Hollywood Horror House (1970) User Reviews

Hopkins' Hollywood Horror House is nothing new, but still fun

[melvelvit-1 · 6/10 · 26 January 2008]

This film is often omitted from published filmographies of Hollywood royalty Miriam Hopkins and it's hard to understand why. George Eels in GINGER, LORETTA, AND IRENE WHO? and James Robert Parish in THE PARAMOUNT PRETTIES at least acknowledge its existence with George saying "Mercifully it was never released" -but that isn't true. I have a late 60s Mexican lobby card from the film's original release and actually saw this at the Drive-In in the mid-70s. Shamelessly ripping off SUNSET BLVD. and NIGHT MUST FALL, COMEBACK also resembles BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS in its psychedelic indictment of a morally decadent Hollywood in the wake of the Ramon Novarro and Sharon Tate murders. It tells the tale of a deluded diva with dreams of a cinematic comeback (Miriam Hopkins) who takes up with a sinister hippie hunk (John Garfield, Jr.) while a maniac is dismembering middle-age dames and leaving their body parts under the dilapidated "Hollywood" sign up in the hills. The story is devoid of any real suspense as the audience sees the protagonist commit a grisly murder right after the opening credits but the abrupt open-ended ending is unintentionally unsettling. Gale Sondergaard is a regally mysterious red herring in the proceedings as Miriam's devoted secretary and also along for the ride are Minta Durfee (Mrs. Fatty Arbuckle), Florence Lake, and the Three Stooges' Joe Besser as a Hollywood Tour Bus guide. There's no denying this is a decidedly low budget endeavor but that fact is cleverly disguised by setting the scene almost entirely at silent screen star Norma Talmadge's beautiful rococo estate. This is quite a curio/reel treat for Miriam Hopkins fans and the film shows just how much class former stars like Miriam, Tallulah, Joan, and Bette gave the "Grand Guignol Granny" horror sub-genre. Hopkins has a very brief semi-nude scene (!) in profile when she rises from her massage table that is worth the price of admission alone and, if taken in the right frame of mind, the whole film can be a lot of fun. Like WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? and SUNSET BLVD., the movie also uses stills, posters, and film clips from its star's Hollywood heyday as glamorous props; there's even a life-sized Miriam Hopkins doll the twisted anti-hero takes to bed. The cast is in pretty good physical shape and the Pop-60s clothes and decor set them off to good advantage. There's some campy fun as Miriam gets drunk atop the Santa float during the annual Tinseltown Christmas Parade ("Too many queers on the Boulevard!", she slurs!). Some fans may be appalled to see their Miriam lip-lock Garfield (whatever happened to him?), get drunk, drugged, punched in the face, and appear au naturel for a split second but it's obvious she was having a ball and laughed all the way to the bank. These late 60s/early 70s "Hollywood horror" stories are a sub-genre all their own and are held in high esteem by exploitation trash aficionados everywhere. Other films of note from the same era have Rita Hayworth rolling and smoking a joint (THE NAKED ZOO), Lana Turner getting slipped some acid (THE BIG CUBE), and Jennifer Jones relishing her porno past (ANGEL, ANGEL, DOWN WE GO). All come "highly" recommended, of course!

"Psycho" without Hitchcock but with two classy actresses ..........

[merklekranz · 6/10 · 1 October 2019]

The influence of a Mother fixation a la "Psycho" is obvious in this intriguing horror film. The hatchet wielding psychotic is played, with a rather mundane performance, by David Garfield. Forget about him though and enjoy the great acting of Gale Sondergaard and Miriam Hopkins, who exude much class in their acting. The film is very atmospheric, has little blood, and is relentlessly downbeat from beginning to end. The clash of faded Hollywood with the psychotronic 60s/ 70s is used to great advantage, making this a treat for old film buffs, but dubious entertainment for the slasher crowd. Though lacking "Hitchcock" caliber excellence, "Hollywood Horror House", is nevertheless an interesting relic that deserves attention. - MERK

Curious, unsettling and imperfect little psycho-chiller

[Bloodwank · 6/10 · 17 August 2010]

Aging and alcoholic past it movie star Kathleen Parker takes a spill and needs a personal assistant. Unfortunately for her, Vic might not be a good choice for the job. In fact he might just be…A Savage Intruder!... Opening to a salvo of in and out fading clips from old movies before the camera draws in upon the Hollywood sign, pulling closer and closer until it fixes on the tattered and peeling facade, rusty strips hanging out and creaky in the breeze, this mean little hippy era psycho chiller poses old school Hollywood as corpse, intent signalled as the shot pulls down beneath the Hollywood sign to reveal some severed human remains. Vic is introduced soon after and things follow a fairly typical path, with the added frisson of an age war aspect. The town may have its stately and dignified older folk, well mannered and good too each other despite their foibles, but the decadence of a new age as embodied in the smarmy Vic is set on mockery, exploitation and worse for the gentler souls. In colourful and modishly trippy party sequences Vic and his chums are a fairly striking bunch of freaks and weirdos, and when they come up against the likes of Kathleen or her contemporaries perhaps maggots claiming their dominion over the dead milieu? Some of the partying scenes come off a little loose and may be offputting, I was amused enough to ride them out though the dated psychedelic touches are best applied in Vic's flashbacks. Chequer patterned surfaces, gaudy colours, close up faces with distorted speech shot through a fish eye lens and a nifty gore shot to top things off, it's a cool sequence if you groove to this sort of time capsule oddity. For more creepy kicks mannequins get a neat showing, as well as some weapon flashing murders, though nothing too grisly goes down. Miriam Hopkins fits the character of Kathleen perfectly, perhaps because she was an old school movie star herself, whilst fellow veteran Gale Sondegard is equally well suited to a role as an older housekeeper. Virginia Wing overacts a little but does OK as a nice young Asian lady, whilst John David Garfield has a suitably oily and arrogant demeanour as Vic. He falls a good way short of being vicious or scary enough though, which brings things down a good deal. Also the film peaks at around the hour mark, with a draggy final block propelled in barely adequate fashion by a few freaky touches. Kinda unsatisfying ending too. Still, the film as a whole is odd enough to be interesting and mean spirited enough to be a little unsettling, so it just about works on the obscure curio level. Not recommended to most, but worth a look if you dig this kind of off the beaten track kookiness.

Better than you might expect

[nisiimperasset · 26 April 2008]

These IMDb comments were intriguing enough for me to order this, and I must say I liked it more than I expected to. "Savage Intruder" (my DVD is titled "Hollywood Horror House") reminded me much more of "Baby Jane" than "Sunset Boulevard"--although the Hopkins character chatters on the phone about making a comeback and gets herself booked as a parade queen, the main focus of the film is simply to cut down her drinking and give her a more dignified retirement. John Garfield Jr (who looks a lot like his father) ruins that plan.

Regarding the "semi-nude scene" comments, my DVD did not carry this, or I was simply underwhelmed by what passes for risqué skin. When Garfield gives Hopkins a back massage her back is clearly bared, but even when she is startled you don't see anything revealing, seemed like a very ordinary massage to me.

Regarding the comment about the alternate ending that was apparently filmed (where the Gale Sondergaard character shoots Garfield), my DVD did not carry his but it would have been neat to see. I won't give away the ending, but it is a little ambiguous.

Pluses: beautiful color cinematography, and Hopkins fans will be pleased to know that in general she looks like a million bucks and wears beautiful costumes (when she is not being massaged!). The great location of Norma Talmadge's mansion and the careful attention to costuming and cinematography make this film look much higher budget than it apparently really was. Great performances from just about the whole cast if you ask me. The title sequence is genius: far-away view of the Hollywood sign, then closeups of how bullet-ridden the sign pieces are, how trashy the hillside is--great opening sequence that really sets the tone.

Minuses: Unlike Baby Jane, where servants did not live in and created some suspense by unexpectedly popping up, the hotel-like atmosphere of so many live-in servants oblivious to the virtual disappearance of their mistress is a little too unrealistic. Ironically the beautiful Talmadge mansion works against suspense; a bomb could go off in the mansion and the kitchen staff wouldn't notice. Also, Hopkins is basically only in the first half of the film, and the second half drags a bit without her. The film tries to cover for this, and John Garfield Jr is regularly snarling at the staff not to bother the missing star, but you wonder why Gale Sondergaard isn't yelling at the employment agency by day two of Garfield's arrival.

Unfairly Obscure

[johnquaid · 7/10 · 26 June 2020]

You have to thank the good people at Vinegar Syndrome for bringing Hollywood Horror House out of obscurity and into the light again. While it's far from perfect and came at the end of the "Baby Jane"/crazy old dame phase, it's one of the wilder entries into that subgenre with a surprising amount of effective gore.

It all plays out a bit like Sunset Boulevard if the Joe Gillis character was a serial killer who kills older women because they remind him of his mother. He latches on to a faded film star played by Miriam Hopkins and becomes her assistant, confidant, and perhaps her lover. As various people in Hopkins' life start to suspect this homicidal grifter of ill will, he kills them.

Hollywood Horror House appears to have a had a somewhat sizable budget given the sets, quality of actors, lighting, and special effects. After all, how many of these low budget films features a Christmas parade sequence with seemingly hundreds of extras? The film does lose steam towards the end and the ending isn't the most satisfying, but the journey to get there is wonderfully wild.

The Butcher of Hollywood.

[HumanoidOfFlesh · 7/10 · 7 September 2010]

Miriam Hopkins plays an aging,drunken and washed-out movie queen living in a decaying mansion in Hollywood Hills,California.Her nurse is a psychotic young man who enjoys murdering and dismembering women with a sharp meat-cleaver.There is an interesting contrast between Old Hollywood and New Hollywood in low-budget proto-slasher "The Savage Intruder" by Donald Wolfe.The atmosphere of late 60's Hollywood's decadence is well-captured and the acting is decent.Unfortunately the pace is slow and there is not enough suspense.The killings are pretty gory and the climax is twisted.If you are a slasher completist you should give "The Savage Intruder" a chance.7 out of 10 for this cheesy curio.

"I've got coke, speed, smack, grass & acid" - "No thank you, the only trips I take are to Europe." A one time watch at best.

[poolandrews · 4/10 · 2 June 2005]

When I typed Savage Intruder into the IMDb's search engine one of the options it came up with was Savage Garden: International Video Collection: The Story so Far (1999), the only reason I mention this is because I'm a huge Savage Garden fan & you should do yourself a favour & check some of their music out like Affirmation or To the Moon and Back rather than bother with this average pot-boiler, sorry I just wanted to say that. Anyway, Savage Intruder starts with a bizarre montage of what looks like MGM musical & premiere footage & a few spinning portraits which have no meaning whatsoever in the long run. It's late 60's Hollywood & amid the glitz & glamour a serial killer is at work selecting ageing actresses, killing them & dismembering their bodies. A young man named Vic Valance (David Garfield as John David Garfield) hops off a tour bus looking for employment when it stops at the house of a now retired actress, Katharine Parker (Miriam Hopkins) who was 'one of the biggest stars of the motion picture' but now lives in a big house with an elderly housekeeper named Mildred (Florence Lake), a personal secretary Leslie Blair (Gale Sondergaard) & a young maid named Geta (Virginia Wing). Katharine has recently broken her foot & needs a personal assistant & gives Vic the job. Slowly Vic charms his way into Katharine's affections & more importantly her large wallet. Vic starts to turn Katharine against the other employees, but Vic isn't what he seems. Vic is a drug addicted loon who gets Greta pregnant while still having sex with Katharine. Greta threatens to tell Katharine & spoil Vic's devious plans but she has a close encounter with an axe, no one in the house is safe as Vic brings drugs, sex, rock 'n' roll party's & gardening to the Parker mansion while his sinister plan starts to become more & more apparent...

Written, produced & directed by Donald Wolfe I thought Savage Intruder was a bit of a mess but a mildly entertaining one at the same time. The script is all over the place & it can't really decide what it wants to be, Savage Intruder suffers from an identity crisis! The film starts with the discovery of a severed head & limbs, straight after another woman (Dorothy Kingston) is killed by a mysterious unidentified figure but then it completely ditches the slasher film elements that it has just built up never going back to them. Savage Intruder then becomes a sort of feel good film as Vic befriends Katharine & shows her how to enjoy life again & having an implied sexual relationship with her, it's actually disgusting to think about as she's old enough to be his Grandmother. Katharine stops living the life of a recluse & gives up the alcohol as Vic appears to make her happy as they go to party's together & hold banquets for Katharine's friend like she used too. This part of Savage Intruder wouldn't look out of place in a Disney film! Every so often the tedium of the feel good stuff is interrupted by Vic shooting up & having silly hallucinations about his Mother (Sybelle Guardino) & chopping her hand off with an axe, he has sex with Great at one point as well. Then, after Greta has been murdered, Savage Intruder becomes a bizarre horror film as Vic is revealed for the loony that he is. Savage Intruder just doesn't flow properly as a film in my opinion as it mixes various genres with little success. Similarly the murder mystery elements don't work & are frankly a bit of a puzzle, why go to great lengths to conceal the killers identity during the murder scenes but then make it perfectly clear who is committing them throughout the rest of the film anyway? Vic as a character didn't work for me either, one moment he's a cool, calm, clever & devious con man & then next he's a stark raving loony! Why kill all his other victims but with Katharine try to con her? What makes her so different? If it is because she has money why not go after her to start with? So many questions & so few answers... Some of the 60's dialogue is pretty funny to listen to these days like when Vic offers Greta a painkiller, in reality hard drugs, & Greta says "what do I need a painkiller for?", Vic helpfully replies "because your a pain" wow this guy knows how to charm the ladies! Or when Katharine suggests that Vic do some gardening & ask's "do you have green fingers?" he replies "no, but I'm good at grass!" There isn't much gore in Savage Intruder, some severed limbs & a couple of decapitated heads. There is also a fairly impressive shot when someone has their hand cut off with an axe which is probably why it's repeated three or four times. The silly looking drug hallucination scenes need to be seen to be believed. Technically Savage Intruder is OK, the location filming in the grandiose mansion & Hollywood hills probably give it a better look than it deserves, the acting is average as is the rest of the production. Overall I'd say Savage Intruder feels like it tries to be a murder mystery that unfortunately gives the killer away & as a result just doesn't work. It's a mildly entertaining one-time-watch at best & a complete mess of a film at worse, you decide which!

End of the Golden Age of Hollywood meets proto-slasher

[Stevieboy666 · 7/10 · 14 December 2020]

An ageing, alcoholic movie star employs a young man to assist with the staff at her Hollywood mansion but he turns out to be a drug addicted, scheming, woman murdering maniac. Miriam Hopkins play the faded star perfectly, and this was to be her final role; David Garfield convincingly plays the handsome psychopath. As others have said this is "Sunset Boulevard"/'Baby Jane" but with plenty of bloodshed plus some psychedelic drug sequences. It is something of a curiosity, trashy but fun. I can find very little written about this in my various movie books, sad because it is a film that deserves to be better known. I have the original British VHS, released by Vipco and they weren't shy in pushing this as a gory slasher movie. I guess for 1970 it was quite explicit. Available on DVD as Hollywood House of Horror.

terrible but fascinating junk

[jgepperson · 4/10 · 9 August 2005]

Every once in awhile I'll remember that I've actually seen this bizarre fiasco that's a cross between "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?", "Sunset Boulevard," the Lana Turner LSD movie "The Big Cube" and the Manson murders, which also took place in 1969 but maybe before this so-called "movie" was made! There are some descriptions of the plot already here, so I won't go into it. But it's worth noting that Miriam Hopkins plays a parody of herself: a chattering, ego-maniacal, fading actress. Perhaps she thought she was making a movie that would be as successful as one of the Bette Davis horrors. The old gal Hopkins never stopped working, so you have to hand it to her. She shows a little too much flesh in this movie, something Davis and Crawford would never have done. And there's a scene with Miriam in the actual tacky Hollywood Boulevard Christmas parade, which must have been filmed Xmas, 1968.

Gale Sondergard is old, old, old. It's just shocking how wrinkled and awful she looks. John Garfield, Jr. looks a bit like his father, but not as interesting. I think one of the Three Stooges is the tour guide at the beginning. If it's not one of the Stooges, it's somebody.

I was astounded to come across this thing in the form of a commercial videotape given to me by a friend who knows all about junk like this. It's amazing!!!

Miriam Hopkins last film is campy fun

[gbill-74877 · 7/10 · 4 March 2021]

A campy B-movie that's shamelessly derivative of 'Sunset Boulevard,' 'Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?' and 'Psycho,' but which was more entertaining than I expected. Is this a good movie? No, it's not a good movie. The premise is weak (gosh do you think they could use a little more due diligence in their hiring process?) and the overall script is too. The film lacks any kind of subtlety or refinement, but maybe the alternate title "Hollywood Horror House" was a little hint of that.

On the other hand, it was Miriam Hopkins' last film, and she's a delight to watch. At age 68 and just a couple of years before her death, she throws herself into her scenes, singing a little and getting a revealing massage along the way. The film also scored points for me in its opening shots, showing how dilapidated the Hollywood sign was in 1970, eight years before being saved and rebuilt. We also get a few shots on Sunset Blvd, and I liked how 'old Hollywood' was played off the topical drug/hippie stuff (plus Davis partying with the younger generation made me smile). There is an Asian-American character (Virginia Wing) who is presented to us sans stereotypes (though she is called 'fortune cookie' and hears the jibe "no tickee, no washee", it's by the bad guy). Gale Sondergaard (age 71) rounds out what is a pretty good cast for such a film. I was less convinced by the actual psycho (David Garfield, interestingly John Garfield's son), though I guess he's suitably creepy.

As for the violence, with hands and heads being lopped off and whatnot, it's done in such a campy way as to seem not gory, which could be viewed as a plus or a minus. I guess I wish the film had been more serious and elevated, but as it is, it was a fun watch.

For writers with no taste whatsoever, and actors desperate for work.

[mark.waltz · 2/10 · 1 April 2018]

Although she is well remembered today, Miriam Hopkins was never what you would call a superstar. The height of her fame was in pre-code, with some success in the screwball comedy era. Most of her career was spent as a character actress, but her apparently huge ego never allowed her to move past those golden years, hense her addition to the stars of the 1930's and 1940's who participated in that notorious genre years later crudely referred to as "hag horror".

I doubt anybody ever went on the Hollywood stars tour to see where she lived, but her Norma Desmond like movie star here is a major stop on that bus ride through Beverly Hills and Bel Aire. She's a delusional lush, injured after a drunken fall down the stairs, and nurse David Garfield is hired by her officious assistant (a tired looking Gale Sondergaard). Before long, Garfield (an obvious drug addict) has taken over Hopkins' life, and by the time she becomes aware of his dangerous personality, it's too late. The body count begins, and the murders are pretty...pretty gruesome that is.

This has no real point other than to give a few visual shocks, some absolutely disgusting. Hopkins continues to chew up the scenery, just as she had done when paired opposite Bette Davis. Garfield doesn't have the spark of his more famous father (John), but Sondergaard gives a wise, almost knowing performance, as if she knew she was the key in preventing this from becoming total trash. The acid trip dreams are fascinating, both visually and as a warning against drug use, but this ranks as an embarrassing Z grade mix of grindhouse slasher horror and the desperation of a delusional diva to keep her name alive, no matter how repulsive the film she's in is.

Nifty horror version of "Sunset Boulevard"

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 12 June 2020]

Cunning and charismatic, but mentally unbalanced and hence dangerous psycho opportunist Vic Valance (a spot-on creepy and credible portrayal by David Garfield) lands a job as a male nurse taking care of aging and faded alcoholic former big-time Old Hollywood star Katharine Packard (superbly played with tremendous class and gusto by Miriam Hopkins). Pretty soon Vic is hatching an evil plot to take over Katharine's large palatial estate.

Writer/director Donald Wolfe relates the absorbing story at a steady pace, nicely captures a seedy downbeat atmosphere that's rife with despair and decay, and tosses in a few gnarly bits of splashy gore for grisly good measure. This film further benefits from sound supporting contributions from Gale Sondergaard as shrewd and suspicious personal assistant Leslie, Virginia Wing as spunky and charming servant Greta, and Florence Lake as feisty housekeeper Mildred. Joe Besser pops up in a small part as a tour bus driver. John Arthur Morrill's vibrant color cinematography boasts several snazzy psychedelic visual flourishes. The whole underlying theme of a mean, crass, and selfish young Hollywood exploiting and destroying the dying glamour of Old Hollywood gives this picture some meaty extra substance. A shamefully neglected entry in the horror hag subgenre.

Not Bad

[jamiemiller-07611 · 7/10 · 8 December 2021]

This mostly forgotten entry into "hag horror" is better than many of the others and came a little too late to the game to have any major impact. Compared to the similar films being done by Joan Crawford or Bette Davis, this one doesn't appear to have as much of a budget or a big studio push behind it. Miriam Hopkins is excellent as the washed up film star who doesn't like to leave her opulent Hollywood mansion a la Norma Desmond. A mysterious drifter comes into her life and the bodies start piling up.

Egads! What a stinker! But does have a few things to recommend

[kira02bit · 3/10 · 17 February 2024]

I recently stumbled on this one late night on cable. I honestly had never heard of it, and was stunned to see some familiar names in the cast, so I gave it a go. It becomes apparent why I never heard of it.

In a nutshell, faded Hollywood has-been Miriam Hopkins spends her twilight years planning a comeback and prancing around her mansion in a drunken stupor imagining parties in her foyer. Meanwhile, the dismembered bodies of women of a certain age have been turning up in the Hollywood hills. When Hopkins takes a drunken tumble and breaks her leg, John David Garfield shows up ostensibly for the nurse position and ingratiates himself with her (if not other members of the house). Naturally, he is the wacko and we wait to see what is going to set him off.

The film opens with footage of tinseltown of yore cannibalized from classics like Singin' in the Rain (wonder how they pulled that off!) and alternating with glamour shots of youthful Hopkins. Then we cut to the rusted old Hollywood sign - a moody moment that actually works. The camera pulls back to reveal mannequin parts (excuse me, female body parts) left in the dirt.

Segue to a stiff announcer on a bar TV warning of a psycho dismembering woman of a certain age. An older female bar patron leaves and is tailed by someone who resembles a pilgrim. She becomes another victim.

The ostensible perpetrator disembarks a Hollywood star home tour outside the gates of faded legend Hopkins and somehow gets the position of nurse despite looking unkempt, unprofessional and sassy with the seasoned staff.

First, the film often looks like it was shot as a home movie, so it is depressing to see screen legends like Hopkins and Gale Sondergaard (as her trusted assistant) stuck in this mess. The photography is sketchy, so I was uncertain at first whether Garfield was actually the same pilgrim we saw earlier.

Then there is the depressing 1970s trash vibe that permeates the whole film. The film falls into that tired trope of anyone under the age of 30 is a drug addled callow psycho hippie of no social worth, while everyone over the age of 50 is sacrosanct - even when they are delusional drunks fawning around their mansions.

We get numerous groan-worthy scenes of Garfield having psychedelic visions complete with "groovy" music and kaleidoscopic colors alternating with amateurish flashbacks to his child self killing his mother. The film loves scenes where fakey dismembered hands in red paint twitch around forever. Perhaps shocking in the day - but looking laughable now.

Naturally there need to be groovy party scenes where "young" people gyrate around to loud music in skimpy attire while drunk and on drugs bordering on orgiastic splendor, filmed as though the cameraman had partaken of too much. But I digress!

Back at the mansion (a lovely set which was the real life home of silence screen star Norman Talmadge), Garfield has snagged the nursing position. The script never explains how since we are told a request has been sent to the nursing registry and they were waiting on the candidate to arrive - what happened to said candidate which would have caused Garfield's ploy to fail?

Garfield carries and pushes Hopkins around listening to her incessant braying and non-stop chatter. He flirts with the Asian servant, sasses the elderly maid, and basically drives Sondergaard up the wall. He also does extra work as well, fixing the broken elevator, revitalizing the garden, and cleaning the pool. His youthful sass and antics grow on Hopkins, and the fact that he is easy on the eyes is no detraction, so this starts to become a bargain basement Sunset Boulevard. Of course, this idyll is not likely to last because something is bound to tick him off and watch out.

I will give the film a few nods. It does function as a time capsule of the kind of low rent crap that could be churned out in the 1970s, despite film historians trying to act like all was golden. It also has a few moments of suspense, but after a while the characters begin to act so stupid in order to extend the run time that one loses patience.

Hopkins missed out on the golden age of hagsploitation epics, so she is bringing up the caboose here. She is pretty awful. Braying and overacting in the worst way, and not enlisting much concern or sympathy. In fact, it is difficult to fathom why she isn't done in by Garfield for shattering his nerves 15 minutes into the film. Terrifyingly, she has one scene with Garfield giving her a massage where she shows far more than anticipated!

Conversely, Garfield is not bad. He seemed familiar in both appearance and delivery, then I realized he had to be the son of underrated screen actor John Garfield. Here he is able to seem likable, funny, exasperating and menacing, so that the reactions to him are half credible. Despite the scruffy appearance, he is attractive, but the film oddly fails to exploit it given that there will be a sexual relationship (albeit mainly offscreen) with Hopkins. In fact, Hopkins initiates it by demanding he sit on her bed, forces him to put his arm around her, and then basically tackles him when he seems confused by the advances. Given that he becomes her gigolo, his character's sexuality is downplayed to a brief shirtless glimpse exiting a pool in tasteful trunks. No nudity from him, but we get that unexpected skin shot of Hopkins!

If Garfield is good and Hopkins is dreadful, then the film's star player is Sondergaard. She takes on her role like a trooper actually trying to do something with it. She is believable as both a dedicated assistant and Hopkins' friend, and her interactions and suspicions are believable. Also, she is in the film far longer than I expected, which is good since she provides a classy presence missing from Hopkins' lead performance.

After a bit, even the minor good points and curio interest wear thin, as it becomes apparent that no one has sense enough to call the police on Garfield when he becomes wacko. Then it just degenerates into which member of the house will be hacked up next. Obviously most uncomfortable is that all of the victims are defenseless women, so this is a good example of the popular "women must die" genre from the time and it gets old quick. The ending will especially not resonate with anyone and seems weak - like the film stopped abruptly rather than concluded.

Watch if you must, but there are much better options, even within this genre.

Sick slice-and-dicer with a few good moments.

[verna55 · 16 November 2000]

This is really nothing more than a slightly gorier rendition of SUNSET BOULEVARD/BABY JANE hysterics. Miriam Hopkins, one of Hollywood's finest actresses during the '30's, gives an appropriately hammy performance as a demented former movie queen who, when not chugging down a bottle of vodka, is staggering around her decaying Hollywood mansion(the real-life home of famous silent screen star Norma Talmadge) plotting to make a comeback. When she breaks her leg during a drunken episode, she is assisted by a good-looking, but strange young man(John Garfield, Jr.) who passes himself off as a male nurse, but is, in fact, a sick psychopath who has been dismembering several women who live in the Hollywood hills. Despite being almost totally beyond redemption, the movie offers some occasionally worthwhile moments supplied by several familiar old-time character actors, and Miss Hopkins, in her final film role, gives a much better performance than the circumstances warrant. Also out on video as: HOLLYWOOD HORROR HOUSE. Originally titled: THE COMEBACK.

Decaying Golden Age of Hollywood meets proto-slasher

[Stevieboy666 · 7/10 · 12 December 2020]

An ageing, alcoholic Hollywood star employs a young man to assist with the staff at her Hollywood mansion but he turns out be a drug addicted, scheming, woman killing maniac. Miriam Hopkins plays the star perfectly, and this was to be her final role; David Garfield convincingly plays the handsome psychopath. As others have said this is "Sunset Boulevard"/"Baby Jane" but with lots of gore plus psychedelic drug sequences. It really is something of a curiosity, trashy but fun. I can find very little written about this in my various movie books, sad because it is a film that deserves to be better known. I have the original British VHS released by the notorious label Vipco, they were not shy in pushing this as a gory slasher movie and I guess for 1970 it was explicit. It is available on DVD under the title Hollywood House of Horror.

One of The Great Examples of "Old Hag Horror"

[josephbrando · 9/10 · 14 April 2012]

Savage Intruder is one of those late 60's/early 70's horror films that adorn formerly famous, formerly glamorous Hollywood starlets in their elder years. Kick-started into action by the surprise horror hit "Whatever Happened To Baby Jane" which breathed new life into Bette Davis and Joan Crawford's practically non-existent careers at that point, suddenly other actresses, who were shunned by the studios which had used them up and spit them out, started lining up to star in low-budget horror movies. Their loss is our gain, because even though Hollywood has no use for them, I find seasoned actresses to be the most fun to watch - especially in a horror film.

This one stars Miriam Hopkins and Gale Sondergaard (who was criminally black-listed by Hollywood when she refused to testify against her husband during the McCarthy-inspired "Red Scare" hysteria in the 1950s). Hopkins is (surprise-surprise) an aging actress who lives as a recluse in her Hollywood mansion of memories. Sondergaard plays her tough but caring assistant. Suddenly, a young handsome stranger who harnesses a charismatic charm as well as a bad temper worms his way into the household, fooling Hopkins but not Sondergaard.

There is a nice helping of sadism, murder and weirdness embedded into the film, sure to please lovers of these kinds of horror movies. Although it is very hard to find, this one is well worth the effort.

Trivia

[thirdbid · 18 October 2006]

I've never seen the final product but after shooting around Miriam Hopkins' scenes we spent several days waiting on-set to see if her health would improve enough for her to be able to work, which didn't happen. This was the first picture Gale Sondergaard did after 20 years of being blacklisted - another real pro in the cast the crew loved was Florence Lake. A wonderful moment when she shot David Garfield, who'd generally been carrying on like he was God's gift to The Biz. Steve Karkus (EFX) got even for all of us by overloading the squibs so that they went off on Garfield like artillery rounds - his reaction probably represents the best of his talents as an actor.

Miriam Hopkins in last film role.

[aeichler-2 · 8/10 · 10 September 2009]

Low-budget psychedelic thriller in the "Baby Jane" genre, but it features a terrific performance by the legendary Miriam Hopkins in her last performance (complete with semi-nudity and love scenes), joined by Gale Sondergaard and the under-rated John David Garfield (close your eyes and he sounds like his famous father). The film was never released to theaters and the video came out in England after Hopkins'death. Hopkins portrays an aging alcoholic movie star living in seclusion with Sondergaard as her stern secretary-companion. She breaks her hip and drug-addict psycho Garfield is hired to help care for her. Hopkins and Garfield begin a bizarre affair and the murders begin. Filmed in Norma Talmadge's former estate and with a slightly larger budget, it could have been successfully released. Still a real curio though and worth tracking down if you can find it. Try the UK if you can play PAL or look under the title "Hollywood Horror House." (Originally filmed as "The Comeback.") It deserves a proper DVD release, as does Hopkins' previous movie, Russ Meyer's "Fanny Hill."

Great trip out scenes

[chilmarc · 29 February 2000]

Strange movie, great video box though. I'd like to summerise the plot but this is a movie that has to be seen cold really. Possibly an interesting insight into the mind of a psycho but really just good trashy horror. I'd reccomend it to those of a less discerning taste

Wild and Wacky

[deenariley-49870 · 8/10 · 6 October 2020]

Hollywood Horror House has been forgotten for far too long which is unfortunate, because it's one of the most entertaining of the films that followed in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane's wake featuring faded former Hollywood leading ladies anxious to play the most grotesque characters imaginable.

The star in question here is Miriam Hopkins who plays a faded former film start with a pretty terrible drinking problem (she collapses down the stairs during a drunken delusion when we first meet her) and she lives with her minimal staff in a stunning and well maintained Hollywood mansion, seemingly content living in her dreamworld like a slightly more stable Norma Desmond. Everything changes when a mysterious young drifter infiltrates her inner circle and the bodycount rises.

Unlike many of the other Baby Jane clones, this film had the luxury of coming at the start of the 70's where it was becoming apparent that anything you could dream up content wise could get on screen, so there's a lot more sleaze and gore in this film than some of the others. It's sometimes silly, but it's always entertaining.