User Reviews

In a bit of curious casting, Constance Ford makes a return appearance in another episode of 'Thriller', and this was only the third one. She portrayed the overbearing sister of George Grizzard in the series premiere, 'The Twisted Image'. In her way, Ford was just perfect for these types of roles. I don't know what she was like in real life, but on screen she was a real (rhymes with witch) on wheels.

So here's a nice little tale of greed and murder, laid out around a dying man's will and a diary he kept that implicated himself and his wife in the murder of the wife's wealthy stepmother. The old lady was already eighty four and in ill health, but could have hung around for a few more years. Nothing that an extra little shot of insulin couldn't cure. Seeing as how this tidbit of information might be useful to the authorities, good old Connie (Ford) figures it's worth about a hundred grand to keep things on the down low.

You know, Connie might have pulled this off if she had a cooler head about things. Instead, she gets on the wrong side of Myra Walworth's daughter Anne (Christine White) and things begin to unravel pretty quickly. She never should have made that play for the doctor (John Baragrey). Had she slowed down just a bit, she might have seen the pile of cash just sitting there on the table ripe for the taking and been long gone. Instead, the cops come calling, and I couldn't help thinking that Connie would now have plenty of time to start keeping her own diary.

26 years after her death, movie and TV fans (daytime and nighttime) still talk about the works of the powerful Constance Ford, who could command a scene even if she was being absolutely nasty in it. Not only did she slap Sandra Dee into a Christmas tree in "A Summer Place", beat up prison matron Jeanne Cooper in "House of Women" and flash her eyes at Warren Beatty in "All Fall Down", she also won the love of Bay City residents (and the many fans) of "Another World". If Ada Hobson and Connie Walworth turned out to be twin sisters, Ada would be reading Connie the filth for her motivations, and then offered her sweet rolls and tea.

Constance as Ada was the heart and soul of her large (and often extended) family, but Constance as Connie wants nothing more than to destroy the family who threw her out after the death of her husband and father-in-law. Snagging her late father-in-law's diary from the hospital, Connie discovers that him and his wife were responsible for the death of a mother-in-law's step-mother years ago and goes out of her way to track down evidence so she can build a family for everything she can get. She is delightfully nasty and even violent, caustic and bullying and hysterically funny. Ada exclaimed "Nothing changes but the date!", while Connie theorizes that there's more than one way to skin a mink.

With "The Beverly Hillbillies" co-star Harriet MacGibbon as her mother-in-law and Christine White as her sister-in-law, Constance has a lot of victims for her bullying methods, even as she flirts with all the men around her. But the tables may just turn, and it's going to be fun to watch Constance's Connie get her just rewards. She chews the scenery as if she's dining on ribeye steak and Maine lobster, dripping venom instead of butter and lemon, and the actress Constance is generous in sharing a taste of this with the audience.

Might have a different ending if made today. There are three evil women in this melodrama and Connie. Connie plays what was then a more obvious gold digger who has run out of luck with an overbearing mother in law. The mother in law was in fact a murderess. She has a rather plain simpering fool of a daughter who thinks she's good. She is as bad as her mother. Connie finds out about her mother in law's evil doings in her past and blackmails her as anyone would do if they were down on their luck as she is and surrounded by hypocrites. The whimp duaghter covers up her mother's sins, steals the diary Connie was using as blackmail and sets the house on fire. The idiotic cops nab Connie for everything while the puke of a duaghter and her doctor friend walk into the sunset unscathed. I'd have made the daughter perish in the fire as well as the doctor trying to save her with Connie finding the money in the entryway and driving off to future happiness. Hollywood was warped.

Third episode on the first season of the Thriller TV series. Constance Ford plays an evil woman who married a rich man but he died in a car crash. She keeps getting money from her mother-in-law who hates her. She plans to inherit a lot from a rich old uncle who is dying...but he passes on leaving no will. Then she finds a diary he kept that (more or less) makes it clear that his sister (her mother-in-law) was poisoning him. Guess what she plans to do with the information.

Overly convoluted and just plain boring TV show. The twists and turns are thoroughly predictable and I actually laughed at a deathbed confession sequence (which neatly ties everything up). The cast is OK but its Fords show all the way. She's great and steamrolls through the show taking no prisoners. Unfortunately even her great acting can't make this show more than bearable. Too dull and predictable to bother with.