part. Beverly Garland has a fun cameo as the lover of Winters' masseur who makes an appearance at a meeting at Winters' home and drunkenly takes over in an amusing melodramatic scene. Skip Ward and Barbara Sammeth are the younger siblings of Stevens, which is the previous version were two older sisters. That version was a Gothic period thriller while this is set in the present day. It reminds me of a William Castle film without the goofy music and gimmicks. Winters pretty much plays herself, which is always fun, and Stevens gets to show her character's own mental issues and death gives her a lot of ranges to play. I wish I could say I give this a "hand", but that's up to the dog.