Review: 'Scream, Pretty Peggy' Not Much to Shout About
You can almost picture Bette Davis watching "The Screaming Woman," starring her friend and colleague, Olivia de Havilland, in 1972, and calling up her agent, bellowing, "Get me something like that!" At the time, the great movie star was appearing on the big screen less and less, and wanted to work.
So, she made Gordon Hessler's "Scream, Pretty Peggy" a so-so thriller that borrows from "Psycho" (you'll see it coming, trust me) and stars Sian Barbara Allen ("You'll Like My Mother") and Ted Bessell (TV's "That Girl" with Marlo Thomas).
The movie opens with a very young Tovah Feldshuh in quite the thankless role: She gets immediately hacked to death, a promising start for a horror movie. We then meet college student and aspiring artist Peggy Johns (Allen), who is eager for a particular housekeeping job working for sculptor Jeffrey Elliott (Bessell), whom she admires greatly. Elliott lives with his cranky alcoholic mother (Davis), who objects to Peggy's working there. The bizarre ante is raised when Peggy discovers that someone may live over the garage — and it may be Jeffrey's lunatic sister.
"Scream, Pretty Peggy" premiered on TV one year after "The Screaming Woman," and is the lesser of the two simply because it doesn't utilize its screen icon the way the latter film did (that, and the mediocre script by Jimmy Sangster). If anything, Davis is kept on the sidelines too much while we are forced to watch monotonous scenes between Bessell and Allen.
There is certainly some suspense and a terrific, haunting score, as well as a few very disturbing — but mesmerizing — sculptures on display. But, again, Allen and Bessell are not the most exciting actors.
Bette Davis is in high camp mode when she is on camera, and that is always fun to watch. She's Baby Jane after a few too many whiskeys. And she is finally given some meaty moments to play in the final segment (although the film abruptly ends on a very unsatisfying note).
I continue to be very impressed with how good these TV movies look on Blu-ray. Kino Classics has done a wonderful job with this 2K Master transfer. The film looks great. And the DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio track sounds terrific.
The special features include an odd 30-second TV spot, as well as an informative audio commentary by film historian Troy Howarth and Nathaniel Thompson.
Not to nitpick, but I kept waiting for Peggy to actually scream, and when she did, it wasn't really much of a scream. False advertising if you ask me. Olivia de Havilland knew how to scream.
Blu-ray Extras Include:
"Scream, Pretty Peggy" is available on Blu-ray on October 5, 2021.