Hayley Mills gets top billing, although Hywel Bennett gets the most screen time, as he 'tells' the story of how he met Mills. Bennett was a sort of ne'er do well chauffeur who considered himself quite the authority on art, meets really rich girl Mills,and to make a long disjointed story short,they marry.
There are a horde of relatives and neighbors who you think might have something to do with something, but they just wander in and out. Mills, who has a difficult time with her 'Anmerican' accent, only trusts one person--Britt Ekland (she was hired as a German tudor, but stayed on as 'companion') The only 'relative' who gets any scenes at all is George Sanders, an advisor she calls 'uncle'.
Usually so paced and cool, you get the uncomfortable feeling Sanders is in an uncharacteristic hurry to get his lines out. Anyway,there's an overly emotional architect (Per Oscarsson) who designs a modern house for them, and a strange old lady who just hovers around after warning them not to move there. The house has lots of interesting features (like a swimming pool under the living room floor) controlled by a giant clicker, and the furnishings are an odd combo of old-world art and wrought iron next to track lighting and chrome.
Three of the characters end up dead, and despite watching the death bed scene of Oscarsson twice, I still don't get why he's dying. Mills, despite the dialect problems, is the only one that turned in much of a performance here,Bennett is just okay, and Ekland, a really beautiful woman, is pretty bad (she does have one screaming scene that's believable). Frequent flashes of images don't add a thing and the whole production just feels jerky. Despite the label 'drama/mystery/horror', don't expect much of any. The only horror is the presence of what are referred to as 'wasps' at a party, but close-ups show they are just honeybees--even the bugs were badly miscast. I can't recommend this one, even to die-hard Christie fan.
There are a horde of relatives and neighbors who you think might have something to do with something, but they just wander in and out. Mills, who has a difficult time with her 'Anmerican' accent, only trusts one person--Britt Ekland (she was hired as a German tudor, but stayed on as 'companion') The only 'relative' who gets any scenes at all is George Sanders, an advisor she calls 'uncle'.
Usually so paced and cool, you get the uncomfortable feeling Sanders is in an uncharacteristic hurry to get his lines out. Anyway,there's an overly emotional architect (Per Oscarsson) who designs a modern house for them, and a strange old lady who just hovers around after warning them not to move there. The house has lots of interesting features (like a swimming pool under the living room floor) controlled by a giant clicker, and the furnishings are an odd combo of old-world art and wrought iron next to track lighting and chrome.
Three of the characters end up dead, and despite watching the death bed scene of Oscarsson twice, I still don't get why he's dying. Mills, despite the dialect problems, is the only one that turned in much of a performance here,Bennett is just okay, and Ekland, a really beautiful woman, is pretty bad (she does have one screaming scene that's believable). Frequent flashes of images don't add a thing and the whole production just feels jerky. Despite the label 'drama/mystery/horror', don't expect much of any. The only horror is the presence of what are referred to as 'wasps' at a party, but close-ups show they are just honeybees--even the bugs were badly miscast. I can't recommend this one, even to die-hard Christie fan.