Thanks for the memories!

Good movie but grossly overrated

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

The acting in this movie is really good.

Originally airing on November 28, 1972, this ABC-TV movie was produced by Aaron Spelling and debuted on VHS in 1986. It's packed with future talent and is at the center of what we love most here: TV movies, Christmas movies and horror.Benjamin Morgan (Walter Brennan, Rio Bravo) is rich and dying and suspects his wife, Elizabeth (Julie Harris, one of America's most famous stage actresses), of poisoning him. He sends his oldest daughter, Alex (Eleanor Parker, Eye of the Cat) to find her three sisters and bring them home - the first time they've been back since their mother's suicide.The three sisters are Freddie (Jessica Walter, Arrested Development), Joanna (Jill Haworth, The Brides of Dracula) and Christine (Sally Field, Steel Magnolias). Their father tells them that they must kill their stepmother before she kills them. At dinner that night, Joanna harangues her stepmother with questions about how her first husband died, while Freddie screams in her room about how their father's affairs led to their mother killing herself.This is obviously the holiday get-together everyone hoped for.Soon after, Joanna tries to leave but is killed by a pitchfork-wielding person in a yellow raincoat. That same killer also drowns Feddie in the bathtub while Elizabeth keeps offering everyone warmed milk and honey. Soon, the phone line gets cut and everyone is trapped with a killer. But who is it?There are plenty of twists and turns here, as the love between a father and daughter and the love between husband and wife is contested. It's bloodless, as it's a TV movie, but it's also pretty dark, because the 1970's were the end of the world and the movies made then reflected it. You also get a cast packed with Oscar winners and nominees, all acting within basically one or two rooms, so there's plenty of emotion and suspense.

When the film begins, Benjamin (Walter Brennan) has brought his four daughters home using various pretenses. His real goal is to gather them together to ask them to do him a favor...murder his wife Elizabeth (Julie Harris). He's convinced she's trying to poison him and although he's been a poor father, he tries to use guilt to get them to do the deed. Not surprisingly, they don't....but soon the daughters start dying off one by one. Who is responsible?This is a good made for TV film with one big problem...the casting of the daughters. You are expected to believe Sally Field (26) and Eleanor Parker (53) are sisters! A mother and daughter, maybe...but not sisters. Some just be able to look past this...I couldn't. It's a shame as with a more believable cast, the film would have been even better. The plot is interesting and the film worth your time...though I did predict the ending.

Enjoyably outlandish made for TV movie. The plot is nothing new, just another rehash of the danger in the old creaky house thriller. What really is of interest in this is the cast. The great thing about these television films from the 60's and 70's is the ability they had to pull together high quality performers that you normally wouldn't see cast together. While this one manages to gather an awesome group of actresses the absurdity of casting them as sisters and Julie Harris as their stepmother, since none of them favor each other in the least nor Walter Brennan who is supposed to be their father, is a head scratcher. To add fuel to this particular fire is the fact that Sally Field and Eleanor Parker had just played mother and daughter the previous year in Maybe I'll Come Home in the Spring. Fun in an absurd way but not believable for a minute.

This movie is filled with so many guilty pleasures and over the top moments,it's a genuine classic! Produced by Aaron Spelling, the film carries a "Melrose Place" type campiness,and a lot of fun to watch. After their father sends them a letter saying his wife is trying to poison him, the four sisters return home for Christmas,and are stalked by a pitchfork happy psychopath. Jill Haworth is gorgeous and gives a deliciously bitchy performance,which is a different type of character than she usually plays. Sally Field is excellent as the "good" sister,and Jessica Walter's boozing and pill popping moments are even more over the top than her performance in "play misty for me". Hysterical stuff! Julie Harris,James Dean's love interest in the film classic "East of Eden" is also excellent as the wicked step-mother,who may or may not actually be the wicked one! GREAT FILM!