A Taste of Evil

Plot synopsis:
Susan Wilcox (Barbara Parkins) is a young woman who was raped by an unknown man when she was a 13-year-old. Traumatized by the experience, she suffered a mental breakdown, did not speak a word for two years, and was entered in a Swiss sanatorium. Upon leaving the psychiatric institution for the first time, she returns to her old home where her mother Miriam (Barbara Stanwyck) is now in an unstable marriage with Harold Jennings (William Windom), an alcoholic. Susan returns to the woods where she was raped, and is followed there by someone. She suspects that this person is Harold, but Miriam tells her that Harold left her the previous night.
One night Susan sees a shadow by her window, then finds a dead man in her bathtub. She faints, regaining consciousness later in the presence of Dr. Michael Lomas (Roddy McDowall). There is no trace of a body, and it seems clear to Susan that someone is trying to drive her insane. Miriam believes that Susan is hallucinating, and begins to doubt the wisdom of Susan's release from the hospital. On a different night, Susan is chased out of the mansion by someone she thinks is Harold, and outside finds a dead body in the car. She turns to John (Arthur O'Connell) - an old family friend and the gardener - for help, only to find the car is missing when she returns.
After telling Dr. Lomas about her experiences, he concludes that her subconscious is rejecting Harold. Regardless, Susan begins to believe that Harold was the one who raped her. The same day that Harold returns to the mansion, someone from the woods calls out to Susan. She goes into the woods and finds the same dead man, who grabs her leg. She flees and hides in the cabin where she was raped. Harold arrives shortly afterward; he is later found dead, apparently shot by Susan. Miriam is told by the authorities that Susan will be returned to the sanatorium in Switzerland. It is then revealed that Miriam has been conspiring with John to subvert Susan's recovery, in order to disinherit her from her father's will. Miriam admits her lifelong jealousy of Susan, because Susan's father gave her more attention than he gave Miriam. It was John who raped Susan when she was 13.
A stalker targets Miriam, appearing to be Harold. She assumes that John is terrorizing her, and she fires him. The stalking continues unabated. One rainy night, Miriam catches sight of the stalker, who does appear to be Harold. John arrives shortly afterward, and Miriam shoots him fatally, it appears. She tries to leave the mansion, only to find Harold in the doorway. Driven to hysteria, she screams that she "made Susan kill" him. In the wake of this confession, the "stalking" is revealed as a counter-conspiracy masterminded by Dr. Lomas. Harold is alive, his "shooting" a ruse to lure Miriam into a confession. Miriam coldly allows herself to be arrested.

Tags: flashback

Review:
I fell asleep watching this movie late one night and woke up assuming I would one day get the opportunity to see it again.
Barbra Stanwyck and Roddy McDowell star in this chilling sleeper about a woman who return home to a country estate after spending years in a mental institution after being abducted there as a child.
Some truly scary scenes with some great plot twists that always keep you guessing.
I'm pretty picky when it comes to movies and I would highly recommend it to any horror/suspense/mystery buff.
Two scenes that stuck with me all those years were the shadowy figure entering the child's playhouse and the main character looking out a second story window and seeing someone standing on the lawn watching her on a dark and windy night.
Classic Chiller with Parkins and Stanwyck in Top Form.
To my surprise, it is just as effective watching today as I remember seeing it as a child.
There are many genuine thrills and chills as Barbara Parkins plays a young woman returning to the creepy mansion where she was traumatized as a child.
Barbara Stanwyck plays her mother.
Parkins was an underrated actress and is truly memorable in her role of the terrorized girl.
Stanwyck is dignified and elegant and this film is a reminder of the great talent that was hers.
A Taste of Evil is a very interesting movie that tackles a pretty big issue for it's time.
Anyways, the film starts with the young girl who is alone in her playhouse when a man (who we don't see) enters and attacks her off-screen.
After spending years in a psychiatric institution, Susan travels home with her mother Miriam to tackle her demons.
We meet some potential suspects of the rape; the mother's boyfriend Harold and a long time groundskeeper John.
Susan sees someone lurking in the shadows, she feels someone following her in the woods, and a very dead looking Harold keeps popping up around the house.
About halfway through the film we discover what/who is causing these strange occurrences, and I must say I was surprised by what it was and who assaulted Susan years ago.
It's a typical 1970's made for television thriller which I love, but this one adds a lot more such as the shocking storyline of the rape.
The acting was alright, Barbara Stanwyck was the best part about it.
"A Taste of Evil" focuses on a woman, Susan, who returns to her family estate after having been institutionalized following a sexual assault that she experienced as a young girl in the woods outside the home.
Soon after arriving home, however, visions, flashbacks, and sinister occurrences galore begin to intrude on her life.I was actually surprised by how darkly and disturbingly this film began—a young girl is sitting inside a playhouse built by her parents, isolated in the woods.
Especially for being in the early seventies.Based on Jimmy Sangster's Hammer-produced "Scream of Fear," "A Taste of Evil" was also scripted by Sangster, an produced by Aaron Spelling.
Like all of the glorious made-for-television films of the decade, "A Taste of Evil" is wonderfully atmospheric, with its obvious staged interiors, as well as the moody photography of the mansion exteriors (John Llewellyn Moxey, who later directed the phenomenal Christmas horror tele-flick, "Home for the Holidays," directs here with a keen eye on mood).
There are some fantastic scenes in the woods post-Susan's return, as well as nightmarish sequences and appearances of her apparent assailant.The film benefits greatly from having a phenomenal cast; Barbara Stanwyck leads as the matriarch, while Barbara Parkins is adequately emotive as the unstable woman.
Roddy McDowall is a welcome presence as the psychiatrist, and William Windom is sleazy and sinister as Susan's drunken stepfather.Overall, this is an enjoyable and at times legitimately suspenseful film.
The film's plot twists are also surprisingly wicked.
An enjoyable watch for a rainy evening; recommended highly to fans of the made-for-television horror and thriller films of the 1970s.
There were some classic jump up and scare-you-silly scenes as only Barbara Stanwyck could do.
If anyone knows where I can get a copy of this movie, I'd be truly grateful.
A Taste of Evil has remained with me since I was a child.
I searched filmographies of Arthur O'Connell to actually get the title for this film.
I remember the playhouse, I remember the sound of Barbara Stanwyck's voice, especially with key lines.
A Taste of Evil is an unintentional funny movie.
As mentioned before, story revolves around a daughter who comes home to an estate on the outskirts of San Francisco.
Movie has an excellent lovely Barbara Parkins, underrated legend Barbara Stanwyck, Roddy McDowell, and Arthur O'Connell, most notably for "Bus Stop" with Marilyn Monroe.
It is interesting because the first half of the movie is focused on Barbara Parkins and then the 2nd half is focused on Barbara Stanwyck.
However, the camp award goes to Barbara Stanwyck.
The funniest scene, which my friend and I keep laughing at, is when Barbara Stanwyck is cooking.
Barbara acts so bi-polar with a manic look on her face, she yells at Barbara Parkins as they leave to hunt, "Work up a healthy appetite, I'll have hamburgers piled right up to the ceiling." You have to see the scene to see what I am referring too.
As the movie progresses, you see funny scenes as a Raggedy Ann doll floating in the bathtub.
All the humor is on Barbara Stanwyck's facial expressions in the 2nd half.
Barbara Stanwyck Chiller.
Although I've only seen this film once, it lingers in my memory: I saw it at age 1O in 1971 when it was originally broadcast on television.
Although the rest of the cast, i.e. William Windom, Roddy McDowall & Barbara Perkins, etc.
did fine jobs with their roles, it's Stanwyck's playing of Miriam Jennings which lingers in my memory: talk about an unsympathetic role for an older Hollywood star to take!
If fans of Davis and Crawford doing their bits in the macabre thought Stanwyck stopped with THE NIGHT WALKER, think again!
Although it probably looks a bit tired and dated today, I remember the diabolical twist as being memorably sadistic and cruel plus there was a helping of LES DIABOLIQUES in the plotline.
The atmosphere was creepy - thunder and lightning and all - and I remember sinister Barbara dismissing her gardener (Arthur O'Connell) thusly: "You have until noon"....
GOOD CAST, GREAT PLOT, ENTERTAINING!.
TASTE OF EVIL is a wonderful suspense film from two horror masters.
The director John Llewellyn Moxey, who directed such great horrors as: Desire the Vampire, Killjoy, No Place to Hide, Home For the Holidays, and the famous TV film The Night Stalker, all made-for-TV movies.
The other horror master, writer Jimmy Sangster, who wrote excellent horror for: the TV film GOOD AGAINST EVIL, TV film SCREAM PRETTY PEGGY, many Hammer Horror films and the most famous and scariest KOLCHAK: THE NIGHT STALKER episode, HORROR IN THE HEIGHTS.
I'm glad I have this film, it is fantastic!SUMMARY: At a young age, Susan Wilcox (Barbara Parkins), is traumatically raped and goes into shock.
Many years later, her mother Miriam Jennings (Barbara Stanwyck) takes her home to their gigantic mansion.
While home, Susan sees her stepfather, Harold Jennings (William Windom), dead and his dead body floating around the house.
What is the secret of Susan's homecoming?I love the setting in the creepy old mansion.
The acting is so-so, Barbara Parkins does the best.
Hot off her success on The Big Valley, Barbara Stanwyck acted in a couple of spooky television movies.
In A Taste of Evil, she plays the overbearing, loving mother to Barbara Parkins, who was traumatized after being raped at a party when she was a little girl.
Parkins has finally recovered enough to return home, and Stanwyck tries to protect her from anything that might trigger a remembrance of the incident.
However, pretty much everything about her childhood home and the people who live there remind her of it, and soon she starts hallucinating!No offense to Barbara Stanwyck, but this is a typical tv movie.
The only good news is there's nothing wrong with Barbara Stanwyck's performance.
Susan Wilcox (Barbara Parkins) returns home after a lengthy stay abroad, in a mental institution.
As a child, Susan was brutally attacked and raped in her playhouse.
Once home, her mother, Miriam Jennings (Barbara Stanwyck) hopes she can settle in and readjust.
Susan is re-introduced to Her mother's second husband, Harold (William Windom), who hasn't seen her since she was little.
Everything goes along swimmingly, until Susan begins having flashbacks, and believes that a mysterious man is following her.
Susan keeps seeing a dark figure lurking in the shadows.
Is Susan really seeing these things, or simply regressing into a less rational state?
When she returns to her old playhouse in the woods, something happens there that seems to send Susan over the edge for good.
A TASTE OF EVIL is a tricky, made-for-TV suspense thriller w/ some jolts, and a double twist at the end.
The plot of A TASTE OF EVIL is a pastiche of cliches.
Stop me if you've heard this before:  A young woman, raped as a child and just released after years in a mental institution, comes home only to find herself seeing and hearing things that prove elusive when she summons witnesses.
Even a plot this hackneyed can be revived to a certain extent, but "A Taste of Evil" is just uninspired through-and-through.
Still achingly familiar, at least that film was considerably more suspenseful, and contained one or two surprises."A Taste of Evil" is efficient enough within its very limited aspirations, and Stanwick makes an impression in her role, but the film still several notches below the high standard of numerous made-for-TV suspensers of the seventies..
Writer Jimmy Sangster's revision of his own "Scream of Fear" from 1961 involves a young woman returning to her family's home in San Francisco after spending several years in a Swiss institution; seems she was attacked by an unknown man when she was a child, however the familiar surroundings quickly begin playing tricks with her mind--or is someone trying to drive her insane?
Lumbering made-for-TV yarn at first features Barbara Parkins running around the opulent woodland grounds in a terrified state, then exchanges Parkins' screams for those of Barbara Stanwyck's, playing Parkins' mother.
Parkins keeps shooing Stanwyck off to the store or away to the airport, while Arthur O'Connell shuffles around as a simpleton groundskeeper and William Windom keeps popping up as a drunken stepfather (always with the same pained expression on his face).
In case you want to watch a horror movie for the first time and need to be sure from beforehand that you won't be disappointment with the outcome, it always helps to research the names that are involved.
For example, in the case of "A Taste of Evil", I felt pretty comfortable thanks to the involvement of three reliable names (excluding the cast).
The film comes from the nearly inexhaustible stable of producer Aaron Spelling.
The man in the director's chair is named John Llewellyn Moxey and his repertoire is also quite astounding, with legendary titles such as "Horror Hotel", "The Night Stalker", "Nightmare in Badham County" and about three dozen of other worthwhile titles.
How could "A Taste of Evil" possibly go wrong, especially if you also take into consideration that cast features a few impressive names like Barbara Stanwyck, Arthur O'Connell and Roddy McDowall?
Well, "A Taste of Evil" certainly doesn't disappoint and I won't hesitate for one second to recommend it to fellow horror fans, but still one of the aforementioned prominent names cheated a little bit As the story slowly unfolded and tension mounted, I suddenly became more and more conscious that the plot felt familiar.
Poor Susan Wilcox returns home to her mother Miriam and the parental house, after she spent seven long years in a Swiss mental hospital to recover from the trauma of getting assaulted in her garden playhouse at the tender age of 13.
Oh that's right it's as good as identical to that of the unsung Hammer treasure "Taste of Fear / "Scream of Fear".
Sneaky Jimmy Sangster must have thought that nobody in the United States ever saw or even heard about this film that already got released in 1961, so if he changed a few details left and right and gave different names to the main characters, he could cash a quick and easily earned paycheck!
The build-up takes quite long and feels overly derivative, because you know of course that somebody is deliberately trying to push Susan into another mental breakdown and that her hallucinations are staged.
"A Taste of Evil" touches upon a few sensitive themes, like child molesting and family rivalry, and the extended climax (taking place during a good old-fashioned pouring rain thunderstorm) is action-packed and wild..
A TASTE OF EVIL (John Llewellyn Moxey, 1971; TV) **.
This is basically a reworking of the classic Hammer thriller TASTE OF FEAR aka SCREAM OF FEAR (1961; a re-acquaintance with which will follow presently) – from the same scriptwriter, the late Jimmy Sangster – with the setting changed from the French Riviera to a San Francisco estate.
Apart from the fact that the same plot had been done to death – by Hammer and Sangster themselves – in the intervening decade and its being a TV-movie, the results here are still mediocre when compared to the classy original (even if that had owed a good deal to the French suspense masterpiece DIABOLIQUE {1954} to begin with), largely because the frissons appear entirely telegraphed in this case!This is somewhat surprising given that many of the people behind it were cinema veterans and, what is more, hardly new to the genre: director Moxey had made the splendid occult horror THE CITY OF THE DEAD aka HORROR HOTEL (1960), leading lady Barbara Parkins would do THE MEPHISTO WALTZ in the same year as this, star Barbara Stanwyck had been in William Castle's superior THE NIGHT WALKER (1964) and Roddy McDowall was a staple of the PLANET OF THE APES franchise; incidentally, Moxey and Stanwyck previously collaborated on THE HOUSE THAT WOULDN'T DIE (1970; also made for TV, and which I own as well but have yet to watch).
Anyway, the narrative centers around a girl who is raped at age 13 during a family party by an unknown assailant; this episode sends her to an 8 year spell in an institution but, when she returns home, begins to display alarming signs of being far from cured!
She continually sees her alcoholic stepfather's corpse all over the place when he is actually supposed to be away on business – her mother (Stanwyck) is obviously concerned and calls in doctor McDowall to review her condition; also involved in all of this is simpleton handy-man Arthur O'Connell.However, while the original kept piling on the twists at the climax so that one had little time to ask himself whether they were plausible or not, this one demonstrates only mild ingenuity throughout.
A silly film with a lot of serious plot holes..
When the film begins, a young girl, Susan, is attacked and raped.
Suddenly the film jumps ahead many years and you learn, through some clumsy exposition, that for the intervening time Susan (Barbara Parkins) has been in a mental institution.
A bit later, she sees another dead guy and runs away to tell others...and when she returns this one is gone as well.
It seems possible, at least temporarily, but it a plot device way overused in films.
Also, if Barbara Parkins seems familiar, she's one of the folks who starred in "Valley of the Dolls"--a truly awful and stupid (but thoroughly enjoyable) bad movie of the late 60s..
Too Similar to the Hammer Film.
A Taste of Evil (1971) ** (out of 4) Disappointing made-for-TV movie is pretty much a remake of Hammer's SCREAM OF FEAR.
In this film, a young girl is raped and years later she (Barbara Parkins) returns home only to fear that someone is trying to drive her crazy.
Her mother (Barbara Stanwyck) is trying to figure out if her daughter is crazy or perhaps there's someone really after her (and especially since the rapist was never caught).
A TASTE OF EVIL comes from writer Jimmy Sangster who also wrote the previously mentioned Hammer movie so it's clear that he knew what he was doing.
Director John Llewellyn Moxey had previously made THE CITY OF THE DEAD but he doesn't bring any of the same style or beauty to this thing.
The entire movie has a very slow pace as if the director wasn't sure what he wanted to do with the material or perhaps he just knew the material wasn't all that good.
Parkins is pretty good in the role of the daughter but the screenplay doesn't give her much to do outside of screaming and running around.
Stanwyck is always watchable but this here certainly wasn't among her best work.
The story is decent but nothing much is done with it and this is especially true if you've seen the original version, which was one of the best thrillers from the studio..
Barbara Parkins finds her Cabin of the Dolls..
A decade in boarding school hasn't made troubled heiress Barbara Parkins forget the brutal rape she suffered as a child.
Her now widowed mother (the legendary Barbara Stanwyck) has remarried, but Parkins doesn't like her new stepfather (William Windom), a drunk she suspects was the rapist.
With the help of doctor Roddy McDowall, her mother and handyman Arthur O'Connell, Parkins tries to put her past into perspective but the past is far too complicated...
Stanwyck takes the bizarre part and runs with it, even knowing that it's another hag horror.
Think of this story as the continuation of Stanwyck's "Double Indemnity" character had she lived, close to 30 years older but just as evil as ever.