Home for the Holidays (1974)

★ 5.4 1h 13m IMDb

An ailing man summons his four daughters home for Christmas and asks them to kill his new wife, who he suspects is poisoning him.

Home for the Holidays

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Cast

Jessica Walter
Jessica Walter as Frederica Morgan Died 2021 · Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA Jessica Walter (January 31, 1941 – March 24, 2021) was an American actress, known for appearing in the films Play Misty for Me (1971), Grand Prix and The Group (both 1966), her role as Lucille Bluth o...
Sally Field
Sally Field as Christine Morgan Age 79 · Pasadena, California, USA Sally Margaret Field (born November 6, 1946) is an American actress. She has received many awards and nominations, including two Academy Awards, three Primetime Emmy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, a...
Jill Haworth
Jill Haworth as Joanna Morgan Died 2011 · Hove, East Sussex, England, UK Valerie Jill Haworth (15 August 1945 – 3 January 2011) was an English-American actress. She appeared in films throughout the 1960s, and started making guest appearances on television in 1963. She orig...
Julie Harris
Julie Harris as Elizabeth Hall Morgan Died 2013 · Grosse Pointe Park, Michigan, USA From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Julia Ann Harris (December 2, 1925 – August 24, 2013) was an American actress. Renowned for her classical and contemporary stage work, she received five Tony Awa...
Eleanor Parker
Eleanor Parker as Alexandra Morgan Died 2013 · Cedarville, Ohio, USA Eleanor Jean Parker (June 26, 1922 – December 9, 2013) was an American actress. She was nominated for three Academy Awards for her roles in the films Caged (1950), Detective Story (1951), and Interrup...
Walter Brennan
Walter Brennan as Benjamin Morgan Died 1974 · Lynn, Massachusetts, USA Walter Andrew Brennan (July 25, 1894 – September 21, 1974) was an American actor and singer. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performances in Come and Get It (1936), Kentucky...

Audience Reviews

Wuchak 6/10 Feb 23, 2022
_**Precursor to the looming onslaught of slashers**_

Four daughters visit their ailing father (Walter Brennan) at his rural estate in SoCal for the holidays. He insists that his current wife is poisoning him (Julie Harris) and people start dying during a rainstorm. The daughters are: The wise older sibling, Alex (Eleanor Parker); the neurotic alcoholic Freddie (Jessica Walter); the promiscuous Jo (Jill Haworth); and the winsome youth Christie (Sally Field).

"Home for the Holidays" (1972) is a drama/mystery with some horror elements that was originally released as a TV movie on ABC. As my title blurb states, this was the forerunner to the forthcoming rush of slashers by the early 80s. Sure, it’s understandably tamer and more dramatic, but it has a killer in a hooded raincoat with a pitchfork, as shown on the poster, which is reminiscent of the slicker-wearing killer with a hook in “I know What You Did Last Summer” (1997).

The flick works up some nice creepy ambiance with the storm, the mystery slayer and the macabre deaths. While Sally Field is fetching, Jill Haworth wins out on the beauty front IMHO.

Forty minutes into the story I had a theory about the identity of the murderer, but changed my mind five minutes later and was right. See if you can figure it out.

The film runs 1 hour, 14 minutes, and was shot at 20th Century Fox Studios, including 20th Century Fox Ranch, Malibu Creek State Park, California.

GRADE: B-

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