Scream Pretty Peggy (1973) ** 1/2 (out of 4)Famous sculptor Jeffrey Elliot (Ted Bessell) hires college student Peggy (Sian Barbara Allen) to take care of the house work, which includes looking after his elderly mother (Bette Davis). Soon Peggy learns about Jeffrey's sister who is locked up in an attack after suffering a mental breakdown years earlier.SCREAM PRETTY PEGGY is a decent made-for-television film that benefits greatly from three very good performances and some nice direction by Gordon Hessler. The film manages to build up a rather creepy atmosphere but there are some issues that prevent it from being much better. I will get that issue out of the way and it's the screenplay by Jimmy Sangster and Arthur Hoffe. The film borrows from a couple other more famous movies and this here takes away any major suspense with the twist that you'll see coming from a mile away.Still, if you enjoy these made-for-television movies then this one here is certainly worth watching. The three leads are certainly what keep the film so entertaining and especially Allen who is extremely good in her role. She really does come across as a somewhat naive college student who isn't quite smart enough to know she should be getting the hell away from this house and the family. Bessell is also very good in his role and the great Bette Davis always knows how to steal a scene.Director Hessler was very familiar with the horror genre and he does a nice job here by building up some great atmosphere and bringing a Gothic feel to the material. I thought there were some creepy scenes dealing with the sister and this stuff makes the picture worth sitting through.

Low budget TV movie and even if it is a bit derivative not a bad effort at all. Sian Barbara Allen doesn't impress and was probably a bit too old at 27 to convince as the young student. Ted Bessell is OK but both were destined to have careers restricted to TV. Bette Davis on the other hand, professional to the end, seems to struggle at times but always maintains that menacing presence. Indeed although 64 here would go on to make almost twenty more films before her death some 16 years later. Very early on when we see Bessell as the home based sculptor I'm already thinking of Corman's 1959 Bucket of Blood. Little do I know that by the end we shall see the influence of the following year's, Psycho as well. Nothing to get particularly excited about but enjoyable enough, thanks mainly to Bette Davis.

Could curiosity kill the pesky female college student (Sian Barbara Allen)? Could giving maimed Bette Davis a bell to ring when she needs her drive her crazy? Will she heed Ted Bessel's advice and stay out of the room above the garage? Will you be able to make it through this unsuspenseful thriller made for 1970's T.V.? For me, the answer to this last question was just barely because I was bored out of my mind waiting for something to happen. I've always been curious about the first decade of the T.V. movie where fading veteran stars like Bette Davis took on projects that 20 years ago they would have sneered at. Wearing a wig that is obviously far too young for her face, Davis is perhaps the only reason to tune into this with sitcom veteran Bessell a combination of cheery and moody as the artist who hires the eager Allen to be their new housekeeper against his mother's will. Davis isn't thrilled by this news and even more so when she is injured. Allen becomes obsessed with the alleged presence of Bessell's supposedly insane sister living above the garage, and Davis accuses her of trying to steal her son out from under her nose. So for nearly an hour, there is really nothing happening, and it is on the verge of becoming sleep-inducing when the weak plot begins to wrap up.

A creepy 1973 TV movie that seems to give nods to PSYCHO and William Castle's HOMICIDAL.Pretty Peggy,a college student and budding artist,goes to work in an old mansion as a housekeeper for a mysterious old lady(Bette Davis) and her oddball sculptor son(Ted Bessell).There is also a deranged daughter who lives in a room above the garage.Peggy starts become more unnerved when a man visits the house looking for his daughter who was the previous housekeeper.He sees a light shining above the garage and,well,is not seen again.Jimmy Sangster worked on the script,and he's infamous for many Hammer horror classics and a lot of American TV.Very atmospheric and spooky,I haven't seen this movie on TV since I was a kid.A darn shame!Good TV horror is not exactly plentiful,so it's very sad that movies like this remain unseen by new generations of horror fans.