- Directed by Peter Medak
- Written by Russell Hunter, William Gray, Diana Maddox
- Stars George C. Scott, Trish Van Devere, Melvyn Douglas, Jean Marsh
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 47 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTzgXVosQOU
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This one is a bit of a mystery figuring out what’s going on as things unfold. Great house, great cast, and an excellent script. There’s plenty of tension and creepiness as it goes along. It’s a really a good one worth checking out that has held up well for being 40 plus years old.
Synopsis
On November 27th, John Russell and his family go on vacation, but their car breaks down on the road. They push the car off to the side. He goes into the phone booth to call for a tow and ends up watching his wife and daughter get run over by a snowplow truck. As credits roll, we see that John goes home to the big city and his very nearly-empty apartment; he’s moving to Seattle to teach music.
He rents a huge old mansion that’s been empty for twelve years. Before he even moves in, the piano plays a note all by itself.
John goes to a fundraiser for the symphony and hears Senator Carmichael giving a speech; Claire says that the old Senator is the main source of funds for their symphony.
The next morning, John is rudely awakened by loud knocking coming from somewhere upstairs. Later, he starts working on some music and turns on his recorder. Claire brings by some old photos of the house’s previous occupants. The two of them go riding together, which brings up bad memories for John.
The following morning at six a.m., there’s more of that loud knocking. The handyman, Mr. Tuttle, can’t find anything wrong with the pipes. Still, John knows there’s something going on with the water in the house; he follows sounds up to the third floor bathroom, where the water has been left running. He sees something strange in the water and goes back downstairs.
He goes to see Claire at the Historical Society and asks about ghosts and if anyone else has seen anything. Ms. Huxley, the creepy lady who works with Claire, says the house doesn’t want people; it’s not fit to have people living in it. When he goes home, he finds a boarded-up, padlocked door on the third floor. Inside is a dust-covered room with a wheelchair and children’s furniture. He finds a notebook labeled, ”C.S.B. January 1909.” He finds a music box that plays the same song that John had recorded a few days ago – he thought he’d made it up himself.
John tells Claire that everything that happened was designed to get him into that attic room. None of this is an accident. John goes to the library and researches the house back in 1909. They find a little girl, Cora Bernard, who was killed in a street accident in 1909; the parents sold the house afterwards. The accident is similar to the one that claimed John’s daughter.
More weirdness goes on involving his daughter’s toy ball. He goes to see a parapsychologist at the university who suggests bringing in a medium. The medium, Leah Harmon, says it’s a child who cannot rest. They do a seance, and the ghost says it’s not Cora, it’s Joseph, and he wants John’s help. Not much else happens until John plays back the recording of the tape. John gets a vision/flashback of Joseph Carmichael being drowned in the bathtub by his father.
John tells all this to Claire, who freaks out. John starts suspecting old Senator Joseph Carmichael. Mrs. Huxley from the Historic Society calls Carmichael to warn him about John’s research. Claire finds out that Young Joseph had been ill as a child and sent overseas to a sanatorium.
John figures out the real Joseph was murdered by his father. A child from the nearby orphanage was sent overseas to grow up and return after the war as a healthy adult. No one would know the difference. His father controlled a vast sum of inherited money that would be lost if the son died before reaching the age of 21, and the real Joseph was very sickly. The father didn’t want to take the chance.
In his researches, John discovers a well on the property that was sold and built over many years ago. There’s a subdivision house there now. John and Claire talk to the woman who owns that house, and she’s pretty understanding. John gets a man to cut through the floor, and they do find the old well— with the skeleton of a small boy inside. The coroner says the bones may have been down there for fifty years or more. John doesn’t reveal anything to the police.
After the police leave, John goes back inside and digs some more. He doesn’t find anything until a necklace crawls up out of the ground in front of him. The medallion has Joseph’s name on it; that was definitely him. John confronts the Senator, who flies away and calls the police Captain. We see that he has a medallion just like the one John found.
John, on the other hand, doesn’t know what to do next. Police Captain Dewitt shows up, and he knows about the seance and the bones in the well. Dewitt thinks this is all a blackmail scheme. Dewitt and Carmichael want the medallion back. Claire is fired and John’s lease has been cancelled. After leaving, Dewitt is killed in a car accident.
Carmichael returns to town and hears about Dewitt. He calls John to set up a meeting. John tells him what has transpired and what Carmichael’s father did. The boy from the orphanage grew up and eventually became the Senator— he is a “Changeling.” The Senator must have suspected the truth, but he obviously wasn’t involved with the murder. The Senator threatens John, but John’s said all he came for and leaves.
Meanwhile, Claire goes back to the house and she’s chased by the wheelchair. John shows up and tells her to wait in the car. He goes up to the third floor and falls over the railing as the house catches fire. Elsewhere, the Senator gets his own experience and shows up at the house as well. In spirit form? He’s actually in his office frozen like he’s having a vision. He goes up the burning staircase and is trapped up there. The Senator dies of a heart attack in his office as the house burns down.
Commentary
That is a mighty fine house. I’d live there, haunted or otherwise.
The story unfolds slowly, but it never even hints at being boring. The mystery is an extremely complicated one, but it’s all explained and exposed clearly and makes perfect sense. The performances are all excellent, and the casting is pretty perfect as well.
It’s one of the best haunted house movies out there, absolutely worth watching today.