The Legacy (1978)

Director:

Richard Marquand

Writers:

Jimmy Sangster (screenplay)
Patrick Tilley (writer)

Release Date:

14 September 1979 (USA)

Genre:

Horror | Mystery

Tagline:

It is a birthright of living death...

Plot:

A millionaire and a million-dollar prostitute, a star-maker and a nation-killer, a woman whose lusts are as cold as graveyard snow...

Plot Keywords:

Dog | Mansion | Power | Cat | Dying

Cast

Katharine Ross	...	Margaret Walsh
Sam Elliott	...	Pete Danner
Roger Daltrey	...	Clive Jackson
John Standing	...	Jason Mountolive
Ian Hogg	...	Harry
Margaret Tyzack	...	Nurse Adams
Charles Gray	...	Karl Liebnecht
Lee Montague	...	Jacques Grandier
Hildegarde Neil	...	Barbara Kirstenburg (as Hildegard Neil)
Marianne Broome	...	Maria Gabrieli
William Abney	...	Butler
Patsy Smart	...	Cook
Mathias Kilroy	...	Stable Lad
Reg Harding	...	Gardener

Also Known As:

The Legacy of Maggie Walsh

Runtime:

102 min

Country:

UK | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

UK:18 (video rating) | UK:X (original rating) | Iceland:16 | Finland:K-16 (cut) (1980) | Australia:R | Norway:16 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Loseley House, Guildford, Surrey, England, UK

Company:

David Foster Productions

Goofs:

Continuity: In an establishing shot, one of the rear tires of Mountolive's limo clips one of the spherical concrete bollards, which starts rapidly rolling along the drive revealing that it is fake.

Quotes:

Karl Liebnecht: [Speaking to Marggie about the portrait of Margaret Walsingham] She vos dragged from ze haus unt burnt at ze stake on ze orters ov Elizabeth the Furst. She vos succeeded by her illegitimate dorter, who inherited all her velth, all her visdom unt all her POWER!

Movie Connections:

Featured in Terror in the Aisles (1984)

Soundtrack:

ANOTHER SIDE OF ME

A promising idea becomes muddled.

The original screenplay, ("The Devil's Doorway"), showed promise but re-writes apparently turned this into one of those muddles which has no clear point or purpose other than to string together a few creepy scenes in the hope an audience will "buy" it. Things start to go wrong in the very first reel when Katherine Ross and Sam Elliott arrive in England where Ross has a job waiting for her. They're involved in a road accident and get a lift from a man who turns out to be the reason for their coming to England. Is this a coincidence? If so, it boggles the mind. If it isn't a coincidence, then what is it? The movie never explains because, hey, it's a movie, and it's not supposed to make any sense. Note how leading lady Katharine Ross is overdressed throughout in floor-length skirts and long-sleeved blouses whereas leading man Sam Elliott quickly and completely strips down for a rear-view nude scene -- buns by Michelangelo! -- in which he's shown walking into a bathroom and climbing into a shower. There's no plot purpose for this blatant display of male skin and one suspects someone on the film-making staff simply decided that as long as one has a hot, hairy hunk like Sam Elliott in one's employ, why not tell him to take off all his clothes? For the sake of art, of course. (I'll bet no one missed being on the set the day Sam let it all hang out!)