Monsters and Matinees: Discovering Barbara Stanwyck, Horror Queen

Discovering Barbara Stanwyck, Horror Queen

The idea of having Barbara Stanwyck in my Monsters and Matinees column never crossed my mind. For starters, she isn’t known for horror films and, honestly, I didn’t feel worthy. Then I found her 1970 made-for-television horror movie The House That Would Not Die and couldn’t contain my excitement.

As we sometimes do when we watch a movie for the first time, I felt like I had “discovered” it and needed to shout to the world: Look at this Barbara Stanwyck horror film! It was an ABC Movie of the Week and I quickly learned she made another horror film for the weekly TV series just a year later called A Taste of Evil.

This was movie gold: two made-for-television horror films made in two years starring one of our greatest actresses.

Now if you’re a regular reader of Monsters and Matinees (thank you!), the ABC Movie of the Week may sound familiar. That’s because it was also the topic of the August column after I realized you can’t write about ABC Movie of the Week horror films without first acknowledging its most famous one: Trilogy of Terror. So that 1975 anthology horror classic and its tiny, but murderous, Kuni warrior doll was first up, and is now followed by Stanwyck’s horror films. It can’t be overstated how much she lifted these two movies by sheer talent and screen presence.

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The House That Wouldn’t Die and A Taste of Evil share more than their leading lady and a spot on the ABC Movie of the Week. Both were produced by Aaron Spelling, directed by John Llewellyn Moxey (Mission Impossible, Magnum, P.I. and Murder, She Wrote) and featured designs by Nolan Miller (which explains why even Stanwyck’s nightgowns were so elegant).

The films aren’t great works of horror. In fact, if you look for references in Stanwyck biographies, they’re only mentioned in passing. But I found them worth watching because they held my attention and have a fascinating pedigree in front of and behind the camera.

The House That Wouldn’t Die co-stars Richard Egan, Michael Anderson Jr. and Kitty Winn. It’s based on the book Ammie Come Home by Barbara Michaels and was written for TV by Henry Farrell, whose novel Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? was adapted into the noteworthy 1962 film of the same name.

A Taste of Evil was written by Jimmy Sangster, the acclaimed writer and director of early Hammer horror films. Stanwyck’s co-stars are Roddy McDowall, William Windom, Arthur O’Connell and Barbara Parkins.

See what I mean by pedigree?

The films came shortly after Stanwyck’s four-season run ended on the popular television series The Big Valley in 1969. Credited as the royalty she is as “Miss Barbara Stanwyck” at the start of each episode, she played matriarch Victoria Barkley, a strong, fierce and independent woman who fought for her family and her beliefs. You’ll see a lot of that in these two horror films.

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THE HOUSE THAT WOULDN’T DIE

The title of this film about a woman who inherits a house with deadly secrets could also be called The House That Was Alive. Doors open and close on their own, objects move, the wind blows inside the house and there are eerie sounds like whimpers and screams. Outside, a man’s voice repeats a mournful cry of “Ammie, come home.”

Ruth Bennett (played by Stanwyck) arrives with her niece Sara (Kitty Winn) at the historic Campbell House (circa 1700-1800s) that was left to Ruth by her cousin. It’s love at first sight for them, but not for viewers. We’ve seen enough in the first few minutes to get freaked out as the camera moves like a character through the rooms. Pay attention as it lingers – it could be a clue of what’s to come. It’s especially eerie when “something” pulls the curtains apart to look at Ruth and Sara as they arrive. “Drive away,” you’ll be tempted to say.

But they are excited. The house is beautiful, though drafty, and you’ll hear sentiments like “we belong here” and Sara exclaiming “I found my room – I recognized it like I’ve been in it before.” (Oh, that’s not creepy.)

Even the neighbor who shows up within minutes of their arrival – and first appears as a sinister black silhouette in the doorway – says he feels the same though he’s never been inside. “I’ve always had a strange affection for this place,” he says. (That isn’t creepy either, is it?)

He’s college professor Pat McDougal, played by Richard Egan who I’ve always thought of as an unconventionally handsome and sturdy leading man since seeing him in A Summer Place. He does a great job here of turning a smiling face into a sinister gaze that’s necessary for the film to work.

Rounding out the main foursome will be one of his best students, Stan, who is played by Michael Anderson Jr., a handsome young fixture on TV during that time.

A friendly gathering at the professor’s that night has talk of holding a séance at the Campbell House and we all know how those turn out. (Yes, this is moving fast, but that’s required of a film that clocks in at a taut 74 minutes.)

The séance goes as expected with spooky happenings including a ghostly figure that superimposes itself over Sara. (That’s another clue.)

More things happen in the spooky house: Doors and windows mysteriously open unleashing a wild wind – and something else with it. In one intense scene, Sara inexplicably attacks her aunt as the wind whips and howls around them. When the attack ends, so does the wind.

Sara and Pat have strange moments where they intently stare at each other like something has taken over their bodies. (That old movie trick always gets my attention.) Even when they leave the house out of safety concerns, an evil follows them. Attempts at a second séance fail when the psychic ends it early. “Sorry I can’t stay here – this is a terrible place,” she says. I would have run out the door with her.

Instead, our quartet will search the spooky attic and scary basement for clues about the history of the house and its former inhabitants. They’ll find them, of course, although they may live to regret it. Still, they’ll take time to bring a thermos of coffee into the basement and sip from cups with saucers on the cellar steps. I chuckled, but I love that moment. Civility is alive, along with the house.

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A TASTE OF EVIL

In A Taste of Evil, a young woman returns home after years of treatment following a childhood rape, only to be terrorized by strange visions and occurrences. Barbara Stanwyck plays her mother Miriam, a wealthy widow who has since remarried, and Barbara Parkins is the adult Susan.

The movie opens on the day of the attack as a child’s voice narrates the events. Young Susan’s parents are hosting a lawn party while she is in a little playhouse built by in the woods by her father. As in the first film, director John Llewellyn Moxey again uses the effective image of a large, imposing figure silhouetted in the doorway. Susan, drawing pictures of her dolls, screams.

Cut to her return seven years later as we learn more details. Though her mother downplays it, Susan was catatonic after the attack and didn’t speak for two years.

She’s since made enough progress to return home from the clinic in Switzerland, but is she cured? You’ll quickly begin to doubt it.

Visions and memory fragments start immediately, but Susan hides it. To her credit, she doesn’t shy away from revisiting the scary woods where she was attacked but she’s spooked by sounds and is clearly not as “over it” as she thinks.

Winds will swirl inside the house and the windows – left open so the curtains can atmospherically billow in the wind – slam shut.

Voices call out, lights turn off on their own and a strange figure lurks outside – repeatedly. Then there’s the dead body in the bathtub that disappears only to reappear alive the next day. And what is that strange breathing sound?

Enter the kind Dr. Michael Loomis (McDowall), who once attended the posh parties held by Susan’s parents. He’s here to help, but can he – or has Susan traveled so far back down a dark path that she can’t return?

There is shocking turn of events that even if you think you saw it coming, you really haven’t. All will be cleverly explained at the end.

The last 12 minutes are an unexpected edge-of-your-seat thrill ride, thanks to an acting master class by Stanwyck. And isn’t that what we expect with any film she stars in? These may be low-budget films, but there’s no such thing as a run-of-the-mill movie starring Miss Barbara Stanwyck.

– Toni Ruberto for Classic Movie Hub

You can read all of Toni’s Monsters and Matinees articles here.

Toni Ruberto, born and raised in Buffalo, N.Y., is an editor and writer at The Buffalo News. She shares her love for classic movies in her blog, Watching Forever and is a member and board chair of the Classic Movie Blog Association. Toni was the president of the former Buffalo chapter of TCM Backlot and led the offshoot group, Buffalo Classic Movie Buffs. She is proud to have put Buffalo and its glorious old movie palaces in the spotlight as the inaugural winner of the TCM in Your Hometown contest. You can find Toni on Twitter at @toniruberto or on Bluesky at @watchingforever.bsky.social