Director: Alan Gibson
Writers: Jimmy Sangster, Alfred Shaughnessy
Stars: Stefanie Powers, James Olson, Margaretta Scott
Run Time: 1 Hour, 38 Minutes
Link: https://amzn.to/3dY5N4W
Synopsis
George and a woman make out on the beach. George sees himself come up with a shotgun and kill the woman. He wakes up; it was just a dream. Credits roll.
A driver brings Susan up the mountain to the house in the isolated French countryside. Danielle Ryman welcomes her and shows her around. Susan is here to do research on Danielle’s dead husband, a famous composer. Susan’s trunk of clothing wasn’t delivered, so she has to borrow clothes form Danielle and Lillianne, the maid. It’s obvious that Lillianne isn’t thrilled about Susan being there, but she doesn’t explain herself.
Danielle introduces Susan to her son George, who is in a wheelchair. Six years ago, George had an accident. Susan points out that she has no family, and no attachments. No one even knows she’s here.
We see Danielle giving George an injection of something. Later, George makes a big deal out of massaging Susan’s shoulder. He just might have a crush on her already. George has some kind of seizure and calls for Lillianne, who seems to delight in his suffering. Lillianne says “I’m the one you need. I’m the one who helps you.” Clearly, she has a thing for George that George doesn’t reciprocate. She shoots him up with what appears to be heroin. He dreams he comes up out of the pool and makes out with Susan, but once again, sees himself shoot her.
Carter the butler catches Lillianne practicing “to be the mistress of this house.” Carter laughs; it’ll never happen. “You’re a slut. You’ll end up in the gutter from where you came.”
Susan finds a photo of a girl in a photo album. Katherine left George right after the accident, and Susan resembles her somewhat. George sees a necklace on Susan, and he’s seen it in his dreams. Could they be coming true?
Susan sneaks out and wanders the estate, listening to George play the piano. Danielle screams, “No! That’s not right!” And a moment later, George screams in pain. Susan finds a broken wax figure of a girl, but when she gets Carter, the dummy is gone. George tries to talk Susan into leaving town.
Lillianne threatens to withhold George’s heroin. The syringe gets broken, and George has to do without. Shortly afterwards, Lillianne makes a big show out of undressing and going swimming. We see the wheelchair roll away without George. Suddenly, Lillianne is bleeding out in the pool and dies; someone stabbed her. We didn’t see George fo it, but he was the only one around.
The next morning, George doesn’t want Susan to leave. Lillianne seems to have left town, and now George has changed his mind about keeping Susan around. George and Susan are kind of dating now, allowing themselves to get closer together. George has another seizure; it’s heroin withdrawal. He gets Susan to steal his “medicine” from his mother’s room. Danielle silently watches her do it, and she seems pleased that it’s happening.
Danielle tells Susan that she should stay and take care of George. She could wind up as mistress of the house someday. In his drug-induced dream, George once again sees himself killing Susan with a shotgun. Then the second George shoots the first in the back.
Susan tells George that she’s falling in love with him. He tells her that she’s crazy and will regret it. She goes to see George that night, and he can walk. He calls her Katherine, and his hair looks different. He starts chasing her around the house, and she finds the real George crawling around outside. Apparently, they are twin brothers.
Carter comes in and pulls “Jack” off her. They struggle, and Jack kills Carter. Danielle is encouraging the whole thing, telling Jack that Susan is really Katherine. George says that Jack killed Katherine, and Danielle blames George for Jack losing his mind and shooting Katherine and George six years ago.
Susan hides in the barn, but Jack breaks in. Susan finds a whole room full of dolls that look just like her, with about half of them destroyed. It seems Jack spends all day killing Katherines when he gets in the mood. Danielle brings him life-sized dolls, and he kills them as many times as he likes.
He grabs an axe and gets ready to kill Susan when Danielle comes in to stop him. Danielle ends up shooting Jack herself. Susan leaves the house and runs across the countryside to get away.
Commentary
There were lots and lots of scenes of Susan roaming around in her nightgown with noisy piano music in the background. An hour in, and it’s all pretty standard drama, with only one death. The ending has a bit of action, but it’s very “talky.”
Kevin and I were about fifteen minutes in when we both thought that George was really the father who was using the drugs to maintain a young appearance. We knew going in that James Olsen was playing a dual role, which spoiled us, but in the wrong way. We fully expected this deception to be revealed near the end, but that’s not the way the story unfolds; it would have been far more interesting than a lunatic twin.
The twin brother thing came out of nowhere. There were no hints or suggestions that George had a brother. A lot doesn’t really make much sense here when you think about it at all. What did Danielle expect to happen? That suddenly Susan would be in love with Jack? While George was right there and still alive? Did Lillianne know about Jack? How could she not know living there for so long?