Based on the John Wyndham story "Random Quest," and being the third and last Wyndham adaptation, following 1960's "Village of the Damned" and 1962's "The Day of the Triffids," this feature apparently tries to downplay its sci-fi origins, as its new title is a more fitting description considering how it plays out. A parallel universe where World War 2 never happened, Leslie Howard still lived in 1971, and John F. Kennedy went from the Presidency to heading up the UN. My initial disappointment in Tom Bell was quashed by repeat viewings, definitely far superior to Christopher Reeve's curiously unmoving "Somewhere in Time" (1980), whose time travel hook was poorly executed and never credible. While I certainly adored Jane Seymour in that film, she never had a real character to portray, unlike Joan Collins, who here gets to play a soft, romantic woman, as she was quite busy doing horror films then that cast her in typical bitchy roles that predated DYNASTY. This proved to be a nice change of pace, a kind of Gene Tierney as Laura that one man becomes obsessed with, but in a much simpler, more acceptable way. Joan was also seen to great advantage in "Revenge" (1971), which saw release under several other titles, including "Behind the Cellar Door" and "Inn of the Frightened People" (this one aired twice on Pittsburgh's Chiller Theater).
Review of Quest for Love
