Persecution (1974)

User Rating:

4.1/10   

Director:

Don Chaffey

Writers:

Robert Hutton (original story & screenplay)
Frederick Warner (additional scenes & dialogue)

Release Date:

October 1975 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Horror | Thriller

Tagline:

Warning: this film is NOT for the squeamish!

Plot:

Plot Keywords:

Maze | Death Of Wife | Hallucination | Nurse | Murder

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Lana Turner	...	Carrie Masters
Trevor Howard	...	Paul Bellamy
Ralph Bates	...	David Masters
Olga Georges-Picot	...	Monique Kalfon
Suzan Farmer	...	Janie Masters
Mark Weavers	...	Young David
Patrick Allen	...	Robert Masters
Jennifer Guy	...	Waitress
Shelagh Fraser	...	Mrs. Banks
Ronald Howard	...	Dr. Ross
John Ryan	...	Gardener
Catherine Brandon	...	Mrs. Deacon

Also Known As:

Sheba
The Graveyard
The Terror of Sheba

Runtime:

USA:95 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:15 (video rating) | UK:AA (original rating) | Australia:M | Norway:15 | USA:PG

Filming Locations:

England, UK

Company:

Tyburn Film Productions Limited

Turner is good, the film is fair.

Also shown under the titles THE GRAVEYARD and THE TERROR OF SHEBA, this Gothic British horror movie stars Lana Turner as a maniacal mother who delights in making life miserable for her spineless son(Ralph Bates) who is slowly, but surly, tiring of his deranged mama and her wicked, wicked ways. With her beautiful face, every hair in place, her fashionable costumes, and her exquisite jewelry, Lana Turner, at age 53, is still the very essence of Hollywood glamour. But this is 1974 we're talking about, and her name didn't have the same sparkling effect on the box-office that it had in say 1947, so the film went mostly unnoticed by the movie-going public. The picture itself is a dreary and rather ghoulish retread of familiar BABY JANE-ish high jinks. But Turner has fun with her looneytunes character, and makes this otherwise derivative little film quite watchable. Lana personally regarded this as her worst performance, but she isn't bad at all. Actually she's quite good. I'm convinced she did more with the role than anybody else could have. In fact, she won the Best Actress Award at Spain's Festival of Horror Movies. I strongly recommend this film to her fans who should find it quite interesting to see Turner playing the kind of merciless, blood-curdling psychobitch that Bette Davis and Joan Crawford played in their Scream Queen days.