Sharp, atmospheric, well-mounted
little suspense thriller, with socko performances. Shout!’s Scream
Factory label has released on Blu-ray YOU’LL LIKE MY MOTHER, the
1972 neo-gothic horror chiller from Bing Crosby Productions (released by Universal),
based on the novel by Naomi Hintze, scripted by Jo Heims, directed by Lamont
Johnson, and starring Patty Duke, Richard Thomas, Rosemary Murphy, and Sian
Barbara Allen. A quite modest critical and commercial success when first released
in movie theaters, YOU’LL LIKE MY MOTHER reached a much wider and more
appreciative audience when it was subsequently run (and re-run, and re-run...)
on television in the 1970s, due to Thomas’ THE WALTONS fame. Seen today,
it’s a model of tight, intelligent, no-frills suspense. In a most welcome
surprise for a relatively low-profile title, Scream has included lengthy
new interviews with Thomas and Allen (a big plus for fans of the reclusive actress)
here, discussing the movie’s production, along with a photo gallery and
original trailer for this very nice-looking 1080p HD 1.85:1 widescreen transfer.
Heavily pregnant widow Francesca Kinsolving (Patty Duke, VALLEY OF THE DOLLS,
THE SWARM) has traveled three days by bus from Los Angeles to snowy, frigid,
rural Minnesota in the hopes of meeting, for the first time, her dead husband’s
mother. Francesca had eloped with Matthew during a two-week Army leave; his
death in a plane crash seven months ago has left the grieving mother-to-be searching
for some connection with his family—particularly since Matthew spoke so
highly of his mother. Local bus driver Red Cooper (Robert Redford look-alike
Dennis Rucker, COMING HOME, AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN) is concerned for tramping-through-the-snow
Francesca, but she assures him she’s only visiting the Kinsolvings for
the night—maybe—and that she’ll probably be back at the local
store for the evening bus out of town. Too bad, then, the coming blizzard snows
her in at the vast Kinsolving mansion...because Mother Katherine Kinsolving
(Rosemary Murphy, WALKING TALL, THE HAND) is a cold, cruel, patrician presence
who openly questions Francesca’s baby’s legitimacy, and who makes
it clear she wants nothing further to do with her dead son’s new “family.”
Francesca is shocked to discover Matthew never mentioned a sister, mentally
challenged Kathleen (Sian Barbara Allen, TV movies SCREAM, PRETTY PEGGY, THE
LINDBERGH KIDNAPPING CASE), but she is aware of stories about Matthew’s
cousin, Kenny (Richard Thomas, SEPTEMBER 30, 1955, BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS)
whose portrait hangs in the mansion—a troubled youth who once pulled the
shell off young Matthew’s turtle just to watch it die. When Katherine’s
car fails to start, Francesca is stuck there for the night...so why is her cocoa
laced with sleeping pills? When a terrified, battered Kathleen gives Francesca
a newspaper clipping indicating Kenny is an escaped rapist/murderer, her troubles
are only beginning; she goes into labor and her baby is delivered still-born
by nurse Katherine. Or is it? When Kathleen shows Francesca that her baby did
indeed survive, and when Francesca discovers that Kenny is hiding in the mansion—which
reveals a rather shocking twist to the story—it’s a cat-and-mouse
game of wits to see if Francesca and her baby can escape with their lives.
It’s been a long time since this reviewer last saw YOU’LL LIKE MY
MOTHER, when it was a particular favorite anytime it popped up on the late,
late show. However, almost all of it immediately came back to me when watching
this disc, and most importantly, it didn’t suffer by comparison to decades-old
childhood memories of its PG-rated chills (its restraint a liability, perhaps,
for some of today’s more jaded viewers). Since it was so ubiquitous on
television back during the early-to-mid 1970s, and because of its similarity,
both thematically and structurally, to so many similar made-for-TV movies that
were produced around that same time—as well as the presence of TV-familiar
faces like Duke and Thomas—it’s not surprising quite a few YOU’LL
LIKE MY MOTHER fans question whether it was originally made for the small screen
(it wasn’t). Its director, Lamont Johnson, was certainly no stranger to
television, though, having toiled in episodic series work like STEVE CANYON,
PETER GUNN and DR. KILDARE through the 1950s and 1960s, before he was helming
interesting big-screen features like KONA COAST, THE MCKENZIE BREAK, and THE
GROUNDSTAR CONSPIRACY.
It’s fair to argue that all that fast, clean, to-the-point TV work of
Johnson’s may have helped shape YOU’LL LIKE MY MOTHER’s admirably
“straight” tone. After all, screenwriter Jo Heims (PLAY MISTY FOR
ME, BREEZY) has the recognizable elements for a real gothic horror potboiler
here, including a vulnerable mother-in-peril, locked up with a bizarre family
with a deadly secret—an initially spooky mentally challenged girl, a waspish
maternal figure of cruel menace, and a charmingly boyish psychopathic rapist—in
a vast, unnerving, remote castle/mansion cut off by a blizzard. In another director’s
hands, this could be the stuff of broad, melodramatic horror, with over-hyped
flourishes of lighting and camerawork—as well as hammy, obvious, “sinister”
overacting—that would lazily play right into audiences’ expectations
for a genre piece like this.
Not so with Johnson’s direction, or with Heims’ script. YOU’LL
LIKE MY MOTHER eschews the red herrings and complicated, scammy plots we find
so comforting in these kinds of outings—Francesca knows right from the
start she’s in terrible danger (it’s nice to have a heroine who
doesn’t take forever to figure things out); she knows who’s threatening
her, and she knows what she has to do to survive. There’s no scheme to
kill the baby (Kathleen confirms that deaf Katherine truly believed the baby
was still-born; Kathleen saved it without her mother knowing), or to pull an
elaborate ruse on the townspeople concerning Francesca’s sudden arrival.
It all feels quite matter-of-fact and spur of the moment, and thus, quite plausible...and
realistically scary. Director Johnson stays grounded, as well. Nobody is leaping
out of dark shadows; the eerie mansion is mostly shot in a square, credible
manner. Johnson avoids tricky lighting effects or camerawork, saving overt stylization
for just one scene—ironically; the birth scene, a normally joyous occasion
made terrifying here by Duke’s realistic screams and optically-printed
frame shudders and warping, all in service of our already well-positioned dread
for both mother and daughter’s safety.
Admirable, too, is Heims’ and Johnson’s refusal to go deep into
the psychology of the characters. Duke and Allen make their characters’
simple motives crystal clear: Francesca is trying to save her baby (Duke has
the easiest role, and makes it work), and poor, tormented Kathleen wants to
help Francesca and the baby survive—that’s it (it was a big loss
when cult actress Allen decided to step away from acting in the 1980s; she’s
superlative here in a turn that features far more subtlety than you’d
expect when essaying such a character). The motive for Katherine’s actions
aren’t twistedly unique, based on a scarred psyche (nor supernatural,
which would be the next cliché on the list for a movie like this). SPOILER
ALERT: It’s the oldest story in the world for her: money, as well as simple
animal protection of her children (just as the latter becomes for Francesca).
We may see Katherine briefly protect Kathleen from the physical abuse of her
brother, Kenny, and even try and deflect Kenny’s growing need to abuse
Francesca (she deliberately puts him off her scent, concerning the keys, slapping
him and yelling, “Stop trying to make things happen!”). But she’s
a killer, none the less; our first introduction to her is her blithely and cruelly
poo-pooing Kathleen’s wracking, wailing laments over the kittens Katherine
has drowned (imperious, frightening Murphy is letter-perfect here). And when
she spies Francesca escaping, Katherine sics the psychotic Kenny on the fleeing
pregnant woman without hesitation—she knows what Kenny will do to her.
As for Kenny, he’s evil, pure and simple, and clearly enjoys his own cruelties,
yet the movie never gives us any background, or excuses, for his nature or deeds—he
just exists to torment, to rape, and to kill (it’s a pity the multi-talented
Thomas had to fight THE WALTONS stereotyping; he’s excellent here, as
always). We don’t need to know anything more than that, to scare us in
YOU’LL LIKE MY MOTHER.
YOU’LL LIKE MY MOTHER isn’t perfect; there are holes here and there
that can distract when you’re thinking about the movie after it’s
finished. For instance, what is it that everyone in town already knows about
the Kinsolving family? Why does Red react negatively to Francesca’s announcement
that she was married to Matthew? And why doesn’t the night time store
manager answer her question about the family? He knows something’s wrong
with that family. What is it? And how does Red, a longtime resident, not know
that something fishy is going on with who, exactly, is claiming to be Mother
Kinsolving? Indeed, wouldn’t he let someone know that a previously unknown
heir had arrived for the Kinsolving money, since Katherine lets us know it all
went to her? The town wouldn’t think something was up there (when Red
finally checks back on her, he’s still in the dark about what’s
what)? And how about the baby? As a father of six, let me tell you: that’s
one conveniently quiet one-day-old baby. Maybe the others might not hear it
caterwauling through the heavy oak doors and attic floors every five minutes...but
I doubt it (and they don’t have Duke feeding the baby nearly as often
as it would need to be—she’d be traipsing up and down that hallway
every hour on the hour). As for the violent finale, there’s something
fishy in that freeze-frame shot of Thomas, just before we suddenly find Murphy
cradling her son—anytime I see an awkward freeze-frame like that I immediately
smell a compromised, post-production “fix” for some kind of continuity
problem. Still...those are relatively small carps for an otherwise expertly-constructed,
smartly-performed little thriller.
The 1080p HD MPEG-4 AVC Video 1.85:1 widescreen transfer for YOU’LL LIKE
MY MOTHER generally looks good. Grain structure is reasonably tight, although
some scenes get a bit pebbley on a whim, an original light and film speed issue
magnified by the digital coding. Colors look a tad subdued, but I’m going
with that being a deliberate choice by Johnson and his cinematographer, Jack
A. Marta (TV’s DUEL, WALKING TALL). Image fine detail is quite good. Speckling
and a few scratches are evident, but unobtrusive. The English DTS-HD Master
2.0 split mono audio track is nicely grounded, if unexciting...but that’s
to be expected in this almost exclusively dialogue-driven soundtrack. English
subtitles are included.
As for extras, there’s a pretty hefty "The Mystery of Kenny and Kathleen" running 55:34, that features new alternating interview clips from stars Sian Barbara Allen and Richard Thomas—pretty cool for an admittedly marginal (in terms of mainstream viewer recognition) title. Both actors start from the very beginnings of their careers, through to YOU’LL LIKE MY MOTHER, an important stepping stone for both young actors (Thomas was finishing up a three-year contract commitment for Universal, while new contractee Allen—in the last class of such players for the studio—was debuting on the big screen). Allen speaks quite a bit about the concrete elements of her performance here—how she moved her hands, how she made herself cry—while Thomas speaks to his deliberate choice of keeping Kenny chillingly opaque in terms of motivation. I’ll be honest: I’m a huge WALTONS fan (I’m not ashamed), but I don’t know if I’ve ever heard an interview with him. And I must say: he’s remarkably articulate about his craft (without being pompous), while remaining cogent (a really tough row to hoe). I can’t remember a more eloquent dissertation on performing, from an actor (if he repeats the same thoughts at times, it’s clearly because he’s getting asked variations on the same questions). Fans of the publicity-shy Allen will want this interview just for her thoughts alone on dating Thomas, whom she famously co-starred with again on THE WALTONS (their somewhat differing takes on the relationship is amusingly cross-cut here), as well as her explanation for why she disappeared from movie and TV-making (her big, “mysterious” story, as some fans like to believe, is actually not all that uncommon for actresses in Hollywood). A photo gallery (2:14), with music from Gil Melle’s (THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN, TV’s KOLCHAK: THE NIGHT STALKER) effective score, and an original (and frankly poor) trailer round out the extras. (Paul Mavis)