While I of course enjoyed her as the campy Alexis on "Dynasty", it's her film work from prior to that Primetime soap opera that made me a fan. From her early ingenue days in British films to young leading lady in Hollywood to Gothic horror queen later on, she was fascinating. Of course, her status as a leading lady isn't legendary from those days, but she is quite commanding in even the worst of these films, and paired with legendary horror icon Christopher Lee in this creates a legend. They are actually siblings, how to find hidden money in the mansion owned by the troubled Robert Hardy whom Collins seduces with the intent of gaining his trust. The scene of Collins seducing Hardy and the aftermath is unforgettable. It turns out that Hardy has a twin, a widower of an insane woman with insane children. He's involved with the equally beautiful Jane Birkin, and the tie-in of the two characters played by the underrated Hardy is intriguing.
So we've got an intriguing mystery set up already as well as a haunted house and the presence of Herbert Lom as a rather shady solicitor. This is a B film for sure, but it's well done with better-than-average performances, a screenplay that creates an intriguing plot that goes in many different directions and some lovely scenic photography. You also never know what world you are really in whether two characters that Hardy plays are actually each other, or possibly living in an alternate universe that involves the same house. Or is the second character played by Hardy along with Birkin only in the other characters mind? Lee, while still playing a character in a horror movie, is not a monster here, although his motives are villainous. Collins easily wins this one but Hardy for me is a chilling close second.
So we've got an intriguing mystery set up already as well as a haunted house and the presence of Herbert Lom as a rather shady solicitor. This is a B film for sure, but it's well done with better-than-average performances, a screenplay that creates an intriguing plot that goes in many different directions and some lovely scenic photography. You also never know what world you are really in whether two characters that Hardy plays are actually each other, or possibly living in an alternate universe that involves the same house. Or is the second character played by Hardy along with Birkin only in the other characters mind? Lee, while still playing a character in a horror movie, is not a monster here, although his motives are villainous. Collins easily wins this one but Hardy for me is a chilling close second.