The Watcher in the Woods ** (1980, Bette Davis, Lynn-Holly Johnson, Kyle Richards, Carroll Baker, David McCallum, Benedict Taylor) – Classic Movie Review 6180

John Hough directs this intriguing and harmless but flaccid, predictable and listless 1980 Walt Disney Productions chiller, a family horror mystery, nicely shot in Technicolor.

With Brian Clemens, Rosemary Anne Sisson and Harry Spalding’s screenplay based on Florence Engel Randall’s 1976 novel A Watcher in the Woods, the usual weird occurrences are taking place in an American family’s new house in the English countryside.

Carroll Baker and David McCallum play Helen and Paul Curtis, the parents of young daughters Jan and Ellie (Lynn-Holly Johnson and Kyle Richards), who start experiencing odd, initially inexplicable events, that turn out to be ripples from a disturbed past.

With the movie not really quite eerie, susepenseful nor atmospheric enough, the handling is generally fumbled, and, despite a first-rate cast, none of the acting is particularly distinguished. And it is unfortunate that Bette Davis doesn’t really have enough to do in her top-billed  star role as Mrs Aylwood, spoiling the treat of seeing her.

Davis was filmed both as Mrs Aylwood in the present and 30 years earlier ago but, even with makeup to appear younger, she looked too old and the idea was abandoned. When Hough told her no one would believe her as a woman in her forties, Davis agreed: ‘You’re Goddamned right.’

The running time is only 84 minutes and there are signs of clumsy editing from a longer original version. There was an original 100 minute cut shown to test audiences, which was re-cut when the original ending was thought not to work. Then, when this met disapproval too, Vincent McEveety was brought in to tweak the film and shoot a new ending and opening credits sequence.

Two alternate endings appear on the DVD, most of the missing footage from the 1981 preview, apart from some small scenes and changes. Hough says his original ending is a mix of the two alternate endings and the film’s present one.

It is the last film of esteemed British character actress Eleanor Summerfield (1921-2001), as Mrs Thayer.

Benedict Taylor makes his cinema film debut.

Also in the cast are Benedict Taylor, Katharine Levy (both in their cinema film debuts), Frances Cuka, Richard Pasco, Ian Bannen, Georgina Hale and Dominic Guard.

It is shot in Technicolor by Alan Hume, produced by Ron Miller, scored by Stanley Myers and designed by Elliot Scott.

Keller (Bannen)’s house is Ettington Park Manor, Warwickshire, the one in The Haunting (1963).

The studio found Clemens’s original screenplay too dark and hired Sisson to lighten it.

Anjelica Huston plays Mrs Aylwood in the film’s remake The Watcher in the Woods (2017).

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 6180

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