"The Sixth Sense" Dear Joan: We're Going to Scare You to Death (1972)

User Rating:

2.9/10   

Director:

John Newland

Writers:

Anthony Lawrence (creator) and
Jonathan Stone (writer)

TV Series:

"The Sixth Sense" (1972)

Original Air Date:

30 September 1972 (Season 1, Episode 15)

Genre:

Drama | Mystery | Thriller

Plot:

Extended version of an episode of the series The Sixth Sense. Joan Crawford plays a woman who stumbles upon a group of ESP enthusiasts who decide to use their abilities to scare her to death.

Plot Keywords:

Actor Shares First Name With Character | E.s.p. | Extrasensory Perception | ESP | Number In Title

Cast

Gary Collins	...	Himself - Host
Joan Crawford	...	Joan Fairchild
David Ladd	...	Paul
Kelly Jean Peters	...	Lori
Scott Hylands	...	Jason
Martine Bartlett	...	Carrie
Lenore Kasdorf	...	Karen
Anne Lockhart	...	Diana

Runtime:

75 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Filming Locations:

Universal Studios - 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California, USA

Company:

Universal TV

Trivia:

Rod Serling replaced Gary Collins as host when this episode was later re-edited and included as part of "Night Gallery" (1970) in syndication.

Quotes:

Joan Fairchild: Well, I must say, I couldn't have chosen a nicer place to run my car off the road.

Movie Connections:

References Let's Scare Jessica to Death (1971)

Poor, poor Joan Crawford . . .

This is 70's TV at it's worst, at least the 22 minute version (cut for a 30 minute TV slot). This is the version I watched, but it is hard to imagine how adding another 15 or 20 minutes of footage could have saved this piece of ****. (In the longer version I understand that part of the time was used for the story and part for an out of character "real world" interview of Joan by Gary Collins about her own personal ESP experiences. Well, um, whatever.)

None of the story makes sense. It is not scary. The bad guys have no motivation for being bad, they just decide to murder someone for the fun of it, but there is no real sense of sociopathy. Joan just runs around, and although she knows the group is trying to kill her she doesn't just leave. etc. etc. etc. There is a very contrived bit about a deaf young woman and a boat that is so silly that it moves beyond camp.

Perhaps the longer version fills in some of the holes but there are so many of them, but I am guessing that it just would make for a longer period of pain. OK, it is Joan's last performance so you might want to see it just to see how far gone she was. That is the only reason I watched more than ten minutes of this. Her acting, makeup, and hair are so cartoonish that I wondered if everyone involved behind the camera was trying to make her look ridiculous. She is in her late 60's, I believe, when this was filmed; and she is playing a mid-40's character. Quite unconvincingly.

On the good side: The 70's clothes and hair are perfect period pieces (well except for Ms. Crawford's who was dressed in a bunch of ugly but colorful suits). A couple of the guys and girls were attractive.

But other than marveling at just how far Joan Crawford fell and watching a quintessential 70's look and feel, this is basically unwatchable.