THE SCREAMING WOMAN

The Screaming Woman-

Come on, with a wonderful title like this, of course I love this movie! This was a made-for-TV movie, back in the early 1970's, part of what was called ABC's Movie of the Week. Most of the movies were done with a low budget, probably had shooting schedule of one week. It featured mostly TV personalities and old has-been Hollywood stars; kind of a pre-"Love Boat"/"Murder She Wrote" project. As a matter of fact ABC Movie of the Week launched a lot of pilots for 70's prime time line up like "Starsky and Hutch" and "Charlie's Angels".

Back to the "Screaming Woman". This movie starred our favorite Olivia DeHaviland, I'm sure the director Director Mr. Jack Smight was a fan of "Lady In A Cage" because Miss DeHaviland once again was put through a lot of horrible screaming moments, hence the title of the movie. The chaos starts from the opening title sequence: Miss DeHaviland is screaming and running through the woods, while the credits rolled as a John Williams soundtrack played in the background.

DeHaviland plays Laura Wynant, an old lady recently returned home after years in a mental institution. During a morning stroll in her estate, she hears a voice crying for help, after a desperate search, she discovers a woman buried alive in the yard. I was 8 years old when I saw this movie the first time and it scared the heck out of me! Because there is a really haunting image of a woman beneath the ground!

This movie was based on a Ray Bradbury short story, the rest of the cast include Joseph Cotton and Walter Pigeon as her friend and shrink. Neither of them believe her story, so the rest of the movie you see the poor old woman scrammbling around the neighborhood for help to rescue the underground woman. Being a former nutcase and apparently she was the town snob, the neighbors all avoid her like the plague and that results in a lot of yelling and over reacting with wonderful dialogue like: "MOTHER, WHAT IN THE WORLD IS THE MATTER WITH YOU?!"