Death at Love House

Plot synopsis:
While on a tour in Hollywood, a young couple, Joel and Donna Gregory (Robert Wagner and Kate Jackson), arrive at the house of Lorna Love, an infamous actress who died in 1935. There, they meet with housekeepers Clara Josephs (Sylvia Sidney) and Oscar Payne (Bill Macy), to investigate the mystery behind Lorna and finish a book that they are writing on the actress, an interest that came out of the discovery that Joel's father was her lover. While staying at the mansion, strange incidents occur. The couple immediately notice a portrait of Lorna, painted by Joel's father, and shortly after, Donna catches a 1930s-dressed woman at the center-located shrine in the garden.
At their first night, they are visited by Conan Carroll (John Carradine), a film director who directed Lorna in her first breakthrough film Gone of Desire. Conan claims that Lorna ruined his life, and that Joel Sr. was the only person ever to walk away from her, after telling her that she had no soul. He quickly wants to exit the mansion, leaving Joel and Donna with even more questions. As Conan leaves, he is attacked by an unknown creature, and falls in the fountain, in which he drowns following a heart attack. While processing this information, Donna finds a mysterious blade that was commonly used in witchcraft and one of her photos torn apart. Joel, meanwhile, tries to find out more on a locked room, and finds out through Clara that it was Joel Sr. and Lorna's bedroom.
Later that day, Joel and Donna visit Denise Christian (Dorothy Lamour), an aged actress and former rival of Lorna at a set for a commercial. Denise explains that Lorna tried to blackball her at every studio as soon as Denise became as big of a star as her. She continues to tell that she first met Joel Sr. at the studio - where Joel Sr. was working in the art department - and that Lorna stole him from her just to bug Denise. Denise concludes to reveal that Lorna contacted a healer for eternal beauty and youth, and could not sleep ever since: after Joel Sr. smashed all the windows and left, she lived in a spiritual world of eternal fire.
Back at the mansion, Joel finds a book about witch spells, and becomes obsessed with Lorna, fantasizing about her (Marianna Hill). Moments later, the same man who scared Conan tries to murder Donna through carbon monoxide poisoning in a locked bathroom, and Joel and Clara are only just in time to save her. Donna initially insists on leaving, but decides to support her husband as he explains that he is near discovering Lorna's secrets and thus can't leave yet. They next meet with Marcella Geffenhart (Joan Blondell), Lorna's self-proclaimed best friend. She tells them about "Father Eternal Fire", a spiritual man, though refuses to elaborate on the witchcraft blade that Donna found. After the conversation, Donna claims that Marcella is the woman who ran past Lorna's shrine on the first day of their arrival, and wants to continue meeting with Marcella. Joel, however, forbids her from doing so, explaining that Lorna deserves to have secrets.
That evening – in an obsessed rage - Joel breaks into Lorna's bedroom and reads about details of Joel Sr.'s affair with her. Donna, meanwhile, has again spotted the woman from day one and reaches out to Joel for help. The next morning, Donna pleads to leave, but Joel again protects Lorna and refuses to go. Donna then meets with Oscar who reveals that part of the healer's activities involved fire, and that her husband is not safe in the mansion. Donna hurries to save Joel, and finds a terrified Marcella at the mansion along with the witchcraft blade cut through a photo of her. As she looks around, she finds out that Clara Josephs is actually a very alive Lorna. She rushes to save Joel, but he does not recognize her and instead turns to Clara/Lorna. While under her spell, Joel kisses her at the shrine and fire breaks out. Donna goes in to save Joel, and leaves Clara/Lorna to burn to death.

Tags: paranormal

Review:
However, this film deserves it's place among the campy horror flicks of the 70's and early 80's.
Along the lines of "The Monster Club" and "The Night Stalker" .Starring The one and only Angel herself, Kate Jackson, this film is almost an exact replica of her earlier film debut, "Night Of Dark Shadows".
Obscenely slow paced and with a rather mundane , molasses slow script.Death At Love House moves at a much faster pace and is 10 times more entertaining .
Stars such as John Carradine, Dorothy Lamour and Joan Blondell make the most of their cameo appearances and add to the films charm.
Just like Hall in Night of Dark Shadows, Sydney is not utilized enough.Robert Wagner phones in his performance as the doomed love interest of Lorna Love, played by Mariana Hill.
I agree with the previous reviewer, Hill (while stunning) is about as convincing as silent film star as Brittney Spears.
Wagner and Jackson are married writers doing a book on "legendary" 1930's screen star Hill.
They move into her estate (governed by a Mrs. Danvers-Lite type of housekeeper played by Sidney) and begin to research the life and career of this tempestuous talent.
Wagner, whose father was her lover, slowly becomes enraptured by her appeal and begins to have flashbacks (possibly enhanced by witchcraft) of his father and Hill while Jackson frets and faces various spooky obstacles.
It's nice to see Sidney in her usual crusty, tight-lipped mode (wearing what has to be THE reddest lipstick available!)  There is also an opportunity for real-life Hollywood veterans Blondell, Carradine and Lamour to do something other than "The Love Boat" and keep their health insurance going.
Attractive husband and wife writing team Robert Wagner (as Joel Gregory) and Kate Jackson (as Donna Gregory) arrive at the spooky mansion of actress "Lorna Love" (actually, silent film star Harold Lloyd's house).
Mr. Wagner and Ms. Jackson are contracted to write the silent movie star's biography.
Wagner has a personal interest in the project, since his father was once the famed star's lover.
This is very much a "Night of Dark Shadows" variation, co-starring genuine "Dark Shadows" alumni Kate Jackson, who knows and plays her part well.
Bill Macy (as Oscar Payne) is good in a part that would have been played by John Karlen (in a Dan Curtis production).There are smooth cameos by Joan Blondell, John Carradine, and Dorothy Lamour.
Ms. Lamour's delivery resembles Joan Bennett, which begs the question: why didn't producer Aaron Spelling get more of the original "Dark Shadows" regulars?
Director E.W. Swackhamer was Bridget Hanley's husband; he worked with Ms. Blondell on "Here Come the Brides", and with Jackson on "The Rookies".
"Death at Love House" has, arguably, a tighter storyline than the "Night of Dark Shadows" film; it differs in the movie star angle; and, in its "Father Eternal Fire" ending, it more closely resembles the TVseries' "Laura the Phoenix" storyline.
**** Death at Love House (9/3/76) E.W. Swackhamer ~ Robert Wagner, Kate Jackson, Sylvia Sidney.
Cheezy but kinda fun, this low-budget TV movie is set mostly in and around a 36-room Hollywood mansion, dark and sinister, wherein long ago lived a silent movie goddess named Lorna Love, but who now is entombed in a glass "shrine" on the mansion's grounds.
Into this creepy world comes husband and wife writers researching Lorna Love for a book.
And background music is your typical nondescript, off-the-shelf elevator music.Probably the best element is the casting of several older actresses including animated Joan Blondell, and wonderful Sylvia Sidney, whose gruff voice and thick red lipstick give her a unique, one-of-a-kind image.
As husband and wife, Robert Wagner and Kate Jackson have minimal chemistry together.
Wagner seems bored.This film looks and feels very 1970s.
With major changes in the film's plot, geared to realism, might we envision the film's premise about Lorna Love being applied to that deceased person?.
While doing research for a book about a long-dead Hollywood Star, strange and sinister happenings take place..
This movie, made for TV was very well cast, with excellent players, including Robert Wagner, Kate Jackson, John Carradine, Bill Macy, Joan Blondell, and others.The screen writing was WEAK and failed to provide believable scenarios.
EG: A serious, nearly successful attempt to murder Kate Jackson's character happened with no-one calling the Police, no questions asked, when there were ONLY three people in the mansion at the time - implausible at the least!
Our Silent-Era Hollywood Star was dressed and groomed more in keeping with the styles of 40-50 years LATER than when the scenes were supposed to be taking place.
Instead of modeling Lorna Love closely after Clara Bow or Jean Harlow, in this production, she more closely resembled Madonna.It was almost too painful to watch, as this cast was made up of some of my favorite actors and actresses.
Spelling and Goldberg should have been sued for wasting a golden opportunity to have produced a classic horror film.I rate Death at Love House "5" strictly based on the valiant efforts of the cast, to overcome shoddy direction and lousy production values..
I'm only giving this 5 stars because of the old-timers who appeared in this cheesy TV movie: Sylvia Sidney, Joan Blondell, John Carradine, and Dorothy Lamour.Robert Wagner and Kate Jackson play a married couple researching a book on a silent old film star, Lorna Love, and her affair with Wagner's father.This is a little like The Shining in that the spirit of the house takes over Wagner like five minutes after their arrival.The actress playing Lorna Love, Marianna Hill, looked like something out of Charlie's Angels, not a '20s film star.
After hearing for the entire film how irresistible she was, I still didn't get it.Campy TV movie..
An incredibly dumb young couple move into the gorgeous mansion of long dead movie queen.
To be blunt it plays like an extended Fantasy Island segment, which is no surprise since the movie and the show are from the same creators.
But it's worth a look for some clever stunt casting of Hollywood legends.
And it's filmed at the Harold Lloyd estate which alone is worth the time.
TV fans might find some interest in a young Kate Jackson who is really quite attractive with a mid 70s natural look and Robert Wagner who either is trying to play extremely cool or is just plain bored..
Aaron Spelling attempted to dabble in horror with this flick, concerning two married journalists doing research on a long-dead Hollywood star.
Lorna Love was the top star of her time, and it seems that she employed more than charm and talent to get to the top, namely, witchcraft, and seems to be employing it from beyond the grave on the husband(Robert Wagner), who is the son of Lorna's former love.
Or will the wife(Kate Jackson)save her husband?
Kinda weird...even for an "ABC Movie of the Week" film..
Robert Wagner and Kate Jackson play Mr. and Mrs. Gregory, a couple who are writing a biography of a famous silent film star, Lorna Love.
Apparently decades before, Mr. Gregory's father had an affair with Love but ended up leaving her....and the son is really fascinated with the lady.
In addition, they find various Satanic paraphernalia about the Love mansion as they stay there as well as learning about Lorna's guru, Father Eternal Fire.
What also is there is a weird glass coffin in which the dead Ms. Love resides!
Well, also weird are an attempt on the life of Mrs. Gregory as well as her husband becoming bizarrely infatuated with the dead woman!
What's going on here?This film suffers from a bad cliché, as Robert Wagner plays the son as well as the father in flashback scenes.
It also didn't help that Lorna looked nothing like a silent film star but like a woman right out of the 1970s...SOME effort to make her look like a silent era lady would have made sense.
Lorna Love looks like a '70s showgirl, not a 1930s screen goddess....
A biographer and his wife move into the old Hollywood mansion of 1930s movie star Lorna Love, who died at a young age and whose body lies in state on the property--embalmed and behind glass.
The couple is writing a book on Lorna and want to be close to her spirit, but get more than they bargained for (surely other books about such a world famous star had been written before, but the movie doesn't take details like that into consideration).
The agenda here is to have the writer, whose own father once had a torrid affair with Lorna, become hypnotized by the girl's portrait and turn against his wife, all while someone dressed in black is lurking around causing trouble.
Tacky TV-movie from the prolific producing team of Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg, here working with a fifth-rate script, a cheap rehash of 1968's "The Legend of Lylah Clare" (itself a mishmash of movie memories).
Kate Jackson runs from room to room in the mansion calling out for husband Robert Wagner, who isn't doing any writing; Sylvia Sidney is the faithful housekeeper, still on staff in the empty house; and Joan Blondell is a friend from the old days who hints that Lorna and she were involved in witchcraft.
The sepia-toned flashbacks are well done, though Marianna Hill is all wrong as Lorna Love (she's too modern), and James Barnett's teleplay is full of dead ends and deadly talk.
A twist at the finish line brings up more questions than Barnett or director E.W. Swackhamer could ever hope to answer, while Wagner's book (a MacGuffin, as it turns out) appears to be permanently shelved..
Kate Jackson and John Carradine.
Although broadcast on Sept 3 1976, "Death at Love House" carries a 1975 copyright, an indication that, for once, producer Aaron Spelling figured he had a real loser on his hands (this wasn't "Crowhaven Farm").
What doesn't work is just about everything else, in particular the poorly filmed footage meant to be from the 1920s, which looks as modern as actress Mariana Hill, whose unspectacular career would end sooner than veteran costars Sylvia Sidney and Dorothy Lamour.
Robert Wagner also looks out of place in the flashbacks, and not too well in the current storyline, leaving the dependable Kate Jackson to do all the heavy lifting, with an assist from MAUDE's Bill Macy.
Wagner and Jackson are not only married, they are also collaborating on a biography of the mysterious Lorna Love (Mariana Hill), a Clara Bow-type silent screen siren adored by all, except for the few who really got to know her well before her untimely death.
As movie director Conan Carroll, who had actually been in love with Lorna before she betrayed him for another, John Carradine is able to share some of his bitterness with the would-be authors before expiring near Lorna's shrine of beauty.
Dorothy Lamour gets good mileage as Lorna's greatest screen rival, and ever vivacious Joan Blondell displays her darling dimples yet again as the president of Lorna's now defunct fan club.
The prime cast member turns out to be Sylvia Sidney, her career actually dating back to the 20s, as the longtime caretaker of Lorna's estate, who knows just how deeply the star truly loved her departed Joel, lookalike father of Robert Wagner's character.
Had there been more meat in the script we might have had reason to fear as Kate Jackson does, but Wagner's writer comes off as a cold fish, hardly worthy of any women's eternal devotion.
As weak as the whole thing plays out (nothing supernatural or ghostly goings on) the climactic twist is actually worth the wait, though DARK SHADOWS veteran Kate deserved better, and had shared the screen with Carradine in one episode of her earlier triumph THE ROOKIES, just before CHARLIE'S ANGELS took off..
"Death At Love House" is the tale of two writers (who are married to each other) that move into the former estate of dead actress Lorna Love to write a book about her.
However, strange things start happening around the house and the husband starts becoming a little too obsessed with Lorna Love, and the woman has to find a way to end the madness once and for all!
This was surprisingly a well-done film that featured an all-star cast and a good storyline.
"Death At Love House" also features a good plot, with twists and turns that keep you interested throughout the entire film.
A Golden Age 70s TV Movie that's more mystery than horror.
NYC writers Joel Gregory and his pregnant wife, Donna, move into the estate of long dead Hollywood sex goddess Lorna Love to research their latest book.
Years before, Lorna had had an affair with Joel's artist father and when he left her she turned to witchcraft to ensure he'd come back to her one day...
This low budget Aaron Spelling ABC MOVIE OF THE WEEK has future boob tube icons Robert Wagner and Kate Jackson in the leads as writers who's marriage and lives are in jeopardy when it looks like Lorna's returned from the grave to pick up where she left off in her love life.
It was filmed almost entirely on the old Harold Lloyd estate and has the late Miss Love's preserved body under glass in the garden tended by her sinister housekeeper (old-time Hollywood star Sylvia Sidney).
1960s starlet Marianna Hill is the lovely Lorna in flashback with cameo appearances by John Carradine as the movie queen's former director, Dorothy Lamour as her one-time cinematic rival, and Joan Blondell as her adoring fan club president.
The story itself is more mystery than horror and nostalgia for Hollywood -and the "Golden Age Of TV Movies"- is the main reason for tuning in..
It's the old story of a house and/or ghost possessing one of the new owners.
We've seen it all before and one better.One final thought: I don't understand why Robert Wagner's character would fall for the long dead movie star when he's married to Kate Jackson for goodness sake!!!.
"Joel Gregory" (Robert Wagner) and his wife "Donna" (Kate Jackson) are writing a book on a former movie star by the name of "Lorna Love" (Marianna Hill) who captivated audiences with her sex appeal before dying in the prime of her life.
What they soon discover is that Lorna spent a great deal of money to hire a specialist in the occult who could give her immortality along with her lover--who just happens to have been the father of Joel.
Soon mysterious things begin to happen to both Joel and Donna which not only threatens their marriage but also their sanity and their lives.
Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was a fairly entertaining mystery film which was greatly limited by the made-for-television format.
While two of those films in my summary are all-time classics and the other one is a camp classic, this one won't fit into any category other than bad 70's TV movie of the week where a fictional 30's legend has become the subject of research by a married couple (Robert Wagner and Kate Jackson, how more 70's can you get?) for a book and possible movie.
Wagner's look-alike father was once involved with the late legend whose portrait dominates the Beverly Hills mansion she lived in and whose body apparently lies in permanent state at the mausoleum where she intended to remain beautiful forever, much like "She who must be obeyed".The problem with Lorna Love is that she looks nothing like any 30's love goddess, especially any of the tragic figures who died early on.
Her whole style is 60's schlock, and with Marianna Hill playing the part in flashbacks, newly filmed movie clips and dream sequences, it totally defuses any indication that she would have out-done Jean Harlow, Rita Hayworth, Joan Crawford or even Dorothy Lamour who plays a rival here, seen filming a coffee commercial then telling both Wagner and Jackson how evil Love really was.
Hill is never convincing in this part, and at one point, is filmed looking more like a department store mannequin than a human being, grossly made up and seriously badly acted in movies which are supposed to take place during the silent era and early sound era.The cameos of 30's stars are more than welcome, with Lamour still gorgeous even without wearing a sarong, Joan Blondell totally outrageous as her fan club president who has an obvious obsession with the dead star, and John Carradine as her former director who was destroyed when no studio would hire him after Lorna had him blackballed.
"Maude's" Bill Macy is briefly seen as Wagner and Jackson's agent.
Veteran 30's leading lady Sylvia Sidney plays Lorna's all-knowing housekeeper, a mysterious woman who says little but drops enough hints to give away the plot twist at the end.
A few scary moments including one where Jackson is locked in a bathroom with leaking gas are intense, but the continuous shot of a man in an obvious Satanistic robe is just plain silly and never resolved after a scene where Carradine sees this character during a rainstorm.The 1970's had a lot of nostalgia with fond looks back at the past, several remakes of classic movies, and biographical looks back at stars like Gable and Lombard, W.C. Fields, a young Judy Garland, Bogart and Bacall and Rita Hayworth.
The same theme would be better done without the horror elements when Billy Wilder went back down "Sunset Boulevard" movie with the underrated "Fedora"..
A couple decide to live in his father's love nest so they can write a book/article/newsletter on his fling with a famous tragic Hollywood starlet.
Apparently the directors thought the movie was getting too long, so towards the end they stopped pointing their camera to a kind of creepy image of the starlet and brought in plot enhancers to wrap this thing up.
Don't waste your time - even the tried and true horror/intrigue classics fail in this movie.