I wouldn't say I love the I Love A Mystery movies, but I do like them. This third and final film in the series is another enjoyable tale - an old dark house thriller with a Southern Gothic feel.
The film opens with the camera prowling through the rooms and corridors of a run-down mansion while the voice of Phoebe Martin (Helen Freeman) tells how she drove her daughter Rachel crazy and alienated her two sons. In flashback mode, we then see what exactly caused Rachel to lose her marbles.
Back in the present, Detectives Jack (Jim Bannon) and Doc Long (Barton Yarborough) accompany Nina Arnold (Jeff Donnell) to the mansion so that she can reunited with her mother Rachel, but her arrival coincides with lots of mysterious occurrences and a murder or two, which Jack and Doc investigate.
The sleuthing is a lot of fun, with the pair discovering the requisite hidden rooms and secret passageways, and uncovering skeletons in the Martin family closet, although one deduction in particular takes a bit of swallowing (Jack guessing that the fireplace is hollow and might conceal a body). The suspense is ably handled by director Henry Levin and his cast do well, with Donnell putting in a particularly fine performance.
The film might not be a classic of the genre, but it's a reasonable way to pass the time, and I would have been happy if the series had continued a little longer than it did.
5.5/10, rounded up to 6 for IMDb.
The film opens with the camera prowling through the rooms and corridors of a run-down mansion while the voice of Phoebe Martin (Helen Freeman) tells how she drove her daughter Rachel crazy and alienated her two sons. In flashback mode, we then see what exactly caused Rachel to lose her marbles.
Back in the present, Detectives Jack (Jim Bannon) and Doc Long (Barton Yarborough) accompany Nina Arnold (Jeff Donnell) to the mansion so that she can reunited with her mother Rachel, but her arrival coincides with lots of mysterious occurrences and a murder or two, which Jack and Doc investigate.
The sleuthing is a lot of fun, with the pair discovering the requisite hidden rooms and secret passageways, and uncovering skeletons in the Martin family closet, although one deduction in particular takes a bit of swallowing (Jack guessing that the fireplace is hollow and might conceal a body). The suspense is ably handled by director Henry Levin and his cast do well, with Donnell putting in a particularly fine performance.
The film might not be a classic of the genre, but it's a reasonable way to pass the time, and I would have been happy if the series had continued a little longer than it did.
5.5/10, rounded up to 6 for IMDb.