Oliver Bromfield feels guilty over the death of his wife Helen some months ago. She fell through a second-floor railing in the family mansion in what was found to be an accidental death, but Oliver, an alcoholic, fears that he caused the death while in a drunken haze. Sara, Oliver's widowed stepmother, has always had a thing for Oliver and tries to talk him into living with her, but he moves out anyway. He soon marries Ruth and brings her to live in the mansion. The jealous Sara begins spying on Oliver and Ruth's lovemaking by peering through a hole in a clock against the wall. Also in the house: Jenny, Oliver's fragile sister who was engaged in an affair with Helen, and Clara, a maid who may know more than she tells. The suspicious atmosphere in the house sends Ruth to talk to the family doctor who also has mild concerns about Helen's death—he testified that she was prone to dizzy spells but that was a lie because he was protecting Oliver, or perhaps Sara, if one of them was responsible for Helen's fall. Soon Ruth has reason to believe that her life may be in danger when some milk she was going to drink is lapped at the house cat and the cat dies. But, whoa, later Ruth sees the cat alive—is she starting to snap just like Oliver might have snapped? Ruth's uncle Edward visits, but it turns out he is actually a detective she has hired to investigate the family. This has all been very gothic soap opera in tone, but in the home stretch, a giallo trope (a black-gloved killer slashing throats) crops up. Still, the gothic soap opera strain of the story wins out and the film ends predictably. Critics who expected this Italian/Spanish co-production to be a sexy gory giallo don't like this film, but since I approached it as gothic, I was less disappointed. It's no great shakes on any level (too talky and slowly paced, with people not really doing anything for long stretches, though the visuals are occasionally interesting) but I kept watching. Jose Antonio Amor (pictured) has a nicely dissolute look as Oliver, keeping us on our toes about his guilt; the women—Nuria Torray (Sara), Daniela Giordano (Ruth), and Teresa Gimpera (Jenny)---all seem a bit interchangeable. The opening funeral scene felt like it came right out of a Hammer movie. Ultimately, the whole thing seemed to me like a Dark Shadows story arc and on that level, I enjoyed it. [YouTube]
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